The holiday season is here and the children are excited for all things turkeys, trees and toys!!!  The past couple of weeks we paused on the letter "B" as it made a perfect topic for this time of year to discuss "Blessings."  During our lessons regarding Thanksgiving we learned that the holiday of Thanksgiving is a time to gather together with friends, family and other people at church, school, shelters and hospitals to give thanks to God for everything we have and to remember to say "Thank You!" to others that help us too.  We discussed that a "blessing" is something good that we have, or love.  We named, each day, many "blessings" to help the children understand that a "blessing" can be a toy, a home, a person, a pet, food, feeling healthy and strong and LOTS of other things. 

As we would go around the table each day naming "blessings" and we came up with some pretty cute ones!!  One of my favorite blessings was learning that one of our little ones is going to be a big sister soon :))!!  Congrats to you and your sweet family!!! 

During Thanksgiving week we focused on the history of Thanksgiving as we made this book.  This was quite a project as we have a very young group, but it turned out SO CUTE!!! 
The story inside is one sentence on each page and what we learned about Thanksgiving.  Page One is pictured to the left.  Page Two says, "The Pilgrims sailed on a boat to discover a new land."  We discussed that a pilgrim was a person that wanted to be able to say prayers to God in his own way and left his home to find a land where he could do that.  Page Three says, "The boat was called the Mayflower."  We learned that they sailed an a large boat and that it was the Mayflower.
Page Four says, "They sailed to Plymouth Rock."  We learned that they finally spotted dry land after months and months of seeing nothing but ocean and water. Page Five says, "They made friends they called Indians."  We discussed that the people already living on the land knew how to grow food and hunt for food and that the Pilgrims were hungry and sick and that the Indians helped them to eat and be healthy in the new land.  The final page says, "The Indians helped them plant lots of vegetables and they shared with each other on a day we call Thanksgiving."  We learned that the Pilgrims and the Indians decided to have a great big meal together to say "Thank you God and Thank you friends," and that we do this each year too to remember that everything good we have comes from God.

This week we ditched the letters and did ALL THINGS HALLOWEEN!!!  Did you carve a pumpkin with 10 children?? YES!!!  Did you paint bats??  YES!!!  Did you taste, smell and feel pumpkin guts??  Sorta!!!  Did you color, paint, dance, dress up, bake, party and read??  Absolutely!!!

During this cram-packed week we did our Halloween hardest to pack every itty bitty bit o' fun into each day.  I think it was a grand success!  Pictured here is my FAVORITE fella' with his prize pumpkin.  This year was the FIRST year that he was in charge from, start to finish, in the fine tradition of carving a Jack-O-Lantern.  His pattern choice was the creepy castle that took hours to complete. 

Thankfully, he was able to finish his veggie sculpting prior to the party and excitedly displayed his skills.  You can see him beaming here just moments after he dashed inside to notify me that he needed to capture this before it "melted."

Such a fun time of year...

When we paint, everyone is involved...no matter how old or young.  Ususally, everyTHING is involved too.  It's a wonderful sensory activity and great for building creativity and fine motor skills.  It is also a wonderful way to discuss vocabulary words like cool, smooth, silky, and squishy. 

It's absolutely the BEST way to teach colors, textures and words like spot, dot, line, curve, etc.  Our children ADORE painting and I love giving them every opporutnity to do it.

This little cutie pie has just recently discovered the joy of painting.  It happened for her when she, as a rather small toddler, realized that I would give her baths in the sink (which she LOVES) post painting.  So now when we break out the paints, LOOK OUT, this babe will colorize every square inch of the walls, tables, floors, other children, dog...you name it.  Then, when she is done, we set her in the sink for a scrub and she giggles and laughs, splashes and soaks. 

No lack of sensory experiences for our children, NO SIR!

Does your child get to do this?  They should!  If you don't want the mess in your home, find a great pre-k program in your area and always pack an extra set of clothes for your little sugar!  Happy Halloween!!!

I will only post a few of our Halloween pix here.  If I posted everything it would take us ALL day to get through every little cute photo.  If I have not yet added you to our private photo viewing account and you (mom or dad and grandpa/grandma would like to be added, just give me a call!)

We painted, glittered, gutted, glued, and stickered real pumpkins but we also took the opportunity to discuss emotions with this project...

Each child received a pumpkin cut out and several shapes to make eyes, noses and mouths.  We talked about the fun of Halloween and how it would make us feel to get candy, see scary costumes, go to parties, etc. 

As you can see there are many emotions pictured on these little fella's!

CUTE!!!

This last little activity was a letter "Z" matching game.  We cut out a zig zag, zebra, upper and lowercase letter "Z's" and glued one set onto paper. 

We then cut out another set and spent time with each child discussing each item and helping them determine what matched. 

We also practiced writing our letters, shaping them with paint, glue, sticks, playdough and spaghetti!

So many times I only post a few of our week's highlights.  Each day we do SO much more than what I am able to post in a weekly update. 

We sing our Days of the Week, Months of the Year, Welcome Song, Nursery Rhymes, S.T.A.R. songs, etc.  We read MANY books.  Our class favorites are Brown Bear, Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom; Llama, Llama Red Pajama; The New Potty, Me Too!, and our seasonal favorites or themed books that I list. 

We count crackers, rocks, sticks, each other, blocks, train tracks, crayons and really anything we can each day. We practice counting backward from 10, then 20.  We count forward 1-3, 1-5, 1-10, 1-20 and up to 100.  We play listening games and following directions games like Follow The Leader, Simon Says, Red Light Green Light and Tag. 

We discuss sizes and comparisons, colors and shapes in the clothing we wear and the toys we play with.  We take every opportunity to converse with each little one and discuss what they see and what they are doing.  We NOTICE the positive and ignore the not!

We laugh, love and cry ALL together as one GREAT BIG school family...and that's just the way it should be... :))