We began our week looking at the story of creation in Genesis.  We decided to also learn about the letter "W" for world.  Pictured above is just one of the ways we made the letter "W" with wood.This involved teamwork, planning, and once we all agreed that it did, indeed, match the letter "W" we had found in the word "world," we also had the pleasure of "w"alking along all its wonderful winding whimsy! Ha!  (sorry...we got a little wrapped up in "w's!")

During our morning circle and story time we also observed that God made the sky.  This led to some questions! One of our little three's asked if God made rainbows.  So, from there, we decided to make our own puzzle rainbows. We practiced tracing the shape of the curve with our glue bottles, fingers, and paintbrushes.  Then...in proper two year old fashion, the glue landed here...and there....and we ended this activity with lots of sudsy, soapy, water table play!

Never let a mess keep a child from their truest form of learning...PLAY!!  A wonderful "follow-up" activity to this is always "wash" time.  This can be in the sink, the water table, the sprinkler, or washcloth practice learning how to clean our own faces and the faces of our babies or one another.  Everything in pre-k world is an OPPORTUNITY for hands-on learning through the power of play!!!

We practiced tracing the curve shape of the rainbow with the tips of our glue bottles, markers, fingers, and paint brushes.

My little two's are FASCINATED with glue puddles :)!!

What an easy transition to go from ooey-gooey-gluey fun to some splashy-splashy water exploration that doubles as clean-up!

Soooo...we are supposed to be studying the letter "W."  I just ran across my GIANT tub of magnets and all things magnetic while cleaning and got all giddy all over again!  I couldn't resist!!  So, in keeping with our weekly alphabet themes, I had to come up with a "W." The result..."W"hat is a magnet?"  Yes...it's a stretch, I know, but like I said...I CAN'T resist the allure of watching all those sweet faces amazed by the "magic" of a magnet. 
So...LET'S PLAY!!!

I mean...just LOOK at that face!!  That wild haired beauty was totally excited about her "fishing pole."  We made magnetic fishing poles with circular magnets that had holes in the middle.  This gave a great place to tie off the string, and tied the other end to a wide popsicle stick "pole." 

We then went ALL over the room hunting for items that would stick.  During our discussion time, we learned that anything that sticks to a magnet contains iron.  We tried windows and doors, trash cans and dolls, pillows, feet and hair.  They LOVED that they "caught" the refrigerator!  They worked and worked to try to pull the door open with their fishing poles. 

With our mixed age group we plan activities that span the ages.  For our word wall we made puzzle words with "worm," "web," and "wow!"  These words were cut zig zag, curved and triangular to allow the younger children an opportunity to match the appropriate "W" to each word to also be a word builder. 

Each of our little ones took home a set of word puzzles to practice with at home with the family and from what I heard in response these were a fun family activity that is still being used.  YAY!  I mean "WOW!"

Children LOVE sticky!!!  They LOVE glue, stickers and tape and we try to use something sticky everyday.  This is a great sensory activity and also good for building those itty bitty fine motor skills.  We called these "Abstract Webs."  The children had SO much fun doing this.  First we cut poster board in half and each child received one.  I then circled the table over and over and over handing out strips of long, short and medium length painter's tape for each child to stick anywhere on their board. Then we painted, and painted and painted with white paint ALL over the surface. 

Not much was left that was "unpainted!"  You know how it is around here in pre-k land...we paint the tables, the chairs, arms, legs, bathroom sink... and then we let it all dry :)).

We peeled back the tape very carefully so as to not disturb the paint and we had THIS!!!

Five little spiders jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the web!"

Four little spiders jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the web!"

Three little spiders jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the web!"

Two little spiders jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the web!"

One little spider jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the bed!"

We made these adorable little spider finger puppets to go with our spider webbing and recited our adapted chant while adding and subtracting spiders.  They LOVED this activity and we were able to do this again and again and send home five little spiders along with their webs with each child.  This is a GREAT math and counting activity and they don't even know they are LEARNING!!!

Here is the template...

We made and used the smaller spider by cutting out small paper strips and taping them to the backside of each little spider.  The larger spiders are the template for the spiders we made with our cottonballs to be on top of our spiderweb pix from Monday.

During our "web" discussions we talked about many things.  We discussed that webs are sticky and that the reason why they are sticky is to help the spider catch food. 

To demonstrate how it feels to be a bug on a web we put out our clear contact paper and made webs with strips of colored paper.  We put the strips this way and that way...we observed that it was very difficult to peel the paper up after it had been stuck down.  The stickiness of the contact paper really made it REAL to the children how a bug must feel!  After each child was finished weaving their web, they picked out spiders and placed them at the top, bottom and middle.  We then finished off each web with an additional piece of sticky clear contact paper to seal the web for going home :).

This has NOTHING to do with webs...but everything to do with October, kids, preschool and CANDY :))!!
Thanks to a great chef and friend, Chef Vito Palmietto, we obtained an easy and DELISH recipe for homemade butterfingers that  they all had a little hand in making and eating and eating some more...

First we melted and mixed one bag of candy corn in the microwave...stir, stir, stir.  We then added an equal amount of creamy peanut butter...stir, stir, stir...Then set them on wax paper in a 9x12 pan to cool overnight.  Melted choco almond bark...coat, coat, coat and viola!  The next pic tells it ALL!

The pet rock turtles were such a hit a few weeks ago that we again decided to go on a hunt for the perfect size rocks for our pet spiders. 

We made the following templates and cut these out of felt.  The children glued and glued after they found JUST the right rock. This takes quite a bit of effort and decision making.  Some of the children just picked any 'ole rock, but others are very decisive.  They wandered the play yard picking up a rock, putting it down, picking up another one, putting it down...then FINALLY the RIGHT one :)) Smiles all around!! 

Of course, we HAVE to have the googley eyes!  We again discussed and counted legs, eyes and the purpose of spiders and their webs.  We discussed that spiders LIVE on their webs, they use their webs for hunting, capturing and keeping their food.  We talked about how some webs are HUGE and some are tiny but that spiders make them ALL. 

That leads me to the YouTube videos that were WONDERFUL visuals for our preschoolers to view on how a spider makes a web.

These two YouTube videos AMAZED the children.  They wanted to see them again and again...

They really are incredible.  Of course, this DOES bring about the Itsy, Bitsy Spider song!!!  It's just a natural conclusion :)).

We began our letter "W" unit study last week as we gathered around the table on Friday afternoon.  Each week as we wrap up our previous week of learning, I will introduce the letter for the next week and we will begin discussing ideas of things we might like to study around that letter.  Sometimes, we want to study things that have NOTHING to do with the letter.  That's perfectly fine and usually I can craft the letter to fit into the lesson SOMEHOW :))! 

So, as we began discussing all the things that start with a "W", it was an unanimous decision when I mentioned spiders and their webs.  We ARE in October and the children have been seeing all kinds of fun things in the stores while shopping with parents, so WEBS it is! 

We began our circle time this morning talking about the letter "W", it's sound and words that begin with "W."  Our sweet little Alice exclaimed, "MS. DONNA!  WHEN are you going to talk about WEBS!"  I was saving that for the last word, but she beat me to it...little genious!  I unraveled all the spider webbing I bought at the store, neon green (SO CUTE!)  and began to stretch it and cut it, giving each child a portion of the webbing and asking them to stretch it, squish it and see just how far they could spread it out.  I asked them to feel each strand and imagine that they were little spiders walking on each tiny thread.  We all thought it would be quite a challenge to balance on such a smallish strand, but then again, as one child observed, "spiders do have itty, bitty legs!"  True!  I also began passing out black paper, glue and these purple and pink spider legs.  We counted out loud how many legs each spider has...one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!  They squealed with excitment as I also pulled out the cotton balls and demonstrated my idea about how we could make a little spider to climb on our neon green spider webbing.

We finished up our lttle spider friends with lots of googly eyes.  The children LOVE anything we can glue googly eyes to!  We discussed that spiders have eyes that can see in every direction to help them find their food and we pretended to be able to see in every direction too.  The children already believe that I can do this :))  (really, what momma can't??!!)