Wonderful Wednesday Happy Halloween

Wednesday October 29, 2014

It may have been an early release day in Room C, but that didn’t stop us from having a lot of fun and being super busy.  I am so proud of some of my friends who are adapting to the classroom better each week.  It is a slow process but hopefully by Christmas everyone will be well adjusted to the process of coming to school and the school routine.  Be sure to read all about what we did today.  We are still taking it slow with centers and activities we are slowly integrating more things into our school day and will continue to do so as the year progress.  Have a wonderful Halloween and be safe!

Jesus Time: Today we reviewed our story about Noah and this is what we learned today….

Genesis 8:18-22, 9:1-17, The Rainbow

When everyone was out of the boat, Noah built an altar. He thanked God for keeping them safe. Then something wonderful happened! God put a beautiful rainbow in the sky and made Noah a promise. "I will never flood the whole earth like that again," God said. When God makes a promise, He keeps it.

We had the opportunity during free choice play to play with some Noah’s ark and all the animals he put inside them. 

During Center Time we made a story strip about the story of Noah.  The children had to help me tell the story of Noah and glue the pictures on a strip of paper in the correct order. 

Number:  Number three is what we are studying this month.  We practiced making the number three with our fingers this is good practice for our finger and hand muscles.  We practiced counting to three and looking at what the number three looks like.     

Shape:  We are learning about a circle this month.  We learned that there is no beginning and end to a circle and that we can think of many things that look like a circle.

Letter: We continued working on the letter “F” this week.  We talked about words that began with the letter “F” like flower, fabulous, fantastic, food, frog, fancy, fish, fun, and family!     

Color:  Orange is our color of the month.  So we spent time during morning meeting identifying different things that were orange.

We had fun painting a leaf for our tree in our classroom and making an orange jack o’lantern.  

Music and Movement: Today was a first in this class over half the class participated when we got up to dance!  This is huge for all of them as in the weeks past they have sat and watched Mrs. Horn sing and dance all by herself well today that was no the case and Mrs. Horn didn’t feel so silly dancing and singing this week!   We sang our ABC’s; Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jesus Loves Me. We practiced Jumping and Counting and Learning Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  We practiced the Five Little Pumpkins Finger Play we have been learning all month.

Outside Time:  It was gorgeous outside today it was a tad chilly but we enjoyed our time outside in the sunshine playing with friends from the other PDO Classes and playing with the bikes, trucks and digging in the rock pit.

Patterning:  We continued working on our pumpkin leaf pattern during morning meeting.   

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Painting a Scarecrow

Today we painted a Scarecrow with our water color paints.  Be sure to look in the lobby next week as we will have art work out there during the month of November! As we painted today we listened to music for the Peanuts Gang to help us with our music awareness.  

Free Choice Play

We are still working on adjusting to the classroom.  Some of my friends are ready to explore the classroom while others are still more apt to stay at the tables and do activities there.  

Chalkboard is always open to the students.  This is a place they are able to draw, write and color what ever they want.  This allows them to be imaginative and creative as well as work on fine motor skills, pre-writing skills, color recognition and arm and hand strength. 

Decorating a Leaf

We painted leaves orange today to help us wrap up the color orange for the month of October and we also got to pick what color of glitter we wanted to use to glitter a leaf for our beautiful tree in our classroom.  Be sure to take time to check out all the beautiful leaves we have been making over the course of the season of Fall. 

Morning Meeting

This is a time we come together as a class and learn about the number, shape, color of the month.  We also do calendar time and work on a pattern and learn about the teachings of Jesus from the Bible.  We usually end our Morning Meeting with a book about numbers and counting. These are all things that will be done in Preschool and Kindergarten here at Zion.  Our goal in PDO is to expose them to the things that they will learn more in depth about in Preschool.

We are ready to start morning meeting.  With our Hello Song. 

Calendar time is done by Mrs. Horn stating the Month, day and the date.  When the date is said we then work on what the numbers are for the date and the students are usually asked what color square is that number.  It is then placed on the calendar and generally we will count how many squares we have of that color.  This allows the children to be exposed to time, Months, days, dates, number, shape and color. It also helps us with our counting and pre math skills. 

Good Bye Number 3 and the shape of the Circle 

Our Orange board for the month of October.  This allows us to work on color recognition, as well as our vocabulary of words.  

Mr. Weather Frog is ready for a crisp fall day in PDO! 

Our pattern of the month stays the same all month long.  The students help by telling Mrs. Horn what comes next in the pattern.  As the month progress' the students take turns telling Mrs. Horn what is next in the pattern.  After our pattern is complete, we typically say the pattern together as a class and then count how many objects are in our pattern. There will always be 10 in our pattern. 

Our study of Noah is drawing to an end this week. 

Book we read at the end of Morning Meeting.  We talked about the front of the book and that there was three orange dump trucks and that was our magic number for the month. As we read through the book Mrs. Horn would stop and ask different questions to the students about pictures or what was happening in the book.  

Transiton Time

This time comes after we have prayed for snack.  The students this month were given a leaf to put on a fall tree.  The leaf has the child's name on it.  When the child is called they walk over and find a spot on the tree to put their leaf on and then find a Mickey Mouse to stand on.  This activity allows students the opportunity to adjust to us getting ready to do a different activity in the classroom in this case wash hands for snack.  It also allows us to work on learning to take turns, self regulation and following directions.  We also are working on color recognition as we say what color our leaf is.  We also are working on pre-reading skills as we are looking at the letters in our name and hearing the sounds are names make.  

Circle Time

This is the time of day following snack that we come back together on the carpet and work on a few Music and Movement songs that help with self regulation and hand eye coordination.  We practice singing our ABC's and learn about the letter we are currently on.  We also work on the sounds of the letters in the alphabet.  We typically will read a story that pertains to the alphabet.  We usually have a flannel board activity or a color recognition story or a finger play that we work on during this time. 

Book we read

Look at them jumping!  

Doing the Wheels on the Bus 

Today we talked about a pumpkin and charted what we observed 

Our observation chart of a pumpkin.  

Outside Time

Center Time

Bingo Daubers of a Jack O'Lantern

Making our own Jack O'Lantern

Making Silly Jack O'Lanterns

Noah Story Strips

Exploring the Classroom

Music and Movement

We cut this time a little short today because of our early release day but we had fun with the few songs we did.  We usually sing and dance and then read a story about whatever theme we are currently talking about and then pray for lunch. 

Transition Time

This is the time we spend getting ready to line up for lunch.  Each child is called by name and the first letter of their name is said over and over and then their name is said to help them find their leaf.  Once they have found their leaf they tell me the color they have and then they find a Mickey Mouse to stand on. During this transition time we are focusing more on name recognition and what the first letter of our name starts with. 

We are doing great as you can see by our busy day!  I hope all my friends have a wonderful Halloween and stay safe and warm.  I look forward to seeing you all next week as we start to gear up for Thanksgiving and what we are Thankful for!   

Happy Halloween!