Octopus

Last week we had a few minutes left in class before home time, so Teacher Michelle taught us all a new song. The kids loved it so much we've continued to see it each day this week. It fits in great with our Opposites, since the song starts with a small slippery fish and each successive fish gets bigger, until the end when the humongous whale comes. There are actions to go with each fish that the video doesn't show:

Slippery fish - put your two hands together palm to palm and point forward. Sway your hands back and forth to show a fish swimming.

Octopus - hold your hand so that your palm is facing down and move your fingers like an octopuses tentacles.

Tuna fish - hold your left hand out with your palm up, put your right hand on top so you are palm to palm. Keeping your palms together, open and close your fingertips like a mouth.

Great White Shark - hold both arms out in front of you with the right hand on top of the other. Spread your arms apart and then pull them back together like a huge shark mouth opening and closing.

Humongous Whale - Hold your fingertips together so your arms make a great big circle.


This song is a lot of fun and your child will love singing it with you!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Yesterday we continued our study of Opposites with the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" poem. I was so impressed with the children's knowledge of the poem and their great spider actions. I asked the children what things were small and they said spiders, pumpkins and earrings :) I then asked what kinds of things are big, and I had a lots of children calling out "cars!", "elephants", "giraffe's" and "my house." We have a group of really sharp kids! We are really getting to know our opposites.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider poem is great for showing opposites because the spider is so cute and small. We said the poem once through while whispering to show how tiny it was. We then recited the poem changing the lyrics to the "Big Big Spider" and we all had to use our big, deep spider voices. So fun! The poem also uses opposites of the spider going UP the water spout and the rain coming DOWN.

Here's a video of the rhyme to jog your memory in case you forgot :) The only difference is we call it "Itsy Bitsy" while the video says "Eensy Weensy".


Our centers consisted of all things spiders. We made spiders out of an egg carton that I cut into single cups. The kids painted them and I glued on googly eyes and pipe cleaners for legs. We also had factual spider books at the Science Table, plastic spiders in the Sand Table, fun spider stories at the Library and an Itsy Bitsy Spider game at the Puzzle Table. We also did a fun art activity using a pringles chip can, bouncy balls and paint. This was to show the children how black and white are opposite. We rolled up a piece of white paper and placed it in the tube, dropped it a blob of black paint along with a bouncy ball, put the lid back on and the child shook it up. The ball rolls around in the paint creating a really cool piece of art we are going to hang on the wall. It was sheer coincidence that they ended up kind of looking like spider webs...so cool!

We will be continuing to recite the Itsy Bitsy Spider this week with more fun learning activities as well.

Apple Pie Playdough

This stuff smells incredible!  The delicious warm scent of cinnamon and apples fills the room as the kids knead and play with this dough, perfect for Thanksgiving.  Here's the recipe:


Mix 1 cup of cinnamon with 1 cup of applesauce. 


That's it!  Probably because of our climate I found that I had to go easy on the applesauce and probably even used a bit less than a cup to get it not too sticky.


This playdough can be reused if covered and stored in the fridge. What's even better is once the kids have played with it for a couple weeks, you can roll the dough out flat and have the kids use Christmas cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the dough.  Use a pen to make a hole through the top of the dough shape and put them on a cookie sheet to dry out. Once dried you can lace red and green ribbon through the hole and send them home as Christmas ornaments for the tree!  They still retain their delicious cinnamon scent.

Beginning Opposites

Tuesday was the start of our new theme Opposites. We talked about what kinds of things could be opposites and I shared a poem with the children. They practiced their cutting skills by cutting out a BIG pumpkin and a SMALL pumpkin and we hung them in the class. I also showed the children BIG pumpkins and SMALL pumpkins at circle time and the children examined them at the science table. Some even arranged them from big to small...boy did that knock my socks off!

On Thursday we pretended to prepare Thanksgiving dinner by stirring the pumpkin pie filling FAST and then SLOW. The turkey came out of the freezer COLD (brrr!) and then went into the oven where it was HOT (ouch!). We opened a can of cranberry jelly and it was STIFF but then it jiggled on the plate and got WOBBLY. Then we reached for CRUNCHY carrots (crunch!) and then a spoonful of SOFT jello salad (slurp!). The children played in the house where I put all kinds of Thanksgiving dinner ingredients, and made "I am Thankful for..." turkeys. That craft was a big hit! I loved hearing what the children were thankful for.

I also made a delicious smelling homemade apple pie playdough, by mixing 1 cup of cinnamon with 1 cup of applesauce. The whole classroom smelled like an apple pie! This playdough can be reused if covered and stored in the fridge.

At music time, Teacher Wendy continued with our Opposite theme and talked about LEFT/RIGHT, LOUD/SOFT and HIGH/LOW sounds and the children got to play on the piano. Who knew opposites could be so fun?!

Everybody Praise the Lord

I hope you are all enjoying delicious turkey dinners this Thanksgiving. The children and I talked this week how we need to be thankful for all that God has given us. I originally wrote on the newsletter that this month's song focus would be "Who's the King of the Jungle" but I'm going to save it for our jungle theme in January. Instead I wanted to make sure we were all remembered to give thanks to God, so the children have been learning "Everybody Praise the Lord" by Lincoln Brewster. We have been singing it all month and will continue until October is over. I have shortened the lyrics for the children and added actions. You can listen to the song by clicking the video.

I thank the Lord for what, for what he’s done in us (point to yourself)
I thank the Lord for His love (cross arms over heart)
I thank the Lord for the smile that He’s put on my face (make a big smile and point to your cheeks)
I thank the Lord for his Grace (hold left hand up in a fist with fingers pointing away. Turn the fist towards you and open your fingers to symbolize grace coming from heaven. Click here for demo)
I thank the Lord for the joy that He has given to me (Click here for demo of "joy))
Cuz now I know that I am really set free (Click here for demo of "free")

CHORUS:
Everybody Everybody (wave arms in air for whole chorus)
Everybody praise the Lord
Everybody Everybody
Everybody praise the Lord




Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

My Loving Heart

On Thursday we ended our All About Me theme talking about our hearts. Jesus died on the cross for us and if we love Him and allow Him into our lives, he will change our hearts. We talked about all the things our hearts love. We also did a fun craft making tissue paper vinegar stamps that you can try too.

Cut shapes out of tissue paper or crepe paper (colored streamers that you can get from the dollar store). In this case I had a bunch of light pink, dark pink and red hearts cut out. Pour some vinegar into a clean container and use a paint brush to paint some vinegar onto some white (or any other light colored) construction paper. Put a tissue paper shape over the wet paper and paint some more vinegar on top. Keep going until you've painted vinegar over all the shapes and then put on a rack to dry. As the paper dries, the tissue paper will begin to come up, but it will leave it's color behind. It becomes an exact stamp of the tissue paper shape that was there.

Alternative: For some reason, some tissue papers don't work. This is what happened to our tissue paper hearts in class, so I made a diluted white glue mixture (1 part glue, 1 part water). Paint this glaze over the hearts to keep them in place.

You can also take this project one step further, but cutting around the shapes in a 1 inch border. Glue the cut out onto a dark piece of construction paper for a beautiful contrast.

I can't wait for you to see your child's beautiful hearts!