Outrageous Opposites in October

I fell behind with updating our classroom blog, so bare with me as I do a bit of catch up. Here's how we finished out our Opposite October:

Big & Small/Black & White - The children were really good at giving me examples of what things are really big, and what things are really small. We also learned "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and a new verse to the song, The Big Big Spider.

At the art table we did two really fun crafts. The first was making spiders out of egg carton cups.

The second was making beautiful black and white splatter paintings using chip can tubes. We rolled up a sheet of white paper and put it inside the tube. We squeezed a little bit of black paint into the tube, dropped in a bouncy ball, put on the lid and shook the tube. The ball picks up the paint and splatters it all over the paper in a beautiful pattern.





The results were so striking!

Rough & Smooth - We talked about how something feels when it is rough and when it is smooth. We felt different examples of these textures and made textured trees to illustrate it:

I had brown tree trunks cut out along with leaves cut from many different materials - sandpaper, kitchen scrubby pads, plastic, shiny wrapping paper, flannel, tissue paper and cardstock. The kids got to glue the colorful textured leaves onto their tree and feel the textures as they worked.





Loud & Quiet - Circle time was noisy as we showed each other what LOUD meant, and then we whispered to show quiet. I read a story called "The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything". This is an interactive book allowing the children to make noises, claps and swishes and the children told me which noises were loud and which ones were quiet. It also gave me a chance to talk to the children about Halloween coming up and why we shouldn't be afraid and scared of the things we might see. At centers, the children made music shakers:

I had a variety of jars and plastic containers and each child filled one with beans to make a shaker that was LOUD when we shook it, and they filled one with pom poms and Styrofoam pieces to make shakers that are QUIET when we shook them. We taped the lids on and the children decorated their shaker with stickers. Music shakers always go over well in our class :)

We had a funeral that day, so we couldn't go outside or to the gym for gym time. Instead the children got a bit of a treat and we watched a Veggie Tale movie for 15 minutes. It seemed fitting that we watched "Where's God When I'm S-scared?" It gave us another opportunity to talk about things that might scare us at Halloween (or anytime) but to remember that God is bigger than anything else.

Up & Down/Hot & Cold - We had a day filled with many different opposites. We learned the rhyme Jack & Jill and talked about UP and DOWN. The children really enjoyed this rhyme:

Jack and Jill went up the hill (point up)
to fetch a pail of water (touch 3 fingers to your lips making the w sign)
Jack fell down (point down)
and broke his crown (grab your head)
and Jill came tumbling after (roll your arms over each other)

The science center had a large pumpkin, some yarn and a scale. The children guessed how much they thought the pumpkin would weigh and how big around it was. They then measured it around with some yarn and we weighed the pumpkin on the scale to find out what it actually measured. We liked guessing.

The water table had a tub with really warm water, and a tub with really cold water for a sensory experience.

Gym time was fun as we did opposite actions: we'd run really FAST and then SLOW. We got ON the benches and then OFF. We stood up HIGH on our tippy toes and then crouched down LOW into a ball. The children really liked the action game and even gave me some opposites to call out.


We had a fun and busy month as we talked about Opposites, Thanksgiving and finished off with our Hallelujah Party.

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.

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?!