Clouds

This week we had a perfect emergent curriculum moment. On Monday during the circle time weather report one of the kids reported that it wasn’t cloudy when in fact, the entire sky was covered in clouds. We went out on the porch to get a closer look. We discovered that the sky was covered in clouds, like a blanket. That night I phased out my lesson plans on superheroes and researched clouds.

 We started with a cloud science experiment. There was so much excitement as their clouds grew heavy with rain! 

 We had an awesome time learning about the clouds for the rest of the week. We did so many fun things. On Tuesday we read the book The Little Cloud by Eric Carle. It is a new favorite! In the story we followed Little Cloud as he changed into different shapes. After we read the book (twice) we painted our own little clouds, who had turned into some great shapes like: donuts, numbers, letters, dogs, and even a tornado.

We used cotton balls to make a cloud book of our own after we learned about the three basic types of clouds (Cumulus, Cirrus, and Stratus.) Everyone read his or her cloud book before naptime. It’s great hearing them use the cloud vocabulary words as they read and talk.

At the end of the week we painted clouds again, using cotton balls one day and puffy cloud paint the next (shaving cream mixed with glue.) We made dream clouds that we will hang from our ceiling. We also read Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld. We wore Cloudette necklaces all morning as a story treasure.

Little Surprises

One of my favorite things about being a teacher is finding little surprises left behind by my little friends.  

Outside one day, I found their shoes all lined up on the edge of the sandbox while they played inside it. 

So sweet. 

Another day while putting a marker away, I noticed "Baby Dolphin" in the marker box. I casually said "Baby Dolphin, what are you doing in the marker box?" One of my friends answered me from across the room: "She wanted a colorful bed Miss Erin" Of course she did :)

I had been watching this block tower being built for several minutes and at first there were no Halloween erasers involved. When I noticed him adding them, I  commented what a good idea that was. His response: "It's a haunted house now!" 

And it was.

While cleaning up after school I noticed these cars sitting on matching color bean bags. It's the little things...

Outside fun!

We spend a lot of time outside exploring and learning new things. We are lucky the beautiful weather in San Diego lets us use our outdoor classroom just as much as our indoor classroom (not the case in Maine, where I taught before :)

We took a walk to the playground at Balboa Park. We could tell pretty quickly the children were familiar with this playground. They didn't waste any time climbing, sliding and swinging. 

After some tree work in our playground area we were left with great stumps for hopping and climbing on. 

Or using for hammering practice.

The water table is always popular! I like this careful pouring!

Scissors!

Scissors are a fundamental part of preschool art. The children were so excited to begin using them! But, before being set loose with scissors, we talked about how to hold them when we are walking, how we only use them when we are sitting and we can only cut certain things, like paper and play dough. Before we did any actual cutting we practiced putting our fingers in the correct holes and how to open and shut them when holding paper in our other hand. So tricky! Practice makes progress! 

On the first day we cut green paper and used glue sticks to make a collage. 

 I was doing some research on cutting skills and came across this idea for a cutting sensory box. Perfect! I brought paper shreds in from home and added paper scraps with their names on them to the box. The boys loved finding their names hidden in the shreds and being able to cut the shreds into even tiny pieces. 

This activity kept them very busy and engaged for a long time. 

"Look! I'm making confetti Miss Erin"

Careful cutting!

Getting little hands ready to write!

We have been busy exploring materials in our classroom that use our fine motor motor (hand) muscles. All of these activities will help us as we learn and practice writing our names. 

We made shape pictures using pattern block stickers. Stickers can be so tricky to get off!

We made rocket ships and houses by combining shapes. We added details to shapes with crayons to make things like the sun below. 

Lacing is a great quiet fine motor activity. We have been working on these animal lacing shapes when we wake up from naps.  Look at all that great lacing! 

More stickers! Except this time, students matched colors and numbers to work on fine motor skills and recognizing the numbers 1-4. 

Painting! Always a favorite. In this activity we created our first intial on paper using painters tape and then painted over it in our favorite colors. When the paint was dry we peeled off the tape to reveal "magic letters."

We made necklaces using letter beads. (They were so proud of the finished result!) But first we had to find our letters and match them to our name tags. 

As part of our morning meeting every day we practice tracing our name, and our friends names too. 

Dear Families,

A note came home today about scheduling parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday, November 10th. Your child and I are preparing great things for this,  and we hope you will call Mrs. Sanfilippo to schedule an appointment. If you can't make it on the 10th, we can schedule an alternative time. And remember, no school on Veterans Day, 11/11. See you soon!

Turkeys in Disguise!

Today we kicked off a new Lura Libby tradition (started last year, thanks to Ms. Dailey) of disguising turkeys. We read the book Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano, in which a turkey disguises himself as other animals on the farm in hopes that he won't end up on the dining room table. We are asking each class to read the book and take some turkey templates home to disguise with their families. Parents, we want you to make one too! Be sure to look in the hall by the Kindergarten rooms to check out the turkeys! I can't wait to see what the turkeys will be wearing this year!

Here is a look at a few from last year :)