We kicked things off on Monday by making our own ice cream cones. One parent helped children make "ice cream" with a mixture of glue and shaving cream. They used their hands, paint brushes or both to spread this fluffy medium over a colored paper circle. After adding glitter sprinkles, they set their scoops aside to dry.
Our other parent helper was in charge of cone production, where kids practiced their scissor skills to cut out their cones and then used dot paints and/or markers to decorate them. The delicious-looking results are on display in our classroom.
On Wednesday we had an "elephantastic" day as we painted with imaginary trunks and chased butterflies around out in the hall.
After reading Elephants Can Paint Too, the kids approached the easels in a new way, using cardboard tube "trunks" with feather "brushes" to create some very bright artwork.
Out in the hall everyone took a turn playing Elefun. In this game a little blue elephant shoots butterflies up and out of its trunk so that players can try to catch them in nets. Despite a few butterflies repeatedly getting stuck in the fan, this was a HIT!
We wrapped things up with homemade ice cream on Friday! Teacher Meghan let us borrow her ice cream ball and everyone took a turn shaking and rolling until the ingredients inside (heavy cream, sugar and vanilla) were transformed into a cold, delicious treat. We all got to enjoy a few bites during our snack time.
Our other parent-led project on Friday was adding new pages to portfolios. These were started by the teachers last year, but now that the children are in the older class, they will be much more involved in this process. They added their sunflower drawings and elephant paintings. Then they made another page about who they might like to invite to tea - a response to a story called, The Tiger Who Came To Tea that we read on Monday. They came up with lots of great ideas and it was exciting to see so many friends doing their own writing!
Many of the children wanted to stay at the table a little longer to look through these special binders and enjoy their memories of last year.
Other fun things happening around our room this week included "tigers for tea" in the water tub.
There were tigers along with other jungle animals in the texture table.
There were animal builders for creating all kinds of exotic creatures.
The creation station was a busy place and we love the innovative projects going on here!
There were circus animal finger puppets for puppet shows.
There's always lots of guinea pig love!
There were clowns doing tricks in the play dough.
Reading stories is always popular.
It's exciting to see the writing that's taking place at our writing table!
And there's always lots going on over on the rug and in our dramatic play area.
We had fun during our literacy time acting out Caps For Sale.
We did a couple of new stick songs: Tick Tock and Bread & Butter. See if your child can demonstrate a little bit for you.
We also continued our "Animal Flow" yoga series. Your little yogi may very well be able to guide you through giraffe, elephant, dog, cat and butterfly. Namaste.
We've been reading stories about friends and talking about healthy friendship skills. On Friday we had a "friendship circle" where everyone was invited to share something they like to do with a friend. We will keep doing these circles once a week. They are a great way for kids to get used to public speaking and also to share about meaningful topics. They did a great job!
The weather is starting to turn, but we love getting outside every day!
It's beginning to look like Halloween in our classroom and we're excited for all the fun we're going to have with your sweet little spooks over the next few weeks. Thanks for sharing them with us!
Warmly,
Lisa and Sheri
No comments:
Post a Comment