Fall Leaves and Owl Babies in the YC - Teacher Lisa

What a GORGEOUS fall it has been! We used the beautiful colors on the trees as inspiration for some of our activities this week. On Tuesday the children made their own vibrant leaves by dobbing watercolor on paper towels. Lovely!

Our other parent activity on Tuesday was sorting triangles, squares and rectangles and sticking them to pieces of contact paper. We hung them in the windows and they look so pretty with the sun streaming through.

We read Owl Babies and then on Thursday everyone made their own version of an owl baby using pine cones, cotton batting, feathers, beaks and eyes. These cute little critters are in our hallway display case.

We did some apple tasting Thursday with yellow, green and red apples. Children sampled some of each and then recorded their favorites on a class graph. This is hanging out in our hallway. We'll have some more delicious fun with apples in the weeks ahead :).

Our texture table now has flax seeds in it and they are such fun! They are small and slippery, which makes them great for our windmills and for sliding hands into. The kids enjoyed playing with farm animals and equipment in this area this week.

At the water tub they continued to love the kinetic sand. It's so great for squeezing and molding!

There were colored buttons to sort in our game area and translucent pumpkins and leaves to sort and play with at the light table.

Little fairies and squirrels sat atop wooden towers or behind wooden fortresses at the building table.

Children could decorate pipe cleaner trees with pony beads and fabric leaves - an excellent opportunity for fine motor practice!

There were some new puzzles and games on the shelves as well.

The children have been enjoying the materials we've had available at our creation station: leaf-shaped pasta, silk leaves, feathers, leaf confetti and of course lots of glue :).

Here are a few of the other things that the kids enjoyed doing during their free play time this week:

During our time together at the carpet we learned "Way Up High in the Apple Tree" and "Wide Eyed Owl". We read Apple Trouble, Ten Red Apples and Goodnight, Owl. We looked at our apple graph, did some breathing exercises with our breathing ball and grooved to the "Beanie Bag Dance"!

The air was crisp outside, making for rosy cheeks at recess.

The kids did SUCH a great job rolling with the different routines on picture day and were really brave about going out to the picture bus. We think you'll be pleased with the results!

We will be spending the next couple of weeks enjoying fall themes and then before we know it, we'll be busy getting ready for the winter holidays! As always, thanks for all of your help in our classroom each day and for sharing your wonderful kids with us. We sure enjoy them!

Until Tuesday...
Lisa and Sheri