Squirrelly, Shake Your Bushy Tail! (YC) - Teacher Sheri

Our Fall fun continued this week! We did Fall inspired tree and squirrel art projects, color sorting, snack making, and more.

The kids got busy using scrub brushes and paint to create a canvas of autumn colors as a backdrop to a tree trunk. They used a controlled painting approach by lightly dabbing the brush on the paper. The artwork is beautiful and hanging in the classroom!

Speaking of color, we played a color sorting game at the other activity table. The kids drew a colored disc out of the bag, identified the color and then "fed" it to the matching color squirrel!

At carpet time, we read a non-fiction book about squirrels and a cute story called Nuts to You. This inspired us to do an art project where the kids could look like squirrels in their own little tree! So on Thursday, they used bath scrubbers to paint metallic colors on a piece of paper. That painting will become their tree and their photo will be peeking out of the hole!

The children also got to make squirrel snacks and bury them in a "nest." (strips of brown paper in a kiddie pool). They used tongs to measure out a snack mixture into plastic baggies. When it was time to eat, we helped them dig up their own snack bag, just like a squirrel digs up their nuts!

Around the room, they stayed engaged with each other and all the fall activities...

They learned how to build structures with the Lincoln Logs.

The light table with translucent blocks invited more friends to build.

They are loving the flax seed in the texture table and played with all sorts of barn toys and farm animals in it.

At the water tub, the kids really got into using the hand mixers and creating frothy bubbles when we added soap. There were pie tins, foam and acrylic apples, and sifters to make apple pie with!

The playdough and creation station table had lots of friends stop by.

The kids kept busy with Legos, geo boards, and dramatic play!

At carpet time, we played a little game in which all the kids got to take an acorn off the tree and scurry away with it as we counted down from 10.

We read a book called The Nuts: Sing and Dance in Your Polka Dot Pants and we learned the moves to a fun song that goes with it! We also balanced beanie babies and boogied down with them.

We are very proud of the growth we see in this class! They are a sweet group and we look forward to every day with them.

Next week, we have just one day together before Thanksgiving. But we will have so much fun making Indian Corn Shakers and their first cooking project, making applesauce!

Until then, all the best!

Sheri and Lisa