Happy last week of September as we finish out the month and move into fall.  This past week we discovered the wonderful world of Johnny Appleseed (aka John Chapman) as we watched a short movie about his life of spreading appleseeds as well as kindness.  Our favorite line this week was "Let's do it the Johnny Appleseed way!"  We taste tested red, yellow and green apples and made cinnamon sweet applesauce, taking great care to add lots of love as we measured and mashed.  The taste testing results are hung in our room, but surprisingly the yellow and red were a tie.  I loved the descriptive words used to describe the apples:  Sticky, sweet, "all the words in the world", crunchy, "tastes like a pear", juicy, smooth, sour, bitter, yummy, "tastes like an apple".  We also used our imaginations and closed our eyes as we listened to the story about the "little red house with no doors and no windows and a star inside".  They were excited and surprised to see the star in the middle of the apple if you slice it horizontally across the middle.

The sensory table was full of measuring cups and spoons and oatmeal and cinnamon sticks and used their fine motor skills with tongs to move ingredients and red, green and yellow "apples" to mini cupcake compartments.  They also made predictions and tested those at our sink and float science center.  How does a huge apple float and a tiny paperclip sink?  Things that make a JKer scream with laughter!

The children are enjoying singing our Autumn song, as we simulate raking leaves "with a smile" and then jumping into our giant heap.  The frog jar is approaching 3/4 of the way full, so look for details about our pajama/popcorn party in the near future.  We are studying farm animals this week so please feel free to talk about anything farm related at home as we prepare to milk a cow (not a real one) in the classroom.  I am impressed with their knowledge and vocabularies as we continue in our reading groups and use our magical fingers to follow along in our book series.  

We just had 2 children bring show and tell this past week, so will get a reminder out earlier as we prepare for it this Friday.  Have a wonderful week!

Happy last week of September as we finish out the month and move into fall.  This past week we discovered the wonderful world of Johnny Appleseed (aka John Chapman) as we watched a short movie about his life of spreading appleseeds as well as kindness.  Our favorite line this week was "Let's do it the Johnny Appleseed way!"  We taste tested red, yellow and green apples and made cinnamon sweet applesauce, taking great care to add lots of love as we measured and mashed.  The taste testing results are hung in our room, but surprisingly the yellow and red were a tie.  I loved the descriptive words used to describe the apples:  Sticky, sweet, "all the words in the world", crunchy, "tastes like a pear", juicy, smooth, sour, bitter, yummy, "tastes like an apple".  We also used our imaginations and closed our eyes as we listened to the story about the "little red house with no doors and no windows and a star inside".  They were excited and surprised to see the star in the middle of the apple if you slice it horizontally across the middle.

The sensory table was full of measuring cups and spoons and oatmeal and cinnamon sticks and used their fine motor skills with tongs to move ingredients and red, green and yellow "apples" to mini cupcake compartments.  They also made predictions and tested those at our sink and float science center.  How does a huge apple float and a tiny paperclip sink?  Things that make a JKer scream with laughter!

The children are enjoying singing our Autumn song, as we simulate raking leaves "with a smile" and then jumping into our giant heap.  The frog jar is approaching 3/4 of the way full, so look for details about our pajama/popcorn party in the near future.  We are studying farm animals this week so please feel free to talk about anything farm related at home as we prepare to milk a cow (not a real one) in the classroom.  I am impressed with their knowledge and vocabularies as we continue in our reading groups and use our magical fingers to follow along in our book series.  

We just had 2 children bring show and tell this past week, so will get a reminder out earlier as we prepare for it this Friday.  Have a wonderful week!