We learned about the four different seasons. Seasons change throughout the year because of the way the earth moves.  Spring always follows winter, summer comes after spring and fall after summer!  

We have been working on the color orange, rectangle shape and letter Nn this week.  We colored or painted an orange winter hat.  I took picture of each child and we placed the hat on their picture. These turned out super cute!  We have continued reading Does A Bear Wear a Hat in the Winter.  I set out dress up pieces to dress the bear and they also made their own story mat.  

We started our day VOTING! I know this has nothing to do with a frog and umbrella but thought the concept of voting would be fun with the kids. No, we did not talk about our political beliefs today. We learned that sometimes you can vote when a decision in your own family needs to be made. We learned voting can help us make a fair decision about what to do when we don't agree. Today we voted on lunch choices. Chicken nuggets won in a land slide! We set up a polling booth, the kids each took turns completing their ballots and then we counted.
We practiced cutting, writing our names and made an umbrella. We practiced filling in a "bubble" in our fine motor journals.
​We used tissue paper and the kids could tear, cut and or crumple. We learned that frogs like to get wet and drink through their skin.
We enjoyed the sunshine and raked some leaves as well!

We started out the week with a pumpkin investigation. We cut open a pumpkin and got to touch and and see the inside of the pumpkin. I asked the kids to draw what they thought they would find on the inside prior to cutting open.
We used Q-tips to make fall trees, using fall color paints.
We read the book Spookley the Square Pumpkin all week and made our own Spookley pumpkin. ​

We practiced scissor skills by snipping fall colored paper and gluing to their choice of leaf. We brought out our new fall sensory bin with pumpkins, squirrels, turkeys and lentil beans.
We cut out ghosts and taped to another piece of paper. We used the tip of a pencil with eraser to go around the taped ghosts with their color of paint. Once dried they drew faces on the ghost!
We also celebrated Samuel's 3rd birthday!

Wrapping up All About Me Unit this week with learning about staying healthy.
We was our hands with soap and water. We wash away germs that can make us sick. Germs are not for sharing! I showed the kids a white paper plate. I explained we cannot see germs but they are on our fingers. Every time we touch something, we can pick up or leave a germ. We used white paint to dip our fingers in paint, then scraped black paint across plate to see all the "germs we cannot see!"
We used white crayon to draw on paper and then used water color paints to see what happens when you paint over the white crayon!
We learned our brains are soft and our skulls are hard. We created a brain model using a small soufflé cup and starch noodles. We protect our body by wearing protective gear, such as helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, and safety glasses. It is very important to protect our heads.
Everyone needs sleep, even animals. We sleep in beds with blankets and pillows. When we sleep at night, we may dream. We are quiet when we sleep. We studied Vincent van Gogh's famous painting, Starry Night and then we created our own version. We used paint, pokey ball, paint brush to create swirls!
We brush our teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Floss can be used to get in between the teeth. Brushing helps clean our teeth and mouth. Our mouths include lips, teeth, gums and tongue. Teeth fall out as we grow up. We used paint, glitter, glue and a toothbrush to brush the tooth! We used the toothbrush to go up and down, side ways and they were encouraged to cover the entire tooth to make it clean! We played a game "Pulling Teeth!" We took turns rolling a dice and then would pull that many teeth either with tweezers or their fingers. 
Our last project was to draw a picture of your favorite thing to do at school.

From animal fur to flower petals, we can find artistic patterns hidden throughout nature. Nature often inspires artists to paint or make fabric in unique ways. We discussed when we wear a coat and how it keeps us warm and we talked about coats that animals wear. This Invitation to Create invited children to plan how to use patterns in their own expressive art. When there are no steps or directions to follow, children are able to take creative risks. I provided the children with markers, stickers, paper, cotton balls and glue. The cotton balls came out when one child mentioned he wanted to make wool!
We read the book Polk-A-Dot pants and created our own polka dot pants. We used clothes pins and pom pom's to create dots. They used fine motor skills to pinch the clothespins and paint with the pom poms.
We have also been reading the book Beatriz, Bananas and the Very Big Hat. We learned about different types of hats and that "hat" starts with the letter H. Hats can also help protect our heads. The children created a crown by weaving the band through the slits on the triangles. This required some hard work and patience, but they were able to do it!
We used story telling pieces to retell the the story of Beatriz and the Bananas. I asked questions such as what happened when Beatriz fell asleep? Did she trick the monkeys to get her hats back? They worked with their friends to retell the story.

We learned that shoes and socks come in pairs.  We created a shoe and practiced lacing.   
We worked on the letter Hh this week.  We celebrated another birthday!