During week #8 we worked with the letter Ff and we talked about the fall season.  On Monday the 4s classes used q-tips to paint fall trees.  Then on Wednesday, we brought in lots of leaves and we investigated them.  We looked at the different colors, sizes, shapes, and textures. 

 Lastly, we drew pictures in our journals of the leaves that we liked the most.

 One of the high school teachers brought in two more big boxes and all of these awesome Styrofoam pieces and wow, we had fun building!  I laid out the pieces and gave some basic instructions on how to handle the Styrofoam and then I sat back and watched them use their engineering skills. They were building sky scrapers, houses, bridges, teeter-totters and more.

 In the afternoon 4s class, we laid the box out flat and colored roads and a city on it and then the students were driving cars on it. 
Don't be mistaken, our 3s class had fun and learned this week also, but since we only had one day of class, I missed an opportunity to get any pictures.

 Week #7 was all about the letter Ff, the number four, frogs and fire safety.  We spent the first part of the week discussing frogs.  The 3s class mixed blue paint into yellow paint and then painted our frogs.  They were excited to see the blue and yellow make green. 

 The 4s class focused on the life cycle of frogs and we made a sequence chart showing the life cycle, starting with eggs and finishing with a frog.  They practiced cutting and gluing to make the sequence charts.  We also practiced some fine motor skills by using our bingo markers to stamp inside some circles. The end of the week was spent talking about fire safety. We talked about getting out if a building is on fire and also about having a meeting place outside where you gather after everyone gets out.  We talked about and practiced "Stop, Drop, and Roll." During free play, I heard several students practice calling 9-1-1 in our kitchen center.

 Week #6 was all about pumpkins.  We mixed red and yellow paint in the 4s class and then used our mixed paint to paint pumpkins on Monday. On Friday, we turned our pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns by gluing eyes, a nose, and a mouth onto them. They turned out really well.

 We got out the balls in the big room this week.  These are a new addition to our classroom and they were a big hit!

 The 3s class also talked about pumpkins. We kept our jack-o-lanterns simpler by coloring them and then gluing on the faces.  We also looked at and felt some pumpkin seeds and "pumpkin guts."

 The 4s class wrapped up our unit on pumpkins by visiting the Pumpkin Peddler.  We had beautiful weather and so many wonderful pumpkins it was hard to choose which ones we wanted to take home.

 We enjoyed a wagon ride out to pick our pumpkins and a wagon ride back to enjoy our snack of powered donuts and apple cider.  Then we played in the pumpkin maze and the new straw maze.  We had a great time!

 During week #5, our letter was Oo. So in the 4s classes, I drew an O in their journal and then they turned it into something else.  We got so many great ideas: Mickey Mouse, a planet, a pumpkin,

 a Frisbee, a ferris wheel, a face, and an apple to name a few.

 I also introduced some calming jars into the classroom and they were a big hit with the 4s class.

 Our centers this week focused on strengthening our fine motor skills. 

 In the 3s class, we were working on color sorting again.  This week, we sorted popsicle sticks, linking cubes, and bear counters.

 For the first time this year, we got out the play-dough in the 4s class and they loved it.  We have another busy but good week in the books.

 During week #4, the 3s class was still working with the color blue.  We made blue headbands to wear home.

 We also did many color sorting activities such as these centers (shown above) where the students sorted blocks, pattern pieces, bottle caps, and shapes by color. In the big room we sorted balls into hula hoops of their matching color. The 4s classes have started working in quiet boxes after they finish their daily snack.  Each student has a quiet box with an activity for them to complete.  They have the same quiet box for a week and then they get to enjoy a new one the following week. These quiet boxes help us work on fine motor skills along with counting, letter and number recognition and patterning to name a few skills.