Snow!!!

Sometimes, all it takes is a look out the window to push our curriculum in a new direction.

This is what was outside our window this morning:


The snow outside was reflected all across the classroom today;

Penguins and disposable diaper stuffing "snow" in the sensory table...

Salt and glitter "snow" with matchbox cars in trays on one table...

Paper and scissor snowflake crafting on another...

...and snowsuits and mittens in the dress up area so we can practice dressing for the next real snowfall!!!

Abiyoyo

We are seeing a new theme emerge in the Frog room. Lately the Frogs have been fascinated with stories. Especially this Pete Seeger story;

We have been reading the book Abiyoyo and it's companion, Abiyoyo Returns every day. To expand on the idea of storytelling, we have also been adding in a few new 'folk tales' about things that we've seen around Nonotuck...Like yesterday's circle time story about the squirrel that Michelle (Frog Room co-teacher) saw sitting on top of the dumpster eating a paper towel;

Once Upon a time, about an hour ago when I was on my break,

I was walking out to my car when I heard a sound coming fromthe dumpster. I looked, but I couldn't see anything. Then I heard it again- scritch, scritch, scritch... I peeked behind the dumpster, and then I saw it! Two big black eyes, one fluffy, curly tail, lots of fuzzy grey fur, two teeny-weenie claws- Right there, behind the dumpster was the biggest, roundest squirrel I have ever seen! The squirrel jumped on top of the dumpster and I noticed that it was eating something. "Hey, squirrel!" I said.

The squirrel stopped eating and looked right at me.

"Is that a paper towel?"

It was a paper towel!

"Hey, squirrel!'

He looked right at me again.

"Don't eat paper towels!"

the squirrel thought about it for a minute...then went right back to eating the paper towel.

(you get bonus storyteller points if you act out the part with the squirrel eating the towel...)

Really, everything can be a story- it's all in how you tell it!

If you are a Frog parent, ask your child if they can tell you the story of the squirrel and the paper towel. It would be an interesting experiment to see 1.)How much of the story the Frogs remember, and 2.) How it evolves with each re-telling.
Next time we'll tell you the Nonotuck folk tale about the Raccoon With The Teeny-Tiny Spoon...
*Edited to add the whole story about the squirrel, 12-2-08 4:37pm.

Fall Mural

We are almost done with our fall mural. We have been working on different pieces of it over the last few weeks.
First, we painted construction paper Maple and Oak leaf shapes with orange, red, yellow and brown tempera.
Then we used sponge brushes and hands to paint with different shades of brown...


Then we put a large piece of paper on the floor with wide brushes and different shades of blue...

Finally, we glued the brown painted paper to the bottom of the blue sheet, added a bumpy, cardboard tree, and glued our painted leaves all over...

Here's what it looks like so far. We may call it finished and add it to our hallway gallery, or we may add some more components. Birds? Squirrels? Pumpkins? Birds and squirrels eating pumpkins, (as discussed during a recent, lively lunchtable conversation between the kids where everyone shared what happened to their Jack-O-Lanterns post halloween...)? Hmmmmm...Keep your eyes out to see what happens!

October

Hi there!

Even though this is our first post, we've been taking pictures for this curriculum blog since early October. In the interest of catching everyone up, here they are;

As you can see, we were thinking about bringing the colors and textures of the changing season indoors.

As October progressed, we began to prepare for our annual field trip to the pumpkin patch;

As October came to a close, we geared up for halloween! We added costume pieces to the dress up area and began working on a pumpkin Pinata for our celebration!

Luckily, we managed to make our pinata sturdy, yet breakable- not as easy as you would think! The kids enjoyed eating Pirate Booty and Raisins that fell out of the pumpkin for snack time.

We will continue to incorperate Autumn as a theme throughout the rest of the season. We are already seeing the kids interests go in different directions, so stay tuned to see where we wind up next!