Ms. Laura and Ms. Emmalee's MWF pm Pre-K class

Even though it's a while before Spring, our center letter for the week was T. The kids had fun making blossoms out of popcorn for their (Trees)

ABC patterns are a concept we are practicing in Pre-K. The teddy bears are perfect for color sequencing.

Tin foil art:)

Brushing Alphabet Teeth

T is for Tower. The kids had contests on who could build the highest one.

Our dramatic play bin this week was Construction themed.

The Ranch is so lucky to have a Teepee to play in

Independent reading is an important part of everyday life in the Ranch

Our class portrayed Pilgrims before joining the other two Pre-K classes for a Thanksgiving Feast 

What makes Pumpkin Pie? The kids were real scientists, mixing different ingredients to find out.

Ms. Emmalee created a thank you card the kids could all sign and take to our Ocean friends who hosted us for the Feast.

Turkey baster races:)

Writing thankful cards to our families

The Pilgrims and Indians come together

Thank you to parents for your donations. The food was delicious!

The children got to hear a story all about the history of the First Thanksgiving. Ask them what the name of the ship the Pilgrims sailed on was, and the name of the Indian tribe.

When there is finally a slight change in the weather here in the Valley, we have cause to celebrate the Fall! We have done just that in the Space Room at Chandler TotSpot.  We have talked about pumpkins and their growing cycle.  We have taste tested apples and graphed which color is our favorite.   We even discussed the beautiful changing leaf colors this time of year.  (Well, anywhere else but here  :)  We brought in some autumn colored leaves to see how it is in other places around the world.   

Raking our Fall Leaves!

Parachute fun with our Fall Leaves.  

They could play this all day but the teachers got worn out before the students!

Applesauce Art! Yum!
Nothing better than art you can eat:)

Fall Fun Ocean Room PM PreK's

Our little pumpkins are having a wonderful learning season this fall!

Autumn leaf activities at circle time

 

Pumpkin exploration at science time

Costumes and "trick or treating" during dramatic play

 

Our Halloween party was a spooky success!

 

 

We've added journal time to our weekly routine! The children love documenting their learning.

A few of our favorite science experiments:  mashing bananas, cracking eggs and making "elephant toothpaste."

  

  

And joke time is one of our favorite class activities! Here are a few of our funniest...

What do you call a sleepy T-rex?

A dino-snore!

 

Why are camels so hard to find?

Because sometimes they wear camel-flage!

 What do witches put in their hair?

Scarespray!

Snack time is still our best time of the day. Class favorite? Bread and jam!

 

 It's been a fabulous fall in the Ocean Room!

Ranch Room Roundup

T/Th pm Ms. Suzi & Ms. Carrie

Each day in class we have an activity that teaches us concepts in Science, Language Arts, Math and Art as well as our handwriting and reading program, FUNdations.  Sometimes we have a theme, like apples, that covers all of the subjects and we can discover in depth about that subject in all the learning areas.  Below you will see activities that we've explored in each of these subjects.

SCIENCE

We're learning about the weather.  We have a weather helper every day that looks outside to see what the weather is like that day.  Since the beginning of the year, most days are hot and sunny, but on a rare day we get to talk about a storm or what kind of clouds we see.

Our pet hermit crabs are an ongoing science project.  We've learned that they need food and water every day, they love to be sprayed to keep their home moist, they like to eat apples and they love to come out and visit with us.  We also learned that they have sharp claws if we're not gentle with them. If we're quiet and still as statues, they will come out of their shells and walk around. 

DINOSAURS!

Ice cube insects.  What makes ice melt?  Once way is to drop warm water on an ice cube to warm the ice.  It will melt into water.  Bonus-inside was an insect surprise!

One of our most exciting science experiments was making elephant toothpaste!  It's not really toothpaste, but sure looks like it could be enough to brush an elephants huge teeth and tusks!  We mixed hydrogen peroxide, yeast and other ingredients to erupt out of a plastic bottle.

Watering our plants is another continual science project.  We water them every day and watch how they grow.  Plants need sun, water and soil.

BUTTER! Did you know you can make butter in a jar? We shook and shook and shook cream in a bottle and enjoyed eating our delicious butter on bread at snack time.  Yum!

APPLES! What are the parts of an apple? Can you eat them all? What does an apple look like when you cut it vertically? How about horizontally?  What is your favorite tasting apple - red, yellow or green? We all found green really sour!

Monster slime is always a favorite!!

What do we find in a pumpkin? This is a great sensory activity as well.  Who wants to feel the slime and get their hands dirty?

 LANGUAGE ARTS

Name bracelets - putting letters of their names in order.  They loved them!

Name puzzles

Quiet reading time.

This elephant only eats words that start with e!

Teamwork!

FUNdations writing program.  They're all working so hard to learn how to write the letters and learn the sounds!

MATH

Ice cream cone counting.  We also made ice cream in a bag as a science experiment.  We used all our senses to determine which flavor was our favorite!

Eggs equals activity.  We learned addition sentences using eggs in a nest.  Then we glued eggs in our own nests and made our own sentences! 

ART

Drip painting.  What happens when you drip watercolors on shaving cream?  It was interesting to find out. Really not one of the best for an actual art project to keep, but the kids liked the effect and it was fun to hypothesize what would happen.

Dinosaur bones.  Many of our art activities could also be science.  They each picked a dinosaur and made a skeleton with noodles of all sizes and shapes.  They put a lot of thought into what noodles would fit best for each body part. 

Ice cream week!  Shaving cream glue paint.  It dries fluffy.  We make all kinds of paint and use various mediums to put the paint on - hands, pom poms, paint brushes, nature, food, etc, and many different objects to paint on - paper, egg cartons, clay, and more.

We used wax paper on this project to spread the paint to make an earth.

Remember!  Drip the paint in raindrops, not puddles!

Edge art.  What kind of designs can you make with different "edges?"  We tried cardboard, spoons, plastic cake decorators, popsicle sticks and cups.  Very creative free discovery art!

Cut an apple vertically and horizontally and you'll get different designs to paint with.  Did you know cutting it horizontally along the equator will make a star in the middle? Beautiful stamps!

HALLOWEEN

Super fun day!  Enjoy the pics!

Thanks for visiting!  Our classroom is full of discovery, learning, fun and friendship!!