This has been such a fun week so far! We began the week by talking about all of the changes that we are seeing out in nature right now, and we invited the class to share all of the things that they are observing and curious about. Many of them were curious about leaves, why they fall and WHEN they fall. We asked the class for some ideas of ways that we could find the answers to those questions and they said that some of the ways that we can answer our questions are through books, through looking and noticing, and by asking people questions. So we have been doing all of those things as we seek the answers to our questions!
We did some reading that taught us about how leaves have the job of making food for the tree, and the leaves make enough food for the tree to last all winter long. When the leaves fall, it means their work is done! The children thought this was interesting and noticed how this is similar to what animals do when they are preparing to hibernate. We will continue observing the trees in the coming weeks and making predictions about when the leaves will all fall.
We also connected what we learned about plants "sleeping" through the winter to our experience planting Sophie's squash! We talked about how seeds and plants can stay resting under the snow all winter and then come up in springtime. On Wednesday, we decided to explore this further by planting tulip bulbs in the ground! The class said goodbye to our tulips until springtime and wished them a good rest. We can't wait to check for them again in the springtime!
This week, the class also has shown so much interest in stories and storytelling! Some of their favorite books this week were "Go Away, Big Scary Green Monster," "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything," and "The Scarecrow." This week was the first time we really saw the children READING to one another (even those who are not yet "reading" in the technical sense of the word). They were so enjoying picking up books and retelling the stories to one another, reciting the parts they could remember, and retelling some stories with puppets in the puppet theater or felt characters on the felt board. We are so excited to build on this interest and incorporate more storytelling opportunities into our days.
We had another wonderful library visit on Tuesday, where we enjoyed stories, songs and rhymes all about leaves, and played an "I Spy" game where the children were challenged to look at. an assortment of leaves and have other children guess which leaf they were describing. They did so well with this, and it really exercised their descriptive language skills and listening skills! We have been enjoying continuing this game at school as well.
Other fun learning experiences this week included guessing how many seeds in our pumpkins, building our own scarecrows (inspired by the book The Scarecrow), creating color- resist spider web art, practicing cutting and pasting, and exploring letter sounds through play (e.g. I spy something that starts with.....)
We have so many exciting plans in store for next week, inspired by the children's interests and of course... Halloween! :)
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