Food and Thanksgiving

I had planned to catch up on blogging about our classroom activities over Thanksgiving break, and then my computer crashed! We were able to get it back up and running about a week later, and I am just now finding a few moments to post a bit about our month in November. This time of year always gets so crazy busy- it can be hard to keep up!

For most of November we explored the topic of FOOD- an interest that comes up in dramatic play basically every day in our classroom. Along with food, we thought about why our body needs food and other ways to take care of our bodies. And since a lot of the real food we eat comes from farms, we also did a few farm activities as well.  :) Here are some highlights!

Farm Animals Play

Counting and adding feet. 

Farm Crops Sensory Bin

Farm animal observational drawings

 After reading one of our favorites, "Little Blue Truck," we were inspired to get a little muddy...

Fruits and Vegetables

We talked a lot about eating healthy foods, and how it can be good to eat the "colors of the rainbow." 

Thanksgiving Dinner

We created dinner plate collages with this counting activity, as we also practice good table manners (i.e. taking only small amounts first, and then going back for more after everyone has had some).

Family Feast

We made rainbow turkeys at our family feast out of colorful finger foods.

Pumpkin Pie

There was also lots of pie making dramatic play, both with pumpkin pie playdough and felt pieces.

Our Fall Nature Collection

We have gathered quite the fall nature collection over the pat month, as the children have brought in outdoor treasures for math bags or found things out in the yard. We've put the items to use in different ways, like sorting, counting games, transient art, etc.

Nature Collage

This week, we created some more permanent masterpieces through a collaborative collage art project. The children loved selecting pieces, designing, and gluing. 

They are hanging up in our classroom now, as part of our fall decor. :) 

Inside Exploration

After we used up all the objects that we wanted for our collages, we took our collection back outside and explored the question, what is inside? The children also wanted to explore some of the leftover garden produce from my garden.

Counting with Monsters and Spiders

This week has been a sort of transition week as we've been finishing up some fall and Halloween topics, and getting ready to explore some new ideas and interests. 

We have also been integrating some discussions about our feelings lately- what they look like and what to do with them. So reading The Color Monster was a great fit for the week after Halloween, giving us a little extra time to play with monsters and our emotions. I think we'll be doing more with the ideas in this book though- it is such a great model for socioemotional skills, so this probably won't be the only time I write about it. 

But for this week, we made some silly counting monsters. 

We also started exploring spiders a little bit more in depth, and one of our activities used this same counting idea with googly eyes and pipe cleaner legs. 

Halloween Fun

We celebrated Halloween on our Thursday class this year, with lots of festive activities and our family fall program.

Haunted Houses

What is inside your haunted house? After reading Ghosts in the House, the children used various loose parts to fill these haunted houses. This activity supports counting and sorting, along with fine motor and one-to-one correspondence. 

Ghosts Sensory Bin

The floating ghosts in this water bin also had different feelings faces, 

to open up conversations about what different feelings might look like. 

Melting Potions

This sensory bin was set up for some potions play and melting exploration, with icy Jack-o-Lanterns.

I set it up in a smaller bin for the morning class, but moved it to the larger bin for the next class because it was so popular!

Spider Play

We also had a little bit of spider play. We did more spider activities the following week, but I was hoping these would hep to spark the children's interest. 

I always enjoy celebrating Halloween with this age group. I never have enough class time to fit in all of the fun learning activities that can be integrated within a spooky theme. 

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This year, our fall field trip was to the Pumpkin Patch. We went to a large patch with a wide variety of pumpkins, and enjoyed exploring all the different sizes, colors, and shapes in their fields.

I usually get so caught up in field trips that I forget to take a lot of pictures. It was a fun day!