More Henry classroom updates...

We had a fabulous day.  Before going to movement class with Ms. Felicity, we brought out the balance beam to walk across.  Not only did we get to test our balancing skills, but we go to practice taking turns which is a skill we are still working on.  Though we are getting better.  We also started working on our spooky name cards.  This is a fun activity practicing name recognition and letter tracing.  We used a paint brush and glue to trace over the letters in our name.  Then we poured the colored sands over the letters to add texture to our name.  When they dry, we will be able to trace over them with our fingers as another prewriting activity.

Wow, our day just seemed to fly by today.  We've been enjoying playing with "spooky" sand in the sensory table which we made by mixing black, orange, green and white sand.  We had fun pouring,stirring and sifting the sand.  We also practiced making shapes and letters in the sand.    Several of our friends got together to build haunted houses  out of the blocks.  I really enjoyed watching them work together and problem solve as a team.   We took a couple of pictures of their work.  I could tell they were very proud of it.  It really was a great day.

Last week and this we are focusing on real vs. fantasy.  Our goal is to help them differentiate between reality and fantasy.  During the preschool years, children go through several stages of pretend play.  At 3, they "are" the princess or the firefighter - and love to dress and act the part.  As children mature, they begin to "take" the role of the princess or firefighter, adding to the persona with props and costumes.  They are able to understand that they stay themselves even when they have the costume on.  This progression from being the character to acting like the character shows children's process in separating real from pretend.

We have been enjoying exploring with different material both liquid and solid in the sensory table.  Last week we played with rice and beans and tested our fine motor skills as we tried to pick them up with chopsticks.  Was not an easy task.   Yesterday we played with water and measuring cups.  Today, Ms. Laura and the class made clean mud with bars of soap.  They talked about how it felt on their hands.  It was a fun experience.  Later in the week we will make goop.  Have a good evening.

We had a fun busy day.  We started our morning by giving our fingers and toes a workout with bubble wrap.  Some friends played with the clean mud while others read stories and built with the wooden blocks.  We had a fire drill before going outside to the playground.  Everyone remembered to walk quietly and quickly to our meeting stop.

While we were outside we got to show off our creative side by decorating hats with various art materials.  We made princess hats, wizard hats, and witch hats.  This afternoon they made special magic wands.  Tomorrow we will talk about the special powers each of us have.  On Friday we will have a special treat.  We'll have a dress up party and wear our hats.  Mary Jane's mom is bringing cupcakes for us to decorate and take home.  We will also decorate mini pumpkins.  Have a good evening.

We had another fun day.  We finished decorating our hats and magic wands.  We talked about some of the special powers we have inside us like the power to control our body; the power to control our emotions; the power to be brave and try new things;  the power to make good choices; and my personal favorite the power of patience to be able to wait for something we want.  We decorated our wands with special magic stones to help remind us of these powers.  Tomorrow we will have a little dress up party and wear our special hats and sprinkle "magic dust" on our wands to make them work.

What an exciting day!  We really had to test our power of patience to wait for our special dress up party with our magic wands and hats.  We sprinkled magic dust on the wands to remind us of the powers they hold.  Some of our wands are in need of repair and playing with them outside.  We will fix them after rest time.  We will also celebrate Zella's birthday.  We'll decorate her birthday banner and enjoy a treat.  We have several things that can go home today along with the bedding.  There are hats, wands, decorated cupcakes, and decorated pumpkins.  Also, please check the folder for the pictures from our photographer.  She got some really nice shots of the class.  Have a Safe and happy Halloween.

We'll spend the next few weeks focusing on signs of fall and fall harvest time.  We've been talking about the changes in the weather and changes in the environment.  We'll sample different variety of apples and examine different types of gourds.  This is a great time for us to working on our classifying and sorting skills.  Today we sampled a honey crisp apple which is my personal favorite.  Most of the class really like the taste.  You are welcome to send a variety for us to sample and talk about.  We have talked some about the changes in the colors of the leaves.  This afternoon Ms. Laura and Mr. Dillon were going to let the class play with clay and make leaves from cookie cutters.  When the clay dries and hardens, we will paint it the colors of the leaves we've been observing.