November 12, 2008

Check out the picture of the turkeys that we made today. Aren't they cute? The children seemed to have a great time making them.

Our story for today was "Over the River and Through the Wood" by Lydia Maria Child. The story is a wacky twist on the classic song that we all grew up singing. The children enjoyed the humorous illustrations of the family from the city traveling to the country.

Today was the perfect day for making leaf piles. I'm sure that you probably noticed how dirty we all looked at 1:30 today. We had a great time in the woods.

We will be doing a few cooking activities next week in celebration of Thanksgiving. It should be fun! I look forward to seeing everyone next week.

Intro To Thanksgiving

This past Wednesday was the first day of our Thanksgiving unit. We learned about the very first Thanksgiving and we talked about how each of us celebrates Thanksgiving with our families. We also learned about the Native Americans and the Pilgrim's travels on the Mayflower Ship to America.

Some of the children are learning the Thanksgiving song that we like to sing every year. We like to call it the "Mr. Turkey" song. Syan wants me to write down the words so I'll post those at the bottom of this post. Some of you may know it from your childhood. My grandmother knew this song so I assume that it has been around a while.

We had a new friend join us today. Poppin or "Poppi" is Jackson's new puppy and she spent the day with us. The children absolutely loved her and enjoyed playing with her. She was wonderful with them too. We talked about Jesse's death and having Poppi seemed to add a bit of sunshine to what could have been a sad day.

See you next week!

Turkey & Pumpkin Song:

Thanksgiving Day is coming

So Mr. Turkey said.

And very careful I must be or I may lose my head.

The pumpkin told the turkey,

"I'm frightened too, oh my!

They'll mix me up with sugar and spice

and I'll be a pumpkin pie!"

Our Preschool Kitty

Jesse James

1999-2008

Our preschool kitty, Jesse James, died this morning. He was nine-years-old. It seems that he went peacefully (quickly and without suffering). The vet believes that he died of cardiac arrest.

Jesse spent the first two years of his life in the preschool with the kids and me. I just thought that it would be fitting to post a recent picture of him on our preschool blog.

Apple Unit Celebration

Here are a few of the many pictures from today. Enjoy!

Newsweek Article

I don't always share links to the articles that I read but this one is really good. Newsweek article: Struggling School Age Boys http://www.newsweek.com/id/157898

Johnny Appleseed

It was a wonderful day today and I enjoyed seeing the kids again. The break seemed to do all of us some good.

We learned about Johnny Appleseed today and the story that we read was about his travels and how he began planting apple seeds that were given away. He traveled across three states planting apple seeds.

I added some new toys to some of our centers so the children spent a lot of the morning exploring. We also spent some time outside playing. Granddaddy Joe had a small fire going so we spent a little time roasting marshmallows. We had a ton of fun today!

Next week is the last day of our apple unit so we'll end it with a hayride and costume party. We'll be ordering pizza so make sure that you send in $3 for that. We'll also be making a special treat that day too. I am looking forward to it. See you then!

Millstone Creek Apple Orchard Field Trip Pictures