e week

 

e week was exciting and energizing and full of enthusiasm!


i even found our yoga guys practicing in the crayons.

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here’s a peek of incredible team work pushing and pulling the cart:


 

we got some funny responses to the elephants at the play dough table since one question offered was, can you make elephant poop?

 

 

 

 

 

 


we used our ears a lot for listening games, one class making their ears SUPER:


we ran on our own red tape track and then had our crayons “run around” a masking tape capital E! see our track in action here:


 

 

one form of exercise is walking, so we walked (and slipped and slid and fell) on the big paper covered in paint and made the color of the month. we also discovered that holding hands helped keep us from falling.


outside time was full of exercise, including rock play.

here’s the movie of of rock play in action:


our dog friends continue to join in on the every day moments: ginger on the playground, fozzie watching kids put their pictures on the big letter E (our form of attendance for the week).


and talk about exercise: running up the stairs and down the slides over and over!

by thursday afternoon, they seemed to sense the full moon coming on sunday!


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d week

 


d week was also the first week of october, and the premier of our classroom pumpkin patch.

here the wednesday morning class works on the plans for it:


we had d objects to rhyme with other objects…you can see it in action in this movie:

by the end of the week, it was easy to match up the rhymes!


we pretended to be dentists using old markers in water as food, painted paper plate donuts and added tape sprinkles, helped the people dive in the water table.


it was dark under our loft, a great place for hiding.


our D tray had black sand and tiny dogs

so tiny you can’t see them in someone’s hand:


we grieved the loss of ellie dog and welcomed ginger into the classroom for the first time all in the same week.


day by day we move through the names taking turns being helper of the day (bell ringer, line leader, yellow chair sitter, light worker, etc). we’re still waiting for everyone to get their first turn!


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rest in peace, ellie dog

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it is with a sad heart i share that ellie, dog of current teacher, ms cathy, and current preschooler, charlie, died. many children over the last few years have been helped by ellie’s sweet temperament. we will miss you, ellie.

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our wednesday classes said goodbye to ellie dog by decorating a card for ms. cathy and charlie.

in describing ellie’s death to the morning class (ms. cathy was not there), i said something like:

“…the vet doctor said because she was old her body wasn’t working anymore. and then she was in the backyard and wasn’t bleeding or hurt. and then she looked like she was sleeping, but really her body had stopped working and she wasn’t breathing and she had died…”

it was quiet and then a little friend looked at her peers and nodding says, “yup….and that’s how ms. cathy died.”

so, i said: “actually i’m talking about ms. cathy’s dog. ms. cathy did not die.”

reassure your children of the facts.

in the afternoon class one friend was found crying looking at ellie’s picture, i got teary when we wished ellie well during circle time. then at show and tell we had photos of a preschooler’s grandpa who recently died and there were wet eyes again. beautifully tender.

my grandmother died about a week ago and watching these young children experience death was healing to me.

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c week 

plans for c week fun came to be!


we move our pictures (with magnets on back) from our class pockets to the (magnetic) picture board every day. during c week we had a rainbow color chart to place our pictures on our favorite color available.


we used the bubble wrap from last week to make a giant cloud (wrapped it in a piece of fabric, hot glue and tying to secure it):


children are allowed to get drinks any time they want to, in their own cups labeled with name and photo. i found one little friend filling every cup and adding a straw to each.


we used rainbow cellophane (and old tablecloth i found) and old black file folders (thanks, angie) to make color viewers.


there was color exploring all week long:


one of our older classes did the permanent marker and rubbing alcohol tie dye technique. ms. cathy and i had as much fun as they did.


that letter C is a tricky one. not only did we have show and tell things arrive that sound like /k/ and /s/ and /CH/, we have a preschool friend who starts with C that sounds like /SH/. and then… how tricky it was to find this friend’s golden letter and realize that his name does not start with C, it starts with S!


and what is becoming a practice, here is our C week work time movie:


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