The theme for November is family and friends! Last week we learned about different types of families and who makes up a family. We read books about families and sang songs about the members of our own families. We discussed who can be in your family, where families can live and what families like to do together. During circle time we explored a few different mathematical ways to record and analyze information about our families. We made a Venn Diagram to find out how many of our classmates were only children, and how many friends had brothers and/or sisters. Kiddos were exposed to a bar graph to see their Place in Their Family. We discovered that we have more oldest children than younger children in our class and four only children and one middle child. We made glyphs (simple pictures to record and analyze data) to show "Who Lives in our House?". We sorted our glyphs to see who had brothers and/or sisters and how many people lived in our house. Preschoolers made paper bags houses illustrated with the member of their family. We made family trees by straw blowing paint and thumb printing leaves. We made our first class book called We Love Our Families where kiddos wrote and illustrated what they loved about their own family! A favorite interest area activity this week was the baby washing tub and changing table! We also had lots of time outside running races, making leaf soup, playing in the sand, snuggling Twig and enjoying our friends!

We had such a spooktacular Halloween week at Desert Blossom! Monday was all about spiders! We read books and sang songs about spiders, worked together as a group to make a giant spider web and marble painted spider webs! Tuesday we were visited by ghosts! We sang the Five Little Ghosts song with our finger play ghost gloves and finger painted ghosts with homemade puffy paint. Wednesday we read more Halloween themed books, sang Halloween is Coming and painted candy corns with pom poms! Thursday friends came in costume to play spider web alphabet toss, pumpkin bowling, exploding pumpkin cano and mummy wrap! Mummy wrap soon turned into a indoor snowstorm to everyones delight! The Friday group did a little experimenting with candy corns. We put some in the microwave, freezer and in water to see what would happen. Our little scientists made some insightful observations! During interest area time kiddos used play dough to made faces on pumpkins, constructed masking tape mummies at the art table, created potions in the witch's brew and explored the jack-o-lantern swishy bags. Outdoor time allowed for learning through play at the fence chalkboard practicing the letter 'E' and hours of pretend play as puppies, kittens, families and even a few marriages and babies! Friends even found time to get a "haircut", create on the whiteboards and relax in the book nook to listen to a story! What a week! 

October is flying by, I can't believe Halloween is next week! We spent this wonderful week discovering more about pumpkins! We made and tasted some delicious edible pumpkin paint (vanilla pudding with a little food coloring and pumpkin spice) and then painted the inside and outside of our own pumpkins. We used the popular edible paint again later in the week for yummy handwriting practice! We learned more about the life cycle of a pumpkin, planted pumpkin seeds, read pumpkin books, and learned poems and songs about pumpkins. If you were lucky enough to pick up your kiddo this week you might have heard The 5 Little Pumpkins song performed! (They sang it to every parent on Wednesday afternoon.) We explored the texture of pumpkin gak and made jack-o-lanterns with it. Our grand finale was exploding pumpkin bags outside, which was a big hit! 

This week was all about pumpkins and diving (literally) into fall! The kiddos had many different pumpkin activities to explore during interest area time. They enjoyed hammering golf tees into pumpkins and then using rubber bands to make different shapes. Kiddos matched shapes on felt jack-o-lanterns, smooched pumpkin sensory bags and played in the pumpkin patch dramatic play center. We discussed different feeling and emotions with our Jack-o-Happy poem and made our own tissue paper jack-o-lanterns showing different emotions. Kiddos did a pumpkin investigation where they measured the pumpkin's height, counted the pumpkin's lines, found out if the pumpkin sank or floated and finally cut open the pumpkin to explore the insides. But only one brave preschooler would actually touch the gooey insides! We practiced our counting making our pumpkin seed books and enjoyed a tasty treat; roasted pumpkin seeds! We had a wonderful time on our Leaf Walk through the neighborhood to Drake Park. Kiddos collected many different leaves in a variety of fall colors along the way. When we got to Drake Park we raked, piled, threw, and jumped in the leaves to our hearts content! When we got back to school we decorated our window with all the beautiful leaves! But the big news at school this week was the "new" truck in the yard! Ms. Kristen brought in her brother's old power wheels truck and we dug it into the ground for the kiddos to pretend to drive! They love it! More October fun to come next week!

We enjoyed another week of Fall Fun! Ms. Kristen was out of town this week so we were lucky to have Ms. Em join us! We began our week baking some delicious pumpkin apple muffins. We painted with corn on the cob, but I would have to say the most exciting part of that project was chucking the corn and finding two caterpillars inside. They are now living at our science table! The kiddos also made beautiful fall wreaths and used crunched up leaves as "glitter" on another art project! We ended our week with apple bowling painting outdoors! We read more stories about leaves, read our Fall poem and learned some songs about Fall. We pretended to be squirrels and went on an acorn scavenger hunt, and did a class graph about our favorite thing to do in the Fall. We started our Handwriting Without Tears letter of the week series with the letter 'L'. We practice the letter 'L' with wood pieces, play dough snakes, and wet-dry-try chalkboards. The kiddos enjoyed giving each other check-ups with our doctor's kit, building with our big blocks, writing their letters at the salt trays, geo boards and of course easel painting! We even had an impromptu Halloween rehearsal complete with costumes and trick-or-treating! Next week stay tuned for pumpkin fun!!

Fall is here! We have been very busy this week welcoming Fall to Desert Blossom! I want to apologize to families that only attend at the beginning of the week, I seem to only remember to take pictures towards the end. :( I will try harder to snap pictures Mon.-Wed. from now on! Kiddos have enjoyed all the stories about leaves and apples! We painted fall leaves on our trees with corks, scrub brushes and Q-tips. Kiddos made bird treats for our feathered friends, and decorated our class tree with beautiful shaving cream marbleized leaves! We also enjoyed exploring with apples; we made patterned apple prints and apple volcanos! We love interest area time, when we can play games, dig in the sensory tub and pretend in the home living area! Central Oregon is so gorgeous in the fall so we have been playing outside, building campfires, blowing bubbles, reading and playing with worms! More fall fun to come next week!

We had another colorful week at Desert Blossom! We experimented with color mixing using primary colored water in ice cube trays and eye droppers. We made our own chameleons after reading A Color of His Own using bubble wrap to stamp the paint. We read The Crayon Box that Talked and made a batch of edible crayons. We did a Magic Milk experiment and discovered what really is in the color black with black markers and coffee filters. We explored instruments and colorful scarfs at circle time and sang our color songs! We of course enjoyed the crisp fall sunshine in our outdoor play space and spent time playing with play dough, painting and listening to stories at the listening center on a few rainy afternoons. We love preschool!

What a colorful week! We have been busy exploring the colors in the rainbow this week! We read the story A Rainbow of My Own and then made a rainbow with streamers that we could move through! The kiddos also made their own rainbow sculptures! We made our own white shoes and decorated them with what we stepped in after reading Pete the Cat and His New White Shoes. Kiddos explored primary and secondary colors and color mixing with play dough and paint after reading Mouse Paint and Little Blue and Little Yellow. We played with the tracks and cars, the corn sensory bin, rainbow tubes and pom poms and shoes with laces during centers. We also had lots of fun outside with the parachute! 

What a wonderful first week of the school year! Our theme is "All About Me" and "I Can...at Preschool". We are enjoying getting to know our new friends, exploring our names, and learning what we can do at preschool with different songs, games and projects! One of our favorite activities was painting with cans in a swimming pool with a buddy! The kiddos and teachers have loved spending time outdoors and soaking up the sun! Our outdoor play space is so much fun! We sure do have a special group of kiddos! We are excited for the rest of the school year!