Fall Activities in the Classroom

Fall in the Pre-K Classroom Means Red Ribbon Week, Leaf Collages and Lots of Turkey Activities!

We won our Red Ribbon Week Door Display!

The kids painted their paper towel rolls and helped make the wheels. Then I took pictures of them holding a paper "steering wheel" and printed them on cardstock after removing the background on my computer (tutorial here). I cut a slit in each cardboard tube and inserted the picture and hot glued it into place. The "track" was just a free-hand drawing (by me! I am slowly getting more artistic as I age somehow!) that I cut out of black paper and then I painted the stripes on by hand. It is so stinking cute and I love seeing it every day! During a recent parent conference, one of my students kept insisting that his mother "Come see my car!" and practically dragged her into the hallway to see it lol!

We had a pumpkin in our sensory table for a few days. The children were fascinated, but most were reluctant to really dive into the "squishiness"! We did have a few takers though, who helped collect the seeds for roasting and used sporks to scrape out the insides!

We took our first walking field trip and it was so fun and easy I'm kicking myself for not doing it before! My new partner had the idea and seemed confident that we could walk 40 four year olds over 6 blocks away to the pond on our local University campus. We used shower curtain hooks tied to jump ropes to help corral everyone, and once we got to the campus, we collected leaves, acorns and seed pods in paper bags.

When we got back from our trip we made Fall Collages by gluing the leaves to big sheets of paper!

We have dived right into learning and I am so proud of my kiddos! We are working towards being in the "Math Club" which means they get their name on this bulletin board:

Each grade level sets their own criteria  for "Math Club Membership'. For pre-k it's rote counting to 20 and writing numbers 0-10. We do so many counting songs and activities, plus write our numbers on dry erase boards once a day, that I know most of my kiddos will have their names on this board before Christmas!One of our favorite counting activities is Roll & Cover, which also helps with subitizing!

We've also started working on letters and sounds and I am so blown away by this group of kiddos! Even my ones who came in with 0 letter recognition now have made huge gains! Again, we do a lot of singing and dancing, plus a lot of games. During free choice centers, I have language arts activities available like:

 Thanksgiving Alphabet Match-Up

Turkey Rhyming Match-Up

On Friday, one of my higher kiddos was already blending sounds together! It really is amazing how much they soak up, especially since most of our day is spent playing and singing/dancing! I'm breaking out my Terrific Turkey Pack again next week - my kiddos last year loved all the different activities, so I'm sure it will be a hit this year too!

Next week I'll also send home our Turkey Disguise Homework Projects! These always turn out so cute - and the parents always surprise me with their creativity. Some may quibble because the parents end up doing a lot of the work, but I figure the time spent together and conversations as they're creating the disguise are the real value of this project! You can grab my Turkey Disguise letter for free here!

Also, all of my Thanksgiving packs are on sale this weekend 11/7/15 - 11/9/15! Check them out!

Have a great weekend!