The Week before Thanksgiving

The children had a lot of fun doing many Thanksgiving based activities and learning about why we celebrate Thanksgiving.  We talked about an Indian man named Squanto and the Pilgrims and how they came over from England on a boat called the Mayflower.  We also talked about how much Squanto helped the Pilgrims to establish a life in Plymouth.  The children were excited to hear about the different ways Squanto helped and loved that he helped the pilgrim children as well.   As most of you have seen we have made a big tree in the dramatic play area.  This tree will be our "thankful tree."  The children have enjoyed coloring it brown and in the next couple days they will color in leaves to add to the tree.  Before adding the leaves to the tree, they will need to think of some things they are thankful for to write on the leaf.  Once the whole tree is complete it will have a bunch of different colored leaves on it with the children's thoughts.

The children made turkeys using their hands and feet for their body and wings.  We traced the children's feet and then asked them to cut it out for the body of the turkey.  Then they made the wings with their handprints.  The following day the children added feathers, eyes, and beaks to their turkeys.  The kids were very proud of them and loved how they came out.  Check them out!  The children also made placemats that they will be using at the Green Corn Dance (Thanksgiving feast) on Tuesday.

This week we worked a lot on numbers 1-20.  Not only on counting up to 20 but writing and identifying them as well.  We put out a lot of fun sheets on the bean table for the children to do.  The children were told that they needed to do at least two of the sheets but could do more if they wanted.  These sheets were all Thanksgiving themed.  The activities varied from follow the dots/numbers to two digit basic addition problems.  All of the sheets allowed the children to practice counting objects and writing the amount they counted.  Some of the children came right over and did all of them while others did the two that were required of them and then went back to their original centers.  The sheets varied in difficulty so all the children were able to feel confident and comfortable doing the work.  When the work was complete the children were given a choice about which ones they wanted to hang on the have-to job board and which ones they would take home.

The children had so much fun with the magician!  They were all laughing at his stories and all seemed very surprised with his tricks.  He did a lot of magic tricks where the children could participate with him by saying the magic words or making motions with their hands, which they of course loved.  He also did a really neat trick where he asked the children to come up and help him and ended up with a live goldfish in a glass.  It was great!

Here is what some of your children had to say when asked what a magician does....

"He's a magic man.  He makes things invisible." -OL

"Makes stuff disappear" -EH

"They disappear (The magician walked out of the class) SEE! I don't see him anymore" JL

"Make bunnies come out of their hats!" AR


MUSIC
We had a lot of fun singing Thanksgiving and Fall songs this week.  The children's favorite song is "Ted the Turkey," but they also enjoy "Pumpkin Pie."  We also did a lot of rhythms this week.  The children are getting very good at passing the rhythms as if they were passing a ball to each other.  They are all getting much better at writing rhythms using sticks and correcting a rhythm if it looks incorrect.