Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are a few bits from what we are doing this short week of Thanksgiving...

Foot Turkeys - I traced the kiddos foot onto a piece of craft foam and cut it out for their turkey's body.  Then I set out these great craft foam leaves (found on clearance) to be the turkey's feathers.  Here's how they turned out...

Paper Plate Turkeys - The older class wanted to paint their turkeys, the younger class was happy with gluing....

Tape Road - In my younger class, I have a kiddo who LOVES to create tape roads.  So he created another fabulous one today...

 Here is our full class Thankful Turkey -

Art Center - I pulled out all the stamps and punches for some extra fun today.  All their little punched out bits they could gather up and take them home in an envelope.

Grocery Hunt - The kiddos loved creating their own Thanksgiving feast by gluing bits of grocery ads onto paper plates.  So cute.

Thanksgiving Feast - The younger class had their feast today.  Here is the lovely assortment of foods they brought to share with one another.

And here is the feast the older class provided...

Learning Station - A Turkey Four Ways

This was another fun counting activity.  The kiddos rolled a die, counted the dot and then added that many items to a turkey feather.

* I saw this idea on this blog.

Learning Station - Scooping "Cool Whip"

To gear us up for pumpkin pie, the kiddos got to roll the dice, count the dots, then put that many scoops of "cool whip" on the pie. 

 I pulled out my cookie scoop for the kiddos to use because they were so fascinated by it when we used it to make cookies last week.  So today, they got to work the scoop to their heart's content.

Friday - Mom's Morning Out - Toddlers

Learning Station - Pom Pom Color Sort - I brought out this station for the toddlers this morning and they loved it.  They mostly know their colors and it was great hand eye coordination.

Mosaic Turkey - I pulled out the leftover bits from our Indian corn activity and had the kiddos glue them on a small paper plate.

Sticker Fun - I also pulled out the leftover bits of stickers from the bigger kids projects this week and we stuck stickers and colored and had a grand time.

Learning Station - Stickered Shapes

Today the kiddos enjoyed sticking stickers on simple shapes.  Great fine motor development and we chatted about shapes and colors as we worked.

Some more on Pilgrims and Thanksgiving

Scented Painted Pumpkin Pie - From the scented paint the kiddos made yesterday, today we made a slice of pumpkin pie, complete with a bit of whipped cream on top.

Also from the scented paint - these cute turkeys! 

Magnetic Experiment- Today the kiddos and I did some experimenting to find what sort of things in the preschool are magnetic.

At first I had them pick 3 things from the preschool to try out.  You can see some of the items they selected above.  They brought them back to the table, used the magnetic wands to test them, and then we hypothesized.  Hmmm...wonder why that didn't work?  What could you try next?  Or, wow!  That worked great!

Then I sent them out into the preschool with the magnetic wands to see what else they could find.
They stared to catch on that shiny metal things general worked.

 They found some magnetic things in the bathroom, ha!

Learning Station - Cereal Initial

Today was another tasty station.  The kiddos got to put cereal along the first letter of their name.  Great fine motor skills.  It was easy-peasey for the older kiddos,  a bit more work for the three year olds.  They both enjoyed the snacking!

A week on Pilgrims

Circle Time - This week we are talking about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. 

Our class thankful turkey - As the kiddos came in the front door I introduced them to our class turkey.  I asked what was missing, it took them a moment, but they soon realized he was missing all his feathers.  I told them we would add feathers to him today.

 

Scented Painting - We painted pumpkin pies today!  The kiddos helped me sprinkle pumpkin pie spice and gold glitter in orange paint.  Then they got to hand paint with it.  The room smelled yummy!

The Mayflower - In circle time we have been talking about pilgrims:  how they lived, how they came to America (the New Land), and how the Native Americans helped them.  Today we finished our ships that we started on Monday.

 One of my kiddos wanted his sails ON his ship, ha ha!  Literally on it.  So his sails are laying down.

Learning Station - Domino Counting

This was a counting and matching station.  The kiddos counted the dots on the dominoes, then matched them to the number written on the paper.  Working on number recognition and counting.  The kiddos have gotten better and better at one to one counting.

Learning Station - Block Count

In this learning station the kiddos rolled the dice, counted out that many blocks and then stacked them.  Once they got a tower going, they were to roll again and add that many blocks to their tower.  If their tower crashed we shouted "Oh drat!" and started again.  If they ran out of blocks, they knocked their tower over and started again.  The kiddos loved it.

Learning Station - Abc Tubes

The kiddos were to match the letter on the ping pong ball with the letter on the tp tube, then put the ball in the tube.  As they matched we talked about what the letter names were and what sounds they make.

Growing Pumpkin Seeds!

 It's been 3 weeks since we planted our pumpkin seeds.  I had just about given up on these guys.  Today I was going to toss them in the trash when I was elated to discover little green(ish) sprouts coming up!  Yahooooo!

Friday's - Mom's Morning Out - Toddlers

We started out our morning with a bit of car racing.  I rescued this fabulous box from the recycle bin.  It was a perfect chute for racing our cars!

Lacing with Pipe Cleaners - The kiddos did a wonderful job of lacing beads.  They each got about 4 or 5 laced before they were ready to move on.  But I was impressed.  That is some great fine motor skill development!

Play Dough - A bit of cutting with play dough.

People Puzzle - The kiddos discovered this puzzle today.  They loved putting together the people and changing out the clothes.

Hand Crank Pencil Sharpener - The kiddos wanted to do some drawing.  We quickly discovered that many of the colored pencils were dull, so I pulled out my sharpener that suction cups to the table.  The kiddos loved working it.

Learning Station - Counting Popcorn

Tasty!  In theory the kiddos were to draw out a number stone, identify the number and then count out that many pieces of popcorn.  Once that was done they could eat what they counted and start again!