October 2015 Newsletter

What a gorgeous month we’ve had!   We’ve had so many beautiful sunny days outside and as the season has changed we’ve been paying attention to all the different things that are happening – the leaves are changing colour and falling down, the weather is getting cooler and we’ve had to pack up the water table for the winter.

We’ve continued to feed and look for birds and watched the squirrels get fatter as they get ready for winter.  There have also been a ton of ladybugs in the yard this year – so we’ve been watching them crawl around and take off and fly.  They all love to push back the tree stumps to look for other bugs too – like earth worms and slugs and they are learning to be gentle when they touch them (for those of them who will dare!)

The kids were so excited about Halloween and we are still talking about costumes and treats.  They are all showing more interest in the dress up area and incorporating different items into their imaginary play (like using a funnel for a spy glass or using the magnifying glass to search for a “mystery”).

Here are some of the other things we’ve done this month:

Outdoor Play:

·      Exploring with mirrors:  Adding a different dimension to their exploring and play.  Using them with play dough and also outside with toy animals, natural materials and beautiful blue sky reflecting in the mirror.

·      Painting with cars and trucks

·      New water table full of lentils and split peas.  The kids push trucks through and scoop and dig, they make pretend food, and practice skills like pouring from one container to another.

·      Pumpkin play with big and little pumpkins (stacking them, filling the large empty one, making faces for the pumpkin with playdough)

Sensory Stations:

·      Scented Play dough – Orange Lemongrass

·      Pumpkin exploring.  I cut open a large pumpkin and we pulled out the seeds and orange pumpkin goo.   This became our sensory station for the day as they scooped and mixed the pumpkin

·      Cornstarch goo.  Made with equal parts cornstarch and water and a couple drops of food colouring.  I add small plastic animals and the kids uncover them and cover them back up and watch how the mixture can be a solid and then a drippy liquid.

Creative:

·      Open access to paint station, paper, glue sticks, scissors, markers and crayons. 

·      Getting better at putting lids on and we are working at putting things back where they belong. 

·      Paint swatches – colour matching

·      Scissors – cutting with playdough and paper – working on our cutting skills (thumb up to the sky)

·      Finger painted corn craft

Baking:

We made an apple crisp together.  This was a great sensory activity with both the smells and mixing butter, sugar and oats with hands and sprinkling on top of apples.   We also made blueberry oatmeal muffins (recipe below).

Imagination and Feelings Stations:

·      Feelings Stations:  using the feelings puppets

·      I used the chalkboard outside to draw feelings faces to describe how one of the kids was feeling (sad).  We then wondering if that would change to a less sad face and then a happy face.  The kids really thought about this and referred back to it later when the child was feeling happy.

·      In our welcome circle we’ve been asking each other how we are feeling today and trying to guess by looking at each other’s faces. 

Independence and relationships:

·      It’s been lovely to see the kids bond together as a group and show care and concern for each other.  We’ve been working what voice to use when someone takes something from you or if you don’t like something (less shouting and screaming) and what to do if someone snatches something away from you.   A work in progressJ

Books we love:

My Truck is Stuck by Kevin Lewis and Daniel Kirk

All Aboard by Kai Dotlich

Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper

Songs and rhymes:

All of the kids are joining in on the actions to our morning welcome song now.  They especially like songs with actions and movement (ESPECIALLY if they are about trains!)

Way up high in the apple tree

Two little apples were smiling at me

I shook that tree as hard as I could

Down came the apples

Were they ever good!

 

Five little leaves so bright and light

Were dancing about on a tree one night

The wind came blowing through the town

Ooooh! And one little leave came tumbling down

 

Engine, engine number nine

Going down Toronto line

If the train goes off the track

Do you want your money back?

Yes, no, maybe so

 

I’m a big orange pumpkin…fat and round

Growing by the corn field...on the ground

I could be a jack o’ lantern with two big eyes

Or maybe I’ll make two pumpkin pies.

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

The kids really liked these muffins

Yield 12 muffins

Ingredients:

Directions

  1. Pour milk over oats and let stand for 15-20 minutes (or overnight).
  2. Heat oven to 350.
  3. Add sugar, banana, egg and oil to oatmeal mixture and beat well.
  4. Sift dry ingredients together, then blend lightly with oatmeal mixture.
  5. Fold in blueberries.
  6. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins and bake 20-30 minutes.
  7. I used mini muffin tins – and baked for about 12-15 minutes