The Many Colors of Us

This is another in my series: "I meant to blog about this awhile ago."

Back in September when we we learning about ourselves, friends and families, we read the book The Colors of Us by Karen Katz. The girl in the book is painting pictures of her friends. As she works, she realizes none of them have exactly the same skin colors. One friend is cinnamon, another is chocolate, and still another friend is peachy. 

So, at art the week we read the book, we made big faces by cutting out round shapes from big paper for our head. Before we painted the heads, we had a bunch of skin color shades of paint. The kids chose the color that was closest to their skin shade and we squirted it in a paper cup. 

Next, I painted the color right onto their hand. Then we asked if it was too dark or too light. They then chose other colors to mix with it. Every time we mixed a new color in, we tested on their hands. 

Once the color was right, they used it to paint the skin on their face. We also kept track of each color that went in and made a "math" problem adding the colors together that we needed to get each child. 

Four Winds: Erosion

As part of the Four Winds science program run by parent volunteers, we learned about Agents of Erosion. First, through a puppet show, we learned that wind, rain and running water are things that cause erosion. Then, we each got to try two experiments to notice the way agents of erosion act on rocks and soil. 

 For understanding water erosion, we started with two containers that had rocks and clear water. We shook only one of them as hard as we could for 10 seconds, mimicking how current acts.

When we were done shaking, we could see that the one that we left alone was clear and we could see through it. The one we shook was all mucked up with little tiny pieces of rock and dirt.


In the other experiment, there was a pile of flour in a baking pan that represented a hill of dirt on the ground. With a bottle filled with "rain" we squeezed little drops onto the pile. With each drop, some of the flour was moved and pushed around. The higher we held the bottle, the more dramatic the motion of the dirt.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Still working on catching up on the blog. These are the Jack-o-lanterns we carved together. This was the end of our Monsters theme. Before we made these creatures, we had a couple of days to explore with the open pumpkin. The kids got to play in the guts and seeds. Then, Melanie, out new classroom assistant, took the seeds home and colored them for us to make colorful seed pictures in art. 

In honor of Election Day coming up, I downloaded 8 patterns for pumpkin carving. The kids each got three votes. They used animal counters as their "voters," placing them on the three designs they liked the best. The winners, from left to right, were "Scared Ghost," "Death's Face," and "Cyclops." 

To carve the faces, we placed the the pattern on top of the pumpkin, used a poking tool to make little holes to get the pattern on the pumpkin. The kids then help carve out each piece with a safety carving tool. It was a lot of fun, using our civics for voting, are creativity and fine motor skills for carving.

Counting Jar

Counting Jar is regular activity that we do in preschool to work on 1 to 1 correspondence (counting objects one at a time). The big jar has a a number of things in it. The kids count the things in the jar. Then, they write down the number they counted on a pieces of paper. They always have a number line and rubber stamps to help them figure out what the number looks like. Next, they have a Ziploc bag with their name on it. They find some other items in the classroom and fill their bag with the same number of objects that they counted in the counting jar. When everyone has finished, we use a Closing Meeting time to check our work. The picture above is of Counting Jar check. Each row of objects represents another child's bagful of stuff. We decide if they had the same, more or less than the number that was in the Jar. If they had more, they put away the extras to correct their work. If they had less, they go get some more to add to their row to correct their work. That helps them learn to double check their work. When everyone's work is done and correct, we practice counting ALL of the objects on the floor together. This gives them an opportunity to count to very high numbers together.

Hay Day

Do-A-Dot Art

Everyone had a milk mustache picture taken

The preschoolers had a chance to be involved in the school wide art celebration called Hay Day. It was a blast. I have to thank Kerri Howrigan and Erica Connell for volunteering to help kids get to the right activities with us. We had choices of various art activities such as finger painting, do a dot art, printing with vegetables, and nature drawing. This was a great experience for students to share in a special day with the whole school. The activities were multi-age and many students saw their siblings and older friends. We had a shared snack in the cafeteria. Thanks to all of the families who provided yummy, healthy snack choices. We also drank apple cider that was pressed in a morning workshop by older kids. We had enough time at the end of the day to have music and closing meeting in the classroom. All of the kids recalled one of their favorite moments from Hay Day.

Fudge For Funds 3.0

We are moving forward with another Fudge for Funds fundraiser for preschool this year. Preschool families will be asked to sell Snowflake Chocolates fudge. There are five flavors (Maple, Maple Walnut, Chocolate, Chocolate Walnut, and Peanut Butter).  

The idea is that the money raised will benefit others as well as benefit our preschool program. In the past, we have given 1/3 of the money raised to a  worthy non-profit that benefits children. We got suggestions from families and the kids voted on who would receive the money. This year, given the devastation that Hurricane Irene caused in Vermont, I would like to suggest we donate to either the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund, or we donate to a library that lost their children's books. 

The other part of the funds will be designated a classroom loft (if approved by the administration), or more classroom technology tools (extra Beebots, iPad apps, iPod touch etc).  Any leftover funds will help supplement field trip costs for preschool this year. 

This has been a very successful fundraiser in the past. We have added a digital microscope, bee-bots (to teach programming) and rocket engines to the preschool in the past. 

Forms will go home tomorrow and orders and money will be due back on Friday, October 14. 
 

Spirit Week

On Friday, Student government may and decided that this upcoming week will be Spirit Week at FCS. Preschoolers are welcome to participate in these fun ways to show pride in our school. Here are the daily themes:

 

Tuesday: Celebrity/ Favorite Character Day

 

Thursday: Farmers Day

 

Friday: Class Color Day 

(A student government rep will come to our class 

to have a student pull a color out of a hat to determine 

our class color for spirit week)