Mini Class

September 30, 2009

Choosing Time: Giant Marble Castle Track, Dominoes, Stacking Cups, Mickey Pop-up Toy

Snack: Nathan was happy to help with our snack today. He shared his favorite snack (Honey Nut Chex Mix) with us. Yum! It is fun to hear the children sing along with me as I sing our 2 snack songs:)

Lesson: We talked about leaves today. We looked at several different leaves and decided which ones were BIG & which ones were LITTLE. We felt the veins on the leaves. Veins give the leaf its food. We discussed how some leaves change color before falling off during the Fall. Other leaves stay green all year long. I threw some leaves up and we watched how they fell down. I asked, "Are falling leaves quiet or noisy?"

Music & Movement:

• I played some classical music. We each had a leaf wand. We began with our arms reaching high because our leaves were still attached to the trees. The wind started to blow. The trees shook & the leaves began to fall....
• We danced "Sally goes round the moon.."
• We sang "Twinkle, twinkle,..."
• We sang "There was a little house..." while hiding in our cardboard box cave.

Science: We observed 1 small & 1 large grasshoppers in a jar. We noticed their antennae. We counted their legs. We looked at our ladybugs. They have black heads and read bodies. They have antennae & six legs just like the grasshoppers. We are happy that we have 2 legs :)

Art: We made lovely ladybugs

Story: I used a "magical" puppet to tell the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The children helped me act it out.

Books: We read Some Dogs Do by Jez Alborough & Big Chickens by Leslie Helakoski

Fine Motor Skills: I demonstrated how to stack Dominoes so they will all fall: Cause & Effect. We had a lot of fun making our own tracks and experimenting to see if they'd all fall or not.