Beautiful Fall

What a beautiful fall week in pre-k. This week we followed our family theme to a natural next step, which is thinking and learning about animal families, specifically the family of our favorite forest friend, Squirrel Nutkin. We read some books about squirrels, and heard stories about how squirrels cache food for the winter. We even became squirrels in the process. 

Our Kindness Curriculum lessons continue, and are moving into working on emotion recognition. The foundation of empathy is an ability to recognize how others are feeling, and this week we introduced the game of emotions charades. Try it at home! One person acts out an emotion while others guess what it is. 

We had a wonderful visit from the Guilford Fire Department today! Your child learned all about the importance of having a family meeting spot outside the home, practicing fire drills at home, and understanding that people wearing fire fighters uniforms are HELPERS, and aren't supposed to be scary. Ask your kiddo all about it, and look in their backpack for a packet of goodies from the fire department. 

Halloween is coming up! Our "party" will happen next Friday. Costumes and candy can stay at home - we'll make our own woodland creature costumes and will celebrate with cupcake decorating thanks to Top Tier Baking!

Don't forget to sign up for conferences. November 4 and 7 are early release with dismissal at 11:30. 

Enjoy some pictures from the week!

It's a wonderful time of year to sort leaves - a great cognitive skill.

We counted some acorns, and then cached them around the woods just like a gray squirrel.

Acorn caching

It was cooold on Wednesday morning so we made some hot chocolate in our Kelly Kettle. It's almost time to start making fires in our fire pit...

The poison ivy has finally been killed by the hard frosts, which means we can go hiking in the woods! 

This group has amazing hiking skills. We have NEVER made it so far on our first expedition of the year. Wow!

Mr. Damon sang The Fox to us at circle time on Tuesday.

This kiddo is sewing his name flat with Mr. Castle. They look great hanging above the entrance to Wildwood Forest.

It's our favorite time of year for...Pumpkin Factory!

Pumpkins are the perfect medium for teaching the use of hammer and nails. We practice with pumpkins for a while before making the switch to wood. 

What a great way to practice motor skills.

As you can imagine, Pumpkin Factory is a favorite play choice for many kiddos.

We had a visit from the Guilford Fire Department! These kiddos are checking out the fire fighter in all of his gear, learning that there's still a person under there.

As you can imagine, it didn't take long before the kids built a fire truck of their own. Many kitties were rescued from the trees of Wildwood Forest today! :)