fall theme - Sept. 18th (katrina)

We had a great session in Centers today. Our Centers were:

the water measuring center

shaving cream literacy center

play dough center

and

the train center

I think Mason hit all of the centers today, measuring, creating, and learning as he went.

Mason and Ray not only enjoyed drawing their letters in the shaving cream, but they also enjoyed the clean up as well.

The boys were very busy in the Play dough Center, particularly enamoured with all of the tools.

The boys didn't get nearly as wet at the measuring center today. They are getting better at pouring and estimating how much room is left in the bowls, etc, and learning how to use each of the tools to achieve their desires.

More good playing, sharing and building in the Train Center
After Centers, we sang Following the Leader and headed to Circle Time where we talked about the letter "Cc," sang Do you know the colors of the Rainbow, worked on our Calendar, and read The Mixed Up Chameleon.

Sara brought a big hit of a snack today: "C"hicken "c"rackers with "c"heese. Not just any cheese, but squeezy cheese that she used to write the boy's choice of letters on their crackers. They loved it and I think that snack time would have lasted another half hour if Sara's had would have held up :).

We sang, The Bear went over the Mountain and began Music and Movement. The boys moved to Eric Carle's From Head to Toe, sang and moved to the Hokey Pokey, and practiced our hopping, jumping, rolling, skipping, etc. for Across the Floor time.

It was time for our activity of the day: The Great Bug Hunt. We gathered in the mud room, read, The Hungry Caterpillar, and got our shoes on for the hunt.

The first thing we discovered on our great bug hunt, was a watermelon...yup, in the grass (maybe josh had something to do with that...:)), anyways, we decided that the bugs would like to eat it.

Right away, Brigham found a grasshopper that later hopped onto his shoe and big toe. Brigham wanted to find a lady bug...sadly, we didn't find any today.
The boys found grasshoppers, a wasp, preying mantis, spiders, ants, butterflies, and crickets.

The boys looked for bugs beneath rocks, within the tall grass, and in the air.

Miss Sara was soo excited to find her very favorite bug: the preying mantis. The boys were also very happy to see it.
After the preying mantis sighting, the kiddos saw a magnificent spider web with a spider of course.
Brigham was very gentle with the preying mantis. He is our bug expert, loves to catch and hold the bugs and did it so carefully.
This is the group looking at the spider web
The boys took turns looking at the bugs through the binoculars

After our great bug hunt, we drew pictures of the bugs that we saw. Some of the highlights: Jack was very concerned that we not forget the little black ants. Brigham made sure that we drew his shoe and big toe that the grasshopper had landed on. Mason wanted a spider on our drawing. He and Ray were busy drawing while the others were telling me what to draw.

When the had finished their bug posters, they raced through the grass hopping like grasshoppers, jumping like spiders, running like aunts and crawling like a preying mantis. These boys are so much fun!