Important Dates to Remember in December

Thurs. December 3rd: Wear sunglasses (I have extra if you don't have any)

Mon. December 7th: Wear clothes with buttons

Thurs. December 10th: Wear colorful shoes. 

Friday December 11th: Wear your favorite piece of clothing

Friday, December 18th: Bring something small to school that starts with the letter /P/

Tues. December 22nd: Pajama Day

December 23rd - January 1st: School Recess

January 4th: School Reopens

Painting On Canvas

 The culminating project for our Jackson Pollock study was to paint on canvas. We worked on the project for four days. Each day we layered a different color paint onto the canvas, musch like Jackson Pollock worked on his artwork over a series of days. We all consider them master pieces. 

Walking Rainbow Science Experiment

Last week, we did a color mixing experiment. We started with six empty jars. We filled one jar almost to the top with red colored water. We filled one jar almost to the top with yellow colored water. We filled one jar almost to the top with blue colored water. We put an empty jar in between each of the jars with colored water. We took six white papertowels and inserted one half of the paper towel into the colored water and the other half into the empty jar. The principal of capillary action caused the water to move up the papertowel and flow into the empty cup. The water stabilized and ended up at the same level in all the jars. Once the water level is the same in all the jars and the paper towels are all wet, the water stops moving from jar to jar. We watched the progression of colors on the papertowels all week and noticed the differences from one day to the next. This was a great visual experiment to show the children how colors mix to make new colors.

Pendulum Painting

We took advantage of the beautiful day and moved our art project outside. The children watched the arc of the swinging paint bottles while making a collaborative art project in the style of Jackson Pollock's "action art".

Helmet Painting

We will be experimenting with different ways to paint as part of our study of Jackson Pollock. For this activity, paintbrushes were attached to plastic helmets for the children to paint with. The children dunked the paintbrushes into the paint and then covered their paper with paint. Before the paint dried completely, we peeled the masking tape off revealing their first initial in the negative space.

Action Art

This month we are studying the "Action Art" of Jackson Pollock. The children worked together to create this masterpiece using string, yarn, and ribbon dunked in paint and then danced across the paper. They noticed when the colors mixed together they created new colors.

Apple and Pumpkin Venn Diagram

The children shared what they learned during our study of apples and pumpkins. We talked about things that were the same for both apples and pumpkins and things that were specific to just an apple or a pumpkin. We represented it on a Venn Diagram. Here is what they said.

Apple Prints

After tasting the apples, we used the other half to paint with. I cut the apples in half in two different directions so that the star seed pod showed on some but not all. It was interesting to note that the children wanted to paint first with their favorite flavor of apple and then with the other colors.

Apple Tasting

Today, we tasted four different varieties of apples. The children compared all of the flavors and picked their favorite. Here is how they voted. We then spent some time studying the graph to see what they noticed. Which one got the most votes? Which ones got the least number of votes? Were any equal? We represented each number with the numeral, a common dot pattern, and tally marks. The children noticed that three of the columns were equal. I showed them what that looked like symbolically. We then tied the apple tasting activity to our study of the five senses. The children used all five of their senses when interacting with the apples. They used their sense of sight to differentiate the color of the apples. They used their sense of taste to compare the flavors. They used their sense of hearing to listen to the apple crunch as they bit into it. They used their sense of smell when they noticed the sweet aroma the apples had. They used their sense of touch when they held the apple and noticed it was cold and smooth. There was so much learning and the kids thought they just got to taste apples!

Final Pumpkin Web

 Today we wrapped up our study of pumpkins. I asked the children what they knew about pumpkins and recorded what they said on a pumpkin web. I compared the answers they gave today to the answers they gave me two weeks ago when we started our study. There has been so much growth! I noticed a lot of pumpkin vocabulary and facts woven into their answers. Well done preschool scientists!!

                                    This is what I recorded on the first day of our pumpkin study.

                                            These were their answers today!

Puffy Paint Pumpkins

The children painted using puffy paint and added faces to their art work. We used the opportunity to discuss the sound that /p/ makes and to discuss different emotion states and what your face looks like when you feel that way.

Fall STEM activities

 Preschool activities are rich in math and science opportunities. Children learn best through play. This week, they dissected a pumpkin, practiced balancing gourds on the balance scale, explored the principals of sink and float in the water table, mixed two colors (red and yellow) to create a third color (orange), measured pumpkins, and learned about the life cycle and parts of a pumpkin. Vocabulary I introduced included: height, circumference, tall/taller/tallest, big/bigger/biggest, small/medium/large, balance, sink, float, parts of a pumpkin: seeds, pulp, ribs, flesh, skin, and the life cycle of a pumpkin: seed, sprout, vine, flower, pollination, green pumpkin, orange pumpkin, seed.

Alike and Different

 As part of our "Self" theme, we have been talking about the ways we are the same and different. Here are two graphs that show some of the similarities and differences in our class. In addition to promoting tolerance, these conversations are rich in math facts. We talk about which column has the most or least, we use our hands to make "math hands" to show the number, and we do simple addition and subtration to find out how many more or less. The kids have loved our conversations.