It's Autumn Time!

Do you like Autumn?

Toys:Fisher Price Village, Cars and Car Rug.

Snacks: Animal Crackers, apple slices

Happy Un-Birthday to SETH!  (10/30)

Our very own Spider-man loving Seth, has a birthday soon!  Seth likes green and blue.  He loves Spider Man and is excited about a web-slinging toy he hopes to get (or invent?) for his birthday.  Seth has a younger brother, Luke, and two older brothers and two older sisters.  His Dad works on computers and his mom makes "food" and sometimes cookies.  Seth is one lucky little man!

Activity:  Colorful pumpkins and leaf gathering walk.

Autumn Leaf Hunt!

Leaf Art Activity:  We took our leaves and made pictures with them!






Songs: Today we gathered leaves and then sang this action song--
 It's Autumn Time (See Youtube link to song)

“It’s Autumntime,” Children’s Songbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 246

Brightly

1. It’s autumntime. It’s autumntime.
The leaves are falling down.
It’s autumntime. It’s autumntime.
It’s all around the town.

2. It’s autumntime. It’s autumntime.
There’s yellow, red, and brown.
It’s autumntime. It’s autumntime.
Bright colors can be found.

Words: Rita Mae Olsen, b. 1932. © 1966 IRI

Kayson's "Monsters."


 It's autumn time, it's autumn time ... sway side to side above head

the leaves are falling down ... slowly lower leaf as if falling

It's autumn time, it's autumn time .... sway side to side above head

It's all around the town ... circle leaf above your head

 

It's autumn time .... sway side to side above head

yellow, red, brown ... raise leaf when color is said

It's autumn time .... sway side to side above head

colors can be found ... shake leaf above head

Five Little Pumpkins (review) 

Five Little Pumpkins
(Tune: “Five Little Ducks”)

Five little pumpkins sitting on the gate. (Hold up 5 fingers.)
The first one said, “Oh, my it’s getting late.” (Hold up thumb.)
The second one said, “There are witches in the air.” (Hold up index finger.)
The third one said, “But I don’t care.” (Hold up middle finger.)
The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run.” (Hold up ring finger.)
The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun.” (Hold up pinky.)
Ooooo! Went the wind, and out went the light. (Blow through hands, then clap.)
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight! (Roll hands behind back.)

Autumn Harvest Books:
I See a Leaf (Scholastic Reader, 1) by Grace Maccarone, Ill. by Laura Freeman
Sam the Scarecrow (A First Start Easy Reader) Troll
October Smiled Back by Lisa Westerberg Peters, Ill. by Ed Young (Months)
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams,Megan Lloyd*
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
What Happens in the Autumn; Books for Young Explorers, The National Geographic Society.

Pumpkins!

Pumpkins & Jack O' Lanterns

Daily Question:  Do pumpkins float? (Miss Nikki and I were impressed that the students all said "Yes!")

Toys: Traffic Rug and Cars, Potato Heads, and Linkin Blocks.

Snack: Gold fish crackers and fruit leather, Ritz crackers and blueberry mini-muffins.

Recess Time!

Exploring a pumpkin!  How does it smell, feel, taste, sound, look?

Today we had an enrichment lesson on Pumpkins.
Daily Question: Do pumpkins float? (Answer: yes, pumpkins of all sizes float in water because pumpkins are made up of 80% water.)


We enjoyed opening up a sugar pumpkin (smaller and sweeter than a "normal" pumpkin). Students saw inside, smelled, touched, and tasted, if they wanted to, the fresh pumpkin.  

We noticed the differences and tasted the canned pumpkin we used in our recipe.

We learned a new recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies that only uses three ingredients. Try it! This became our snack with milk. Yum!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 box spice cake mix
15 oz. (1/2 a large can) Pumpkin
1 C. chocolate chips
Mix above ingredients together and drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-16 minutes.

 We took turns adding the ingredients and stirring our cookies!

 We practiced dropping the cookie dough onto a greased sheet by tablespoons.

 Cooking.

 Done!

  Pumpkin Books :
 
The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King (Picture Puffins).
The Tiniest Pumpkin (A First Start Easy Reader) Troll
Pumpkin Time by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Ill. by Christopher Santoro
This is the Pumpkin by Abby Levine, Ill. by Paige Billin-Frye
Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell *(Jack-O-Lanterns to plant to pumpkin, sharing, cycles).
The Stubborn Pumpkin (HelloReader! Lvl 3, Gr. 1 &2) by Laura Geringer and Holly Berry

Song Story: 5 Little Pumpkins

Mom and Dad--ask me to sing the song we've been practicing in preschool... 

Elephants at the Circus

Daily Question: Have you seen an elephant at the circus? 

Toys: Dress ups, Circus Tents, ABC Wooden Puzzles, Colored foam blocks.
  I love how creative the children are.  This morning Eleanor was "Lyndsay the Animal Tamer."  She had two animals, "Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer" (Dade--camera shy) and the "Sleep Tight, Sleep Bite" Bear (Theo).

Brody, Ethan, and Kayson saw a picture of E the Elephant lifting weights and made barbells out of foam blocks!

We also had several princesses, fairies, and tight rope walkers.

Snacks: Buttered bread, fruit leather, vanilla pudding ghosts, mandarin orange Jack O'Lanterns and Circus Animal Cookies. 

Elephant Activity: During snack time we reviewed A-D with the songs/stories and actions.  Then introduce letter E.  E the Elephant exercises in the evening lifting 80 pound weights and says "e e e" (eh, eh, eh). E also says it's own name (long e sound).

Recess: We are loving this sunny Fall weather!  (Sorry no pictures).  The children drew lines on the sidewalk and practiced tight rope walking.  Eleanor was our trapeze artist!  The students enjoyed flying on the teeter totter to a circus or Egypt or to a Saharan plain to see an elephant.  Kayson was the Police-man Trainer and called out commands to his fellow circus members on the teeter totter, "Okay--now be animals!"

Circle Time (after recess):  Ee Show N’ Teach: 

Before class a student came up to me and said, "I brought a special Show N' Teach today!  It is invisible, and small, can you guess what it is?!  It's me!  E-leanor!" 

Kayson: Blue Elephant

Ethan:  Baby Elephant

Seth: Toy airplane 

Eva: Empty Easter Egg 

Brody: Tranformer toy named "Ed" 

Dade: Pumpkin!

Eleanor: Herself and her embroidered jacket.

I Spy E words: Encyclopedia, Explorers Book, Eggs, eelephant toy, Eva, Ethan, Eleanor, excited (for Halloween)?!

Circus Books:  Sidewalk Circus and Olivia Saves the Circus.

The Art Reinforcement Activity has been an ABC dot-to-dot (a new skill for most of the students). It was fun to sing the ABC song while doing the activity several times.  I hold children’s pencil and we sing the ABC song over and over as I help each child and then they color E the Elephant.

We reviewed some words that can be made with three letters, as well as, "Ee" words on the dry erase board. Parents, this is a fun time to begin to point out words that are one, two, or three letters long (A-E) throughout the day. Examples of words you child might read at this point are: a, add, cab, dab, bed, etc.

Elephant and Circus Books:
Circles at the Circus; My First Book of Shapes (Gymboree)
Eleanor's Enormous Ears (Scholastic, Jumpstart Pre-K Readers)
The Travels of Babar by Jean De Brunhoff (Random House)
Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss 

Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Seuss 

If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss
It's Circus Time, Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert
Lowly Worm Joins the Circus by Richard Scarry (Read-to-Read, Level 2)
Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer
Sidewalk Circus by Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawker

Our Dinosaur Museum Adventures!

We had a great time at the BYU Paleontology Museum.  

Some Fun Facts: This museum was built in 1976 to display the collection of Dr. James A. Jensen and his crews.  Over many years, Dr. Jensen has collected fossils and dinosaur bones from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.  Many of the fossil were kept in unprepared molds and housed under the BYU Cougar Stadium until they found a home in the museum.  The museum has many fossils from the Jurassic Period (210-140 million years ago) and is one of the top five collections from this period in the world.  See this link to learn more about the museum:  BYU Museum of Paleontology

We learned that a Dinosaur Hunter is called a Paleontologist*.  He/she sometimes wears a hard hat, jacket, and works with tools at his/her job.

We also saw a simple pictorial definition of a dinosaur and plant fossil*: a dead dinosaur and an old tree had fallen into mud.  Mud covered the dino and tree.  Layers formed over the bones over the years and then wind and water erode the earth and the dino and plant are uncovered and found again as fossils.

We learned and then guessed what a dinosaur may have eaten according to the type of teeth it has.  Sharp teeth are for ripping meat and are called Carnivores.  Flat, wide teeth are for grinding and chewing plants and are called Herbivores.

 We saw dinosaurs that swam in the sea, walked on land, and flew in the sky.  Come and see some of what we saw!

 











 

Leaves, shells, trilobytes (cockroach looking animal), and other small fossils.

Example of a dinosaur fossil

A favorite mural of various dinosaurs as they may have lived and roamed.

 The children are all sitting on a replica of an Dinosaur thigh (Apatosaurus femur)  bone.
We have our dinosaur faces on.
 

 Some dinosaur skeletons are quite small (like the one in the box) and are overshadowed by sharped toothed larger dinosaurs!

 

 Our legs look small compared to this dinosaur

 

 Armor Plates protected some dinosaurs, called scutes.






This Triceratops "Three horned face"was a flat toothed (plant eater, herbivore) with armour that may have helped defend it against a T-Rex.

Some dinosaur flew or had wings.

 Students also were able to see BYU Students working on removing a fossil replica from a plaster casting with a small drill.

Our feet are small next to these Dinosaur footprints.

There were many places to touch and feel.  

This is a petrified turtle shell.

 We went to the restroom, washed our hands, and 

enjoyed a snack back at school

*Vocabulary Words discussed today: Very simply defined...
Paleontology:Paleontology is the study of the fossil forms of all life, animals and plants.
Paleontologist: "Dinosaur Hunter;" A person who studies about fossils and the life of animals and plants as left by their bones.
Fossil: Plants or animals that become stuck in the mud, die, are covered with earth, uncovered years later and found.  "Fossils are the naturally preserved remains or traces of ancient life that lived in the geological past.
Carnivore: Sharp toothed "meat eaters." Example would be a Tyrannosaurus Rex
Herbivore: Flat or ridged toothed "plant eaters" that grind and crush the foods they eat.  Example from the museum the Great Ground Sloth.
Omnivore: An animal that eats both plants and animals (sharp and flat teeth).

Special Thanks to Mrs. DeGraff, Mrs. Scoville, Miss Nikki, and Mr. and Mrs. Stowe for driving and accompany us on this fun day and to Dade for fun snacks: cheese crackers, fruit leather, fruit snacks, and BONE candies!

 




 
 Back at school, we had a "run around"recess outside and then worked on cutting out our and gluing our D the Dinosaur.

 















Dade said, "I did it!  I cut it out all by myself!"