Red and Yellow Make Orange
Today was a peaceful fun. I am sure Dallas ( our visiting volunteering mommy ) didnt think it was peaceful but it was. Normally the average speed of the room is about 100 MPH . Today was a steady 85 ! 🙂
I discovered a plant this morning that gets neglected a little. Ok.. a lot. Lucy, who brings McKayla in each day told me that it might come back but we might as well trim the dead leaves. So, I let the girls loose and they gave our plant a haircut. They thought is was fun and the conversation while doing it was hilarious. It made a mess but they cleaned it up for the most part. I saw the wheels turning when I noticed one of the girls moving the trash can over closer to the table so they didn’t have to walk back and forth. THIS is the kind of thinking we want these kids to be able to do. We don’t want them to be little robots and recite answers back. We want them to be THINKERS.
Some other materials we had out today were:
These are the Halloween erasers from dollar tree. I bought a BAZILLION packages ( or ten ) and they use them to count , sort and stack.
They are loving the stencils !
Sponges and stamps in the art center.
Matching shades of orange
Matching jack-o-lantern faces !
Halloween themed playing cards. They can count the pumpkins on each card and see the number there.
During circle time we did our music. I think their favorite right now is ” I want Candy ” or ” The Monster Mash. ” Randy and I will be doing the ” Monster Mash” at our concert on Saturday at 1:00 at the library. We hope to see LOTS of our kiddos there! We also did ” The Five Little Pumpkins. ”
We also played ” Toss the Pumpkin.” Each child rilled a large dice and counted how many dots we on it. They took that many steps back from the barrel and tried tossing a soft pumpkin into the barrel. Everyone was successful ( We kept trying until it went it) and we all cheered for each other. Games are great for building community and it is a plus when we can get counting practice in as well.
Another fun thing we did today was a color mixing experiment. We took vanilla sugar free pudding cups and first we put in red food coloring and mixed. Then we added yellow . What’s gonna happen ? Some of the kids thought it would turn it yellow. After all, the red turned the pudding red. But it didn’t , it turned it orange- the color of a pumpkin. And then… you guess it, we ATE IT. It was SUGAR FREE so even I got to taste on. YUm- O.
And last but not least when I see the kids recalling something from a previous day or a story we read it makes me heart smile. Today it was Kimber. He said ” Look Mrs. Debbie, I am a scarecrow.”
We have been reading ” The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves.”
I would like to say how helpful it is to have mommies here to play with us. I would LOVE for four other mommies to take a day like Dallas has. She comes at 8:30 after breakfast and stays until 10:30 or 11:00. This is our most active time of day. Just to have another lap that holds kids and reads stories ( or listens to their stories ) that can look at pictures they have painted and have them talk about it, or plays house. ( Helpers get fed play food a LOT !) I used to feel uncomfortable when mommies came but I guess I have grown into my teacher- self and now I see it as such a great positive thing. So, If you have a couple extra hours one day a week and want to hang out, let me know. I guarantee you that you will receive a blessing.