This week was all about Fall. Unfortunately it snowed, but the leaves fell on top of the snow so we were happy about that! We talked about all the different colours of Fall. We learned that leaves make food for the tree and when Fall comes the green colour that is responsible for harvesting the energy from the sun fades away to reveal pretty fall colours. The kids took laminated yellow leaves that had green dry erase marker on top and erased the green to reveal the yellow.
 
Some Fall activities we did this week include; sequencing leaf images by size, creating AB colour leaf patterns, counting and clipping a clothespin onto the correct number they counted on a fall image, Fall number recognition and representation practice, threading a piece of yarn through the holes in a laminated paper leaf and painted trees with Fall coloured leaves, 
 
We had a few BINGO dabber activities this week. The kids really like to use them! They used the BINGO dabber to make the letters L (for lead) and F (for Fall) that we learned last week. They also used a it to show which shape matched the one on the leaf and filled in a leaf shape with a dabber as well.
 
Some other activities we did this week were free painting, letter matching, identifying letters within each other’s names, practiced cutting a variety of line types, built a snowman, had a little baking soda and vinegar fun while exploring colour mixing, and play dough. 
 
Our letters this week were E and H. We danced to letter songs, repeated the letter sounds to the music, listened for words that began with each letter and tried to find the letters in a letter hunt activity.
 
We started our daily yoga in the afternoons. The kids have really taken to it! Their concentration and effort for each pose is amazing.
 
There were three more ME BAG leaders this week. We only have one left to go! The kids have had a great time sharing their special items. They have such enthusiasm!
 
Some favourite books we read this week include:
-Let It Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
-The Cat In The Hat Came Back
-There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro
-We’re Going On A Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger
-and a variety of Pete the Cat stories by James Dean

It was All About Me week this week. We started our ME BAG sharing. It was great to see some of the things that are important to each child and what they like to do. Any sort of show and tell is always exciting, especially when you also get to be the leader of the line that day! The leader was also responsible for helping to set the table at eating times and moving the arrow from activity to activity on the visual schedule.
 
As a part of our All About Me theme we had many conversations about how we are all unique and that is wonderful! We compared how many people lived at each of our homes, how many siblings we have, and how many moms and dads we have.  We read books about and talked about different types of families and how not everyone’s family make-up is the same. The kids worked hard making their own family photo house out of popsicle sticks and decorated them with gems, feathers and yarn.
 
Because everyone is unique we all have different fingerprints as well. The kids used magnifying glasses to see the differences in everyone’s fingerprints. Using their fingerprints/thumbprints, they made and represented numbers with in ink. We also baked thumbprint cookies.
 
The theme-based books we read this week were:
-It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr
-Be Who You Are by Todd Parr
-The Family Book by Todd Parr
-What do you love about you? By Karen Lechett
-Families Families Families by Suzanne and Max Lang
 
We started out letter learning this week, with the letters L and F. Focusing on letter recognition and building letters before we try writing. We start with the letters that are easiest to write/build because they have straight vertical or horizontal lines.  Many children have the letter L in their names so we compared names and counted how many Ls, if any, that each child had. We also listened to letter learning songs for words that start with each of the letters L and F. The kids did a great job practicing what the sounds of each letter make.

Some of the kids worked with Mat Man this week. Mat Man teaches skills such as body awareness, drawing & pre-writing, and counting.
 
The kids also did many things outside of our theme including: Lots of Lego, puddle jumping, yoga, working with shapes to build pictures (this is great for counting, spacial awareness and shape recognition), enjoyed the beauty of nature with all the of colourful leaves and butterflies, and there was a lot of work being done on a very tall tower. There was a lot of great teamwork and problem solving happening. They had many trial and error moments until they realized that the tower kept falling over because it was too skinny without a base to support it.

Kindness is everywhere, sometimes where you least expect it! We ran into a nice, older gentleman, on our walk back from visiting a little library, who gave the kids brand new bubble wands. They were so excited and surprised. It prompted a great mini conversation about generosity and kindness.
 
We continued working with emotions this week by relating to our stories, hunting for/identifying/sorting emotion cards and having a few morning meeting discussions about what makes us feel angry, sad, happy, or scared. We also talked about how we can make negative feelings less overwhelming, how we can identify different emotions in the people around us, and how to help others when they are feeling down. We had some great books to help spark discussion along the way:
 
-The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas
-The way I feel by Janan Cain
-In My Heart by Jo Witek
-One of Those Days by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
-Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Anna Dewdney.
 
While reading The Colour Monster we learned that our emotions can be represented in colour and that sometimes it is hard to know exactly what we are feeling, so our colours are all messed up together, until we talk to someone. We had a fun time colouring our own Colour Monsters with crayons in swirly lines and straight lines.
 
Everyone became scientists when we did an experiment called Dancing Rice. In the end it ended up being cous cous and quinoa that danced for us. We learned that our rice was too heavy for the baking soda/vinegar bubbles to carry it up to the surface. We also discovered that yellow and red made orange when we added colour to our dancing rice water.
 
After heading out on an adventure, we brought back the beautifully coloured leaves everyone collected and made leaf rubbings. We also painted our portraits on mirrors, as we saw our own faces.
 
Our name activities this week included crayon rubbings over hot glued names, Velcro name letter matching, magnet letter name building with and without references for some and identifying the letters of everyone’s names before having the letters cut out and having to re-sequence them.

Welcome back to a new school year! It has been great getting to know some new faces and to see old faces return!
 
The focus of the week was on our routines and getting to know each other. The kids did a great job following our visual schedule, with verbal time warnings and timers set. We practiced lining up and crossing the street as a group, and how to set the table and clear it after eating. With that being said, those are only a sample sized amount of routines we go through in a day. The returnees have been wonderful helpers! 
 
Our morning meeting routine involved us playing group games, following the actions to movement songs, reading storybooks, and working on activities to practice identifying and matching letters in our names. Some of the games we played were Simon Says, Freeze Dance (You freeze when the music stops.), and Through the Hoop (Without letting go of each other’s hands we had to get the hula hoop to go around the circle). These games are great for listening skills, communication skills, gross motor movement and teamwork. This week’s names activities included matching letters to their names using Velcro letters and corresponding clothespin letters, using a Bingo dapper to dot along the lines of their names, and using their little fingers to tear and glue paper on their letters. A couple of our favourite books read this week were Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin and James Dean, and Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? by Eric Carle.
 
Throughout the weeks our morning meeting routine may also involve the weather, counting days on the calendar, special leader activities, letter learning, fine motor activities, and theme learning. There is a lot to look forward to!
 
We also spent plenty of time outdoors. We are out now, while we are so fortunate to have nice weather! We went to multiple parks, took Bella dog through the field, climbed trees and kicked soccer balls around. The nice days offered us the opportunity to take some of our afternoon activities into the backyard as well. Our afternoon activities included baking, painting rocks, shaving cream + paint butterflies, and baking soda and vinegar experimenting.