In PK this month we are learning that this is a season of giving and even children can give. We’ll be like busy little elves making ornaments and decorations and a special gift for our family too while we’re learning about the December holidays of Hanukkah and Christmas!

There’s a menorah on our bookshelf and there’s a Christmas tree in our make believe holiday bakery.

But most exciting of all, there really are ELVES in our classroom now! Can you see them in the background?

Here they are up close!

We think you’ll agree that’s one cute bunch of elves!

Today was PK’s Thanksgiving Party! Our parties are short and sweet, but oh, so fun, and we sure enjoyed today’s! We made turkeys using pancakes, fruit, and a little bit of cheese.

It was an activity and a snack all in one.

We had to listen carefully to know what to do with each part as they were handed out. We did a very good job with this.

And before long, the parts made a turkey right on our plate. We were so excited and proud to see that we had done it!

Best of all, it was delicious! Just about everyone ate the whole thing. It was the perfect way for PK to have a little Thanksgiving celebration. We hope that your family’s celebration will be just as perfect. 🙂

We’re doing some big thinking in PK learning about Thanksgiving and thinking about all that we’re thankful for. We’re also having fun learning about turkeys. In fact, there’s a flock of them in our classroom now!

These colorful birds were made by us when we got to experience a new way of making art…spin art!

We dripped paint onto a circle of construction paper that we placed inside a salad spinner. Then we made the spinner go round and round, and the it flung the paint out to the edges of the paper creating a beautiful “turkey tail”.

We traced our foot on brown paper to be the head and body.

Our teacher cut that out for us.

Then we assembled the pieces and added details to make some pretty cute turkeys!

They go perfectly with a little rhyme we’ve learned:

The turkey is a funny bird.

His head goes wobble, wobble.

He only know just one word…

GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE!

This was a very exciting week at school since Tuesday was Halloween!

On that day, we all came to school dressed in costumes. Just before 9:00 we headed over to the gym.

And PK got to participate in the Halloween Parade, a very old tradition at FA.

In the gym there was Halloween music playing and there were lots people in costumes all around us. When the parade started we got to go first and we all walked around the gym smiling and waving to the crowd. We did an amazing job! Here’s a closer look at our fantastic costumes!

Even our teachers dressed up!

After the parade, we came back to our room and celebrated with our first class party. It was a very happy Halloween!

In PK we experimented with painting in a most unusual way. We used bunched up foil and we dabbed it in orange, yellow, and red paints. Then we dabbed, dabbed, dabbed the paint onto a pumpkin shape.

This resulted in some BEAUTIFUL pumpkins that actually felt lumpy and bumpy just like real pumpkins can be. In fact, we saw a real pumpkin just like these outside of Mrs. Estes office!

Finally, on Friday we got to turn our pumpkins into Jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween!

We used different shapes for the faces.

Each one is unique!

And, most fun of all, we used real pumpkin seeds for teeth!

We can’t wait to see them all hung up. Our room will be ready for Halloween!

On a crisp and windy morning early this week, PK went for a long walk to look for signs of fall. We walked down the campus and then went across the road using the FA tunnel. Wow!

We had talked and read about some signs of fall so we would know just what to look for…

and we noticed that some of the leaves on the trees along our path were just starting to change color.

We discovered other trees and bushes that were turning gold, orange, and a brilliant red. We loved the colors!

We found acorns on the ground and we saw (and heard) large groups of geese flying over our heads.

We thought this was the prettiest fall tree on our walk, so we stopped to take our picture with it.

And since we were so close to the start of the FA trails, we stepped into the woods to see what that was like.

We found that it was peaceful and beautiful, and we’ll soon learn that it holds the promise of many hiking adventures to come!

This week PK had the fantastic experience of having a professional firefighter visit our classroom. Amanda O’Neal came in to teach us about not being afraid of firefighters. Her visit was extra special because she’s Jackson’s mommy! He was very proud to have her come to school and to help her show some of the important gear that firefighters have to wear.

Little by little Amanda put on all the pieces she wears explaining about each one.

In the end, she looked and sounded very different, but it was still her underneath. It was important for us to understand that, and to know that in a fire you should always go towards a firefighter so they can help you.

Afterwards, we even got to try some of the gear for ourselves! The mask makes your voice sound different.

The gloves made our hands look big.

The coat was too big for us, but fun to try on, and we loved the flashlight attached to it!

The bright red helmet was a favorite piece!

We all enjoyed the visit SO much! We felt very comfortable with Jackson’s mom and learned a lot. A big thank you from PK to her for taking the time to visit us. And, from the sound of things, we have some future firefighters of our own right here in PK!

Early last week we culminated our “Apples” theme by making applesauce right in our classroom!

It was a cooperative project with everyone working together to cut up the apples.

This was a first experience for some and hard work for everyone’s little muscles.

But we each figured out how to do it.

Thank goodness there were a lot of friends to help with the task!

Finally we had a crockpot full of apples!

We added sugar, cinnamon, and a little water, and everyone gave it a good stir.

It took a long time to cook and then we had to wait for it to cool down.

The next day we got to enjoy it with our snack and our little chefs gave it thumbs up.

We learned that homemade applesauce is delicious and we are GREAT cooks!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks learning about “Apples” in PK. We read books and sang songs. We started exploring the math concept of patterns with different colored apples. Ms. Larochelle even included apples in her STEAM and Literacy class last week when she read Ten Apples Up on Top! and the children used loose parts to create apple trees and tried to see how many apples they could balance.

We also had the fun experience of creating very special apple trees. Our painted hand and arm print made the trunk and branches.

Green thumb or fingerprints made the leaves.

Then we added special apples to finish our special trees.

This week we explored painting at the easel and created some colorful apples to decorate our room.

We ended the week with a taste test of red, yellow, and green apples.

They were all yummy, but we did have our favorites. Next week we wrap our theme by making our very own applesauce in the classroom. Everyone will get to help and, when it’s done, we will have an applesauce party!