Sign of the week - apple, worm and tree

This week's focus is still on fall and apples are a delicious part of this time of year.
I've found a fun fingerplay for this week.

Apple, Apple on the Tree

Apple, apple on the tree,

Nice and shiny, just for me.

Little wormy on the ground,

Spied that apple big and round.

Inch by inch he climbed that tree,

And he ate that apple instead of me!

The signs we will be learning are apple, worm and tree.
Watch the following video for how-to.

Clothespin Turkeys

A simple craft for Thanksgiving.
Made with paper plates, clothespins, paint and of course googly eyes.

I love when a child does their own thing at the art table.
The next picture shows a child cutting the paper plate to make his feathers.
Even after his mom put clothespins on the plate, he took them off and continued cutting all the way around.

The next picture shows a little girl so involved with her painting that it didn't matter what she painted on - the plate, the paper or her hand.

Turkey Baster Painting

What a fun and messy art table we experienced today.

Turkey basters make great splats and sputterings.

 One handed makes small splats.

 Refill to make the splat bigger.

They can be controlled too.  Instead of big splats they can be dragged across the paper to leave a trail.

 Little pippets and eye droppers make smaller spurts and sputters.

Focused, deliberate movement and marking.

 Turns into works of art.

What Are These?

"Nonie, what are these?"

"They're teats.  That's how the momma feeds her babies."

"It won't stand up."

"Momma lays down to feed her babies."

This is the conversation I overheard between a grandmother and her grandson this morning.

Pumpkins and Apples

 October is here and so are the apples and pumpkins.
Above is a measuring tool for estimating and counting.  The children love to stand in front of it to be measured then if they don't recognize the number they count the pumpkins to see how tall they are.

 The play dough this week smells like pumpkin pie.  The room smells wonderful and provoked lots of conversation about food, especially for Thanksgiving.  One child made a turkey with the playdough and we talked about our favourite parts to eat; white/dark meat, drumstick, etc.

Cutting and serving pie or was this one a pancake? She was busy with the play dough for quite awhile.

 A basket of big and little apples provided an opportunity to sort by size or colour.

 Tongs help build those important hand muscles and eye hand coordination.

 Plus math skills that are being practiced.

At the light table I made trees from tissue paper and laminated them.  Found little felt apple shapes for sorting and counting.

Sign of the week - thanks, turkey

This week we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving so with that we will be learning the sign for thank you plus the sign for turkey.

The verse that we will sing and sign is Mr. Turkey.

Mr Turkey's tail is big and wide
He swings it when he walks
His neck is long, his chin is red.
And he gobbles when he talks.
Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!

Harvesting Corn

Earlier this week a parent brought in corn stalks and we added them to our harvest garden dramatic play.

The stalks are in the corner.  Today we harvested cobs off the stalks.

It took some effort but the cobs finally came off.
Then the cobs needed to be husked.

Not many of the cobs had kernels on them.  The one that did I cut the kernels off and cooked them in the microwave.

Mmmm good!