There’s a Spider on the Floor

There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.

There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor
There’s a spider on the floor, who could ask for anything more?
 
How about a spider on a web? Or on a bench.
Our room is crawling with spiders at the moment.

Starting at the sign in question. 
Do you like spiders?
A couple of children that have attended both days this week changed their answer from no to yes from yesterday to today.

 
At the art table we made spider head bands.
   
     
Which gave us the opportunity to talk about what a spider looks like.
How many legs?  How many eyes?  What kind of webs do they build?

At story time we sang the whole song “There’s a Spider on the Floor”
      
There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.
There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.
There’s a spider on the floor,
I think he came in through the door.
There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.

The spider crawls up our body and stops on the...

on my knee - it's ticking me.
on my tummy - do you think it tastes yummy?
on my head - oh dread!

You can stop at other parts of the body and make up a rhyme for it.
 

Apple Days

Last week we focused on apples. 
This is the table that greeted the families as they entered the room.

Sorting apples by size, by colour or what the apple
was made of (plastic, rubber or wood).
 
Using tongs is a challenge and I provided three different types. 
Then they experimented with which set of tongs worked best for
the different sizes.

At the art table we used real apples and apple shaped cookie cutters to make prints.
 
I stuck old fashioned clothespins into the apples for handles. 
That made it much easier for the children to manage the apples in and out of the paint.

I told a story called “The Little House with No Windows and No Doors”.

And of course we cooked with apples.
 
Starting with peeling. 
The children love using this manual apple peeler.
The parents are always surprised that it peels, slices and cores all at the same time.

After peeling we cut the slices into smaller pieces.

 
Last week we made apple turnovers. 
The children mixed the apples with a cinnamon, sugar and flour mix.
 
Then they rolled out the crust.
I find the best way to roll pie crust is between two pieces of wax paper.
Means less mess.

I found this cheddar cheese crust recipe and it was delicious.
 
After placing the apple mix on their flatten crust
the tricky part was to fold the crust over.

We used a fork to seal it.

I didn’t get a picture of the children’s little turnovers
but here are the ones that I made for my family. 
Delicious.

Then today we made applesauce.
 
More peeling and cutting.
And checking out the peel.
Love the smell that fills the room when it is cooking.
Finally eating,
and licking the bowl clean.

Play Trays

These are the trays that were available the week before Thanksgiving.

Autumn leaf counting. 
I found the tree clip art on Google images,
then added the number and the word underneath.
 
Not just for counting though. 
By providing a basket the little ones enjoy taking the leaves
out and putting them back in or just dumping.

Turkeys! 
Little plastic finger puppets of male and female turkeys.
You can tell by the hats they are wearing.

It wasn’t a very popular tray,
except for the dumping factor.

Matching and patterning of leaves and nut pictures.

Attaching the pictures with velcro makes it easier for
the pictures to stay in place and less frustration.

And finally the favourite tray this week and the easiest to put together.

Zippers! 
Yes these are real zippers that I hot glued onto flexboard
(I think that’s what it’s called).
 
They loved unzipping and zipping them up, over and over.
I’m sure there were a few parents that went home and made this for their child.
Amazingly the glue held pretty firm.
 Only once did I have to touch it up.

Scarecrows

This post started a few weeks ago when I brought in our scarecrow child.
He was created several years ago and each year he gets a new head.

I set him in the hallway to welcome the families
and the rest of the school as they arrived or passed by.
 
There was an immediate attraction. 
Some had to check out his shoes, no they are not attached. 
Others wanted to swap hats. 

One morning we attempted to make scarecrow hats at the art table.

I learned quickly that children do not enjoy having
large pieces of paper covering their heads. 
It’s noisy and it covers their face, not a pleasant experience for them. 
So no luck making hats.
Till a parent (I learn so much from them)
suggested that we use something else to mold the hats, like a bowl.
I found a few different sized bowls.
Success.
 
Some hats were flippy floppy and that led to singing Dingle Dangle Scarecrow.

The next day I added a collection of floppy hats to use when we sang the song.

And it was a nice lead in to the story “The Old Woman Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything”.

And finally a fellow StrongStart facilitator from another school district shared this game idea. 

Scarecrow, scarecrow, I beg your pardon
But who is hiding the pumpkin in your garden.

Thank you Linda, it's been great sharing ideas with you.