September Play Trays

     
                     Locks and keys

 
Feed the birds – paper tube birds, sunflower seeds and tweezers.


            Weaving – wire rack and ribbons.


                  Scale and animals.


       
Acrylic coloured acorns, tongs, baskets and squirrels
– sorting, patterning and sharing.


       
Leaf cards and acrylic leaves to match, count and take away.

Sticky Autumn Tree

    
I cut a leafless tree from tissue paper and taped it to a white board,
hanging on the back of a shelf that faces the entrance of our room. 
Then I attached a large sheet of sticky paper (contact paper), with the
sticky side facing out, over top of it.  Placed a basket of silk leaves
in front.
    
It wasn’t as attractive to the children as I hoped it would be.  A few
played with it, placing the leaves here and there.  But generally it
was left alone.
 
On the positive side it did make a pretty autumn picture for our room.

Autumn Leaves

 We collected leaves and added them to the art table
          with paints and paper.
  
I chose paints to match the colours of leaves in the
autumn.  And supplied smaller brushes for more
delicate paint strokes.  With simple instructions to
paint a leaf and print a leaf and we were ready to go.

The children figured out how to hold the leaf with
one hand while they painted with the other so it
          didn’t slip around. 

Some children did one colour per leaf, others did
            many colours.
 
We added them to our Autumn Tree, Autumn Leaves
           art gallery.

More Autumn Trees

 
At the art easel I noticed children painting trees.  Long strokes with
shorter strokes out to the side.  Dots and spots for the leaves.

      
I found small and large maple leaf cookie cutters at the Dollar store
so decided to use them at the art table.

The children were encouraged to rip brown paper to  use for the tree
trunk then stamped the leaves using the cookie cutters.

               Awesome Autumn

Others decided to make pictures of leaves on the ground; lots and
                 lots of leaves.
  
   
We now have an Autumn Tree, Autumn Leaf gallery wall to show
what we've noticed about leaves.

In a Tall Tall Tree

Last week we went on an animal hunt in the woods behind our school. 
We went on a hunt to find animals that make their homes in our woods. 
Earlier in the morning Ms. Bulger, a grade 2/3 teacher, and I went into
the woods to hang animal pictures.  Her class went on the hunt ahead of us.


When we were ready to go I started with a poem called
In the Tall Tall Tree.

               

Then we gathered our nature bags, binoculars and a
booklet to record what we find and headed into the
woods.
  

Some of the pictures were low to the ground, like the rabbit and rat. 
Others were high in the trees, like the eagle and the bat.

We had to search up and down, here and there. 
When we found one we took it down to have a closer look
and read some of the information on the back.
 
Then we opened our book to get a stamp.

 We continued till we found all of the animals and our books were full.


Here is a glimpse of the cards I made for the hunt.  On the back of
each is a little ziplock bag that holds the stamp.  I carried a couple
of stamp pads with me.

Grand-Friends

Once a month we visit a Seniors Lodge to share stories
and songs with our grand-friends.
    
Our visits offer us an opportunity to enjoy each others
company and share our learning.

   
Today we started a project “Planting a Promise”.
A daffodil bulb has the
           promise of a flower deep inside.
 
When we plant it, the promise is there that it will
         grow in the spring.

We drew pictures of what we think the flowers will
look like and gave them to our grand friends.
        

Then it was time to sing and dance,
 
           share a story,

            and play a game.

Visiting with the seniors helps us understand each other. 
How we are the same and how we are different? 
Our visits help us build compassion.