playdough

Thank you Lisa and Eva for the wonderful playdough so far! The children love the sensory play. Please let me know if you are able to make some playdough and I will put you on my list and let you know when we will need some next. When making it, feel free to add essential oils or spices or herbs.  Eva also added some sparkles, which the children loved! I try to stay as natural as possible, but am also ok with using food colouring if you are trying to get a certain colour that would be difficult to get otherwise - ie, orange etc.

Diwali

In celebration of Diwali, we read a book explaining about Diwali, and we then made a diya pot out of clay, and will be painting them. They can place a tea light in them when they are done. The children really enjoyed working with the clay. They were recreating the scene at the playdough table and making more diya pots!

Busy little bees

Ash class has been very busy talking about Fall and harvesting. We have read and continue to read many books on harvesting and apples. We have read Strega Nona's Harvest, which is a favourite, if you have the chance to borrow it from the library and Ten Apples up on Top. We will also be looking at, Way up High in the Apple Tree, How to make an Apple pie and Travel around the world, The Apple Cake, and An Apple Pie for Dinner plus plus plus! We have also been busy learning how to make apples and pumpkins out of yarn. Be sure to ask your child to retell our oral story, The Little Red House, with No Doors, No Windows, and a Star Inside - There is a lovely surprise at the end! We will be telling it on our Apple Harvest Feast Day!

Our new poems

Apple Tree

Way up high in the apple tree
Two little apples were looking at me
I shook that try as hard as I could
Down cam the apples
Mmmm mmmm good!

Orange

Orange is a carrot
And the orange that I eat
Orange are these bright new socks
I wear upon my feet

Graphs and Surveys

Ash class is hustling and bustling asking their fellow classmates all sorts of questions to find out information from them! They have done surveys and graphs using names and we will also be doing tallies and pictographs. It is fun to do these surveys and graphs at home if you get a chance!

Harvest Feast

Ash class will be having an apple harvest feast this year. We will be making all things made from apples! Parents are invited to join us in this Harvest feast, and we welcome recipes. Everyone is asked to bring in a few apples. We will be coming up with ideas this week. The date for our Apple Harvest Feast will be October 27 in the morning. We are excited for you to join us, however, it will be difficult to accommodate siblings in our small room. I will send out more details soon.....

Fall

Ash class has been talking a lot about Fall and all the changes we see, hear, feel and taste. We have been making Fall collages, which are beautiful. We recently brainstormed all the things we are thankful for and wrote them on the beautiful leaves, cut out from the tree rubbing paper the children made. We are hanging them on our Thankful Tree in the classroom.

Playdough recipe and volunteers

Playdough recipe

2 cups flour
2 tbsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp oil
11/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup salt

If you are interested in volunteering to make playdough for the class, please let me know directly. We will be looking for playdough every other week, or if we get enough volunteers, perhaps weekly. I will make up a schedule and let you know when we would need a  new batch of playdough.

What's in a name?

Ash class is always learning what all of our names look like and practises writing them.  We look at our names, count the letters and claps in them and do movements to them. We also will start to use sensory materials such as playdough and sand to write our names. We encourage you to work at home with your child wherever they are at with becoming more familiar with writing their name. It may mean forming the letters in sand or with playdough, or it may mean asking them to write down names for a specific purpose. If they are already writing their name, chances are they are using only capitals - encourage them to also write them with lower case letters. It is the one thing they love to do - because it is their name!!

Songs and Rhymes

Here's a cup
Here's a cup
Here's a cup
And here's a pot of tea.
Pour a cup,
Pour a cup,
And drink it up with me.

The children love this poem and like changing "tea" to another drink!

Colours (song)
Orange is a carrot
Yellow is a pear
Purple is a plum
Brown is a bear
Green is the tall grass
Blue is the sky
Black is a witch's hat
Red is cherry pie.

Yellow the Bracken (song)
Yellow the bracken
Golden the sheaves
Rosy the apples
Golden the leaves
Mist on the hillside
Clouds grey and white
Autumn good morning
Summer good night!

The cobbler (rhyme)
There was a cobbler on my street
mending shoes for little feet
With a bang and a bang
And a bang bang bang
With a bang bang bang
And a bang bang bang

Mending shoes all day long
mending shoes to make them strong
with a bang and a bang and a bang bang bang
with a bang and a bang and a bang bang bang!

Our new storytellers!

Storytelling both with and without the use of books is something we do a lot in Ash class, whether it's telling a story orally, retelling a story we have read, using a book to retell a story or using our story cards.  Our latest storytellers, Theo and Bodhi, did such a great  job retelling the story, The Gruffalo to the class. It is a very funny story, with a lot of repetition. As your children if they can retell it to you, and join in. You can also pay a visit to your library and borrow it. It's a great story before bedtime!