BLOCK CATERPILLAR

Continuing with our October theme of community, I asked the children what we could build together out of blocks and they decided to build a caterpillar.  Each child added one block for a few turns and then they all started to work together and help each other to make a giant block caterpillar!  

Here they are adding the legs.

Almost finished!!

We took tape measures out to see how big our caterpillar was, and we did a little measuring of our bodies first! :) 

The caterpillar was 71 inches long!!  The children were interested in measuring things for more than a week after this activity.    

HELPING EACH OTHER WITH OUTSIDE GEAR

Continuing with October's community theme, the preschoolers were paired off and needed to put their friends outside things on.  It was hard for some of them not to do things themselves and let their friends be in charge!  Here, a child is putting on her friend's shoes.

Helping with a sweatshirt...

Helping with boots...

Once one friend was ready, they switched to help their partner.

Putting their friend's coat on...

Helping with shoes...We love to work together and help each other!!!

SUNFLOWER OBSERVATION AND ART STUDY

I am so thankful for our farm share.  Look what we got to bring back to preschool from the flower garden!  These two giant sunflowers spent a week in the classroom so we could investigate, observe, and make sunflower drawings.  Eventually, we brought them outside to pick out some of the seeds.  The chipmunks, squirrels, and birds in our yard were grateful to us and took many of the seeds as well.  

I offered yellow, green, brown, and black crayons for this activity.  Each child really put their full concentration into drawing what they saw.  The pictures are fabulous!!

WORKING TOGETHER AND HELPING EACH OTHER

This is one of my favorite activities to do with children and is the first working together activity I do for our Community Building unit during the month of October.  Two or three children work together and help each other to make one thing out of play dough.  They need to pose questions and discuss what they will make and how they will do it while also making sure each person is participating.  The children really get into this activity and often make a few different things together.  Here, they are making snow people and caterpillars.  

This year, instead of two children working on one paper with two paintbrushes...two friends worked together with one paintbrush!  It was amazing to see the coordination and cooperation for this activity!!  Here they are painting together...

Dipping the brush in the water together...

Painting together....

Adding more paint to the brush together...

Painting together...

Adding more paint together...And later in the week...

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We worked together and helped each other make a person...again we used one pencil and had to cooperate and communicate how to draw the picture.  They came out great!!

FALL SENSORY BIN

This Autumn-themed sensory bin has birdseed, jewels, and tree cookies.  Preschoolers can sort, pour, scoop, and use the tongs for grasping.  

Here, a child is sorting jewels into a mini muffin tin.

Children use fine motor skills to pinch the birdseed with their fingers.  They also are using them when they search for jewels in the birdseed and pick them out.

Egg cartons are great for sorting, and just for filling too.  One child is using the tongs to pick up some jewels.

RAMPS AND BALANCING

This is a homemade balance beam that the children placed on the stage and then took turns crossing.

The children were building and balancing large branches and sticks between the Lemonade stand and the froggy swing.  It took a lot of careful maneuvering!

Here, the preschoolers found logs and planks and decided to build some ramps.  They experimented with balls and with their bodies!  

COMMUNITY WALK

Here we are taking a stroll through our neighborhood to see what we find.  We saw some fall flowers, we crunched some dry leaves with our feet and we found some pine cones that we carried back to our playground to explore.

AUTUMN PATTERNING

Scholastic often has good counters, and I love counters!  They are great for patterning, sorting, and just pretending and playing with.  Here are two preschoolers at the work table exploring our new pattern cards; apples. leaves, owls, and acorns, oh my!!!   They have to figure out what shape comes next in the pattern.

Working together and helping each other.

Everybody jumping in!

Success, just look at that face!

BUILDING AND BALANCING

The children found some logs and a plank and they built this bench...this child decided it would be perfect for climbing.

And balancing on...

This child found more wooden planks and started carrying them over to the woodchip area...

where she started to line them up next to each other...she was singing while she worked!

Walking across a homemade balance beam.

Riding on my horse, horse, horse...

Still figuring out how to arrange them...

Getting ready to jump!