A Focus on Gratitude

For Thanksgiving we learned about how things were different in the past compared to the present, but our main focus was on the concept of gratitude. We discussed how we can have positive or negative attitudes and that gratitude is a positive one. Having an attitude of gratitude is being grateful for the things we have and being satisfied that we have the most important things such as family, love, shelter and food. We also discussed how when things are not going our way, we can stay positive by having an attitude of gratitude.

We started out the week creating Gratitude Boxes as a gift for our families. I got this beautiful idea from the amazing 

https://mericherry.com/. We created beautiful art on 3x3 sheets of watercolor paper using liquid watercolors. Liquid watercolors are so vibrant and beautiful! I taped them down to create a white frame around each one which is what gives these such a beautiful effect!

Next the kids dictated to us what they were most grateful for and we put them in the box. These were 3.5x3.5 from Amazon. 



We broke out the glitter to create gratitude sticks. These sticks can be passed around the table during their families Thanksgiving Feast or just around the dinner table. Whoever is holding the gratitude stick says something they are grateful for.



Here are the finished Gratitude Boxes!



Next we got ready for our Friendship Feast to celebrate Thanksgiving and how thankful we are for the friendships created in our learning community! They created pumpkins for our centerpieces and then created cards for the table that labeled four things each of them was grateful for.

We created some turkeys to decorate our room.

We created some hand turkeys with feathers but I didn’t get any pictures. You can see them on the upper cabinets in the whole room picture coming up.

Finally, everything was ready for the big day!





The room was ready for our feast!



We made some butter like they had to long ago!

We started out by watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and then served the same food the Peanuts Gang ate! Thank you parents for all of your donations! 

The kids loved it!



Before we ate, we passed around a Gratitude Stick and each friend said something they were grateful for to model how they can do this with their families at the table.



Then we all dug in and enjoyed sharing food and each other’s company! Look at those joyful faces!





Here are some pictures of our Literacy and Math areas and things they are working on. They use these skills in all of the areas of our room, but these areas are for specific practice.

In the math area…

Roll the die, find the number and show all the different ways you can make that number using two rows on the ten frames and math racks.



This game is called Top-It and is played just like War. You each flip a card and the one that is more gets to keep both cards. Whoever has the most cards at the end wins.



Here are a couple,e ways to practice counting to 100 and noticing the number patterns on 100 charts.



The cards can be used for a matching game or one partner flashes a card and the other sees how fast the can make that number on the math racks.



In the Literacy Area…



Sort the pictures by the beginning sounds focusing on the letters learned the last week for review.



Tap and say each sound in the word, then blend it faster then read it. After reading it, create the words using the lines needed to create each letter.



Look at the picture. How many syllables are in that word? Put that many squares on the picture.

The letters we have explicitly taught are available for them to explore in different ways. Some friends used them to sort by letter and sound/pictures.



Some friends used them to create words.





I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving! 

Exploring Leaves and Pumpkins

The kids and their families collected all kinds of wonderful Autumn nature items for us to explore as we continued to study the Autumn Season and the changes that were happening around us! These two friends helped categorize everything into groups.

Then I organized it into an invitation for them to look closer, notice, explore, wonder and document!





They used tempera paint, water colors and collage to show what they noticed happening with the colors of the leaves on the trees! 





After exploring the materials they used creative thinking skills to create with natural items inspired by the book “Leaf Man” by Lois Ehlert!

They worked hard to document what they saw like scientists!



Next think we knew it was Halloween! The week of Halloween I set up invitations for story creating and telling in our sensory bin and block area.

They LOVED creating monsters out of clay!





One of their favorite stories was Creepy Carrots!



Creating these was a great workout for our finger muscles!



More monster creations from our Maker Space! Halloween really inspired them in their stories and creations!



They voted on a creepy face for our Jack-o-lantern! The ones who love pumpkin goop had a ball smooshing around in it and then separating the seeds from the pulp!



Here is the finished carving!



We will set it here to see what happens to it!



Here is what happened to it! They had to touch it!

On Halloween we had a parade in our costumes! 

Kids are always smiling on Halloween!



After that exciting week, we started looking closer at our pumpkins and seeing what we noticed. I set out an invitation to explore, document and measure.










We read a lot about the pumpkin life cycle so we created a project to show what we learned. They divided into teams to make the different stages. Each team used books and technology to make everything as accurate as possible! Then they got to work!

Finally it was time to open the other pumpkins. They wondered mostly about the inside of the white one! We cut them open and let them observe, document and explore…but most just wanted to squish it all up!

We also went on a field trip to Cox Arboretum to go on a Fall scavenger hunt! They were so interested in all the little details in nature! 

They always want to climb the observation tower!





The view was wonderful!



Ginkgo trees are there favorite because they were around in the time of the dinosaurs so we had to take a picture in front of one!



This hedge maze is always a favorite! I remember when they first planted the tiny shrubs when my kids were tiny 20 years ago!



We went on a fish/frog/turtle hunt and found all three!



Here are some of the things that were collected on our hike!



A lot of discussion happened about the animals and which ones would live here! An investigation into Ohio Animals may be coming up! They were also noticing the berries, hedge apples and walnuts and wondered what would happen to the animals when they all got eaten! Where would they get there food? We will see where these wonders will take us!