In circle time we…..

• Continued practicing last week’s poem

• Learned the song Grey Squirrel. Every student was offered the opportunity to become a squirrel and “swish” their “bushy tail” (Mrs. Levine lent us her tail for the week)

• Added a new job! It’s official we now have a loft closer

• Talked about Squirrels and seasonal change; During the winter food doesn’t grow, so how do animals eat? Squirrels prepare for the winter by collecting nuts and saving nuts to eat during the long winter months

What We Read This Week

Nuts to You! By: Lois Ehlert The Leaf Thief By: Alice Hemming Grey Squirrel at Pacific Avenue By: Geri Harrington

Who had Jobs?

Art Projects

Squirrel in a “Tree”

Students were handed a ‘tree’ with pre-cut slots and asked to bend them back to create branches. Once the branches were ready, the kids got to work making leaves by crumpling up tissue paper into a balls, dabbing them into glue, and pressing them onto the branches. This is a great way to build those pre-writing skills; using hand muscles and coordination to create tissue paper balls and a pincer grip when dipping ‘leaves’ into glue. Pincer grip is a precursor to a mature pencil grip.

Acorn

Kids painted the tops of their acorns with a glue and water mix and applied tissue paper squares. kids were asked to practice squeezing out a “chocolate chip” size drop of glue onto the ‘nut’ and apply buttons. The challenge was learning how to gauge amount of the pressure needed to exert a controlled amount of glue onto the page.

Free Art Stations included….

Painting at the easel with acorn tops! Other art options were a squirrel art dot page, squirrel rubbing, play-doh leaves.

Sensory Fun

Action Cam

Other Fun Happenings

We had a special visit from Teacher Jane, Mrs. Gillis’s sister, on Thursday, November 4. She came all the way from Ireland to teach u some really cool science; it was a big hit! A special thank you to teacher Jane from the Green room! Here are some pictures and video from her visit.

Instructions from Teacher Jane’s lesson went home in green folders last Thursday.