Scarecrows in the Field

Last week we talked about scarecrows and their job. The farmer grows corn, the crows want to eat it, and the scarecrows are out in the field scaring away the crows. This group of children love to hear the books being read and anticipate what is going to happen in the story. Everyone enjoyed looking for the tricky scarecrow or crow and guessing the house in which it is hiding. I have little felt figures for many of the topics in the class during the year to hide in the houses. Two weeks ago, we had a family of squirrels visiting and last week we had a scarecrow visitor. The chlldren enjoy our visitors and when we sing our ‘Hello’ song to each person we add ‘Hello’ to whichever stuffed friend is visiting. Later this week, the turkeys will make an appearance. One of the joys of working with the youngest children in the class is being able to see the children enjoy these visitors and treat them as ‘life-like’.

Here’s a suggestion for at home: Encourage your child to color/write with crayons. Markers do not require any hand strength to make the marks come out on the paper. Crayons require strong hand muscles to make the marks. In our classroom we primarily use crayons for this very reason. Some of the children have a hard time pressing hard to make the color be seen. More crayon time, rather than markers, will help strengthen the children’s hands.