October News!

The month of October has gone by so fast!
The theme of the month was Trees and the kids have really enjoyed it. We collected leaves and pine cones and checked a book to see what tree the leaf or pine cone belonged to. We also studied the parts of a tree: branches, leaves, trunk and roots. We used our "Parts of" cards and puzzle which is something the children work on all year round. The children now know the difference between coniferous and deciduous trees. So much so I have quite the collection of leaves and pine cones in the culture area. Every day one of them tells me something about the trees in their yard. It is so nice to see the joy they get from learning new things about nature.
As part of our tree theme I have the children make Family Trees, which were a big hit with the kids and parents. This was an activity I have done in the past and it has always gone well, so I knew everyone would be excited about it. Each child was to bring in pictures to cut out faces of their family members. I only had the children bring in parents and grandparents (both maternal and paternal). We glued the faces on leaves and then glued the leaves to the tree branches. The child's picture went in the middle of the tree.
This last week of October has been very exciting. Two of my younger students (who have just turned 4 years old) made their first words with the movable alphabet, so they are well on their way to reading! It was wonderful to thrill their parents with the big news when they came to pick their children up at the end of the day and share their enthusiasm with the kids. The older children have been working hard with incredible attention on some more challenging Practical Life activities this month, like the tying frame. I have never seen so much concentration going on while working on a piece of work!
Today was our Halloween party at school. We had the party today instead of Monday the 31^st because we know that sometimes if the children wear their costumes to school for the whole day, they do not want to wear them any longer when they go home to go trick or treating with their friends and family. The party was a great chance for the kids to take a break from all their hard work on areas of the classroom and enjoy. We played Halloween games (Witch, witch, ghoast, musical chairs and hot pumpkin), watched a Halloween movie and went for a nice walk outside.
Overall October has been a great month in my classroom, and I’m looking forward to next month’s theme of “Colours” hoping it will be just as successful as “Trees” has been. I’ve got some exciting things planned so stay tuned :)