Happy Halloween!  Mahalo to the families who provided a nutritious snack today.  The children enjoyed them.  We served the fruits and vegetables and sent home the packaged snacks.  Uncle Brian Te’o treated the children to his costume of “Russell” from the movie “UP.”  The children enjoy his jovial personality.  We are blessed to have him.

We cut open our pumpkin today.  Some children enjoyed the sticky feel of the pulp and seeds.  While others only touched it with two fingers.  We took a class vote on what kind of face to carve on the pumpkin.  There were five votes for a happy face.  Three votes for an angry face.  Four votes for a sad face.  Three votes for a scared face.  We will carve the face tomorrow.  Graphing activities (such as a class vote) introduces preschoolers to collecting and organizing data.  It also provides counting practice, comparing, and understanding the concepts of more, less, and same.

 Today was our field trip to the Waimanalo Country Farm.  We rode on a hay ride pulled by a tractor, we chose our pumpkins, and we looked at farm animals.  Mahalo to the 12 chaperones that helped us on this field trip.

Today, five children worked together in the outdoor Building Area.  The structure started out flat.  But eventually they started to stack blocks on top of each other.  Although they work together, when we asked them what they built, each child had a different answer. It was a “sidewalk”, a “house”, a “bed”, a “wall” and a “really big house.”  Larger construction materials require children to use their large muscle groups.  They learn to bend, lift, tote, squat, reach, and stretch.  They learn coordination, using their arms and legs in tandem to accomplish a task.  Most importantly, they learn to follow safety guidelines because blocks that fall can hurt.  These are called hollow wooden blocks.  They are durable, noisy, comparatively expensive, and heavier.  Young children tend to build structures that they can get into and stand or sit on. 

Water Play Day!

Silly Hat Day!

Today in our ‘Ulu Garden area many children got involved in the dirt-digging area.  Child sized garden tools, buckets, and watering cans are available for the children to choose from.  One child started pouring water into the soil.  “We’re making mud,” he explained.  It became a group “project.”  A dirt-digging area provides an area where children can dig directly into soil.  Fewer and fewer children have the opportunity to spend time simply digging in dirt anymore.  Experiencing the rich feel and aroma of soil can be calming and beneficial to children.  Working with dirt gives children a chance to experience a texture that is different from sand.  Sometimes children may have a chance to discover insects or worms too.

Children love to play in cardboard boxes.  Boxes can be changed and decorated into different things.  After the Kane’ohe fire station visit to our school, the children were able to tell us what kind of things they saw on the engine truck and the ladder truck.  We took some of their ideas and turned two boxes into fire engines.  The children helped paint two boxes yellow, helped paint cardboard pieces black for the tires and silver for the lights and knobs, and helped put Popsicle sticks to form the ladder.  We cut out a large square so that the children could climb into the box and attached two fabric straps to each box so that the children could stand up and “wear” the boxes. 

Back by popular demand…..shaving cream.  Children learn and retain the most information when all the senses are reached during a playtime, and sensory play is also lots of fun!  It is one of our favorite ways to discover and explore!   

Children love to move and dance. Moving to music is a natural tendency for all of us. Children are drawn towards the sounds of music, and want to move their bodies to the beat.  A great way to direct this movement energy into something rhythmic and musical is with some simple props and a little creativity. Today, we used a scarf as a dancing prop.  First, we danced to a slow song.  Slow songs are a clever way to focus a child’s attention on dancing fluidly without bumping or hitting each other.  Then, we danced to a fast paced song.  Can you guess which tempo was their favorite?