Hello Alcott Families,

 

We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the beauty of Autumn, which is one of our favorite seasons! It is such a pleasure to see and greet those happy little faces each morning when we open the doors at school. Your children are laughing and learning, exploring materials, and making connections with classmates and teachers.

 

The children have been enjoying Music with Miss. Melissa and Spanish with Senora Esther. In the next two weeks, our class will discuss, explore, and learn about the life cycle of apples and pumpkins. We will incorporate fun, age-appropriate, and hands-on activities in the art and science areas. The practical life area will feature activities such as scrubbing and hammering pumpkins. The children will work on hand-eye coordination while they begin early lessons in sewing. We will be reading storybooks and singing fun songs about Fall, apples, pumpkins, and Halloween.

 

The children are invited to wear their Halloween costumes to school on Friday, October 29th. The costumes should allow the children to participate safely in all indoor/outdoor activities including walking up and down the stairwell and bathroom use. Weather permitting, the children will participate in a small Halloween parade outside. We are looking forward to having our families come out and watch the parade and share in this fun and memorable event with the children in a safe, socially distanced manner. Please stay tuned for additional information and times pertaining to our Halloween festivities.

 

Warmest regards,

Mrs. Rocafuerte and Mrs. Cinquina

 

 

Theme: Apples and Pumpkins

 

Art:

Marble painting (helps work on hand-eye coordination)

Coloring with sidewalk chalk (enhances gross motor skills)

Apple stamping

Halloween crafts

 

Cultural Arts/Geography:

Land/Air/Water

 

Language:

Sandpaper letters and sand tray: [Ss], [Mm], [Tt] - children trace the shape of the letter with the index and middle finger and say the sound

Objects and Sandpaper letter groupings (develops initial sound recognition, moving left to right in preparation for reading and writing)

Object to object matching (builds on pre-reading and writing skills)

Story sequence cards (develops pre-reading skills)

Parts of an apple nomenclature cards (children match picture and word cards, develops pre-reading skills)

“Five Little Pumpkins” song

Read: “Apples and Pumpkins” by Anne Rockwell

 

Math:

Numerals and counters 1-10 (one to one correspondence)

Hanging Bead Stair 1-9 (teaches numeral recognition and counting 1-9)

October Calendar (number recognition, tracing numerals 1-31)

Counting booklet (mini book for counting and recognizing symbols)

Apple graphing (builds counting skills, compares more or less, one to one correspondence)

 

Practical Life:

Hammering (children hammer golf tees using a wooden mallet, develops fine motor coordination, concentration)

Snipping yarn (develops concentration, coordination, fine motor skills)

Lacing apples and pumpkins (develops pincer grip, strengthens small hand muscles and hand-eye coordination)

Scrubbing a pumpkin (strengthen hands and fingers for writing)

 

Science:

Parts of an apple

Carve and explore the parts of a pumpkin

The life cycle of a pumpkin

Do pumpkins sink or float? (group experiment)

 

Sensorial:

Grading pumpkins from largest to smallest

Red Rods (develops the child’s visual and muscular perception of length)

Geometric Solids (builds vocabulary, and develops recognition of 3D shapes)

The Silence Game (helps the child develop both self-discipline and an awareness of the sounds around them)

Exploration of apples through the 5 senses