Candy Cane Creations

The holiday season is here and what is better to show our holiday spirit than exploring with candy canes!  Our preschool two class used candy canes to help mix paint together to create swirls just like on the candy canes.  They also took their candy canes and mixed them with baking soda and vinegar and watched how fast the candy canes dissolved in the solution. 

 

Growing the Grinch's Heart

Our calendar is full of fun and festive activities this month! We try to incorporate everyone's favorite characters on the calendar; from reindeer and jingle bells to the Grinch and, of course, Santa! The children loved mixing things up and doing a science experiment to 'Grow the Grinches Heart'! We talked about the size of his heart in the beginning and kindness being the real reason Mr. Grinch's heart grew. We learned what a chemical reaction is and then we got to work. Nothing beats a surprise reaction out of child! Their minds were blown when the bubbles starting filling up and the balloon began to inflate! 

       

Painting with Spices

 To welcome the week of Thanksgiving here at AoCS our kids painted with spices! They smelled cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and pumpkin. Then they added water and created works of art! 

National Day of Kindness

National Day of Kindness at AoCS!!! 

Each child worked on an "acts of kindness" punch card throughout the day to give them a visual representation of how easy it is to be kind! Small acts of kindness not only warm the hearts of others, but they learned that it makes them feel good, too! As a reminder of the warm and fuzzy feelings felt on this day, each child took home a "warm fuzzy" friend. In a world full of misunderstandings, we hope that we can foster an urgency within our children to choose kindness, even if its tough sometimes. 

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!

 

Celebrating the season with Charlie Brown and Friends! Snoopy knew just what kind of feast kids really enjoy, and boy was he right! While I read the book aloud today, the children snacked on "jellybeans", pretzel sticks, and popcorn! While the snack was yummy, it was the message that I was eager for them to understand. We discussed how we have so much to be thankful for and during this time of year, we want to remember how fortunate we are. We linked this lesson to our school wide gratitude chain, as well. Many children made connections between our conversation and those that they have been having at home with Mom and Dad. 

Halloween Celebrations!

Halloween was a SPOOK-tacular day! We celebrated all day with trick or treating, class parties, and special goodies for the teachers! Sharing in the magic and creating the memories with our friends is something we look forward to each holiday season! 

The Leaves are Falling on the Ground!

 Nothing says fall quite like the leaves crunching beneath our feet! Leaf exploration and creative expression is a breeze when nature is involved! Classes collected leaves from school and home, and with the leaves they created their own art projects, data collection, and confetti (building their fine motor skills)! We will explore and analyze leaves next month, as well. Then, we can talk about the differences in the leaves and the trees after a month! 

Fall Fest

Fall Fest was a wonderful time this year with lots of laughter and big smiles! Our Fall Fest included a petting zoo, pumpkin painting, trunk-or-treat, and face painting. Our teachers and families worked together to make this event a successful one for all of our kiddos! We loved that a handful of families came by to join the fun and tour the school, as well! We are looking forward to all the other fall festivities headed our way over the next several weeks!