My Family Tree!

We started today with shaving cream at the table.  We drew faces and letters and cars and trucks!  The kids all participated.....there were some who were more anxious to wash their hands than others, but....we all made it through!

After we cleaned up, we did our morning circle.  We are talking about shapes, colors, months of the year, days of the week, and even seasons of the year.  It's  fun way to learn so many concepts in a meaningful way!

Ms. Michele, our OT, came today.  Because the weather was so beautiful, and there's plenty of extra space, she had heard session outside in front of the playground.  We began with introductions.  Each child told her their name, and shook hands.  Then she brought out a fan favorite....the blue tunnel!  Some kids were a little reluctant....and others were super excited and took several turns.  The blue tunnel is made of soft fabric and its super long and stretchy.  The next activity was a scooter board course.  The kids had to "drive" the boards on their tummies, around four cones, to get to a fine motor activity at the end.  One side had jewels to pick up with tongs and put in a treasure chest, and the other side had a butterfly puzzle.  The last activity was finger fun.  Hidden in a box of fall leaves were red apples, orange oranges, and green acorns.  The kids took turns digging into the bottom of the leaves to find the "treasures", then we sorted them by color.  Overall, a great first session for everyone!

After some free time on the playground, we headed inside to read our book about families.  Today we read Who's Who In My Family by Loreen Leedy.  This story tells about all different kinds of families.  It gave us some good vocabulary lesson about "family words" like brother, sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins. 

 

For our language circle we put all those words on a Family Tree and talked about whether each one was a boy or a girl.  For example, mommies and sisters are girls, while daddies and brothers are boys.  It was great to hear all the kids talk about what they called their grandparents....and compare the number of people who live in their houses!

 

The art activity of the day was making family trees.  BUT.....since trees have leaves....and tress about families are a little abstract.....we combined the two ideas and went outside searching for some leaves!  Mr. Jimmy keeps the courtyard fairly leaf-free (unfortunately!) so we took a quick walk around the building and found exactly what we needed!  We used the leaves to represent the people in our families.  Once they were glued down, each child had a (pre-made) bag of the people in their family.  We glued those on top of the leaves....and voilà.....a family tree! 

 

 

 

By lunch.....everyone was fading fast!  They are soooo tired at the end of the day!  A few songs before we pack up and they all try and find a second wind....but on the walk out of the building....I know that they all won't make it home before they are sleeping!  At least you know they are working hard at school!