Fruit and Vegetable Fun

     I can't believe it's November already!  The school year is flying by.  We have been so busy this year and before we know it, it will be time for Winter Break. 

     Last week we started our study of food and nutrition.  We read the book 'Eating the Alphabet" by Lois Ehlert.  The book depicts fruits and vegetables for every letter of the alphabet.  We also read the book "The Cake that Mack Ate."  The children made a list of all of the fruits and vegetables they knew.  I was impressed by some of the things they came up with.  You may be wondering why we are always making lists or recording the things we know or learned.  This helps children learn the purpose for writing and they are seeing writing being modeled for them.  The children are also learning answer questions and predict or recall.  All of this listing and chart making is related to our state standards and they are also skills the children will use later in school.  You can check out the state standards by clicking on the link: 
Ohio Early Learning Content Standards  
The afternoon class had a visit from a parent who is a Dietitian.  She helped the children sort fruits and vegetables and talk about healthy foods.  The children really enjoyed this and learned a lot.

     This week we are continuing our study of food.  We are reading the book "Gracias, The Thanksgiving Turkey."  The children have also been working on weaving place mats for our Thanksgiving Celebration next week.  We are hoping to complete a few more Thanksgiving crafts including a paper plate turkey if we have enough parent volunteers.  New works this week include; name tracing, food sorting, and food matching.  I will also be introducing the continent map as well as continent tracing.  

     Your child will be bringing home a paper feather to cut out, write what they are thankful for, and decorate.  We will put these feathers on a large turkey in the hall.  Feathers will be sent home on Monday next week.  

     New pictures will be posted to Shutterfly this Friday (11/15).


REMINDERS...
*Parent-teacher conferences finish up this week on 11/14.
*Thanksgiving Family Celebration on 11/21.  Please turn the form if you plan on attending and remember to be fingerprinted at the BOE.
*Please help your child dress appropriately for the weather.  The playground is mostly shady, so it's a little cool back there. 
*We need parent-volunteers to come in to help with special art projects.  The projects are all set up and ready to go, we just need an extra set of hands in the classroom to help the children put the projects together.  Please sign up on Shutterfly, call, email, or write a note if you would like to come in once or on a recurring basis. 
*This week we need food coloring and rigatoni noodles for some classroom works.  
*Thanksgiving Break: 11/27-11/29