Week six is a big marker for me. Full time children have been with us for almost thirty days, and we have created a rhythm to our days. Separation anxiety backs away, and we just know what is going to happen next. As a group we have gained confidence with our expression of drawing and writing.
We are talking about changes in the weather even though it still seems pretty hot to me. We are noticing the mist and the spider webs in the early morning. We did a few bug activities this week and made some apple pies with playdough, attribute apples, and chestnuts from Lauren’s yard. I brought in a pie bird, and we talked about the song Marci taught us about “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie”. We named our new goldfish Pie and our new snail is named Pumpkin.
We made magic wands one morning, something the Honey Bee’s have been talking about. We’ll try to send those home on Tuesday. This week we will make applesauce on Tuesday, and the class thinks that we need to add some honey. I’ll get organic apples and the only other ingredients are cinnamon and the honey. The children will peel the apples with an old fashioned crank peeler, and we’ll measure how long the peels are. They can then chop the apples and add them to the pot. We’ll have warm applesauce with our snack on Tuesday. If there is leftover applesauce I want to make them a pie on Tuesday night and use the pie bird. We can share the pie at snack on Wednesday.
We’ll read Ten Apples Up on Top and do some apple counting. I also want to have an apple tasting and chart our favorites as a group. I’m kind of excited for the leaves to change and making leaf mandalas and leaf crowns. I’m really hoping we will be lucky enough to find a leaf bug this year. We have one monarch left to fly, and we have watched migrating butterflies and dragonflies. Wynne counted 34 monarchs flying over the school in thirty minutes.
I usually schedule my conferences when Hannah and the Friendly Foxes are finished with theirs so that we can support each other during conference time. I’ll let you know when I put up a conference sign up sheet.
