Our classroom is full of activity and increasing friendly connections. Students have transitioned from separation environment to secure exploration and engagement.
Themes
The classroom themes have been fall, pumpkins, bats, spiders and cats, with the addition of wild animals.
We focus on the color orange since there are many orange pumpkins around already. There was painting with orange paint, and then we switched to red and yellow to make orange if the artist blended them. There is a basket of orange-colored objects to explore as a sensory work.
As always, we have things to transfer. In the sensory bin, there is orange rice with plastic spiders, which are fun to scoop out with a wire spoon that lets the rice through. We will have a pumpkin for scrubbing, and others for discussion and decoration.
The sound box is continuously available in the classroom. It initially contained only items that began with the letter “a” and rotates through the alphabet. For example, the “d” box had a deer, duck, dragonfly, dirt bike, dog, dinosaur and a picture of a drum on a card showing the letter in upper and lower case.
Being the second full month of the school year, the number “2” was on the counting drop box with two pegs.
Songs and introductions
Good morning, little orange pumpkin, orange pumpkin, orange pumpkin
Good morning, little orange pumpkin
Who are you? (Offer your hand to shake.)
One little, two little, three little pumpkins…
4 little, 5 little, 6 little pumpkins…. 10 little pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.
5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate. (Hold up 5 fingers.)
The first one said: “Oh my, it’s getting late!”
The second one said: “There’s a chill in the air.”
The third one said: “But we don’t care.”
The fourth one said: “I’m ready for some fun!”
The fifth one said: “Let’s run and run and run!
Then BOOM (slap legs) went the thunder and ZAP (clap hands) went the lights.
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.
Toddler Resource
Consider checking out Janet Lansbury’s Facebook page or her blog (such as this article). She has a Facebook post almost daily about caring for infants and toddlers. She offers many insights on how to respond to toddlers respectfully and remain unruffled by their testing. She also discusses how to encourage independent play and other infant-and toddler-related topics.
“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.” ~ Maria Montessori
Leave a Reply