People and Places that Provide us Food

Happy Monday. As I typed that subject line, I realized that most of my table activities today are Halloween type stuff and do not go with out learning unit at all. Oh well ...

I put jackolanterns out so the kids could pretend dressing up and trick or treating!

Environmental Print

Environmental Print is the print of everyday life: The symbols, signs, numbers, and colors found in McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Exxon, Pizza Hut, 7-Up, and on websites, for instance. They offer excellent entry points for young children to begin to learn to read, write, and do math.

The reasons to use environmental print: It is everywhere and, because it is, it is a natural starting point to teach young children to read, write, and do math. Children have a concrete connection to everyday print. They "read" it within the context of their everyday experiences--their interests and backgrounds. It bridges the gap between the functional print of school and the print outside. It doesn't cost a lot of money to use.

Below is a fun game we played today with EP. There is a video to show you how it works.

This was made from a kleenex box. Types of food are on each side. The child rolled the cube and whatever was on top, they would tell me where they might be able to find that food. For instance , you see the taco now. They might say TACO BELL.

Other learning activities that were out are these erasers that are Halloween themed from the Dollar Tree. We sort them, stack them, count them....

Here we use a tiny tong to grab spiders and transfer them.

See the spider in the playdoh ?

We have a new " cutting pool." One child at a time can go in the pool and sit and cut. They love it and I love the cutting practice they are getting.

We have a new community helpers puzzle .

Noah stenciling.

Below you see Dillion using a tiny tong to pick up tiny spider and transfer them to the pumpkin. This is great for strengthening those fine motor skills to write!

What a MESS! Late last night we went to the storage and took all my Halloween stuff out. I have too much.... right ?

I love to see children pretending to be a teacher.

I try to use as many writing experiences as I can. A child can know and recognize all their ABC's but not understand that putting them all together makes words. Today we wrote out our menu and made a shopping list. We even counted the number of items we had on our list. We use every opportunity to learn!

The kids loved this book.

It has been a good day. Busy... but good.

This will be a busy week. Looking ahead :

Tomorrow night at 6:00 we will meet at the pavilion at Gates in Cheri Whitlock for the Dad and Me pumpkin decorating hayride.

Wednesday we are walking to IGA and touring the grocery store.

Thursday Rosanna's mom is coming to make home made tortillas !

Friday we are walking to Eureke Pizza to tour and hopefully TASTE some yummy pizza !