Autumn’s arrival brought sunshine and changing leaves.  It was a beautiful week to spend outside, and the children flew all around the playground as butterflies, dug in the sand like chipmunks, and balanced like squirrels.

During Monday art, the children were introduced to pointillism.  We inspected paintings by Maximilien Luce, Paul Signac, and Georges Seurat, then made our own pointillism pictures using Q-tips.  They were enjoying art so much that they decided to make their self portraits for our self-portrait wall as well.

We read the story My friend is Sad, by Mo Willems, then Henrietta and Wolfgang shared some of the things that they do when they are sad or angry, such as get hugs, take deep breaths, or take a break in the quiet house until they are feeling better.  The students shared that they also do some of these things.  After reading Clifford The Small Red Puppy and Old Bear and His Cub, we identified the members of each family in the stories, then everyone shared who is in their family.  Some of the children have siblings, some don’t.  Some have pets, some don’t.  Some included grandparents and extended families, and others did not.  It was nice to hear about all of the different families that we have.

We practiced our first fire drill.  Everyone very efficiently and quickly filed out the door and lined up along the fence when the fire alarm went off.  This first time we waited until everyone was all dressed and lined up to go outside, but explained that in the future, the alarm would sound while they were working, and that we would line up, count, and exit the building as quickly and safely as we could.  We also shared that there would be no time to change to outdoor shoes, and the fire man has said that we need to have our indoor shoes/slippers on our feet at all times so that we are always prepared.

We celebrated our second birthday on Tuesday.  We counted while our friend held the globe and orbited the sun four times in honor of her fourth year, then enjoyed delicious vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with pink or purple frosting.

On Wednesday morning we discovered that the first monarch butterfly had emerged overnight.  We then noticed that the second had come out while we were at circle time.  We were so disappointed to miss them, especially when we had been checking and watching so regularly!  The Thursday afternoon students were excited to watch them fly away.  Where will they go?  Maybe Mexico!? We are so excited that another monarch caterpillar joined us on Thursday morning, and we cannot wait to watch it transform as well!  Thank you to our friends who brought it in to share.

The first visit from Believe in Books was Thursday.  The arrival of Clifford the big red dog was very much anticipated!  We enjoyed listening to the story Clifford The Big Red Dog.  It was so exciting to get a hug, high five, or fist bump from him, and then to pick a book to take home.

Friday students explored the reason for the seasons.  We know from our birthday tradition that the earth orbits the sun one time each year.  We learned that the earth itself is spinning, and that we have night and day because the earth spins around completely every 24 hours.  We also learned that the reason we have seasons is because the earth is tilted, so that during the year sometimes we get more sunlight (summer) and sometimes we get less sunlight (winter).  (This 20 minute Khan Academy video does an excellent job of explaining for those who are interested in sharing more with their children).