Weekly Wrap-Up -> Oct. 8-12

I can't believe that in just a couple of short weeks, all of the leaves are changing colour!  That was quick!  We really wanted the students to understand this seasonal change and, although there are plenty of great books out there, I think the best thing it to experience fall!

Gourds, Pumpkins, Corn, oh my!

With fall in full swing, we set out some gourds, pumpkins and Indian corn for the students to observe.  It was interesting to hear their thinking!

G.A:  This corn is fake!  It can't be real because it's too hard!

R.S.:  This is a little pumpkin.  Does it have seeds inside?

K.S.:  I think these are pumpkins (pointing to gourds).

CREATE A FALL PICTURE

After spending much time outside these past few weeks, the students have taken an interest in watching the leaves change colour and are often drawn to several trees where you can see that most.  We took pictures from our Nature Walk and invited the students to use tissue paper and construction paper to create their own fall scene.

THE FOX AND THE FALLING LEAVES - LIGHT TABLE

I love this story, otherwise known as Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, and tend to read it yearly.  After reading it to the whole class, we left it out at the light table along with simple loose parts that I found a few years back from the Dollar Store.  Students were invited to retell the story or to make up their own fall story.

FALL SOUP

In our sensory bin we added coloured water (food colouring) and bowls, ladles, spoons, strainers for students to make "soup" with plastic leaf and pumpkin pieces.  It was great to hear their conversations about filling the bowl and what the strainers do!

WEDGITS

These plastic pieces are called "Wedgits" and they were gifted to me by a parent many years ago.  They are also such a hit with the students, but since I only have enough for a couple of children to use them at a time, I set them up on our small provocation table.  They are open ended which always leads to great conversations and students talking to one another about what they created.

XYLOPHONE

My daughter made this large PVC pipe xylophone last year when she was in grade 4.  I couldn't image throwing it away since she worked so hard on it so this week we brought it into our classroom.  Students enjoyed playing it using the fly swatter and listening to the different sounds.  

SORTING LOOSE PARTS

I know what you are thinking .... this is a provocation to sort materials and they are already sorted!

Yes!  But....you would be surprised at how the children sorted them in many different ways!

POKING - leaves

To work with those students that need fine muscle support, we took out our poking activity.  Students use these large push pins (I found these at Staples years ago) and poke the leaf pictures out using the cork boards as support underneath.  When they are done, they can glue the leaf and the paper onto a construction paper to see the transfer.

You can find this activity in my Poking - Fine Motor Fun activity on TpT (click the picture below to take you there).

POCKET CHART - Apples

At our Pocket Chart Centre, students matched the coloured apple to the sentence and then recorded the answers on their worksheet, including writing the word "am".  I intended this to be an activity mainly for Year 2 students but it was so nice to see Year 1 students who wanted to try and Year 2 students working with them!

You can find this activity, along with lots of others to last you the whole year, in my 

All Year Long - Pocket Chart Fun pack on TpT.

CRASH - Sight Word Game

In our small groups, students who are working on sight word recognition played the game "Crash" where they had to choose a card and read it, or, if they got "Crash" they lost all of their cards.  

WOODEN PLANKS

We invited the students to use the large wooden planks in their play on the carpet.  These were given to me by an EA a few years back, after she installed new flooring in her house (we sanded them and painted them with Mod Podge before using).

DRAMATIC PLAY - FARMERS MARKET

Lots of talk this week about Thanksgiving (which was last weekend here in Canada).  Of course, the best thing everyone loved to eat was pie!  Lots of our students went to apple orchards or farmers markets so we co-created a Farmers Market at our Dramatic Centre. 

 I made the pies using pieces of felt.

 We store everything in these containers.

You can find these printables in my Farmers Market Dramatic Play Center in my TpT store.

Here are my week-at-a-glance plans.

You can download the Week-at-a-Glance PDF version{here}.  

If you would like the editable version to modify this for your own class click {here}.  

You will need Power Point to edit.

I used the following fonts if you wish to keep it the same (free to download):

KG Primary Penmanship

KG Behind These Hazel Eyes