Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Hello September

It's hard to believe that it is September already!  Where did the summer go?  We had a wonderful and quite hot season so it's nice to welcome the cooler temperatures and all the great things that September brings.  Eva got to have her first bonfire last night.  She loved it but got a little upset that we couldn't just "turn it off" when she was done sitting by it.  September also brings the beginning of the new school year in our neck of the woods so we've started doing some school-like things here in the lounge.  The main thing we have begun is learning about calendars.  There is so much that can be incorporated into calendar time- counting, days of the week, months of the year, patterns, letter recognition and so on.  I made our calendar using another big frame (the same kind I used for the felt board).  I drew the calendar right on the glass using paint markers and then stuck velcro in each square to hold the numbers.
For September we have apples and I will change out the numbers each month.  I can put different colored papers in the frame to change the background too.  Eva loves it and is so excited to add a new number each day.  Patterns have been tricky for her but seeing the color pattern grow as we add to the month has been helping a lot.
I also decided to do a monthly sensory tub instead of weekly ones (they were getting hard to maintain and a month gives Eva more time to really delve into them).  Our September one has lots of fun fall items- pinecones, acorns, various silk leaves (I bought a bag of 100 plus a garland that I broke apart at the dollar store) and some fall colored pom poms.
There is also a rake (one of Eva's garden tools) for her to rake the leaves with.
If you want to see a really awesome fall sensory tub, go check out Mari-Ann's at Counting Coconuts- she went all out!  I definitely plan on getting some apples to add to Eva's later in the month.
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6 comments:

  1. Love your calendar idea - we'll be doing a daily calendar during our circle time this year and I've been hunting blogs for good ideas - I'll be adding this to my list!

    Also love your sensory tub! Thanks so much for the link back. The rake is an ingenious addition and I'm off to add it to our sensory tub, too! In fact, I'm going to edit my post to make note of it and I'll link back to you as well!

    Back to packing... oh the joys of moving. :)
    Mari-Ann

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  2. I love the calendar! I need to make one for my 4-year-old.

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  3. Love the use of the calendar for patterning! I can see so many applications for different times of year - colored leaves in November, trees and stars in December, clovers and rainbows in March...

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  4. Thanks for posting the sensory activity! I have plugged it on my blog (with a link to you, of course) as an idea I intend to copy shamelessly this week with my preschool sidekick!

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  5. September looks awesome in Eva's lounge! I have been wanting to add a calendar and some talk about days of the week, dates, etc. with Luke to our little activities, but wonder if he is too little? Thoughts? He will be two next week. We talk about today, yesterday and tomorrow. He can usually tell me what we did today and yesterday and what we will do tomorrow, but I haven't really added in specifics beyond that.

    Also, I am still waiting for your curriculum to be available!! :)

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