making homemade applesauce on Thursday

We've been learning a lot about apples this week - different kinds, how they taste and how they grow. We tasted different kinds of apples on Tuesday during snack. The names of apples are fun - Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji, Golden Delicious, etc. It makes you wonder how they got their names? I thought the children would enjoy making homemade applesauce today, and they did! And it was very very delicious. As one child said, "This is the best applesauce ever!!!"

We are ready to make APPLESAUCE!

Cranking the apples through the machine. 

Everyone that wanted to help got a turn to turn the crank. 

The child in pink held the yellow bowl so the scraps fell into it. 

It takes work and strength to make applesauce!

The best applesauce ever!!

Costumes on Friday

Ana and Elsa are still in, just in case you haven't heard. We had a good number of girls dressed up as these two. And there were other costumes too, not everyone can be a princess. :)

Here's the crew!

We explored a pumpkin during circle. 

I passed around the pulpy, slimy, seedy top of the pumpkin
for the children to touch and smell. One child said it smelled like cantaloupe. Hmm....
We also cut into the snowball pumpkin to see if the insides were the same - the inside was white and the seeds were a little smaller. 

The pirate was ready to dig into the pumpkin. :) 

The bee is bizzzzyyyy writing. 

SNACK TIME!!

We enjoyed a not-so-healthy-but-good-anyway Halloween snack!

HAPPY TRICK OR TREATING!!!

Costumes on Thursday

There was excitement in the air as children came into preschool in their costumes. Some weren't sure about how different everyone looked and others were curious poking and pulling on others costumes. We had a great day and almost everyone kept their costumes on the entire time, no spills or messes. :) 

Art did not involve paint or messy things today. This group really seems to enjoy cutting paper and gluing - so we snipped and glued paper to make colorful pumpkins. 

It was fun to play in costumes!

Working with Legos. He kept the mask on the entire day. :) 

Ms. Larisa carved a pumpkin pie pumpkin.
We touched the slimy pulp and seeds.

SNACK TIME!!

We enjoyed Halloween oreos and milk.

Can you tell who we are?! 

Happy Halloween!!

pumpkins

Pumpkins are great because they come in so many shapes, sizes and colors. I bought some colorful unique pumpkins at Stone Creek Nursery (here in Hesston) since we are talking about pumpkins and they were 1/2 off! :)
In order for the children to get a lot of hands on experiences with these pumpkins, I put them on the floor in the middle of the circle. They've touched, picked up, observed and have been really fascinated with them. It's been neat to watch how and what they do with them. These aren't your typical pumpkins, well, one of them is, but the rest are quite unique.

The kids stacked all of them on Ms. Breana's lap

So curious!

Wondering about the names of these unique pumpkins?
The dark reddish one is Cinderella
Tiny orange is pumpkin pie
White flat one is flat white boar
Bluish one is Australian Blue
Multi colored one is One too many
and I bet you can guess the last one, jack 'o lantern 

They noticed that some of them were oozing a watery substance.

Checking out "snowball" pumpkin 

This guy was tapping each pumpkin with the magnifying glass.
Maybe he's trying out some magic. 

arboretum

Nature is such a great place to be -- peaceful. tranquil. calm.

I always enjoy taking a group of children to the Arboretum. Hesston is so fortunate to have such a beautiful place to explore. I planned some activities while we were there, but there was some flexibility because I knew we would discover so much more than I could ever plan. That is what is so great about nature - you never know what all you will discover!

We are ready!!


Reading, What Color is Nature?


Coloring our nature bags on the sidewalk - it made a cool texture.

Even Ms. Cassidy colored a bag!

Exploring the arb!

On the bridge --
there were some humongous leaves there -
as big as your face!!

Honeysuckle - it smelled so sweet. 

Look at the beautiful blue sky and red trees in the background.

Under the red maple tree

Running!!

Back at the preschool we looked at all of the cool leaves, seeds
and other nature items we collected at the arboretum!!

Check out the Arboretum....

take a walk on or off the trail and discover nature!!