Thankful Feast and Pajama Day

The Rose Room finished off November with a Thankful Feast. The children decorated a tablecloth and painted giant fall leaves that hung from the ceiling to get the room ready. Parents generously supplied fresh fruit, mac and cheese, ham and potatoes, plus more! We all sat together had a nice quiet meal and were thankful for each other. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season.
















We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and a nice break from school and work.









Here are some delightful shots of our kids enjoying books together.



























Moving away from fall and into winter, the children made a snow collage with sequins, snowflake stickers, and fake snow. They had fun letting the "snow" fall onto the sticky paper and then seeing the projects displayed on the classroom windows.





















Last week we continued the winter theme with pajama day with hot cocoa and holiday music. It was sweet to see the children (and staff) warm and cuddly in their jammies!






















It's great to be part of this crazy, fun group!

Happy holidays from Teachers Adela, Brooke, and Aimee

Pumpkins and Popcorn

Over the past month or so the children have been exploring everything pumpkin. We have decorated pumpkins, carved pumpkins, enjoyed songs about pumpkins, baked with pumpkin, and even hammered golf tees into pumpkins!














During circle time we learned the song " 5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate." The children started lining up pumpkins and singing the song on their own.




We made a delicious pumpkin turnovers using ready-made pie crust, canned pumpkin, condensed milk and some cinnamon. We all got a little sticky, but it was well worth it!













While playing outside in our school's pumpkin patch a couple of our girls were asking questions about the dried corn cobs or maize. Some of the question included: why was it hard, why wasn't it yellow, and what was it for? This curiosity lead to more in-depth activities with corn.







Painting with maize and making popcorn collages.


























The children also played in tactile tubs with popcorn and un-popped kernels.








The children also made honey and cinnamon popcorn as well as olive oil and sea salt popcorn for snack.
















Thank You so much for sharing you children with us. We love watching them grow and learn!

Teacher Adela, Teacher Brooke, and Teacher Aimee

Pumpkin Power

The children were lucky enough to be able to pick their own pumpkin from our "pumpkin patch." This pumpkin patch was provided to us by our fabulous Blue and Purple Rooms when they went on their field trip to the pumpkin patch in Gilroy. A special thanks to all teachers and children who helped pick the pumpkins out and brought them back to us! Our kids were so happy to be a part of the pumpkin decorating and proud they had one of their very own. The kids created their pumpkins by choosing 3 or 4 colors of paint and rolling their pumpkin back and forth through the colors that were placed onto a piece of paper in front of them. After the paint dried, they then chose from various Halloween themed stickers (bats, witch hats, pumpkins, skeletons, etc.) and stuck them where they wanted to all over their pumpkin. The kids are very proud of their creations and worked very hard on them .

We made lemonade out of lemons.......

We have been introducing more cooking-related projects during activity time. We find the children love to help in the process of making something and getting to drink or eat the end result. We will be doing more cooking projects in the coming months as the holidays approach.

Below was a day we made lemonade. The children were amazed how the juice drained into the pitcher when they squeezed the lemon. They helped stir it up and we had them practice pouring into their own cups before they tasted it. We heard many of the children tell their parents that day how much fun it was and how yummy it tasted. It was great to see how proud they were of themselves!

Watch our garden grow.....

In the past few weeks we have been observing and exploring various plants and flowers that are growing in our outside play area, so we decided to add to it. Two of the things we planted were sunflowers (dwarf and regular sized) and grass. All of the children helped scoop the soil and sprinkle the seeds . They also love helping to water each area where they are planted and are excited to observe the difference each day we check on them. Below are some of our sunflowers that have begun to sprout after only just one week! We will continue to post the progression as they grow.














The Fabulous Red Room