News: Bellwood Elementary

Preschool News

by Lyne Rerucha

November 21, 2008

Throughout the month of November the preschool children have been learning about Thanksgiving by exploring several of the concepts related to this holiday. In order to understand the relationships between Thanksgiving and our month long activities, I first introduced the song “They Go Together”. This song helped us learn about how relationships between objects form. Then we played a circle game called “What Belongs”. I placed many items on the floor. Each item on the floor had a relationship with another item in some way. It was the preschooler’s job to choose two items that belonged together and then give the reason why.

One of the first connections we made to Thanksgiving was learning about healthy foods. The children spent group time preparing, cooking, and tasting various healthy foods which included: a tasty beef and vegetable stew, homemade bread, and a fruit salad. As we prepared these healthy foods, we practiced our sorting skills by grouping the foods into the five main food groups. One activity we participated in was tasting various types of foods and then classifying them into salty, sour, or sweet. Some of the foods we tried included: lemon juice, vinegar, sweet pickles, dill pickles, saltine crackers, maple syrup, honey, and black olives.

The next connection we made to Thanksgiving was planting our pumpkins seeds we discovered inside our October pumpkins. We learned that the Native Americans taught their Pilgrim friends how to plant and grow many vegetables so they would have food stored for the winter. After planting our pumpkins seeds, we waited and watched. We were so excited to find that a few days after planting our seeds they had spouted! We now have several leafy pumpkin vines growing on our window ledge. I’m not so sure we can rely on them for our winter meals, however.

The children listened to a flannel board story of the First Thanksgiving and learned that the Pilgrims voyage was on a ship, so one of our learning experiences this month dealt with the concept of sinking and floating. The children had the opportunity to make predictions of whether an object would sink or float. Then they conducted their experiment. They actually did very well in their predictions. Our dramatic play area also included a tepee which the children used to enhance their pretend play while connecting to the Native Americans involvement in our First Thanksgiving.

Being Thankful is certainly part of Thanksgiving, so the children spent some time learning about being thankful as well as exploring other emotions. We made a list of all the things we are thankful for and each child then drew a picture of what they were most thankful for. We also played “Faces and Feelings” and” Feeling Bags” these small group games helped us deepen our understanding of other emotions. As I end this month’s letter, I extend heartfelt thanks to all of you for allowing me the opportunity to be involved with your child’s early education.