Mindful Focus: Feelings/Emotions
Explorations: Autumn, Trees and leaves, Pumpkins
October is such a fun month! It’s the best for playing outside and exploring all of the changes in nature. We’ve gotten used to the school routine and expectations and have welcomed a couple of new friends to the community. We are working on what we call productive play. We discourage the children from making a “mix mess” with the toys, emphasizing construction, building, and teamwork. Most children still need guidance in using gentle hands and using their words to communicate their emotions and needs. You may hear your children using phrases like “How does that make you feel?” and “It’s okay to be mad, but it’s not okay to hit. What’s a different way we can let our friend know how we feel?” If you are ever curious about how we support conflict resolution or handle big emotions, please reach out, and I can share our procedures with you!
I’m happy to continue to build this community based on love and respect!
-Miss Demi
New songs we sang this month:
Autumn Leaves are Falling Down
Art Explorations
Tree Sculpture and Abstract Trees
Throughout October, we explored different ways to represent trees through creativity, imagination, and artistic freedom! The children created their own tree sculptures using wire bases, bending the wire to form trunks and branches. They then used paper mache clay, practicing their fine motor skills as they pinched and added small pieces to create leaves and build up their tree trunks. Once their sculptures were complete, they brought them to life with paint and proudly took them home! We also explored abstract art by creating trees with individual pieces of paper to represent roots, trunks, branches, and the beautiful leaves of autumn. Each child had the freedom to make their own choices, experiment with materials, and create something completely unique. We loved seeing their individual ideas and artistic personalities shine through each project!
-Miss Mallorie
Mindful Focus:
Feelings/Emotions
This month we focused on our feelings and emotions! Each day, as the children come into school, they pick up their own special stick person and place it into our chart to communicate to the teachers and their peers how they are feeling that day. This year it’s been quite funny to see that some of the children will put their stick in an emotion they clearly aren’t feeling - like putting the stick in mad just to look at teacher with a big grin to exclaim through giggles, “Look, teacher, I’m mad today!” Though this month, some of them started to take it a lot more seriously!
We had several circle times this month centered around feelings and emotions. We talked about different ways we might feel, how to identify them in ourselves, and what things may cause us to feel that way. We also talked about that, while some feelings may not be as fun to feel, it is truly ok to feel any type of way. Every single emotion we experience is just part of being human - part of being alive! As long as we express them in healthy, safe ways, it truly is ok to feel any kind of way. And sometimes we may even feel more than one feeling at the same time! Seeing some of the children start to take a longer moment to do their feeling stick each day was so special! Some of them even started to close their eyes and really “look” inside themselves to try to figure it out before putting it in the chart.
The final thing we were able to work on just a bit this month was identifying emotions in others. We practiced making the faces that show each emotion, and of course practiced identifying emotions in others either by looking at a picture or by looking at the face and body language of our classmates or teachers. There were several really sweet moments this month where I was able to overhear students noticing each other: “It looks like you’re feeling sad! Do you need a hug?” The love in the space they all hold for each other and the world truly is so special and pure, and I feel so blessed to be a part of their journey each and every day!
- Miss Sushi
Trees and Leaves Exploration:
“There is something so special in the early leaves drifting from the trees- as if we are all to be allowed a chance to peel, to refresh, to start again.”
~ Ruth Almed
In the past, poets would use the phrase “the fall of the leaves” for this time of year. In the United States this poetic phrase was shortened and adopted as “fall”. At SimpleLife Preschool, we offer curriculum and activities that follow seasonal rhythms. As we are experiencing a change in weather and move further into the fall months, it signals an opportunity to observe this shift in the natural signs of the season. We encourage the children to notice changes in weather, sunlight, and temperature as the earth begins its annual transition between summer and winter. The deciduous trees around us are going through a transition as well and we encourage the children to think about how the trees look now and throughout the year, what parts of them change and why. This can also be a symbol and reminder to us as humans that we all experience times of transition and it can be an opportunity to release past seasons, trusting in the natural cycle of life.
During the month of October, SimpleLife teachers have been connecting the children to this important time of year by exploring the life cycle of deciduous trees and their leaves, noticing the changes the trees experience each season. We have had so much fun connecting to a tree’s life cycle through different activities! Among these were adopting a class “sit tree” to connect to and notice how it changes throughout the year, a felt tree activity, stories and poems about trees and fall during our circle times, and a number of art-centered activities. The children had the opportunity to utilize different mediums and their imagination and creative minds working on clay paper mâché wire trees, abstract trees, and autumn wreaths. One of my favorites is the clay paper mâché trees. This was a new activity to me and although it was a little challenging to make this particular clay paper mâché mixture, the children were excited to think creatively in how they might use the clay-like material on their wire trees to shape the parts of the tree, including the leaves. After a few days to one week, the sculptures had dried, and the children were able to choose paint colors to complete their art pieces. Their sculptures were so special and unique and provided a creative outlet for expressing their connection to the natural events occurring around us.
We hope your child(ren) and family enjoy seeing their special works of art and taking them home! We encourage you to ask your child questions about their activities and participate in looking for signs of autumn.
Fall Celebration:
Dress-up parade, performance, and pumpkins!
Our Fall Celebration is always a special time for both students and teachers! We spend the entire month looking forward to it, practicing songs, talking about costumes, and anticipating all the fun activities we have planned.
From carving pumpkins for our Pumpkin Village and creating little gnomes to play among the pumpkins, to showing off costumes and marching in a parade to the “stage” to sing for their grown-ups, there is so much to enjoy and look forward to.
The children had such a wonderful time throughout the day. The excitement leading up to the parade and performance was palpable! Costumes gave each child an opportunity to use their imagination, step into a little pretend play, and express their creativity. They also loved having the chance to show off their costumes to their friends during our show-and-tell. This was a fun opportunity to practice listening, taking turns, and speaking one at a time.
It was a day filled with creativity, excitement, laughter, and so many little moments to enjoy. What a wonderfully joy-filled day!
-Miss Annie
