Too Much Fall Fun, and NOT Enough Time!

Ms. Harmony loves all the fun changes that fall brings!  There is so much to do and enjoy! This post shares some of the ways we've been actively learning about fall.

Apples are ripe and ready to eat!  We not only tasted apples, we learned about the parts of apples, and made beautiful apple prints.

We used scented rice, funnels, bottles, and acorn toys in the Explore Table.  This smelled amazing!

We built homes for fuzzy forest friends and made sure they had plenty to eat!  Fall is an important time for animals in the forest because soon they will face food and shelter scarcity during winter.

We colored leaf prints by taping the paper on top of the leaf and doing rubbings with crayon.

We cooked with acorns we gathered and sand.

We noticed that the weather got cold, and so did the water in our table outside!  We changed the materials from water play to bubbles!

We shook up sensory bottles with googly eyes, bugs, and bands!

We made LOTS of art with play doh, googly eyes, paint, fuzzy sticks, pom-poms, stickers, and more!

We sorted bears into "families" which helped us practice color identification, size and color differences, and counting skills.

We applied our knowledge of fall leaves and forest animals by painting a forest scene in fall and telling a story about the animals that live there.  They were looking for food, building homes, getting camouflaged, etc.

We talked about Halloween being a fall holiday just weeks away!  We played with lots of funny things like slinkies, bracelets, pumpkins, and googly eye glasses!

We danced with fall leaves, tossed them in the air, and pretended to rake them into a pile!

It always seems like a race to do all the fun stuff each day.  I wish that the preschool hours could STRETCH out so we could pack more into the program... so I leave it with you at home to keep up the fall celebrations.  :)  

Harmony's House is Growing!

 

More friends want to come to school at Harmony's House!  To maintain the quality environment that a small preschool group offers, Ms. Harmony is opening up a Wednesday/Friday morning session.  Some current friends will shift to this schedule to welcome the new friends.  This will maintain our size where each group will not have more than six students.

Quarterly, Ms. Harmony will plan a party for both groups (T/TH and W/F) to come together and play!  The next large group activity will be for Halloween!  Stay tuned for updates!

Contact Ms. Harmony with any questions: harmonyhutson@gmail.com.

Welcoming Fall at Harmony's House

We are so excited about the cooling temperatures!  We are anticipating the leaves changing colors and beginning to fall.  Our older students remember this season from last year.

One of our outdoor table choices has been to paint glue on these twigs.  Then we applied tissue paper leaves.  The finished "trees" turned out beautiful!

We will be learning more about how animals on the farm and in the forest will be preparing for winter.  In the House Area, it has been so fun to dress up like different animals!

Friend "Elephant" dressed up like the "big, bad wolf!"

Friends "Kite" and "Alarm Clock" dressed up like pig and cow.

Finally, we've been exploring a new way to paint at the art easel.  We have used paint rollers with different textures to mix red and yellow paint.  What I loved about this picture was seeing the oldest and the youngest painting side by side.  The mixed-age environment provides the children so many opportunities to learn from friends in different ways.

I am Unique! Let's Celebrate!

We have worked for a few weeks now to create these likenesses of ourselves, and celebrate all the wonderful ways that we are individually different.

The first step in this project was to look at the "Shades of People," to understand that people aren't really different colors like red, blue, or green... but that we are different shades.  We each started with a blank body cutout, and a palate of brown, white, red, and yellow paint.  

The children were challenged to mix the colors with brown to find the shade that matched their own skin color.

The following week, we looked at each other's faces.  While we all have eyes, noses, and hair, our individual features are very different.  We selected eye colors and sizes from blue, green, and brown buttons.  The children decided if they wanted to add noses or mouths from the art materials.  They also selected hair from yellow, brown, tan, or black yarn.

The final week we cut out clothes from colored paper.  We designed our own outfits.  Everyone enjoys different colors and styles.  

This is the culmination of our month-long study of "Self."  Each child has a poster with their art and interests surrounding our Parent Board.  Truly, there is MUCH to appreciate about each child, and how much each child brings to Harmony's House.

Little Bit of Wild

Check out this fascinating caterpillar we found on the playground this week!  Within minutes of discovering this creature, we noticed and caught a walking stick insect on the back of a school friend!

Two creepy critter discoveries prompted a huge bug hunt on the playground.  We spent the rest of the time searching for and attempting to catch insects and a small spider.  (*All bugs were released at the end!*)  Even though the playground was dew covered and a bit muddy, this bug hunt made our trip outside to explore the little bit of wild worth it.  The children were intrigued, focused, and dedicated to finding more bugs!

In addition to studying the fauna, we also worked with water mills and Squig structures.  The suction cup ends of the Squigs provide an interesting building experience, especially with added buoyancy and adhesive effects of water.

Perhaps the Potato Head families were underestimated in their ability to attract preschool students!  These fun little guys have been a table choice outdoors for a few weeks now, and STILL bring almost every student to the table every time.

The children make different Potato Heads to represent people in their families.  They consider different body parts and are so proud of what they make.  The children want to photo document their creations and ask that the pictures be sent to their parents.  :)

Sometimes reading outside is just the best isn't it?  Unless rain prohibits it (water and books don't mix!), we always have a few readers take a seat on the benches to check out a book.

Finally, everybody loves to stretch their abilities by climbing steps and ladders, crawling through tunnels, and even balancing on the bosu ball.

We LOVE Outside Time at Harmony's House!  Being outdoors helps to mellow our moods, soothe our senses, stimulate our interest in life, earth, and physical science, sync our brains and bodies, and just HAVE FUN.  <3

Pets are Part of Families Too

Some of the families of Harmony's House have pets, and one family even has a parent who works with pets as a Dog Groomer!  When the children asked for the puppies and kitties to come back to the House Area, this seemed like the perfect time to make a Pet Salon.  

Check it out!  We have a waiting room for clients to hold their pets while they wait for the groomer to come get the animal.

The first stop for our stinky pups is the bathing station!  Our pets get top-notch treatment with a bubble bath and shampoo.  Then they need a quick towel down.

Next they need to move to the Styling Station.  The "groomers" can use toy blow dryers, brushes, clippers,  and bows to spruce up the pet's look!

Lastly, we have some pet crates (carriers) where pets wait for the client to come and pick them up.

We sure hope our school friends have a barking good time with our new House Area set up!

Homes and Families

 

Families are the biggest part of our small friends' worlds, especially now when so many are quarantined, churches are closed, and activities are postponed.  But even when it's not Covid season, family members are the most influential people for a child during the early years.  Children learn the unique culture of their individual family, that they belong to something bigger than self, and that they are loved.

We have been bringing home and family play to the classroom with our Calico Critter homes and vehicles.  A lot of these plans replicate family activities or traditions, like Friend "Koala's" family picnic at the beach!

The children often have very specific ideas about how to arrange furniture, what to include in the house, and which critters they want to make into a family.

It has been so cozy and fun to listen to the children talk about their own families and create new stories for the critter families.  We will continue to build on the ideas of self and family in the upcoming weeks because these children are so important... to their families, Harmony's House, and the world!

Create and Learn!

Our school friends have been expressing their creativity in so many ways!  It's amazing to see them build their brains in SOOO many wonderful ways!  One subject we talked about was "shades."  We started with blue paint, and then explored what happened when we added black and/or white paint to the blue.  We talked about how the blue would get darker, or lighter, but didn't change into a different color really.  Dark blue and light blue are shades of blue.  Each masterpiece of blue shades was truly a masterpiece!

 

We used balls and ramps to create different tracks.  It was so fun and educational to explore what happened when we changed the angle of the ramp by raising or lowering the end of the ramps.  The balls speed would change and we found natural ways to talk about force, gravity, height, and distance.

     

But sometimes the ramps made dog homes too.  :) Because open ended materials are useful that way!  Why not?

Our Explore Table has been filled with fuzzy sticks, dry noodles, and colanders.  We navigated fuzzy sticks through the holes, in and out, to make silly hats!

Friend "Alarm Clock" wondered why sometimes you could see the fuzzy sticks and sometimes you couldn't.  We noticed that if we threaded the fuzzy sticks from the outside of the bowl, versus the inside, the fuzzy stick would poke out the way she wanted.

Play offers so many opportunities for young children to talk about "big" ideas from art and physics, and practice "big" skills like threading and weaving.  It's no wonder that play is one of the fastest ways to learn new information and skills for children!