HALLOWEEN PARTIES

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to all of our Halloween parties but the two I did attend were nothing but fun! It always takes a few minutes of standing around staring at the others in the class before the children are ready to start the day. Costumes are a little intimidating sometimes but once we get used to the idea of dressing goofy (even the teachers) we all love it. Each class took a break from playing early in the class session to do a costume parade. We carried our trick-or-treat bags upstairs and marched through the Hermanslie Lounge where many of our church staff were awaiting our parade with treats in their buckets. They dropped surprises, from pencils to Starburt, into our bags and we tried to remember to say "Thank you." Then it was back to our playing followed by Halloween stories, pumpkin carving, games and snack. By the end of the day we were` hot and itchy from our costumes. We do love the excitement of a party though and we are looking forward to putting on our adorable costumes again on Halloween night to entertain our neighbors and friends.

There will be more pictures of our parties in the slideshow at our four year old program on Nov. 11. :)

Signs of Fall

This month the students at Salem Pre School have been learning about the signs of fall. The apple harvest, which began in late summer, continues into fall. We enjoyed a trip to Aamodt's Apple Farm and we loved the applesauce we made at school as a part of our apple unit.

As we look around our Pre School area we are noticing other signs of fall. The leaves on the trees are changing to beautiful colors are drifting softly to the ground. When we walk through the woods to the park we sometimes find dog stickers and other seeds stuck to our clothing! Picking them off can be time consuming! Our Pre School garden is ready to be harvested. The carrots, which have been in the ground since last May, have become "gianormous" as the kids would say. We'll be eating them for snack and as a part of our Thanksgiving Feast.

Halloween is coming soon and we hope to decorate some of the pumpkins at our parties. I'm sure costume plans are being made in many home these days. Visit our blog again at the end of the month for some examples of these beauties!

HARVEST

School has begun! This week we have been talking about families and what some of the chores are that mommies, daddies and children do around the house. If we lived on a farm or if your family has a garden, there are many garden chores to do in the fall. This week some of our classes went on a potato and carrot hunt. Using a garden fork we loosened the soil and pulled up potatoes and some really big carrots! Oooh! Ahhh! The pumpkins are looking good too, perfect for Halloween!

PRE SCHOOL GARDEN

While our staff and students have been at home enjoying their summer vacation our garden has been growing like crazy! The sunflowers are much taller then an adult. The pumpkins vines are EVERYWHERE! Pumpkins are beginning to develope and the zinnias are going nuts. If you look closely at the picture of Kai you can see two carrots that we picked just to see how they are doing. Can't wait for the children to see what they planted last spring!

MAY COMMUNITY HELPERS

Summer is a busy time for all of us. As we work and play we want to be safe. To remind us of some safety tips, we were visited by several community helpers in May. Officer Kim Boyd (Piper Boyd's mom, Red Class) came from the New Brighton Police Department to talked to us about bike safety, playground safety, and using 911 for emergency calls among other things. Kim showed us all of the equipment she carries on her belt, even her hand cuffs! She reminded us that police officers are our friends and they are here to serve us. After her talk, Officer Boyd showed us her police car. We got to crawl through the back seat. We even saw the lights flash and heard the siren roar. Did you know there are several different sounds the siren can make?

The New Brighton Fire Department also paid us a visit. They, of course, talked to us about fire safety. Firefighters Ed and Andy reminded us to check our smoke detectors and told us never to play with matches! If our clothes catch on fire we must stop, drop and roll. To get out of a burning building always crawl to safety. Then Firefighter Andy put on his pants, boots, jacket, helmet, air tank and mask. He wanted us to see how he looks in a fire and to remind us he is not scary but just a regular guy dress up for a fire. Don't be afraid of the firefighter if you are in a fire. Go to the firefighter! At the end of the visit, we got to see the fire truck!!

Do you always wear your seatbelt in the car? Julie Philbrook from Hennipen County Medical Center reminded us that it is the law! And, it keeps us safe in an accident! Even if we are only going one block, we need to wear our seat belts whether we are children or adults.

One last safety reminder. Always were a life jacket in a boat! They may be bunchy and warm but the keep you safe on the water!

Have a safe summer!

SILVERWOOD PARK

Silverwood Park hosted our field trip for the Blue, Purple, Red and Yellow classes this month. They did a quality job teaching us about what prints are, what/who can make a print, how to make a print of our own, how to move like an animal in nature (making prints in the mud) and how to love the outdoors! Here are some photos to show you what a great time we had.

Garden and Ocean

Our garden is beginning to take shape. It takes courage to plant in April but this has been an unusual year. The Blue Class was the first to take the plunge. On a warm April morning they planted carrot and radish seeds in their garden plot. (The rest of us planted indoors in peat pots.) They have been very faithful about watering their seeds. Six children are given the task each day they are in session. They are hoping the radishes will be grown by the time school ends!

Our other classes have now begun to plant their small plants outside. One class is growing sunflowers, which are growing super fast! Another class is growing zinnias. Another cosmos. The three year olds (okay, some have turned 4) are planting pumpkins which they can harvest in the fall.

This week we are learning about (Can you guess by the photos?) the ocean! We are all familiar with Nemo but there are many more "cool" things in the sea. However, we haven't seen any mermaids yet!