little giants day care: What's new at the HPHS Little Giants Day Care?

In the classroom...
Our focus recently has been on the fall. Some of the activities we've enjoyed include:

doing leaf rubbings
tasting and comparing different apples
making applesauce
making a fall treasure plate (afternoon kids)
learning about the letter "Ll"
reading books like One Apple, Two Apples, Three Apples and Apple Countdown
taking a fall walk to the library and collecting beautiful leaves along the way (we also checked out books!)
singing fall songs and using instruments with Ms. Carol

Carla

Have you seen our big "Carla"? Carla is a huge grasshopper the afternoon children (with Mrs. Carlson and Mrs. Fieldman) made out of boxes, tape, newspaper, and paint. We decided to make a grasshopper because the children were so intrigued with them on our playground. She's gray because that's the color of the ones we catch everyday. They are very hard to see when they are camouflaged in our rock garden, but we can see them when they fly!

We learned a lot about insects (and creatures that aren't insects, like spiders) because the "Carlas" so caught our attention. Some things we learned include:

all insects have 6 legs (spiders have 8)
all insects have 3 body parts
grasshopper can jump so high not because their legs are so big but because they are so light
butterflies and moths are insects
butterfly caterpillars make chrysalises
moth caterpillars make cocoons
scientists put a special tag on butterfly wings so they can follow them and learn more about them

During this mini-exploration, we also:

shared the bug nets and took turns
worked cooperatively when catching grasshoppers
worked with clay when trying to make a grasshopper and/or ant
listened to stories (fiction and nonfiction) about insects and non-insects (i.e. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Miss Spider's Tea Party, The Icky Bug Alphabet Book, to name a few.)
problem-solved to attach the legs and other parts of our big grasshopper body
created a bug box for the whole class to use when catching "Carlas"
learned to respect nature and to return it to its natural environment

Carla is in the vestibule of the building for everyone to enjoy.

Creating An Art Studio with Mrs. Lowery

Mrs. Lowery is going to help us create an art studio in our classroom! An art studio is a place where there are all sorts of materials available for children to use to create, express ideas, or apply to project work. Each child recieved a bag in which to put collected materials to contribute to our art studio. No need to buy anything! Just collect recyclables or anything on the attached list that is around the house. We ask the children to do this so they will be invested in the creation of the studio. We have found that when children participate in the creation of the studio then they tend to not only take care of it better but are more thoughtful about the use of materials. Thank you for your help and support!

Pot Luck Dinner Coming Up
Don't forget to sign up for the Potluck dinner scheduled for next Thurs., Oct. 25th, 5:00-6:30 p.m. at our HS classroom. Come meet and mingle with the other families in the program and enjoy a slide show of the children in action so far this year. Sign up is in the classroom. Teachers will bring the main course and the children will make a dessert. We are requesting that each family bring something to share (see the sign-up sheet). We're so looking forward to it! Hope you can all make it!!!

Playground Development Team

The staff at Little Giants Day Care would like to invite the parents to participate in our Playground Development Team. It has been our experience at Community that "two heads are better than one" and that the richness of ideas and the quality of a project only improves with the addition of collaboration and teamwork. No need to be a landscape engineer or a play scape expert...in fact, no experience is necessary at all! All we need are individuals who like to brainstorm ideas and/or help find materials and/or implement a plan and who want to help make a fun and appealing outdoor space for our kids to play in. WE NEED YOU!!! If interested, please let Mrs. Carlson know in person or sending her an email at pcarlson640@comcast.net.

Our class...