book, and mount it on a poster entitled “Our Favorite Books”.  The poster hangs on the wall for the children to remember and discuss the stories we’ve shared.

The Friday expanded class follows the usual school routine and schedule because the Pre-K1 children are here at school at the same time.  However, this group of children has the opportunity to participate in special activities unavailable to the other children.  Circle and story time are different, and we have lots of fun with creative movement and games.  We recently began our “favorite book” activity, where one child brings in their favorite book to be read at circle time.  The children love to share their books with each other, and love to listen to each favorite story.  We take a photograph of each child with their book and mount them on our “Favorite Book” poster for the children to see and discuss.  This activity will last for many weeks as all 14 children in the class take a turn to bring in their favorite book.

With the beginning of the school year under way, the craft table has been the gathering spot for many exciting projects.  September began with the creation of pasta necklaces.  Assorted shaped, sized, and colored pasta were introduced.  Stretchy string enabled the children to display their necklaces with great ease.  This is a wonderful way for the children to exercise their fine motor skills as well as strengthening their eye-hand coordination. 

“Sticker Art” followed with choices ranging from colored paper selection (dark blue or dark purple) and size (6” x 9” or 9” x 12”) to sticker color.  Fine motor skills were utilized and creative one-of-a-kind artwork was produced.

Next, the children were challenged to duplicate themselves with self- portraits.  Critical thinking was the key component here as the children  assessed various parts of their face and body.   Many of the children chose to also include members of their families in their drawings.  Conversation at the table was enthusiastic and smiling faces were abundant! 

We moved on to “tractor painting” which incorporated the use of toy tractors dipped in red paint.  This created a roadway of colorful tread marks on a canvas of yellow construction paper.  The children eagerly took on this task and were excited by their artistic outcomes. 

Finger-painting was met with great anticipation as the children were given an opportunity to experience a real tactile sensation.  Spoonfuls of yellow and red paint were applied producing an infusion of color.  Color change was noted with exclamations of “look, it turned orange!”  Currently, these finger-painting creations are colorfully decorating our walls.

At the start of school the children were immediately “drawn” to the science center by a variety of magnets.  There were U-shaped magnets and magnetic wands along with items that would stick and items that would not.  The children experimented with many objects around the school.  They had lots of fun guessing what would stick and why.  This was a great hands-on activity for them to explore the wonders of magnetism. 

Next out were “tornado” bottles.  These are made by using a connector to attach two soda bottles together, one partly filled with water with added shimmer paint.  To create a “tornado” you tip the bottles upside down and the water swirls as it empties into the other bottle attached to it.  The children control how “big of a tornado” they create by moving the bottles in different ways.  This is another hands-on activity the children