Harvest Time!

So my new route home from work just happens go right by my favorite thrift store.. I raided the seasonal section  one day after school last week... I was excited with glee as I entered the store and saw racks with all cute-sy fall-y things.. I picked up these scarecrows for a dollar!! ..and pumpkins/mini wooden crates (pictured below). 

We are beginning are harvest unit and visiting a pumpkin patch at the end of October. The pretend center is a fall farmer's market.  Students can pretend to shop for harvest foods and seed packets  in the Apple Market and have pies and apple juice in the Apple Cafe. The pretend foods are plastic, felt, and crochet. Since we are also learning about textures this week I thought it would be fun to reinforce those texture words (soft, bumpy, hard, etc. ) with the foods. 

In college, one of our projects was to make a prop box.  My prop box was a grocery store..I knew one day these items would come in handy! 

The vocabulary is from:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vegetable-Picture-Cards-for-Vocabulary-ESL and  http://candokinders.blogspot.com/2011_10_02_archive.htm

This activity is in our math center for next week.  Students draw out an apple and color in the corresponding number on the paper. I have activity similar to this in ABC center and students have done so well at it. The free download for the activity is from http://mrsalbanesesclass.blogspot.com/2011/09/apple-fun.html?m=1

This game is also in our math center for next week.  Students count and match the pom poms "apples" to the dots on the apple tree. 

Another math game... this can be a one or two person game. A student rolls the dice...counts the dots..places the corresponding number of acorns on the mat.  I bought some plastic acorns at hobby lobby this weekend.. btw hobby lobby is having 40% off all fall decor/craft items! The game board is free from  http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/search/label/hands-on%20activity?updated-max=2010-10-30T06%3A29%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=20  There are also many other cute gameboards on her blog.

I love these mini pocket charts from Target..it's too bad they are out of them..I should have bought three more. I made this matching fall math game on photoshop. 

These vocab cards pictured in our ABC center are available for free from  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Word-Wall-Words

I was putting the vocab for our next unit into the pocket charts during our last center rotation Friday...One of my students started copying the new words in our writing center and drawing the pictures.. I was so excited for her I took a photo! I love having the vocab in every center..I am also trying to incorporate paper and pencils in many centers...an idea my fellow pre-k teachers/co-workers introduced me to.  

This is an activity in our ABC center. Students draw out a popsicle stick with letter stickers on it...they can say the letter and find the letter on the sheet..then color it in.. I'd really like dot markers for this game. 

Wikki Sticks are so awesome!!  Wikki Sticks alphabet cards cost a fortune..so I made some on construction paper and laminated them. The students can bend, curve, and form the letters. The students found out that wikki sticks are "sticky" ..another one of our texture words!! 

I finally found a use for picnic scrapbook paper that i've been hoarding for  ten years!  I made these cards with the same vocab and pictures from the math center. This is a harvest "matching game" and I picked up the apple basket from a garage sale..

Science center - Pumpkin basket for books (Goodwill find!) and baskets for vocab cards/pencils/notecards

My first day of fall project!  I made these life cycle posters (for science center) this weekend with free printable cards from  http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/Cultural-Materials_ep_61-1.html (click under Botany)

I love fall!!