November Preschool Update

Wonderful October
Our October adventures included finding colorful leaves, making applesauce, and the many activities associated with our farm program. We worked hard to clean out our gardens and some of the classes started exploring pumpkins and how seeds travel.

Trees and Leaves
What a wonderful fall to explore the nature center grounds and find all of the colorful leaves falling from the trees. We raked leaves into piles and jumped in, and found out that the trees lose their leaves as they go dormant for the winter. The true colors of the leaves show through as they lose their chlorophyll.

Apples
We peeled, cored, and cut up apples to make applesauce that we enjoyed for snack. We tasted red, yellow, and green apples and charted our favorite ones (Elsa chose yellow as her favorite).

Farm Program
We visited Farmer Wendy at the old farm machinery and found a lot of wonderful activities to do. We dug for potatoes, washed clothes on a washboard, shelled corn, and sang songs.

November Nature Experiences
As we explore the natural world at Audubon in November, we'll have experiences that include harvest time, seed dispersal, and animals preparing for winter. We will also be thinking about what we are thankful for as Thanksgiving approaches and we will be on the search for turkeys. We will learn what snakes do to get ready for winter as Naturalist Jim presents a special snake program at the end of the month. The week of Thanksgiving we will have harvest soup parties in each class.

Harvest
As part of our harvest theme, we will be cutting open pumpkins to find the seeds inside. We will also be setting up a farmer's market in each classroom, where the children will be buying and selling all sorts of vegetables, fruits and flowers, just like the farmer's markets in our communities.

Seed Dispersal
Fall is a great time to examine the variety of ways that plants disperse their seeds. Some hitch a ride (burdock), or fly in the air (milkweed), or hide inside a fruit or vegetable (pumpkin). We'll explore the nature center and discover how seeds travel.

Animals Preparing for Winter
Animals prepare for winter in different ways. Squirrels collect food, some birds migrate, and other animals hibernate (such as frogs, snakes, and groundhogs). We will be exploring the nature center for all the ways animals are getting ready for winter.