Can you believe November's here??

Wow!! We had an exciting last week of October! Our field trip was lots of fun, and our party was awesome!! Thanks to Asa's mom, Katelyn's mom, Arley's mom and Caylin's mom for a great time!! We had fun Halloween music playing. First, we made the cutest little handprint bats you have ever seen!! Then, we ate and ate. We had hot dogs, cheese puffs and spooky green punch. The kids loved it! We had the best time jumping for donuts!! Don't worry, I have LOTS of pics to help explain that one!! Everybody played that game. It was great! Powdered donuts are a hit with everybody. Everytime I looked up, another child was sneaking into the bag!! We finished up with popcorn and cotton candy! Amazingly enough, almost all of the kids still took a nap after that!!
It's time to get November started. We will begin talking about the Early Settlers this week. Go ahead and mark your calendars. On the Monday before Thanksgiving, we will have our annual Thanksgiving program and covered dish feast. I will have the list to sign up for that this week. It is always a wonderful time for everyone. Everyone is invited!

We are beginning something new in our older class, and I can't wait to begin to see the results of this effort. A couple of parents and I have looked into the idea of Philosophy for children. I have looked into a program created at Mt. Holyoke University, and I am FASCINATED! They use children's literature to create question sets that encourage deeper thinking, philosophical thinking. I am interested in seeing changes in children when they are taught to look beyond the simple answer, to find deeper meaning in things. We started this week with my favorite book, Harold and the Purple Crayon. It was interesting to me that the children, across the board, answered that the moon in the story was not real, because it was a different shape than the moon we see, but if it had been the same shape, it would have been real. They also said that he almost drowned because the water was deep, and the reason he didn't was because he had a boat. If you are not familiar with the story, I have it at His Kids for you to see. It's about a little boy who basically creates his world with a purple crayon. It will be interesting to me to see if they answer differently at the end or the school year.
I am enjoying a long weekend in North GA with my family, but I will be back on Tuesday. I hope to have Halloween pics added soon. I look forward to a great week!