"F" Week and Community Helpers

I love the letter "F" and I really enjoy talking about "Community Helpers"! I know, I say that all the time, but I really do enjoy them. Both remind me of my Dad. He was a Birmingham City firefighter for many, many years so I love getting to tell my students some of his funny stories. We also enjoy "Fabulous Firehouse Friendship Fruit Salad" for our special cooking snack. It is a fun sharing snack! Everyone brings in their favorite fruit! We talk about sharing while we cut up the fruit and throw it in one huge bowl. Then everyone gets a giant spoonful! YUMMY! It is always an adventure when the fruit starts coming in on friday morning. There have been years when literally EVERYONE brings in apples! This year it was grapes, we had lots of grapes!

One our of special craft projects this week was our shape firetruck. On Monday we made our fire! It was our fun squishy painting. We squeeze on red, yellow, orange and little brown paint onto a BIG piece of paper. Next, we cover it with clear plastic wrap and squish the paints all together. After several days the paint is dry enough to cut into the shape of a flame. next comes the firetruck! I loved hearing the students tell me the shapes as we glued and glued and glued. We also had a lot of fun on our "FABULOUS FUN FRIDAY" (yes, that is what we call it each week!) pretending to be firefighters. We headed outside armed with chalk and dishwashing bottles filled with water. (By the way, those bottles are really heavy!) First we all drew FIRE on the wall!Next, we grabbed the bottles and put out the fire!As everyone knows when you are outside AND your have chalk you just HAVE to write on the driveway! We had a great FABULOUS FUN FRIDAY!

During the week we worked on our "Fat Frogs". This is one of the alphabet projects that has really evolved over the years. I started by using an Ellison cut out of a frog, sitting on a lily pad. I eventually found the picture of a fat frog and we color him by placing him on top of sandpaper and rubbing him with a green crayon. Then one year we added the water (painted with a fork of course!). Last year the five flies, using fingerprints, were added, and finally this year four friendly fingerprint fish joined the party. FUN, FUN, FUN!
Oh, and we named him Fred!

Thanks for coming by and checking on us.

Next week . . . "G" week and the "Great Garbage Games"!