Play School: 2010 topics and supplies

I said a few days ago that one of my goals in Play School this year is to have fun and encourage learning with Tempe, age 4 (almost) and Helena, age 2. The best way to do that is to plan lessons around the topics the girls are interested in.

This year we will start out learning about Our Earth in September: Inside the Earth, Volcanoes, Outside the Earth, Rocks, and Dirt. In October, we will learn about Inside My Body: My Senses, My Skeleton, and My Guts (Tempe has been asking about her "guts" a lot lately and I thought that works as a Halloween topic, too). November will be the last month we do Play School before the baby is born and I'm not sure when we will start again--January or February--so we will be learning about being Mommy's Helper: Chores Around the House, Being Kind, and Taking Care of Baby.

I have a large plastic bin that I store our Play School supplies in:

• washable paint and assorted paintbrushes (foam brushes, rollers, sponges, stamps, old toothbrushes, etc)
• construction paper and crayons
• gluesticks and white glue
• scissors
• recyclables (paper towel tubes, egg cartons, etc)
• pipe cleaners, cotton balls, pom poms, sequins, and googly eyes
• popsickle sticks
• clear contact paper
• magnetic letters and cookie sheet
• foam letters
• sensory bin and supplies (dry beans and rice, foam shapes, birdseed, plastic bugs, dry pasta, small balls/marbles, etc) and tools (funnels, measuring cups, clothespins, magnifying glass, toy cars, etc)

I've pretty much got September and October mapped out and hope to have November done too. As for 2011, I have some ideas for topics, but I still have a lot to do to be ready before the baby is born.