A day with Gage!

Hello! We had a great start to our week today. All of our friends (Noah, Wynn, Olive, and Hunter) except Sophie (who is is Boston; we miss her) and Ancel arrived on the playground, including our friend from the infant room, Gage, who had a long play date with us today. Overall he had a great day and we were happy to spend it with him!

                When we went inside for snack Ancel arrived. Our friends had four different fruits to choose from this morning: apricots, raisins, craisins, and prunes. We provided each kid with all four and it was fun seeing who picked what out of their bowls. We were surprised to see how many friends liked prunes, as we have never provided them for snack before. Yum! After eating some friends did some artwork with chalk, markers, pencils, or crayons on triangle-shaped pieces of paper.

                Gage had his first official circle time with us today and our older friends showed him the drill. He did a great job sitting on a rug and participating! We sang the hello song, followed by zoom, zoom, zoom. Then we discussed triangles and pointed to pictures of triangles found in three different children’s books. We also presented a flash card with a triangle on it (the same one that’s hanging on the bulletin board next to the sign-in/out sheet. Our friends watched intently as we showed them all the triangles. Then Daniel the dinosaur/dragon puppet gave everybody lots of kisses and told them one-by-one that he loves them very much. We announced that it was time to head to the deck and we pointed to the door that leads to it. Our friends jumped up and started heading out of the room. On the way to the deck we passed through the toddler and primary classes. They were eating snack; it’s always fun for our friends to see what the other classes are doing. Both classes greeted us kindly as we filed through their classroom.

                On the deck Gage and Wynn bonded while exploring a big roll of bubble wrap. Hunter mounted herself on the fire truck (on her own), Olive checked out the bikes, Noah cuddled with Arielle (what a snuggly guy he is) and Ancel found a duck watering can that he really likes. He walked up to Arielle to show it to her and she said “quack, quack” then turned it around to give him kisses with its beak. He loved it!

                After a while out there Wynn started his own game of peek-a-boo by hiding behind the playhouse door and popping his head up at Arielle. He giggled with excitement when she would say “where is Wynn? There he is!” Ancel announced “thank you” several times and spent some time climbing on the playhouse. Gage relaxed on a boppy (he seemed tired, as it was currently the time that his infant class was taking their first nap. He was a trooper and powered through the morning until our naptime, where he slept well with our friends.) Olive rode the famous eggplant and Hunter explored the different bikes. Noah played with a scrub brush by dropping it into a cylindrical container.

                Our friends ate very well during lunch and we discussed the different types of food each one was eating. During that time Gage showed us how he makes a very interesting sound, as well as giggle and clap. None of our friends tried to leave the table while eating or before they were finished with their lunch, which is pretty awesome! Good job, guys!

                After nap we used glue for the first time in our class by gluing small foam triangles to paper. Gage returned to the infant room afterwards to see his infant buddies awake from their second nap. We had a lot of fun with him today and look forward to him joining our class permanently either on Friday or next week, depending on how his play dates with us go. It’s been a fantastic Monday!

Here are some important side notes:

*Please continue to provide a labeled spoon/fork (if needed for child to eat lunch items) in their lunch box each day. Thanks!

*All items (especially water and milk bottles) must be labeled with child’s FIRST NAME and LAST INITIAL before arriving at school every day. Thanks!

*We would appreciate if all water bottles and milk sippy cups are filled with water by the time arrives at school. This makes our morning run smoother and decreases the number of small tasks we must do in order to start our day. Thanks!

*Please continue to bring in a hand towel for your sprout, if you haven’t already. Thanks!

*Part of our peace education curriculum involves students developing awareness of others. If you have not already provided photos of your child, a family collage/poster/portrait, and a CD or two of music that your family listens to, please do so ASAP. Thanks!