A very MESSY Monday!

                Today all of our friends showed up! It was great seeing all of their faces and knowing that none of them are currently sick with that nasty bug that was going around last week (all but poor Cherokee, who left during naptime.) We sure did miss them on Friday! We were glad to hear that nobody had any major illness over the weekend. Wynn actually rocked out at ACL and Olive went to a wedding the beautiful Sedona, AZ, and checked out the Grand Canyon!

                Six of our seven friends arrived on the playground this morning (Sophie, Clara, Wynn, Olive, Hunter, and Noah.) Ancel did not arrive until after lunch because he was attending a Huggies audition! Woo hoo!

                We played for a while on the playground and then signed the word “eat” and rallied our friends inside for snack. Arielle sat on the floor with them and sang a variety of songs while Cherokee washed their hands. We had pineapple and multi-grain cheerios. We were surprised at how few pineapple chunks were eaten! The cheerios, as always, were a huge hit, though.

After snack some friends did some artwork with black crayons and markers while waiting for their friends to finish eating. They also checked out the new pumpkins in the classroom (a normal, large-sized one and an adorable pie pumpkin!) We’ll carve them either at the end of this week or beginning of next.

We changed everybody’s diapers and took their shirts and pants off (they were only wearing diapers and shoes) in order to prepare for the super messy sensory activity we were about to do. We did circle time outside on the deck instead of inside today. Then we introduced the sprouts to that super messy activity: mixing flour and water! They absolutely loved it, one of the only sensory activities that had everybody’s interest! Within minutes everybody (including the teachers) was crusty from the mixture. We were glad we did the activity on the deck. What a mess we would have had to clean up in the classroom!

After the activity, Clara helped clean up the deck with a towel. She really enjoyed it! We’re guessing she practices wiping things down at home. Olive, Sophie, and Wynn all sat down at the activity block/bead rollercoaster, and worked on it together. Hunter found a little yellow toy star that she adored, then found an alligator toy and sang a song in which the lyrics were the word “daddy” repeated over and over again.  Noah hung out at the sensory table and scooped water.

Later on Hunter practiced going up and down the slide, which she really enjoyed. Noah was hanging out nearby opening and closing the door of the playhouse. Olive rested on the ground (probably worn out from her vacation over the weekend.) Sophie chilled at the sensory table, and Wynn was very interested in what Olive was up to, which was lying on the ground. He joined her by laying down right next to her. J

We started lunch a little early because a lot of our friends seemed pretty tired. Ancel arrived when lunch was ending and nap was beginning, and went straight to sleep (he had already had a big day of auditioning! Good luck, Ancel!) Everybody slept well and while they were sleeping Arielle made arrangements to have her boyfriend and our friendly photographer, Kevin, come in to substitute for Cherokee, since poor Cherokee was feeling awfully sick and in no way wanted to get anybody else sick. When we woke up we did some art with black paint, adding even more of a mess into our day! Then we ate snack and played a lot. We are looking forward to starting our shape unit tomorrow. We will start with circles for tomorrow and Wednesday, and squares on Thursday and Friday. If you have anything to bring in to add to this unit (circle/square-shaped toys, clothes with the shapes on it, etc.) please feel free to share them with the class, but make sure they are labeled with your child’s first name and last initial. Thanks!

*Arielle will be working on the November newsletter this week. Please feel free to give her suggestions on what you’d like her to include in it! Thanks!