Chill Wednesday

        Today we had one teacher (me, Arielle) and two pre-tots in our class (Olive and Wynn.) However, we spent an hour with Hunter, who was here from 8:30-9:30 for a play date! We all had tons of fun together and Hunter showed us how she could walk on her knees, something I’ve never seen a child do! She actually took her first step last night! She’ll be starting in the class in September. Her brother, Tristan, is in the primary class. Olive greeted her very sweetly (“hi!”)

            After snack we spent some time exploring seashells, our sensory objects of the day (I’ve been trying out objects found in nature with them so see what they really like.) Olive enjoyed holding them and walking around with them. A few times they were dropped and broke, but that wasn’t a big deal. She picked up the pieces and handed them to be. Wynn was interested for a very short period of time and more interested in other objects around the room.

            We did some free play afterwards. Having only two pre-tots allowed me to apply contact paper to Wynn’s family portrait and lower it to their height. He loved seeing pictures of himself and had a big smile on his face whenever I would point him out. I also lowered Clara’s, which he was very interested in. I explained to him that he was looking at pictures of Clara and her brother, Faustin. I ran out of contact paper and have made a note to myself (I’ve made the fridge door my new “note to self” area, as I am a big time note-taker) to get more contact paper so I can apply it to Olive’s family poster and lower it on the wall.

            We had a quick dance party and then, while relaxing music played in the background, we did circle time. We went over the calendar, sang, and talked about the newly lowered family photos. Then the two engaged in more free play. They were really enjoying spending that time in the classroom (playing with practically every set of toys) so I did not rush them immediately onto the deck today.

            Once we did make it onto the deck, we enjoyed the windy and cool weather (I’m guessing it’s coming from hurricane Issac.) I brought the seashells out there and Olive and I played a game of counting them as we dropped them into a bucket. Then she shook them around in there and got a kick out of the sound it made. Afterwards she proudly sat on the fire truck bike (backwards) and used her feet to rock it back and forth (probably in an attempt to make it go forwards.) Afterwards she had fun finding as many spinning gadgets of the bikes as she could, spun each as Wynn watched.

Wynn attempted to pull himself on top of the playscape but shortly afterwards he returned to Olive’s side. He’s been very interested in her hair today and I’ve been working with him on giving her gentle touches, which she doesn’t seem to mind. He spent lots of time exploring every inch of the deck today and was fascinated by objects that blew around in the wind. I’ll keep this in mind when planning an activity in which we can use a box fan to create our own wind.

They did a good job at staying on their nap mats after waking up from nap today! We’ve been working on staying down until nap is over. Since both children only nap for about an hour to an hour-and-a-half each day, we had plenty of time for practicing this patient behavior.

After nap we had a little over an hour until Leona, our wonderful Spanish teacher, arrived so we engaged in some free play. Sandy, a teacher who used to teach her and recently returned to teach in the baby room, hung out with the tots while I went on break. Leona arrived in and I returned to the classroom at 3:00 for some very fun Spanish songs and snack. Afterwards, we engaged in an art activity using some pastels on construction paper. It’s been another great day!

*I apologize for the lack of pictures on the blog recently. Cherokee was uploading and posting them on her computer, which she took with her on vacation. I’ve talked to Toni and we are working on figuring out how to get the pictures back up on the blog without Cherokee’s help. Today I was having some difficulty using the classroom camera  in the morning so we have fewer photos today.

*Volunteer opportunity: We have quite a bit of empty space on our walls, which could be filled with different pictures I’ve collected from magazines brochures, etc. If anyone is willing to cut out these photos and post them on the wall (and floor) securely with contact paper (providing the ultra sticky contact paper would be fabulous), I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

*I will not be here on Friday (8-31-12,) but we will have a sub or combine with the toddler class. There should only be three or fewer pre-tots that day.