MESSY Wednesday!

What an incredibly muddy Wednesday it’s been! We arrived on the playground this morning (Ancel first, followed by Noah, Olive, Hunter, then Wynn) to find that there was some mud and raindrops on our equipment and ground. It was fun exploring the new mulch, as some of it was wet and some wasn’t, as well as our fabulous new climbing dome.

During snack we did calendar and Cherokee had the awesome idea of counting the days in both English and Spanish! We also did the weather and changed it from cloudy to wet. It’s always fun to change the status, as that doesn’t happen too often in this part of Texas!

After eating snack we handed each tot small gourd (one of which was a tiny pumpkin.) They loved to touch, roll, and even throw them (Noah’s got a great throwing arm!) Luckily they were not damaged and nobody was hurt. This activity is one we’ll keep around. Part of the Reggio approach is the act of focusing on learning activities/experiences that gain and hold their interest. Yay, we found yet another that lasted more than two minutes! J

During circle time we talked about how much we miss Sophie, who’s been home with a runny nose and cough all week. Hopefully she’ll be back tomorrow. We also talked about how Olive won’t be here tomorrow or Friday because she’ll be in Sedona, AZ and the Grand Canyon. Lucky! We sang the Hello song followed by Little White Box (since our color today is white.) Wynn sat nicely in Arielle’s lap and Noah and Olive spent some of circle time getting their diapers changed by Cherokee (but were definitely still included in the songs we sang.) Ancel and Hunter sat nicely on their own rug and clapped along to the songs. We discussed the color white and pointed out things that are white, such as our clothes and toys, including a big stuffed bunny that Ancel instantly showed lots of affection towards, which lasted the rest of circle time. What a sweetheart! Our puppet, Daniel the dinosaur (or is he a dragon?) asked Cherokee if she’d like to go to the deck, and of course she said yes. We pointed towards the door leading to the deck and Olive was the first to run to it. Everybody else followed, except Noah, who went to the other door, which is still awesome because that shows that he’s picking up on our circle-time-then-outside routine. J

On the deck Olive pushed a bike around, Noah displayed his awesome throwing skills again (in a safe way, tossing the gourds we brought outside,) Wynn found some balloons, Ancel climbed on the playscape (as usual,) and Hunter snuggled with Arielle until they both started playing the large drum together. Eventually Wynn and Ancel joined them. Arielle sang songs she made up on-the-spot (they don’t complain!) about their names.

Later on Hunter pushed sound buttons on a rolling toy. Olive, Noah, and Wynn played at the sensory table that had some rain water in it. Ancel handed out water bottles to each friend (he’s great at following simple directions and he knows each friends’ name,) and even held Olive’s water bottle as she drank from it (they’re “going steady.”) Hunter tasted the gourds (uncut,) Noah, Olive, and Ancel pulled around the dragon bike, Noah found a cool white scoop to walk around with, and Olive found a tiny mulch chip in the potted plant, which she proudly showed Arielle. Hunter went on to play with the sensory table and a scoop, Ancel continued to ride bikes, and Wynn moved a large baby toy around (I don’t know what exactly to call it, but it’s bigger than him!) Cherokee and Arielle had a blast singing songs like Sally the Camel and playing the drum. Suddenly our good friends the toddlers arrived and it was a party on the deck! Dom blew up some balloons and made squeaky sounds with them, which really confused Wynn (in an adorable way.)

Lunch was as messy as the playground, which is okay. The amazing thing is that all of our friends stayed seated practically the entire time! That’s really good improvement! Cherokee and I realized that us sitting down the entire time may help (modeling is very important, and we tend to be busy bodies during down times like lunch, so we were on our own best behavior to encourage them to be, too.) Our friends slept well and did such an amazing job resting while they waited for nap time to end. After nap we jammed out on a cool drum pad that Teo’s family is temporarily donating (so much fun!) and did some art with white chalk, crayons, and pencils.

Please check your email for the weekly email that will be sent today. Thanks, and have a great evening! Have fun, Olive, in Arizona! You’ll be here in spirit!