September 18th, 2012

Today we have five sprouts, as we will have for now on until another child starts, which may be in November. Sophie was the first to arrive and went straight to the playscape to climb up to the top with no help at all. She looked like she wanted to slide down but did not want any assistance in doing so (she’s an independent woman!) She hung out up there for most of the morning, checking out the playground from the top of the playscape.

                Wynn, Clara, Ancel, and Olive all arrived around the same time and enjoyed watching the teachers rake the leaves and seedpods on the playground and then throw them into a wheelbarrow to go to the compost pile. Shortly afterwards we went in for snack (this morning went by quickly!) Everybody did a wonderful job at going up the ramp to the classroom. Alanna from the toddler room joined us, as Jackie (one of the toddler teachers) was at a doctor’s appointment. Jackie arrived back to Green Sprout by the time snack was over, so Alanna said bye to the pre-tots and went into her classroom to join her toddler classmates. She was an excellent friend to eat with.

                We did calendar while they ate (they are starting to get very excited when it’s calendar time) and when snack was over we did diaper changes and circle time. They all did an incredible job at sitting on the rugs that were layed out in a circle. They are really getting this routine down! Wynn started to get a little antsy (which doesn’t surprise us for him being a one-year-old) so he sat in Arielle’s lap, and Clara sat in Cherokee’s lap. As usual, we started with the Hello song, which always makes them smile. Then we sang the Little White Box song (which we learned from the fabulous Toni.) They really enjoy songs that involve singing about each and every one of them. We reviewed the color red briefly in a few of our books and then our monkey puppet announced that it was time to go outside, but instead of the deck we would be going to the playground to play with mud (their sensory experience of the day.) This change in routine confused them, as Olive led everybody to the door leading to the deck.

                I was very impressed at everybody’s ability to walk down the ramp to the playground. Since Sophie is new to the challenge, she waited at the top for my help (she held my hand going down) but everybody body else walked straight down without holding onto the railing. Clara even tripped and fell on her way down (nothing bad) and got straight up and kept going. What a trooper!

                Out on the playground I took the water hose and made some mud on the ground. We started off with scoops (I couldn’t find any shovels. Ancel’s mom inspired me to include shovels in their play) to scoop the mud. Ancel immediately started scooping, Wynn felt the mud in between his fingers, Clara rubbed mud on her face (just enough to do some light face painting, but none in the eyes or mouth,) Olive squished the mud in her hand, and Sophie sat down right in the middle of the mud pile and enjoyed moving around in it (her little bloomers were very brown afterwards.) The toddlers came outside and saw what we were doing and felt inspired to do some mud face painting! Jackie whipped up a bowl of mud and gave them cat whiskers, mustaches, uni-brows, and so on. The pre-tots were not interested in the face painting so we did not give them any muddy designs on their faces.

                At 10:15 we had a fire drill. We lined up at the gate on the playground and walked together to the driveway, where we met up with the rest of the school. Toni came out and we all talked about fire safety and then headed back to the playground to continue playing. They all did an excellent job during the fire drill. We are so proud of our class. J

                A little while later we ate lunch. We were impressed with some of our friend’s ability to eat with a spoon, such as Ancel, Clara, and Olive. Wynn was fed his yummy lunch by Cherokee, and Sophie (the independent woman) didn’t want a spoon and chose to eat with her hands, which is perfectly fine. She was very sleepy and didn’t make a peep during lunchtime.

                Nap went smoothly and our early risers (today it was Wynn and Clara) were very quiet while they relaxed on their nap mats waiting for their other friends to wake up. After nap we did some painting with the color red (tempera paint) and then had a very long snack with fun music playing and even some dancing in our seats. What a safe, messy, and enjoyable Tuesday!