What an awesome Thursday!

                Hello! What a wonderful Thursday we had! Five pre-tots today (Olive, Wynn, Hunter, Ancel, and Clara) and two teachers (Arielle and Cherokee, who left at noon and Sarah came in to sub.) Hunter was the first to arrive today. She explored a hula hoop on the playground while sitting (rolling it around herself and lifting it up.) Olive was the next to arrive and promptly started watering the garden with toddler Teo. When Clara arrived we headed inside for snack and ran into Wynn and Ancel arriving to school.

                After snack we washed hands (they are all getting really good at the hand-washing routine) and went over the calendar. Then we all met on the carpet for circle time. Today we introduced personal, small rugs to each child to sit on in a circle. Olive, Hunter, and Ancel sat on their rugs (Olive and Hunter sat the entire time, but Ancel kept getting excited and wanting to walk around) and Wynn and Clara sat in Cherokee and Arielle’s laps on top of their rugs. We all sang the Hello song, followed by Twinkle, Twinkle. Then Cherokee read a book about tigers and we wrapped up circle time to head to the deck (it’ll become a lengthier experience as time goes on.)

                On the deck Olive went straight to the first truck. She sat backwards on it and I pushed her around the deck and showed her how she could use her feet to push it herself. Clara took a long water break while relaxing on a boppy on top of a carpet, and Wynn joined her. Hunter was incredibly mobile today and went straight up the short slide to the top of the playhouse. Amazing! Ancel wandered around the deck checking out each toy, as usual. At one point he met up with Clara and they gazed into the plant bucket together, viewing the peach tree growing inside of it. Olive kept riding different bikes, and Wynn was very interested in pushing and pulling the bikes today.

                The playhouse was a popular destination this morning. Hunter and Clara hung out inside of it (today was their first day together in class) and Ancel would open and close the door to let them in and out. Then Ancel climbed to the top of the playhouse and, as usual, shouted “hello!” So cute! Olive rode her bike around it, and Wynn popped his head inside the window and started chatting with Ancel.

                Everybody was getting a little sweaty from the humidity, so went inside after half an hour out there, and spent the rest of the hour playing in the classroom. As we walked in we passed the primary class doing their circle time, Wynn ran over to them to greet them, which they loved.

                When we entered the classroom Olive went straight to the atelier to work with markers, chalk, and pencil. She didn’t put any of the materials in her mouth at all! Yay! (We’ve been working on “not for your mouth, friend” with all of the tots.) She also successfully opened and closed a marker. She was very proud of herself. Ancel, Hunter, Clara, and Wynn played with Cherokee on the other side of the room and had a blast playing with the tunnel toy that they crawl through.

                After nap they worked with colored pencils. Clara spent a lot of time focusing on her work. Wynn seems to really love the pencils, more than the other art materials we offer. Olive added some marker to her work. Hunter worked hard on holding the pencil, and Ancel liked switching colors. Leona came for an awesome Spanish class afterwards. They kiddos participated more than usual (they are getting more and more used to her visits.) Then we did some free play with Arielle and Sarah in the classroom. Today was a blast!

*Please bring in some extra photos of your child, if you’d like. We’d love to decorate the wall with their faces!

*Thanks so much for labeling their stuff today! Everybody did an awesome job.

*Tomorrow at 3:30 a potential sprout, Noah, will be joining us for a quick play date! Yay!

*On Monday we will have a sixth kid in our class, Sophie! Woo Hoo!

*Next week we will begin working on primary colors.