Today was super relaxed. We spent time playing in centers after having an amazing circle time (great behavior and participation from all) where we discussed a very important rule of not opening a door at green sprout unless you have been given permission to by your teacher(s).  As we were doing circle time Cherokee walked through the room and complimented us on how well our friends could read our classmates' names during our daily "whose name is this" cirlce time activity.

Lunch was so chill, Dom commented on it. Then after lunch we read a book and as Nick came walking through the room as he headed to the pre-tot room, he complimented us on how well we listened to Arielle's words when she reminded us that we may remain seated and wave to Nick, instead of all rushing to him to hug him (since he was bustly heading to another class, as he does everyday at noon.) This is something we have been working on ever since Arielle started teaching in this room and Nick became a school-wide floater/helper.

Afte nap Liz did some cooking with us, which as super awesome. They made peanut butter cups and smores!

Tomorrow is our Rody and Kody popsicle party that the shining stars earned by getting 10 stickers by listening and following directions. We have been working on earning this party for a few weeks now and tomorrow we will celebrate great behavior by riding on Rody and Kody (Arielle's two bouncy, inflatable horses that she found at Toy Joy several years ago and havr been to many schools and festivals, receiving love from many kids and adults throughout their lives) and eating popsicles (non-dairy, so all of our friends and enjoy them!) Lizzie will be out tomorrow and Sarah will sub for her. There will be no primary blog tomorrow since Lizzie writes them on Fridays. On Monday Arielle will be out (volunteering as a cook for several bands at Head for the Hills festival in Kerrville, TX.)

Today after snack and a fabulous circle time we headed outside to make Oobleck once again.  Today we put the corn starch in the sensory tubs first then water.  Today we were more than successful!  We mixed the water, corn starch and blue food coloring to make gooey Oobleck just like in our Dr. Suess book. During this experiment the Shining Stars were describing how the corn starch felt before we added water.  They described it as “soft and powerdy”; once we added the water the consistency changed dramatically, the corn starch began to clump together and became more of a solid.  With Oobleck we can make it into a ball and then watch the ball “melt” into our hands.  Be sure to check out the awesome video so you can see the Oobleck in action!

This afternoon we spent some quality time with Mr. Nick and the infants.  We ate snack outside and the infants joined us from the infant room!  The Shining Stars abolsutely LOVED spending time with the babies.  Some of the girls even helped feed the babies.

After we ate snakc outside and spent time playing with the babies Mr. Nick led is in a dry ice experiment!  None of the Shining Stars have ever seen dry ice and were very excited to see how it worked.  Mr. Nick put dry ice and water in a container, then with a soapy towel the drifted the towel over the bucket to make smoke bubbles!  HOW COOL!  They kiddos loved popping the bubbles to see the smoke come out of everyone.  This was such a big hit we brought the experiment outside to the backyard to show all of our friends the dry ice experiment!

We attempted to make oobleck this morning on thr playground. We first looked at the Dr. Seuss book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck and then made predictions about what our oobleck will be like. When we made it we accidentally added too much water to the corn starch and it turned out very soupy and watery. Luckily the kids didn't know what to expect so they enjoyed it even though it was not anywhere near the correct consistency of oobleck. We added some green food dye and they had a blast mixing, scooping, and pouring it using many different tools, which is an important aspect of the Reggio style of encouraging exploration and usage of materials with an ultimate goal of mastering the use of the materials. Eventually sand, dirt, and mulch was thrown into the mix, providing over an hour of oobleck play. Later this week we will revisit the activity and use less water (Arielle learned her lesson!)

During lunch we held a discussion about construction and wrote down their ideas and thoughts, which will be used in planning our upcoming theme.

Dax brought an awesome book, Splat the Cat: Fishy Tales, which we read aloud a few times throughout the day. It was an incredibly appropriate story because it involves a class going on a field trip to an aquarium - just like we will! Perfect! Thanks, Dax!

This afternoon we enjoyed yoga class with Abby (and Nick.) Our friends listened to Abby so well that they earned a sticker for a Rody and Kody popsicle party! Yay!

Howdy folks! I hope everyone enjoyed this beautiful weekend we had and is ready to start another great week here at the Sprout!
This morning we enjoyed playing with a new game we found in the closet this weekend.  We played catch with paddles that are able to catch the ball which sticks to paddles when you catch them!  All the kiddos really enjoyed taking turns to explore this new toy.
After snack and reading Rhys's library book he brought about construction, we had circle time and Show and Tell.  The Shining Stars were very respectful to their friends as each kiddo had a turn to show us what they brought from home.
This afternoon after a long nap we enjoyed yoga with Miss Abby.  The Shining Stars absolutely love stretching their bodies and singing songs with Miss Abby. 
We did not have a chance to make our Oobleck today because of Show and Tell and Kinder Blossom but we are very excited to make our green slimy goo tomorrow!

I hope everyone's week started off as great as ours did here in the Shining Star room :)

Happy Friday folks!  We had so much fun today at the Sprout!  We started our day outside with our annual Friday Funday Dance party with the help of Miya’s dance mix.  Thanks Miya!!  We also enjoyed watering the garden with our brand new squirt bottles Miss Toni got us.  After snakc we made birthday cards for Miss Arielle!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIELLE!  Miss Cate came to play with us today because Arielle has the day off to enjoy her birthday.  We all love Miss Cate so much and we all were very excited we got to spend the day with her.

Once we woke up from a very long nap we washed our hands to get ready for a cooking project with Miss Liz!  Today we made veggie quesadillas. YUMMMY!  We used corn tortillas, cheese, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, and spinach.  We then melted the cheese and rolled the tortillas in a taco.  The kiddos absolutely loved the quesadillas! What a great way to end another fantastic week here at the Sprout!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! See you all on Monday J

This morning was very exciting due the twists and turns the weather was doing! It started out sunny and beautiful, then all the sudden a huge dafk cloud rolled over and it was rainy and sprinkly! It even caused a few adults to pull out their phones and check the weather (since it seemed like a tornado could appear) and the teachers briefly discussed a plan of action if that actually happened. Toni came out to the playground and started singing a song about wind and made everybody enjoy the crazy weather to its fullest. After a few sprinkles (we didn't go inside since it seemed the huge cloud was just passing through and was almost gone completely) it cleared up and guess what we saw? A double rainbow! Beautiful!

During morning snack and circle time we discussed how awesome the weather is and how I, Arielle, will not be at school tomorrow because I will be taking the day off for my birthday. Cate will be subbing and we love her! We also read the book, When I Feel Sad (and talked about it throughout the day, too.)

After circle time we broke into centers and when it came time to clean up and line up, our friends did such a good job listening and following directions that they earned their eighth sticker (out of ten) for a Rody and Kody popsicle party! How exciting!

When we went back outside the weather was fantastic! Warm and sunny, great for hula hooping and digging in the sandbox. Texas weather can sometimes be so charming. Sometimes.

After nap Kinder Blossom helped make fruit smoothies for the class to celebrate Arielle's birthday! They (the kids) actually decided that smoothies would be the perfect treat; what healthy kiddos!

Today we started out this morning and rushed inside to have snack and start on our science experiment; or “Science Excitement” that Maya called it.  Kinder Blossom (Leina, Maya, Dax and Zoey) setup our experiment today.  They gathered our materials that consisted of paper plates, milk, food coloring, and dish soap.  We poured the milk on the plates while they rest of our friends gathered around the table.  We then dropped food coloring in the milk and gave predictions of what we thought was going to happen to the food coloring as we dropped the dish soap in the milk. 

Leina said “The colors are going to swirl!”
Miya said “The colors are going to mix!”
Dax and Maya thought the milk was going to start bubbling.

We dropped the dish soap in the milk with the food coloring to watch all the colors swirl around each other making different patterns with the colors!   The Shining Star’s absolutely love this experiment and really enjoy watching the colors spin into different formations.

This afternoon we played in Centers sue to the rain.  Arielle and I took this opportunity to tap into our Reggio style unit of Construction by making a fort in our Construction Center; we got this idea from Tristan who told us he would really enjoy having a fort in the classroom.  We also made a road on the tables we moved into the Construction Center.  Needless to say once we completed these little projects all the Shining Stars were playing in the Construction Center together! 

See everyone tomorrow, have a great night!

Welcome back! Today we talked about our three-day-weekend during snack, as well as read one of the new library books by one of our favorite authors, David Shannon (David Goes to School) and started a fun science experiment in which we predicted whether or not food coloring will change the color of white carnations.Circle time was an excellent experience (great behavior all around) so our class earned their sixth sticker for a Rody and Kody popsicle party! Yay! Only four more to go. Good job, guys! After lunch we read another David Shannon book called Jangles before snuggling in out napmats and drifting off to sleep. After nap Miss Abby taught us a yoga lesson. What a great start of a four-day-week!

Happy Friday everyone!  What a fabulous Friday we have had at the Sprout today!  We spent all morning outside enjoying this beautiful weather.  We had a pretty epic dance party this morning; the kiddos really loved dancing to all types of music from Yo Gabba Gabba to trance and dubstep.  I have to say these little ones can bust a move!  We all enjoyed snack outside with all of our friends from the entire school.  After snack Miss Toni arrived and we began to sing songs.  We sang many of our Spanish songs we have learned from Mrs. Leona, who we miss dearly.  All the kiddos were very excited to request songs to sing in Spanish.  We then had a very exciting game of soccer and dug for buried treasure in the sandbox.

This afternoon Miss Liz led us in our cooking project!  We are so very happy to have Miss Liz back here at Green Sprout!  The kiddos made sun butter, oatmeal, dried pineapple and raisin balls.  They kiddos absolutely loved using their hands to stir, mix and eat the butter balls!  What a great way to end a fabulous week here at the Sprout!

Have a great long weekend!  See everyone on Tuesday :)
Love Lizzie

Today is Valentines day! We celebrated in the morning by playing outside, having a picnic snack, and making chains out of construction paper to hang in the tree on the playground during the party! The love celebration started around 4:00 and was definitely a BLAST! We love you!