Arielle returned today and was very happy to see all the smiling faces today. We started the day off with a game of chase, then had a picnic snack. We watched the letter Rr video during lunch and Dax did the secret sack and stumped everybody with a neon golf ball!

We did some yoga after nap and it was overall a very chill day!

Happy Wednesday!  This morning we had a play date with our new friend Byron during snack and centers.  Byron has an older sister who use to attend Green Sprout, they both are really good friends with kiddos who are in the Shining Stars!  How awesome!  Byron had a great time hanging out with the Shining Stars this morning and we all can’t wait for him to be in our class everyday!

During centers the Shining Stars really enjoyed playing in Bento Café with a sushi set that Jasper graciously shared with our class.  Thanks Jasper!!  After centers we headed outside to enjoy the cool breeze that Austin gave us this morning.

During lunch we went through the Qq box and we also did an experiment with celery and food coloring.  We got three different jars, out celery pieces in each jar and three different food colors in each jar; red blue and green.  We all took predictions about what we think is going to happen to the celery.  Some of our friends think nothing is going to happen while some of our other friends think the celery is going to turn the color we put in each jar. 

Before nap our friend Jette read us our story.  He read the Qq book to us all.  Good job Jette!

After nap we had a special snack for the letter Qq.  We ate queso, both vegan and non.  We also ate Quinoa and okra from Miss Arielle’s garden.  Once we finished our snack we made hot chocolate as a part of our party for earning ten stickers as a class.

We did not do splash day today due to some of our friends not having their swim suits but the kiddos that still wanted to participate in splash day headed to the deck with the toddlers as our other friends continued to play in Bento Café.  Also during this time we had the chance to bounce on Rody and Kody to finish our celebration for earning ten stickers!  We then marched outside with Mr. Nick to finish another fabulous here at the Sprout!

Miss Arielle will be out for the rest of the week because she is going on a cruise with her family.  Cate will be subbing for her and we are all super excited to spend so much time with our good friend Cate!  We will be having an extra long splash day tomorrow to make up for not having it yesterday.  See everyone tomorrow, have a great night!

Much Love!

Lizzie was out again today so Cate subbed, which we alwats enjoy. We started our day off with a community-wide game of chase on the playground. Then we lined up to board a "train" to Bento Cafe, where we ate snack and told Cate all about our restaurant unit and Bento. Maya was our snack time cashier.

After snack we baked cookies and pancakes for the customers at Bento,  and even dog treats for their pooches, using play doh and a varitey of play doh and cooking tools, such as cookie cutters, a rolling pin, and even chop sticks!

Afterwards we played in centers, especially our new restaurant center, where friends cooked and served all kinds of delicious foods to the customers! Some friends enjoyed playing with math manipulative games. When we were done with centers the Shining Stars did such a good job cleaning up that they earned their last sticker for a Rody and Kody party, which we will celebrate tomorrow!

During lunch we talked about the letter Qq, reviewed the Qq box, read My Qq Book, and watched the letter Qq video. Before nap Jette read a story (Green Eggs and Ham) aloud, and then Maya read one (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) to the class. We are enjoying books about food lately, which ties into our reataurrant unit perfectly!

After nap we ate snack, which included a carrot from the GS garden! Then we did yoga. What a great Tuesday!

Happy Friday everyone!  We certainly had a fantastic day here in the Shining Star room!  We started our day off outside in our costumes for an 80’s dance party!  All the kiddos looked so amazing in their costumes today!  We decided to eat snack outside because it felt so amazing this morning.  After we ate snack and ran around some more we decided to go inside and explore out newly designed classroom.  Yesterday we set up our “Bento Café” in our dramatic plat area.  The Shining Stars fully embraced the new set up.  We had waitress’ waiters, bus boys and girls, costumers, cashier, hostesses and host.  Each kiddo played an important role is the success of our first Bento Café experience.  During lunch we recapped our experience at the café.  During lunch we also did Secret Sack that Hank brought back.  In the sack was a piece of paper, how perfect because paper starts the letter we are focusing on this week!  Good job Hank!  After nap we got ready for our cooking project.  Today we made tacos!  We used black beans, avocado, and soyrizo (vegan chorizo) and cheese-both vegan and non. The kiddos absolutely loved building their own taco gobbling them up for our afternoon snack.  We had such an amazing today and can’t wait to jump into the letter Qq next week and continue our unit about restaurants.  Have a great weekend everyone, see you Monday!

We were happy for today's sunshine, as we didn't get much yesterday. We played outside until snack, then lined up to "take an airplane to Bento Cafe" (our made-up, pretend restaurant in tour classroon.) As we ate snack we reviewed the notes from yesterday's discussion about restaurants (particularly the menu items we came up with) and continued to talk about what we know about them (Arielle wrote down their ideas, as documentation is an important aspect of the Reggio approach.)

After snack Maya and Leina led circle time and then we got back into our "airplane" and flew to the playground, pretending it was a kitchen. We brought different types of uncooked pasta noodles and rice outside in bins, which our friends used to make all sorts of foods. They used the playground kitchen set to bake and prepare the foods, sifters to sift the rice from the pasta, bowls and pots to mix ingredients, empty bubble containers (used as seasoning and salt/pepper shakers,) trays to serve food on, etc. There was lots of rich dialogue taking place and many toddlers and pre-tots joined in the fun.

When it was time for lunch we decided to take a helicopter to Bento Cafe, which was now located in Chicago. During lunch we talked about foods that start with the letter Pp, which Arielle wrote down. Then we reviewed the letter Pp box .

We read a big book titled Growing Vegetable Soup before naptime and planned to read Green Eggs and Ham later.

After nap we continued our ongoing discussion about restaurants and food as we ate snack, then all of our friends had a blast during splash day! At the end of the day, during Arielle's cleaning period, Kinder Blossom help create a new restaurant-themed center near the kitchen center using tables, chairs, sheets for table cloths, a cash register, money, menus (our own and some from real restaurants,) a notepad and pencil for taking orders, an apron, etc.

We are so excited about this Reggio-style unit/project, which seems to have endless possibilities! Please feel free to donate/share any type of items restaurant/food-related  materials, such as costumes (aprons, chef hat, etc.,) play food, items used for cooking and baking (real or toys,) tablecloths, menus, chopsticks, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Tomorrow is costume day! Woo hoo!

Happy Monday everyone! We hope everyone had a great weekend!  We wanted to tell everyone how much we enjoyed out parent teacher conferences on Saturday.  It is such a treat to be able to actually sit down and talk about how well your amazing kiddos are doing in school and to share funny stories.
It was a very wet Monday today so we stayed inside this morning.  We only had 5 kiddos this until snack so we all sat at the table and enjoyed coloring with high lighters to make more art that will glow in our black lights.  Once more of out friends arrived we got ready for snack.  This week we are focusing on the letter Pp so today we decided to have pancakes and pineapple for snack.  After snack we headed to the carpet for Show and Tell.
We then went to centers while Leina, Maya, and Jette went to Kinder Blossom.
This afternoon after snack we enjoyed yoga.  During yoga the kiddos pretended they were taking a trip around the world! Everyone had a really great day today!
Much love, see you tomorrow.

Today we had one of the most epic black light dance parties ever!  We gave each kiddo each two neon green glow sticks to play with and turned on some daft punk and had ourselves a party!!! We did a parade around the classroom and a dance circle for each kiddo to show off their moves, and can I just say these kids can move and groove!
During lunch we went through the Oo Box.
After nap we took a vote whether we wanted to play in centers or do splash day and the kiddos voted to play in centers.

We had a awesome day here in the Shining Star room!
Much Love

I have many videos of the dance party and am trying to figure out how to post them, hopefully I will get them up later today :)