Learning All About Today has been a favorite of ours lately during circle time, discussing the weather, days of the week, and the month, day and year it is! Miya replied "August", as Ms Toni pointed to the different words. 

Then one  by one they broke off into centers. Dax opted for some self serve snack, while Wren, Teo, Asher, Paislie and Ben went for the Construction Center. Miya made her way to Dramatic Play Center, and soon after Teo cleaned up his construction work to move to the Science Center, where he practiced putting batteries in a flashlight and checking if it turns on or off! We counted 2 minutes, then began our clean up. 

It was time to march outside for free play/exploration. 

We have had such an amazing first week here in our new classroom.  We explored all our new work stations, learned new Montessori terms and lesson, celebrated Maya and Leina's graduation to Kinder, and had dance parties for Zoe Myers last day at the Sprout.
We started our morning off outside with a dance party and an art activity with all of out friends.  We also had a play date with our new friend Addie who will  be joining our class next week.  She and her mom came to paint with is as we made a collage using paint with all of the classes.  
This afternoon per Zoe's request we had a black light dance party in our classroom and made smoothies for her last day.
We are all so excited about this new school year and can't wait to start another great week here in the Shining Stars class!

Have a great weekend! We will see you Monday!

What a Thursday! We started off our day on the playground had a lovely presentation by Toni on how our new snack center in the classroom will function for now on. Our friends carried glass plates with two hands around the dome a few times and even balanced pieces of mulch on them, pretending it was their snack. Then we went inside to work and some friends visited the snack center throughout the morning.

We had a picnic for lunch and after nap we celebrated Leina's last day as a sprout, as she is going off to kindergarten on Monday! For her celebration she wanted to have a black light costume dance party, in which the toddlers joined us! We also decorated and signed a rad banner for her.

Day 2 of our new school year is in the books, and what a pleasant day it was!  

Jasper and Miya were exploring the new car outside, and Dax and Ben came to check it out also.

Our morning sensory started with Ms Toni checking on the baby carrots in the garden. She then explained with plenty of water and sun, our fruits and vegetables have grown to be very big! We took them to the picnic table to offer anyone who wanted a taste. 

Once the toddlers and pre-tots made their way inside, Toni had all primary friends (except for jette, zoe, and leina) come to the picnic table and turn on their listening ears for todays first presentation of a lesson. She first explained the importance of focus and patience, when carrying a tray. She acted out a scenario that had me play the "guide" and she played the "Sprout", she showed everyone how lessons are on trays, and in order to work on a lesson, first there must be a presentation done by a teacher, showing them how to use the particular material.

secondly, they all found objects to put on their tray and practice carrying around the playground. First they walked slowly along the border, then inched their way onto the border, balancing while holding onto their tray. Some friends move quick, trying to keep up with her, while others stayed behind focusing on their tray and steps. 

Lastly, was our inside demonstrations/presentations of lesson and new work centers. We first made our way to the MATH center, where there are various counting and sorting lessons. Next is the WRITING center, with different lessons to practice their writing from lined paper, to construction paper, to dry erase markers to practice with. The CONSTRUCTION center was next, which was most of the boys favorite center, as they got to be as creative as possible creating roads and tracks for their vehicles to drive on. 

DRAMATIC PLAY was next, followed by the PRACTICAL LIFE center and SCIENCE center, which seemed to fascinate everyone as they noticed the magnet lesson and weather tellers in the science center. 

As we woke up from nap, one by one each friend rolled up their nap mat, and got ready to start their afternoon! Today, we worked on mobiles to hang in our classroom and some to gift to our baby friends! 

We went on a nature walk, to find natural materials to hang.They collected leaves, twigs, branches, pine cones, and sunflower leaves (which are huge!) Then we took them to the deck and added them to our other materials we had. 

On one table, we set up index cards, glue, glitter, different colored pom-poms and much more. On the other table, friends could paint their natural material.  It was a huge success and the babies were super excited to receive their mobile and thanked all my friends. (the teachers thanked us, not babies :) )  by that time it was time to clean up, and make our way outside.




Dom 

What a day! Ivy joined us today and thoroughly enjoyed being a shining star! During morning snack Arielle shared some photos of herself when she was young and then we talked about the letter Rr and Ss and explored the boxes, and read My Rr Book. We had a great time during centers and used our new number lines and large tie dye blanket many different ways. We also vrought Bento Cafe to life and used the menus donated by families to pretend we were ordering food.

During outside time we did yoga with Arielle, the pre-tots, and the toddlers!  It was nice to stretch our bodies out on the playground.

During lunch we reflected on our past experiences of the restaurant unit by looking at and talking about the restaurant unit documentation board. Then we discussed where our food comes from.

After nap we  water colored, played in centers (it was too hot to do splash day) and celebrated Tristan's fourth birthday. Amazing Thursday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TRISTAN!