Happy Oh Happy Friday!

Fridays are special here at the Sprout. We leave this day open for the kiddo’s inspirations on what exploration, play, & activities we will do. We start the day off with music and dance. We alternate between the wonderful Jackie G and her guitar and fun Pandora stations blasting from the boom box! We gather together in the backyard for morning drop offs/community dance party!

After dance party, we gathered for family AM snack as we planned out our day! We talked more about self awareness and the different things our bodies are capable of doing! The energy was feeling pretty high after such a fun musical session and physical activity talk so it was all agreed that circle time would include some stretching, exercises, and yoga! One the class’ favorite counting activities is to count to 10 while completing a stretch. We do a series of jumps, running in place, and yoga stretches! Today Maya and archer were sharing great yoga poses with the class and got into a little dispute over technical differences in the same pose. Archer insisted that “Mine was right because I went to The Little Yoga House!” The class really enjoyed stretching with the legs spread straight apart and so we introduced a new game, “Human Tunnel.” We all to our places in a line while holding our stretch then one friend would crawl through each of legs till they got the end! They thought this was hilarious!! The highlight of the game was when it was Nick’s turn as he was very persistent that he could make it all the way through! That led straight into a friend pile on Nick's back and so we quickly declare outdoor time!

It was such a peaceful outdoor time that Nick and I had this whole moment where we completely standing back observing each child so content and independent in the play. We absorbed every minute of it and were so pleased with the energy! Not to mention that when conflict does arise the space of the outdoors promotes friends to turn less to Nick and more on the social conflict management skills that lie within each other. It is so amazing to hear these kiddos peacefully work through conflict and get right back into their play!

We voted to have lunch out on the deck today! Friends love being able to sit on the floor to eat and catch a few minutes of play out on the deck before nap! There is a lot of independence that is promoted each time we have lunch on the deck in that they are constantly needing something from inside and so they know that it their responsibilty to take out the things they will need and to bring them back to their homes inside! We are having to remind them less and less that Nick and Toni are not responsible for their belongings, a concept that fills our day with lots of talk! 

Each day we feel like we are creating solid practical life routines like our new shoe rack that has been getting great attention and use! Great job Sprouts!!!

After nap we had a class snuggle time in the library which lead to a dramatic play scene for a "jumpy house" and while that was going on the table was being prepped by a self portrait activity. Since we did our cooking project yesterday, it was fun using uncooked pasta and rice as options to use in our self portraits. Each sprout had a turn looking and studying their faces in the mirror. We talked about colors of our eyes, hair, tongue, eye lashes, etc! They were very intrigued by these observations and made for a totally different drawing! The class really enjoyed talking about all the unique parts of their faces and bodies! Overall, a successful group project time! 

What a great Friday and we look forward to next week as Cassandra will be teaching in our class and we will be then anticipating Liz's arrival on Friday!