It was a beautiful Thursday morning at the Sprout! We played many games of Ring Around the Yoga, as every one is always so excited to play. We learned early in the day that it would, in fact, be Annabelle’s last day at Green Sprout. She received many warm hugs throughout the day. We went in for a quick snack, and sang songs about the days of the week and monkeys jumping on the bed. We counted all the days in February and were finally ready to head outside and read a book Ivy brought, Click, Clack, Moo, a class favorite. We got a second request for the same book, and had a speedy read through it just one more time. We played team-work games with hula hoops for much of the morning before finally heading in for lunch. Lunch turned into nap, and once every one was up, every one was able to draw on a card we made for Annabelle using crayons. It featured Piggy, her favorite lovey that we love, too. Jasper, Ben, and Joey came to visit us from the primary room as Annabelle requested their presence. They helped make the card extra special, and had fun playing with the trains and trucks in our room as well. Liz came to have an awesome cooking class with us, and we all got to crush graham crackers with our feet, and mix them into peanut butter in a large bowl. We then tasted some melted carob chips (an alternative to chocolate), ate snack, washed up, and went out the door to end the day. We will miss you, Annabelle! And we wish you and your new baby sister Sadie Martina the best!

Love,

Jackie and Dom

Windy Wednesday, as we started our day outside with jackets and hoods on. Teo commented "windy outside" and he was correct. But that didn't seem to stop anyone from exploring the play ground and doing their usual morning routine of watering the garden and digging in the sandbox, while also greeting friends as they arrived at school! It was soon time to line up at the gate to march inside for snack, circle time and centers. We had a high selection of books to choose from today, but it was unanimous, the potty book was the winner. Ms Jackie sat, while friends gathered, eager to hear what was going to happen. Jackie asked questions, like who wears underwear? Who wears a diaper? Who wants to sit on the potty? And everyone raised their hand, excited to hear what was next! We closed it out with some songs and soon everyone was exploring independently. Alanna, ivy, Ben, olive, and Teo made their way to the writing center where ms Jackie was setting up water colors and their choice of construction paper or a paper with the letter D! Ben choose the paper with the letter D, and got to painting excitedly. Alanna, ivy, olive, and Teo choose construction paper and got to painting. Theo Paislie and Noah were soon interested to see what was going on, and as quickly as a friend was all done, another friend was filling their seat ready to express them self with their paintbrush. Alanna said she was "painting a card for my mommy", and ivy replied "I paint circles", theo asked me to sit with him, and I did, sharing watercolors, and painting a "boat", theo added a few strokes and said "all done"! Noah and olive sat quietly, more focused on their paper then their friends. We did a clean up and hand wash, and made our way to the carpet for a quick dance party. We marched outside, and it was super sensory outside time, with water, wet sand, wet mulch, and mud. Theo and Wren helped bring the hose to the garden, and got to watering. We added some water to the dirt/grass area by the hose and it was quickly mud. Friends brought over their shovels, big and small, and began to dig. Some taking off their shoes to get the full experience :). Asher, ivy, Ben, theo, Alanna, olive, and our friends Rhys and hank joined in the fun! They found slimy worms with ms Jackie and took them to the garden! we rinsed hands and marched in, leaving our muddy shoes outdoors.

After nap, we made our way to the construction area, were we built train tracks and towers with the blocks. everyone was requesting snacks, so we made our way to the table for some hummus, wheat tortilla, and tomato, which is always a treat, then we marched out to get our shoes on. Mr nick came outside, with a cool science experiment using dry ice and water. It was an exciting way to end this wednesday!

Much Love
Dom and Jackie

It was a beautiful morning at the Sprout! We sang songs and bounced balls outside in the warm sunrays. Asher, Ben (who later had a playdate in the Primary), Theo, and Wren had a blast carrying the black tube around with Dax and Rhys from the primary room. They were making both train sounds and police car sounds! We rounded every one up, making snake hands to slither to the ramp, and then headed up the ramp using a crawl that Theo started. Every one washed their hands and ate a delicious snack of oranges and bananas. Mostly every one has shown us how they've mastered peeling those banana's, but every one still needs help sometimes! Afterward, we transition to the rug and found a fun toy that Teo donated to us. It's an awesome train set! Those who finished washing their hands first took turns trying to open the packaging, and soon every one was involved in building the new train track. Olive and Koichi were especially interested in testing out the new train cars, and Koichi, Noah, Theo, and Asher used team-work to help build the first version of the train track—a large curvy line. Then Dom came to help and Paislie, Alanna, Annabelle, and Olive were excited to start building, too. At this time, Wren and Annabelle were busy savoring their food and having a chat. Annabelle later had fun observing how the train track is built, and Wren helped us shape the track into a circle, and we decided that the train was going to the zoo! Then, Ms. Toni came to visit us for an awesome circle time. Inspired by Abbey Nagler's yoga, we stretched, then decided to play a game of Ohm/Peekaboo where we covered our eyes and hummed, and then said opened our eyes and said peekaboo! Every one had a blast playing this game. Wren, Koichi, Paislie, Alanna, and Annabelle were giggling away during the peekaboo game. Noah and Olive were very busy observing what their friends were doing. We Then, we read a “d” book called My “d” Book. Every one enjoyed identifying dogs, dolls, and ducks. We pretended to drive our dolls to the store. Many of our friends know how to flash their headlights (opening and closing hands), drive, and honk. We also pretended to play the drums by drumming on the floor! Once circle time was over, it was time to head outside. We had free-play and filled the water sensory table for some water fun. Ivy, Paislie, Alanna, and Ben were very excited to climb the dome outside. Then, we brought out the boxes we've been decorating. Annabelle, Theo, Wren, Noah, and Olive were excited to peel stickers, identify shapes and colors and put them onto the boxes. Ivy and Alanna enjoyed decorating their shirts with shapes as well! Soon it was time to come in for lunch and nap!

After nap, Abbey Nagler stopped by to do Yoga with us. We did a quick clean up, and sat down at the carpet for some big hugs and the song that gets us started, with the lyrics “rub your hands, sit up tall, take a deep breath, ohmmmmmmmm.” This works great to get these guys focused. We did the butterfly song as Alanna requested, and Asher rocked out yoga style without a shirt. Annabelle, Noah, and Olive were particularly observant, and Wren, Theo, Ivy, Alanna and Paislie tried hard to mimic exactly what Abbey’s moves were. Koichi was all smiles while we stretched into different yoga positions. We wrapped up with our Namaste song, had snack, and headed out to end the beautiful day!

Beginning our last Monday of February outside with the beautiful weather identifying those trees with new leaves! Ms toni and mrs Jackie went around giving lessons on some new toys that were outside, we all took turns watering the garden with our new squirt bottles, Teo and Theo were especially excited to carry around their butterfly bottles. We made our way in for hand washing, snack, and potties, before starting circle time/centers. The letter of the week is "D", so we focused a lot of our conversation on words that start with the letter D, and creating a story/rhyme using The letter D! Ms Jackie then sat with all my friends and read a book on Dinosaurs, one of our favorites! We talked about herbivores and carnivores, spiny Dinosaurs and long tailed dinosaurs. We closed it out with days of the week and our fun weather song! Since the letter of the week is D, we made our way to table to explore with play Dough! Koichi, Theo, Olive, and Ivy were at one table while Asher, Alanna, Teo, and Ben were at the other. Noah and Paislie were busy cooking in the kitchen! :) Theo wanted to make a pancake while koichi just wanted to smash and tear it apart, Olive followed along, patting the play dough and twisting it in half, Ivy pinched off small pieces and made small balls with it. Asher and Teo were busy in the construction area, exploring the digger, dump truck, and race cars. It was soon after, time to clean up and wash hands for lunch.

We woke up from nap, routinely did potties and milk, and our favorite, books! By the time most of our friends were dressed ms Abby was making her to the room for some afternoon yoga! We all sat Criss cross apple sauce, as we say, and began to sing. We did our favorite, ring around the yogi, and this time tried airplane pose with both legs! Many friends were successful, while a few did tree pose, another favorite pose of the kiddos. We closed out with breathing exercises, then said goodbye, and sat at the table for a yummy snack before heading outside to end the day!

Much love
Dom and Jackie

It's been a great day so far, full of dance parties, new books, and tea party! Most friends hesitated going out this morning because it was chilly but once we got the music going it was all fun after that! Dancing to Miya's mix, we changed it up this week from yo gabba gabba! We soon marched up the ramp, took off our shoes and made our way inside for snack and our first Tea Party! We had a quick snack, washed hands then sat, Teo, Olive, Ivy and Mrs. Jackie all came prepared with their own tea cups, while Theo, Ben, Asher, Koichi, Alanna, and Paislie borrowed some of ours! We practiced our "ohm" while they sat patiently waiting for tea ( unsweetened camomile tea, made by Susan, a wonderful, toddler mother), I walked around letting them smell the tea, which they all responded, "oooooo" :) Jackie first walked around, dropping lemon in everyone's tea, except Alanna. She asked everyone to squirt their lemon in their cup, Theo squeezed hard, leading the example and way for everyone to squeeze theirs. Teo opted to suck on his, making a funny sour face as the juice went into his mouth, next I walked around with the tea kettle, helping each friend pour their own cup of Tea! Jackie followed behind, squirting honey into each cup, allowing them to stir their tea, until they were ready to drink it! We also has some tasty bread, and Cheerios for them to choose from, to accompany their tea! Once everyone had been served, it was silent for a second as everyone took a sip, tasting their concoction for the first time, and they all loved it! Most asking for more, they mixed in their Cheerios or bread, stirring and soon eating like cereal, we spent most of our morning at the table, enjoying each others company, and Tea! Olive and Theo were some of our last friends to finish, enjoy every last drop! Needless to say, very successful Tea Party! We cleaned up, and soon made our way to the deck exploring with the pre tots, before it was time to come in for lunch and nap! Ms Toni came in and brought us some fun new books, that kept the, busy till it was lights out!

After nap, we made our way to the library to check out the new tractor, dinosaur, and Olivia books! We waited for ms Liz to come visit, we did a quick clean up then made our way to the carpet for a quick lesson on how to put on our socks and shoes! Many friends were excited to show me how they could put on their socks and shoes and how they could help others who needed it! Just as the last of my friends were getting their shoes on, ms Liz came in for our Friday cooking project! She introduced some mushrooms, tomatoes, green pepper, avocado, and cheese. Many friends liked the tomatoes, avocado and cheese the most, while theo, Teo, ivy, Ben, Paislie, and olive tasted the newer veggies. Ms Liz then brought out corn tortillas, with melted cheese and gave our friends the options to add other vegetables or not. She also showed them how they can roll their tortilla up and eat it. It was a big hit, and the friends loved doing it all by themselves! We said goodbye to ms Liz, washed hands, and marched outside to enjoy the beautiful Friday afternoon!

Much love
Dom and Jackie

It was a fabulous Thursday! We had great weather in the early daytime outside and decided to have a picnic! We played outside for a while, and then lined up at the fence for another awesome group photo. We practiced saying “peace,” “I love you,” and practiced giving the peace sign. We talked about what “peace” means. Giving a hug, a high five, helping a friend, and cleaning up our toys are all a part of peaceful things we can do on a daily basis! We came in for circle and read a book about a Bunny. We talked about the letter “b” for “bunny.” Sang the alphabet and the days of the week, and talked about “Thursday.” We played in centers, had lunch and nap, and then headed outside to enjoy more beautiful weather. We played a teamwork game in which lots of friends get inside a hula hoop, and have to work together to move. Each time a friend falls, it's every one's job to ask if they're ok, and to help them up! Then, Ms. Toni came out and gave a presentation for our new spray bottles! We learned that they can be used to clean toys, or to help nurture the plants by watering them. They had a blast using the muscles in their hands to spray water! It was a lovely Thursday!

Teo and Ben were some of the early birds here, and got busy digging in the sand as soon as we marched outside. We said hi to Wren as he got here and began to explore with some chalk, Noah wanted the Blue one while wren wanted White. Once all of our toddler friends arrived we made our way inside for hand washing and snack. While my friends sat, i showed and talked about the books Ivy and Noah brought in to share with us. "B is for Bear" and "Bear is sick", which they gladly and excitedly identified the letter "B" in both books. We washed hands, and made our way to the carpet for circle time. We read one book, "B is for Bear" a touchy feely book, which all my friends loved, they each took turns feeling the different textures on each page! followed by days of the week, which Ben clearly said was, Wednesday! And our weather song! We went around introducing ourself, in our favorite name song then read the other book, "Bear is sick", and you could tell on their faces they were concerned about sick bear, but happy when his friends were there to care for him! :)  we finished up circle time, had a quick chat about the letter C, and marched outside to explore and play! My friends have been very interested in balls lately, so today we played some kickball, which had everyone including Jackie and I running around, chasing the ball! We then started to play Catch, we talked about it being another C word, and practiced tossing and catching small and big balls. We did a quick clean up and marched in for lunch and nap!

After nap, we broke into centers, Olive, Noah, Ben, Paislie, Teo, and Asher all made their way to the writing center to see what was going on. I set out some cotton balls, paper with the letter C, glue and paint brushes on the table, we sat and talked about our letter C, what words start or sound like they start with the letter C, and Ben made a quick connection and said Cotton balls! I showed them how I use my glue to glue the cotton onto my C, they quickly stuck their paintbrushes into the glue and started to put cotton on their paper! Some friends got cotton stuck to their fingers cause of the glue, but loved trying to get it off. Ben, Asher, Olive, and Paislie were soon done, while Noah and Teo continued to work. We did a quick clean up then made our way to the table for snack. It was so cute to see everyone sit together,since we had such a small class. The weather was rainy, so we spent the afternoon inside, our pre tot friends came to visit, and we had an awesome dance party! The pre tots loved exploring the classroom, and were super excited when Jackie sat down with a book, and everyone soon followed. Great way to end the day inside! :)

Much Love
Dom and Jackie

We had a wonderful start to this week with another day full of beautiful weather! It was cold this morning, so we headed in early for a snack of delicious fruit salad. It included oranges, strawberries, and cantaloupe, yum! (Ben headed to the Primary room at this time!) After snack, we went straight to Snarl fish, our classroom put, to give him a few flakes so that he, too, could enjoy snack! Dom guided each child through their interactions with the fish, and every one was sure to use gentle hands with the tank! We asked, “where do fish live?” and Teo gave the clever answer, “in this tank.” After hanging out with Snarl, we sat down to talk about the day of the week and the weather. We sang a couple of songs by request, and went on to read The Peace Book. It's a fabulous book, if you haven't read it yet! We talked about spending time with friends and family, giving hugs, sharing food, wearing different clothes, having a home, and many other things we could relate to. Every one had a chance to talk about “What's on your shirt?” and how we all wear different clothes and that's ok! We said “peace” together and gave each other hugs! Every one had a case of the wiggles, so it was time to jump up and down and march outside! When we got out there, we filled a tub of water and soap, and every one got busy cleaning and pouring. Koichi particularly enjoyed this activity, and stayed at the tub washing and pouring for almost the entire morning! Alanna was happy to find trucks to wash with the soap and water, and was also concerned about her sleeves getting wet...so she rolled them up herself! Asher was into finding large buckets to fill up with water. Ivy, Noah, and Teo moved on quickly to the push carts and cars, and were seen hanging around cruising together! Olive found many different objects to scrub clean with her hands, and was happy to say “bubbles!” as she worked. Paislie spent a lot of time scrubbing away at different objects, and was particularly interested in scrubbing a toy airplane that she found! Later, Wren and Asher were seen in the sandbox, using diggers to move sand in a team effort. Meanwhile, Annabelle was enjoying the breeze. She had fun sailing her ship (the play scape) and turning both wheels at the same time to navigate! Finally, we headed inside for lunch!




It's fun watching every one grab their trays and lunches, trying to figure out how best to transport these items! After lunch we had nap, and when every one awoke from nap, it was just about time for yoga! Abbey came and every one gave her warm yoga hugs! We sang fun yoga songs, and read a book about different kinds of bugs! As Abbey told the story, we acted out each bug using a yoga pose! Wren enjoyed being a lady bug! Ivy shoes us her spider pose (even though a spider wasn't in the book!) Annabelle had her piggy doing poses! Noah was very attentive. We went around in a circle hitting a singing bowl with a stick, and passing the stick to our neighbor. Every one was excited to hear to lovely sound coming from the bowl. Olive was our last friend to have a turn, and she joyfully declined the offer to hit the bowl. Abbey gave the bowl one last hit, and instructed us to put a finger on our nose when we heard the sound stop. We sang our Namaste song, and ended yoga. We had snack, and headed outside to enjoy the weather!

It's been a busy Friday, as we spent most of the morning outdoors, finding lots of bubbles and "love chains" all around the playground! The first 45 minutes alone was dedicated to bubble blowing and popping, and of course dance party, requested by jasper. We played some different radio stations which they all seemed to enjoy then some funky dance music put on by Arielle, but of course Fridays are "yo gabba gabba" dedicated so we quickly put on a favorite and got to boogieing. Many more friends joined in on the dance party showing off their moves and having a blast!  While most friends were dancing, there were friends riding bikes up and down the hill, while others were exploring the garden and waiting for someone to water it so they could help! Theo brought one of his favorite books today, "Country Western Alphabet", so Jackie brought it out to read along with "Rainbow Sea"!   We soon marched inside for lunch and nap.

This Friday has been an excellent end to an awesome week, full of birthday and love celebrations, new friends starting, and lots of fun and creative art exploration!

Have a great 3 day weekend!

Much love
Dom and Jackie

e had a fabulous morning which started off outside in the crisp cold! As the morning went on, the day became more beautiful and we decided to have a picnic outside. Wren was a part of the primary room today and had a great play-date! The primary was preparing chain links for our Valentine's celebration while outside, and some of our friends decided to join. Paislie, Koichi, Alanna, Theo, Asher, and Ivy were the ones wanting to show of their scissor skills! We talked about only using the blade for paper, only using them in front of a teacher, and never running or walking with them in your hand. Theo was especially enthusiastic about cutting paper. He had a strategy of standing part of a paper up, and using two hands to open and close the scissors. He spent most of the morning working his skills. Alanna was very happy to use the scissors, and she, too used a similar strategy with both hands and paper standing up. Paislie and Koichi had the paper laying down, and they both used both hands. Asher tried his best to use one hand, and Ivy had the strategy of stabbing the paper with her scissors. Soon, we brought out our boxes to decorate before we create a train out of them. We brought out red paint and large paint brushes to use. Alanna, Teo, Annabelle, Ivy, and Paislie wanted to paint, and they sat, watching each other and observing each others' strategies. Annabelle was excited to switch paint brushes again and again. Ivy was excited to ask for more and more paint. Teo only stayed briefly before he decided to run around instead. Olive was initially hesitant to participate, but got excited once she found out we were using brushes. She got no paint on herself and and was ready to be “all done” after a few expertly applied strokes. Paislie was excited to feel the paint between her fingers, and to look closely at the paint she was applying. Ben was very busy in the sand box during this time, and spent much of the morning talking about his “hot sandwiches” that awaited him in his lunch box! Soon it was time to go inside, and Alanna lovingly escorted Olive to the gate where we wait with our friends. What a morning filled with love!


We came in and got busy, washing our hands and getting trays to put our lunches on. Every one was super excited to pick a tray, and it helped every one understand how to keep their space a little neater and tidier than usual. Dom read us a book about passing gas while we were eating, and it really made every one laugh. Then we got ready for nap time, and had a chance to read Theo's nightmare book before going to sleep (well, it has a happy ending!). After nap, every one had a chance to use our centers, but then it was time to decorate envelopes for our valentine exchange. Every one used stickers of different kinds to create their beautiful envelope. We had just a bit of time to have snack and exchange a few valentines before it was time to head out and celebrate together. It was a lovely day!