Last week we had an awesome time learning about different destinations around the world—like Mexico and Italy (two places they’ve been interested in since we often talk about our neighboring country and the place where Livio’s been the last month!) What started early in the week as some of our friends spontaneously using teamwork to build a “train” out of cars, turned into a daily activity where we got to discuss travel clothes, travel bags/luggage/suitcases and what to pack, and souvenirs to bring home and share with friends and family. On our route, we passed by parks, jungles, and beaches. We saw zoo animals and sea creatures.  Yoga with Ms. Liz and Vanessa was awesome as usual—we did a great team-work breathing exercise with Ms. Vanessa, where we each of us held a point on the breathing ball, and together we pulled the ball open to expand the same way we imagine our lungs expanding when we breathe in! Ms. Daphne brought fun learning activities to our Spanish class—oversized parts of the face to continue learning about our “cara” our “voca” and so on.  I wasn’t around on Thursday—but I know the kids always have a great time when Ms. Liz is visiting! Friday’s splash time was a blast as usual. The mud puddle has been a hit. What a great opportunity for the kiddos to feel the earth between their toes! We also had the opportunity to do some drawing or glue pieces of paper to a car we made out of a box! We also made crowns out of grass. In the afternoon, we decorated some luggage/suitcases and talked about what kinds of things we might need on a trip—socks, underwear, shirts, shorts, shoes, a camera, sunglasses, bathing suits, toothbrushes, toys, snacks and so on—our older friends were especially excited to list things we could pack! We also got practice recognizing our names, talked about the importance of labeling, and practiced some fine-motor skills! It was a great week!

Monday was awesome! We started out with an awesome circle time followed by Montessori work time. During this time, we introduced a ton of new puzzles. During lunch time, it started raining, so we turned out the lights and lit a candle to have a candle-lit lunch. Ashley shared with us her LED juggling balls, and did some tricks for us while every one sat on their nap mats. We did yoga with Ms. Liz and played a new game called “back to back” where we dance to music for a while, and when it turns off, we find a partner and stand “back to back” with them.

Tuesday many of our friends had a chance to hang out with Liz by the gardening, loosening the dirt, pulling weeds, and finding rolly pollies for a rolly polly house her and some friends made. Work time was awesome, and we also had a craft project—making crabs with paper bowls. We painted them red as a first step. We had Yoga with Ms. Vanessa and it was a blast!

Wednesday we were anticipating Show and Tell all morning! We collected bark outside which could be show-cased during circle time show and tell. Malik and Julia brought some really cool books that we were able to read throughout the day. After show and tell, we continued with our crab craft! Ms. Daphne came in the afternoon for Spanish time, and she presented part of the face or “cara.” We used vocabulary like “ojos,” “voca,” and “nariz.” When we headed outside, Nick was out there ready to cool us off with some “rain” from the water hose.

Thursday morning friends showed up sporting their swimsuits. We had an awesome Montessori work time. By Thursday, many of the puzzles which seemed difficult on Monday were much easier to do, and the most challenging (fishing and the pony puzzle) were getting just a tad easier. Then, we started working on our awesome Father’s day presents! We read a book about different kinds of families (big and small, one parent or two, separate houses or same houses, different colors or same colors) and learned that every one’s family has something unique about it! Splash time outside was a blast. In the afternoon, Ms. Daphne did a fun lesson on the parts of the face, and we had a chance to find some eyes, noses, and mouths in Spanish to glue them to our “cara.”

Friday, we started the day with a Gangnam style/yo gaba gaba dance party! We ran around the dome, jumped around the dome, and walked around the dome in order to dance to the songs. Some of the toddlers had quality small group time in the pools before every one caught up with us outside. We used soap to wash stuff, we had a water balloon toss, and we made sand castles in the sand box! We had a great week with Liz in the classroom Tuesday-Friday—the kids just love her. We were missing Ashley while she was on vaca, and we’re so happy to have her back!

Monday was a great gardening day, as we picked strawberries to eat and lavender to use as centerpieces on our table. We love having fresh flowery centerpieces, both for their aesthetic beauty, and as an example of something for which we must practice restraint! “We can take turns smelling them, and then we leave them in the middle of the table for us to look at.” It’s a fun challenge. We had some excellent Montessori work time, and then headed outside to do a not-so-messy sensory project. We used sandwich bags, baby oil, paint, and glitter, to create a beach-inspired sensory bag. Some of our friends noted how the white and blue paint mixing together resembled the sky as well! The gold glitter represented sand that you would find at a beach! In the afternoon, our new friend Morgan, from the infant room, came to say hello! We love getting introduced to the new faces of Green Sprout, and we certainly do what we can to create an awesome welcoming experience for them! Of course, yoga in the afternoon was awesome with Ms. Liz!

Tuesday morning, we had an awesome circle time. Since we brought in the new doll-house, we thought it’d be a great idea to create some “people” to inhabit that house. Our kids’ lively imagination does not discriminate against the joy of simple, natural materials of possibility—the blocks were easily transformed into people! During circle time, we identified different emotions, and every one had a chance to contribute ideas for what emotions we wanted to represent on the blocks. One of the funnest ones we came up with was “potty face”—the intense look that we sometimes have when we’re trying to force a difficult poop out! Genevieve showed us that this consists of closed fists and clenched teeth! This was followed by our usuall Montessori work time and yoga with Ms. Vanessa in the afternoon!

Wednesday was great! Many of our friends have connected Wednesdays to show and tell, and we love calling it Show and Tell Wednesday! This is because showcasing some interesting toys and objects from home is such a fun thing for our kiddos! They take their toys out from their cubbies themselves, sit on the rug together, get focused, and then we try our best to be a respectful and patient audience for each person who presents their toy. This often becomes a demonstration, and sometimes we get lucky enough to have complimentary toys that allow us to demonstrate creative ways to use them together! This last Wednesday we used human figurines from Genevieve’s plane with Malik’s awesome Percy train to watch people ride the train! Then we used blocks to build tunnels and watched the battery powered train travel through! It may sound simple, but enjoying something like this requires that every one practice enough patience to not grab it away—something all our kiddos are working on at this age! The kiddos went out and spontaneously used teamwork to move around together in hula hoops! Moments like this let us know that our team effort between home and school have really given these guys the tools they need to be cooperative team players! Spanish was awesome!

Thursday splash day was a super fun blast! We utilized our big backyard space, and it made for the most mellow and enjoyable time outside! In the coming weeks, we will be using this splash play as a great way to make learning about the world fun! We plan on doing fun demonstrations of floating and sinking, watering plants, washing things, and more! We also had a chance to get SUPER DIRTY in the mud! And it was TOTALLY OK! Daphne came for some awesome Spanish, too!

Friday was awesome! We started out with a lively splash day. Stomping in the mud, pouring, splashing—meanwhile dance music was playing all morning long. In the afternoon, we used some glue to start our new travel collage. We also busted out some really great puzzles donated by Sophie in the primary room! For snack, in addition to our nutritious veggies, Liz made some delicious oatmeal and chocolate chip “cookie dough” mix.


Love,
Jackie
(I'm having a lot of trouble with the connection I use to upload the pictures--Pictures will be up once my new cord arrives!)

Tuesday was great! We started off with a letter-find, identifying the letters that are in our name and then sticking them (letter stickers) to pieces of paper with our names written on them! For snack, we had a banana peeling lesson. We each got our own banana that we peeled with NO help. Genevieve modeled how to peel your own banana, and every one figured out in their own way how to get the banana out! You could tell every one was so proud of themselves! We had an awesome dance party, followed by a word recognition game! We talked about fruits and veggies that we love to eat, and matched them to words that we all read together.  Then, we had a blast doing Yoga with Ms. Vanessa!

Wednesday, we had fun singing the alphabet early in the morning, and identifying letters that are drawn on the fence. We spent the majority of the morning in the beautiful weather, had a picnic, and came in just in time for a show and tell circle time! Many of our friends enjoyed demonstrating how to use the toy they brought, from laying on blankets, to bouncing balls, to flying airplanes. In the rainy afternoon, we brought out our light box, in line with our theme of lights for the week!  We made pictures of houses, trees, and demonstrated different ways to combine shapes to make more shapes and pictures.

Thursday morning was beautiful. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze. We took the time to replant our marigolds to show them some love and give them more space to grow. We had a chance to get our hands dirty with dirt and even found some earth worms to investigate. After washing up and having a picnic outside, we decided to relax and do some free-art. We busted out some plane white paper,water colors, and paint brushes. It was a great time to focus on creating, getting into the flow, and then showing off the work that we’re all so proud of making. This was also a great time to sit next to both pre-tots and primary friends, to have a chance to share space with them and be exposed to different methods and strategies for creating our own little pieces of art.

Friday morning was awesome—every one looking sharp for the big picture day! We did free-play for most of the morning, but were sure to have a great circle time along with doing our best to keep our clothes fresh-looking and photo-ready. We’ve been hearing our kids talk about vacations, and were happy to connect this to our continent song, traveling, and thinking about where we come from. We identified different continents and a few countries that are home to different people in our families. We took our pictures—quite an event! Some of our guys were super happy and excited about it, and others were quite nervous. In the afternoon, we had a chance to watch Lucy, Miya and Julias mom, perform music for every one on her cello! We also ate popcycles! It was a great week!