Ahhh, it was a great start to our Friday outside on the playground. Toni brought out the boombox for some awesome Yo Gaba Gaba jams. Every one was super excited to skip, jump, run, wiggle, dance, and STOP! Jasper, Koichi, Ben, Paislie, Joey had a great time. We went in for snack. When snack was done, we went back outside and Teddy came to visit. Alanna, Jasper, Teo, Ben, Wren, and Jasper had fun chasing him around and petting him softly. Annabelle spent lots of time observing, Ivy was busy hoarding objects, and Koichi was pushing hula hoops around while Teddy was out. Later, Cherokee brought out some purple water with soap and every one had fun using sponges and cups to play with the water. Then, we all settled down to read another book that Teo's family brought for us. This one was about a garded.  Every one sat down to read, listen, and identify plants, animals, and colors in the pictures. Before we went in, we had some fun music time on the guitar and sang If You're Happy and You Know it.

We went in for lunch and nap. After nap, every one had a chance to play with playdough. We shaped the playdough to be the first letter of every one's names, and then let every one use popsycle sticks and connecting cubs to stamp, cut, and mush their playdough. Wren, Alanna, and Annabelle spent much of their time observing and talking about the first letter of their name. Ivy got busy making many small pieces. Paislie made many small worms. Teo, Joey, and Ben wanted to make balls over and over. Koichi, Jasper, and Paislie stayed focused on their playdough longer than every one. Finally, we headed outside. Alanna's mom, Erika, said "hi" to every one from the window. The day came to a close. It was a happy friday.


Love,
Jackie and Dom

We began our day watering the garden! Paislie, Teo, joey, Alanna, and Asher were all excited to help me. joey found a watering can which we filled up and used for the trees. While Jasper and Wren explored wrens Thomas train, that makes sounds! We made our way inside for snack, when we got a visit from Miss Toni. She sat and sang songs while one by one they washed their hands! She sang some of ther favorites, so a few friends were reluctant to get up from the singing circle! As Toni said goodbye and made her way to the pre tot room, everyone sat for some sweet cantaloupe and grapes! After snack, we had an awesome bubble filled, dance party to yo gabba gabba! Jasper, Joey, Alanna, Asher and Ivy all had fun showing their dance moves, while Koichi, Paislie, Wren, and Teo tried to pop as many bubbles as possible! After dance party we marched out to put shoes on and head to the playground.
Teo brought a pop-up book called "Salamander Rocks", so we decided to read it outside! Everyone sat as I turned each page and a new animal would pop up, we went over colors and our numbers all throughout the book. Once we finished, everyone thanked Teo and went their separate ways exploring. After a bit, Jackie brought out the tunnels, everyone took turns crawling through, they worked together and had patience as one friend waited on another to get to the end. Some of our friends enjoyed laying in the tunnel, while others crawled quickly to see how fast they could go! We explored the tunnels up until it was time for lunch.
After nap, some of the early risers worked on their letters, Paislie, Teo, Alanna, Wren, Asher, and Koichi. We used stencils and washable paint in squirt bottles to stencil out the first letter of them name. They thought it was so cool to see their letter once they lifted the stencil. Once everyone was awake, we cleaned up, did diapers and went to stations. Very soon after,  Ms Leona made her way inside for Spanish, we sang our routine hello songs, then Ms Loena passed out the bells. Everyone shook their bell as we sang, and enjoyed "dinging" them together! We said our goodbyes, and made everyone made their way to the table for snack. Once everyone was all done, we washed hands and marched our for a very chill afternoon and pick-up.

Much love
Dom and Jackie

The day began just like any other, and just before we headed inside for snack, Alanna, Paislie, and Theo decided to lay in the yoga mats, taking turns giving eachother pats and sending each other off to sleep. We went in and had a delicious snack of apples and bananas, each friend had fun peeling their banana's themselves, and Theo and Teo showed interest in putting their peels in the compost, so we past it around and let every one contribute their peels to the small pile. We headed to the carpet for circle time, using cars, trains, and tracks to help us transition. Cars never get old for these guys! We saw that Teo had brought a book from home, I believe it was called The House Where Every one is Sleeping. Every one was really into the book, and at the end of every page, we said the word SLEEPING together. I noticed some of our guys are good at making snoring sounds! We sang the days of the week, and of course Asher, Teo, Theo, Alanna, Ivy, Koichi, and Ben showed us how to start a beat for the the days of the week song! We sang to our hearts desire and talked about the weather, then headed to the tables for some play dough play!

We used Crayola Molding clay, and you didn't have to tell Annabelle, Ben, Joey, and Ivy twice...they were so eager to use the fun stuff! We started off with one blue ball, identified the color and the shape together, and then a yellow "worm," and then a red worm, and then a green ball. Koichi immediately put his together, while Ivy, Annabelle, Paislie, and Alanna, and Teo, Theo, Joey, and Annabelle all had a similar idea of creating a kind of lollipop with their popsicle stick and ball of clay. Asher was busy figuring good places to put googly eyes. Wren successfully made a tree, stabbing the green clay ball with four sticks. Ben was happy to stick beads in his clay and show us the strange creature he made. We poured a sprinkle of glitter on the table, and every one had fun rolling their clay in the glitter to make it stick. Annabelle was very quick to figure out the sticking technique, while Koichi figured out how to get one speck of glitter at a time to stick to his googly eyed creature at a time. It was great fun to see every one doing such creative things!

We cleaned up and on our way out, we had a fun surprise for the kiddos before we went out to the big back yard, We put shaving cream in their hands and on the windows outside the pre-tot room. They had a full-blown sensory experience while the pre-tots watched like an awesome audience from inside. We wrote letters in the mess and got it all over the floor and rails. We sang the alphabet, wrote the alphabet, and we wrote big letters of the first letters of every one's names. While every one was still covered in shaving cream, we were able to snap a couple of photos. We headed outside for a few minutes of free play.

We came in for lunch and nap. After we got up, it was time for a delicious snack of garbonzo beans, cherry tomatoes, pita chips, and a few cheerios. Dom had time for a quick alphabet lesson before Ms. Leona joined us for Spanish time and we had a blast dancing to "Mi Cuerpo." We sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Ms. Leona brought out her spider puppet, which was making every one laugh, especially Joey, Koichi, Ben, Paislie, Joey, and Asher. We wrapped up and it was dance party/free play time. Got our shoes and sunscreen on and headed outside to end the day!

Love,
Dom and Jackie

The morning was breezy while we played outside for drop-offs! We checked out the two melons that just recently grew in the garden, and the small but delicious tomatoes. Paislie and Alanna were our volunteer taste testers and really enjoyed the yummy tomatoes. As we made our way inside for snack, Ivy stopped to tell the pre tots hello! We did hand wash and sat for snack, which was grapes and bananas. Jackie went around talking about where grapes grow and everyone got a chance to pick their grapes off the vine, and loved it. We made our way to the carpet for books and songs! Teo was very excited to show us and his friends the book he brought," MEGA MACHINES"! We talked about and saw pictures of Bulldozers, diggers, red cars, white cars, cranes, tractors and many more. We counted each machines wheels, and finished out the book with fun facts and pictures about machines! As we made our way to the next book, Miss Toni made her way in to say hello and join us for circle time! We found a beat and sang the days of the week. We followed that with 2 books from one of my favorite authors, Sandra Boynton, "are you a cow?" and "tickle, tickle". We closed out our circle time with a quick clean up and headed outside.

We brought out balloons, string, googly eyes, and markers. We blew up the balloons and made "emotion" balloons! We asked each child how they were feeling "happy", "sad", "angry", "excited", or "silly"! Alanna and Ivy said "angry", even though they laughed and giggled with each other as they ran around the playground, Jasper responded "I feel excited" Asher and Joey were feeling “excited” also! Theo responded “sad” along with Wren, while Teo and Paislie responded “happy”, and Koichi said “silly”! They had so much fun running around with their balloons floating in the air! They each took turns holding their friends balloons and reading out loud, their friends emotions. We then made our way in for lunch and nap.

Most of our friends slept til close to 3 pm, so we had a short cuddle/book time, and went straight into PM snack, enjoying veggie sticks, cucumbers, and seaweed rice cakes! Once everyone was all done, hands washed, most of our friends went to the construction area for some track building, car driving fun! We got plenty of requests for outside, so we found our “emotions” balloons and marched out to put shoes on! Once outside, I brought out my phone, as Wren requested hearing the “alarm” for the fire drills, we also listened to cricket sounds, duck quacks, and motorcycle sounds. All in all it was a super exciting Tuesday!

Much Love

Dom and Jackie

We started out the day with a load of freeplay, hangin' out outside in the beautiful weather. Every one took turns calling family members on Theo's phone from home (an old cell-phone)! We decided that the weather was so nice, and every one was having such a great time, that we needed an outdoor picnic. We enjoyed a magnificent snack of raspberries, bananas, and oranges. Every one inhaled their snack and Wren mentioned the compost, so Dom invited Wren, Joey, and others who expressed interest to throw their banana peels into the compost! Later, some of our guys climbed onto the stairs at the entrance, so we decided to take some class photos! Then we march march marched to the deck where we drove cars and sang songs. We brought out the tunnel for some fun. Every one was in a great mood.

We went in for lunch and nap. When every one woke up, we blew up a bunch of balloons and had an awesome balloon dance party. We had fun throwing them up, and yelling out the colors of the balloons in the air. Teo showed his friends how to play catch with the balloons! After a couple of balloons popped, Joey said "balloons pop....and bubbles pop!" Annabelle took this time to solve some puzzles, and Asher spent much of this time vacuuming. After our dance party, we washed and sat for snack. Toni came in to "play pictionary" and talk about some words. She drew a circle on a board and asked the class what it was, every one screamed out "CIIIIRCLE!!" She drew lines around the circle and it became a sun! She drew a triangle and a circle to make a fish. Jasper and Ivy were very excited to say "sssssssssss" and "fffffffffff" for the class, and we all had fun playing this game.

ahh, it was a very lovely day!

Love,
Jackie and Dom

Such a great start to a wonderful Friday at Green Sprout! Everyone arrived in super good moods, and was so excited to go outside and explore! Paislie, Teo, and Jasper all began a game of chase, chasing Dom, and then having Dom chase them! So much fun, chasing, and hiding to surprise them! As more friends arrived, Jasper and Alanna made their way to the slide, going slow and fast, over and over again! Annabelle was hanging out with the teachers, Lizzie and Dom, enjoying walking around them in circles, occasionally getting tickled! Asher found his favorite Green Truck, and pushed it all around the playground, with our primary friend, Rhys! They love to drive them up and down the hills, up and down the ramp, and around the sandbox! We went in for a quick snack and circle time, so we could make our way back outside for Music Friday, which consisted of a boombox, an iphone, and “yo Gabba Gabba” as loud as possible! Both classes joined in the fun, but Jasper, Ivy, Alanna, Asher, and Joey were really focused on their dancing. While others danced with friends, danced through hula hoops, and danced in the sandbox! We continued the dance party, with some Pandora mixes, and then made our way inside for hand-wash, lunch, and transition to nap! Before everyone went to sleep, we had a special guest say hi! Toni’s brother, DJ, who was visiting from Houston, came to say hi and meet our friends! Everyone was very social, and gave him a smile or a high five! Said goodnight, and laid on their nap mats!

After nap, we had our usual milk, books, and cuddles! We moved some of the stools to the window to look outside, everyone was very excited about going outside, so we had a quick snack of pasta and mixed veggies, which is always a hit! Everyone gobbled them up, washed hands and made their way to the dramatic play kitchen and the construction area. We did a clean-up and put shoes on, half of our friends headed out with Jackie, while the other half stayed in, Joey “vacuumed” before putting his shoes on. Jasper was in the construction area building tracks, while Alanna, Paislie, and Wren read books on the carpet, patiently waiting to go outside! We made our way out, and everyone scattered, finding trucks, cars, hula hoops, and pre-tot friends to give big hugs too! What a great ending to a great day!

Much love

Dom and Jackie

We had a beautiful start to our day as Teddy came running through the playground. Alanna, Jasper, Theo, Koichi, Joey, Ivy, and Ben had a great time following him around and trying to get him to drop the ball in his mouth. As we came in for snack, Jasper, Asher, Joey, Paislie, and Ben all inspected the old bike behind the corner on the ramp. We went to take off our shoes and Ben was a great helper to Theo, who was getting frustrated with the process. When we got in, we washed and sat for a delicious snack of watermelon and cheerios. We asked our friends to save their seeds, show their seeds, pick their seeds, but not to swallow their seeds, and they were enthusiastic to show us and talk about where they come from and what they look like. Many of the seeds seemed to disappear (hopefully we won't have any watermelons growing in any one's tummy), but we saved the one's that didn't. We moved onto circle time where we sang the days of the week and read an awesome counting book called I Spy Under the Sea. EVERYone was super attentive...certainly one of those zen baby moments. We chanted numbers together, counting 1-10, and then 1-9, and so on. We pointed out how lots of friends like dolphins and how Jasper's shirt had an octopus on it just like the pics in the book! Koichi was super excited to poke his finger through the peeping hole of the book. Every one was so full of energy after the book, we just had to bust out another dance party! We put on some old classics and every one showed off their awesome dance moves. After our dance party, every one found papers with watermelons on them, and five spots for the seeds we saved! Ever one got one seed and we all counted 1 together, then 2, and all the way up to five, keeping track of each seed that was to be glued, using our fine fine fine motor skills. Wren was very meticulous with the placement of each seed, Alanna, Theo, and especially Teo were very curious about the sliminess of the small potential food item. Jasper was most excited to count, and in fact, counted out loud all day! Then we past around a non-toxic spray dye for the kids to add a little color to their activity. So much fun! Then, we went out for a few minutes of free-play.

When we came in, we had lunch and transitioned to nap.  It was one of the most energetic transitions I've seen in a while. Every one was in a great mood. We finally got to sleeping just a couple minutes later than usual, and most of our guys slept for more than 2 hours. Wow! I guess all that hopping around takes it out of you! We quickly got changed and sat down to get focused on Spanish time. We took out bells for one of our songs where we sing to each kid as they pretend to sleep:

Hermana Alanna
Hermana Alanna
Duermes tu
Duermes tu
Toca la campana
Toca la campana
Din Din Don
Din Din Don

Set to Farajaka. Asher, Joey, Ivy, Jasper, Alanna, and Theo were interested in pretending to sleep as we sang (of course, every one got their little spotlight!). We sang "Mi Cuerpo" which is a favorite of our guys. It goes:

Mi Cuerpo, Mi cuerpo
hace musica
mi cuerpo, mi cuerpo
hace musica
mis manos hacen *clap clap clap*
mis pies hacen *stomp stomp stomp*
mi voca hace "la la la"
Mi cuerpo hace cha cha cha!
Mi cuerpo hace cha cha cha!


Below, I posted the best video I could find of the song! Have fun!

We all said adios and headed outside to end the day :)

Love,
Dom and Jackie

We began our day very routine. Morning drop-off and AM snack, but before pailsie went inside, she needed a quick yoga fix. We made our way in for hand-wash and snack, then broke into stations.  Teo and Paislie made their way to the dramatic play area, finding glasses, scarfs, and colorful boas. Koichi and Joey made their way to the kitchen.  Wren asked for the butterfly costume, while Theo opted for the 3-D glasses J  Ivy and Paislie sat in the writing station exploring the markers.  While Teo and Ben drove cars around the parking garage in the construction station. We did a quick clean-up and made our way outside.

We got outside and ran into the pre-tots. Said HI and made our way to the sandbox, where Jackie was with some books. We had a fun, sand filled circle time, then Jackie read “ Tillie lays an Egg”, everyone was so interested in the pictures, and asking about “chickens” and “eggs”.  Once we were done with the book, everyone followed Teo and Joey to the playscape, where we all pretended it was our house! We made our way in for lunch and nap.

After nap, we had some feather fun! Paislie, Wren, and Teo were tickling friends, dom, and Jackie with the feathers, while some Ben, Joey, and Koichi were blowing the feathers, seeing how long they would stay in the air. Ivy and Alanna went to explore the other stations, before Ms Leona made her way in for Spanish. Everyone took a seat at the tables, ready to sing and dance.  Joey was first to make his way to the carpet, ready and excited to sing the first song, “Hola Amigos”. Ivy and Teo soon followed, then we started the song! By the end of Spanish, almost everyone was up, singing and dancing along! We sang our “Adios” song, and gave ms Leona high-fives, before making our way outside for free play/pick-up!

Much Love

Dom and Jackie

We started off this muddy Tuesday enjoying the lovely weather. We said hello to Teddy, Wren showed us his cool Thomas the Train toy, and we gave Ben a big warm welcome who was here on a Tuesday because his momma just gave birth to a baby girl ! Welcome to the world, little Naomi! Congrats to Ben for becoming a big brother today! We went in for a delicious snack of cantaloupe and raisins, and were soon heading out once more! We saw that our pre-tot friends were having fun scooping the mud, but instead of scooping, we thought it would be fun to make some mud paint and put it on our faces! Paislie wore some fine chops and a beard/mustache combo (she was most willing and excited to get a little muddy). Ivy, Koichi, Theo, Alanna, and Wren all turned into cats, Joey was an owl, and Ben had a curly mustache. Jasper, Asher, and Teo preferred observing their friends funny faces to getting painted. We brought out the mirror, and every one had fun looking in it and dancing. Many of us used hula hoops, too! Nick found a cool moth, something Jasper, Teo, Wren, Asher, Joey, and Alanna were very interested in. Asher found his favorite green dump truck and school bus and had a blast sitting on them, putting stuff in them, and making them drive. After that, we had a fun fire drill and every one tried their best to hold hands (Teo showed us some great leadership skills, encouraging his friends to hold hands). We walked to the front where we sat down as a group and cheered "FIRE SAFETY!" We got back and counted each other out loud and got ready to go in. Just before we went inside, Teddy paid us a visit and every one had fun chasing him around the playground. Teddy has really become a great friend to the Toddler room!  We went in for lunch and nap.

Once friends started waking, we stayed on our nap mats and it wasn't long before Joey and Wren were leading the class with a funny joke. Every one stayed quiet while Wren made noise with his Thomas train, and Joey reacted loudly and the whole class thought it was hilarious. The duo entertained our little guys for a good 15 minutes before it was time for a quiet dance party to some old favorite songs. We put the strobe light on and every one was dancing, then Toni came in for a round of hugs and lots of dancing time. Jasper was sure to show off his talents. Every one had a blast jumping on and dancing with Toni. We had some time for some free play, and Asher took his time working and fixing our vacuum cleaner. After free play, we washed up and had snack. We went out and all took turns looking over the fence with a teacher holding us. Then, we found some more mud and had fun mud face painting all over again. This time Teo joined in the fun; he got a cool mustache. Theo and Paislie took the liberty of painting their own faces. Later, we built a blanket fort and Nick played peekaboo with Joey, Jasper, Alanna,Teo, Koichi, and Ben. Meanwhile, Asher was figuring out how to roll a ball up a ramp and make it land in a bucket. The weather was fantastic.

What a fabulous day!

Love,
Jackie and Dom

We began this wonderful Monday morning chasing a grasshopper around the playground. Teo, Joey, Jasper, and Paislie discovered the grasshopper while on their way to the garden. Paislie and Teo found sticks and pieces of mulch they wanted the grasshopper to climb on, but every time they were a little close, he jumped higher in the air. They all thought this was hilarious, and tried to find more things to help our grasshopper friend hop.  We enjoyed the morning outside, and when all of our friends arrived we made our way to the gate, ready to march in for AM snack.

After snack, we explored different colored modeling clay. We gave everyone two popsicle sticks, two googly eyes, and two beads to do with as they wished. Alanna and Koichi immediately went for the googly eyes and stuck them in their clay. Paislie stuck one eye in the clay, then switched the her popsicle stick, where she realized if she stuck it in, it would stay up! Annabelle placed both of the googly eyes on her clay, then pushed the beads into the clay. Ben had fun sticking the eyes and beads in different places of the clay, and Ivy focused hard, placing each material, one by one, into her clay. Jasper was interested in rolling the clay, and bending it, and pulling it apart. While Joey left it the way it was and placed all of his materials into the clay, pushing them down hard to make sure they wouldn’t come off. Asher and Teo used their popsicle stick to cut their modeling clay into little pieces, while Theo asked me to help him roll and make a snake from his modeling clay, we added googly eyes and he slithered away :)

Once we made our way outside, we found some hula hoops to play with. I placed them down on the ground, next to each other, and Jasper, Ben, Ivy, Teo, and Asher all hopped from one hoop to another. We counted as we hopped, then eventually spreading them out, to create a bigger hop! Jasper was a master at this, and all of his friends followed, trying to see if they could hop from one hoop to another! We soon made our way inside for hand-wash, lunch, and nap transition!

After nap, we did our daily routine of books, potties, and milk! All of our friends broke into stations, with Asher vacuuming the floors, Paislie doing some art using markers, Koichi and Ben driving cars up and down the parking garage, and Jasper requesting “yo gabba gabba” dance party! We did a quick clean up, and made our way to the carpet, we danced to some of their favorites, “Hold Still”, “I Like to Dance”, and “There’s a Party in my Tummy”! They had so much fun showing off their dance moves and laughing with friends. Once everyone was all danced out we made our way to the tables for PM snack. After a yummy snack, we put our shoes on and headed outside, where we free played with our Primary and Pre-Tot friends.

What an awesome way to start the week :)

Love

Dom and Jackie