How do YOU feel about painting?

We had a slow start to our morning as about half of our guys were just a little later than usual. Joey made a request early, saying "I want to paint today" and paint we did! We had fun free play, racing around the yard and taking long walks together holding hands. Teo and Annabelle led the way with Paislie, Alanna, Theo and Miya from the primary class! We looked at the garden and talked about how the baby plants need space to grow, and we can focus our attention on "their" garden if they want to dig and get dirty (the garden under the window is now the designated get-dirty if you want garden :). Ben was busy hangin' out with older sister Maya, Wren was being a little monkey on the dome, Paislie got busy shampooing her hair with sand while Asher raced trucks around with Joey and Theo walked around taking off his shirt and showing off his muscles. Soon friends got rounded up to sit on the fence as every one patiently waited to go in for a slightly later snack. Before and after snack, every one had a chance to look through and read some books we got from the library yesterday. There are a couple of hot items as many of the books talk about trucks and once features the coveted Thomas the Train...these books are a great way to learn about taking turns!

After books and hand washing we sat at the table to do some finger painting. Wren and Koichi very carefully dipped one finger in the paint at a time to make strategic markings on their paper, while Theo seemed to be having a fun sensory experience mixing up the colors. Ben said he didn't want to get his hands dirty and didn't touch the paint until he had a tool to use...soon his hands were covered in blue and he was happy to say "look! my hands are dirty!" Alanna and Paislie painted their face and hair a bit, Joey said he was drawing a picture of Mommy and Annabelle said she was drawing a picture for Mommy! Teo was very particular about what colors he wanted to use. Asher was very focused and intense, also seeming to put a lot of thought into his markings. We had so much fun finger painting! Before we knew it, it was time to wrap it up, wash hands, and head outside!

We had some free play, and then came in for lunch and nap! As we were waking up from nap, Dom found a giant dry erase board and we all took turns using different dry erase markers to draw with. Maya and Leina came to visit us at this time, and drew pictures on the board with their little brothers (so cute!). Joey, Asher, and a couple of others were done early, so they had the privilege of erasing the board. Soon every one was able to erase a little and it was time to wash up for snack and Spanish. We ate and read a book that Annabelle brought from home called What do You Feel Like? Theo and Joey answered "good" and Alanna and Paislie were very excited to make "angry" faces. Ben was really excited to stick out his tongue to make a "silly" face, and Annabelle was happy to announce to her friends that the monkey was balancing on a rope in some pictures! We had fun talking about our feelings in English, and just as we were moving on to the next book, it was Spanish time! Appropriately, we started off with a song about feelings in Spanish! We sang some of our favorite songs. At the end we took out bells and pretended to sleep as we sang "Hermano Juan." Once Spanish was over, we had a Yo Gabba Gabba dance party, got shoes and sunscreen on, and headed outside! What a great Wednesday!

Love,
Jackie and Dom