Saying Hola to our new friend!

Howdy there Toddler Families!

Super excited to be writing blog #2! And a big thanks to all of our wonderful families for such great, positive feedback about our first blog post!

We started our day off with routine community drop-off! Lots of exploration and free play, most of our Sproutlets love to help water the garden, and check on the plants and trees. We followed a line of ants to see where they were headed and rolled and bounced tennis balls off the play scape and stairs.  

We made our way inside and started our morning off with yummy watermelon for AM snack, and then made our way to the carpet for circle time! We started with a class lesson about building tracks and rolling cars on or around them.  The kids each took turns placing a block down, until we had a long, high track to roll cars on! After our lesson we started with our Name Song, naming all of our friends, and our newest toddler friend, Ben.  We continued with song requests from Theo, who wanted to sing “the Shark Song” “ABC’s” and “Jump up and down”.  We talked about the Days of the Week, and our Weather Chart. We had all the kids stand and look out of the window to let us know if it was sunny, rainy, or cloudy! Everyone came to the conclusion that it was indeed Sunny! :)  

As we made our way back to the carpet, we all sat and investigated the awesome "show and tell" binders that some of our families received and filled with fun treasures, stickers, and colors. Teo’s binder had fun colors and pictures that correlated to the colors! We did a quick I Spy with the color binder, than made our way to Joey’s binder, which was filled with Snoopy stickers, seashell stickers, and seeds that joey taped onto the paper! Both Sprouts had so much fun talking about their binders, and the kids enjoyed learning their colors and the sensory of the seeds and stickers.  (p.s. we will be sending home these small binders with different families bi-weekly to fill, with your Sprout, anything they might be interested in, to share with our class)

Once circle time ended, we broke off into our centers, Annabelle, Ben, Jasper, and Theo made their way to the atelier, where they found plenty of corks, envelopes, and paint. They used corks to stamp the envelope with paint, then sprinkled glitter to make their envelope collage. While on the other side of the room,  Paislie, Teo, and Koichi worked hard in the kitchen, stirring “food” in the pots, and sweeping up any mess (furry balls :) )

Ivy, Alanna, Ben, and Jasper then made their way to the writing center, where they each scribbled using markers of their choice, Ben and Ivy were very interested in snapping the tops onto the markers, and asking for help, then neatly putting them back in their “home”.

At a quarter after ten, we made our way outside, to explore the sandbox; we found all different sizes of measuring cups, and sifters. We sat and poured sand through the sifter, and talked about big and small sized measuring cups, and how much sand they could hold. When the primary came out, our friends observed and helped them roll balls through PVC pipes, and down half pipes. While we were outside, everybody focused on their separate interests, Paislie was rolling around in the sand with baby dolls. Ivy, Teo, and friends were balancing on logs with large beach balls, and then once again Jasper led friends in his jumping challenge game!

We made our way in for hand washing, lunch, and transition to nap. We had a very successful hand washing line, they were each patiently waiting their turn to wash and sit down.  WOW! :)

After nap,  4 Sprouts sat and worked with playdough and the different materials on trays. As one finished up, another quickly took their place and each of our kiddos was rotated into and out of the playdough activity fun.

When Ms. Leona, our Spanish teacher arrived, everyone was sitting down having snack. Leona took center stage with “Hola Amigo” and just as she started singing “Mi Cuerpo,” Joey serenaded the classroom with the beginning of the song by himself. We clapped for Joey and soon Leona had many volunteers running up to dance to the song! Every one had a fabulous time dancing (Leona let us know how impressed she was with their participation). A few of us used  our Spanish to say “adios.”

At the end of the day, playdough and magnets were the biggest hit. Pick-ups began and we headed outside to join every one and end our day!

Jackie and Dom