Thursday fun!

We had another fabulous day at the Sprout! The day started early with a cool breeze blowing through. Olive and Noah had a play date in our room, while Wren had his first play date in the primary. Wren, Ben, Teo, and Paislie spent those early morning minutes hanging out with Rody and Cody, the two bouncy toys that Arielle has provided for us. Theo was sure to tell me all about The Rooster Struts, the cool Richard Scarry book he brought today. Through out the day, we read it again and again. Every one had fun shaking out the sand from their shoes and enjoyed the challenge of remembering to carry them in. A number of our guys get so excited to come in that they forget about our new routine. Sometimes the shoes get left along the railing outside, then they can't come inside! They get their shoes, come inside, and leave them by the doorway to wash their hands, but they don't get to wash hands until the shoes are in the shoe rack. So they have to climb down the step, pick up their shoes again, and finally take them to the shoe rack. Each day, however, every one gets the routine a little bit better. We've also been stressing order (or neatness) in the classroom much more than usual with our new routine. It's been fun watching Asher, Ivy, Teo, and others put something away independently after using it. Olive and Noah are really picking up our routine as well. After snack, we transitioned to circle time with some musical instruments and the fold out key-board that Teo's family brought in. It's fun because you can drive cars on it and step on it to make sounds. It's long enough for several kids to use it at once, and easy to fold up and put away. Teo, Theo, Noah, and Koichi had fun using bells. Koichi seemed a little tired, so he laid down, and Annabelle was mostly interested in inspecting and studying some small hotwheels we have. Ivy, Ben, Paislie, and Asher were interested in pushing keys on the keyboard.




We read Teo's book The Hello, Goodby Window, and had fun relating to the routine of naptime, meal time, and hello's and goodbyes. We read Theo's book and talked about how different animals move their bodies in different ways. Theo was especially enthusiastic to show us how he “swims” like a fish. We went out again, and free-play was a blast. We came in for lunch (Ben voluntarily helped Noah get his shoes off on the way in!) and nap, and Toni visited us during this time to give lots of love to all our kiddos. When every one woke up from nap, they had the option of centers or a sticker activity. Ivy, Teo, Asher, Noah, and Olive were the five who wanted to paint. Teo was noticing a “balloon up high” on the ceiling that Olive had brought from her dentist appointment as he was painting. Ivy took an extra long time on her painting. Olive and Noah enjoyed using pain-brushes (what awesome skills they possess!). And Asher was being extra kind as he asked for “more paint, please.” Teo got a diaper change and needed some extra shorts, so we brought two for him to choose from. After he made his pick, Paislie wanted to wear the other pair, and she walked around trying to put them on until we helped her. Then, she walked around with huge shorts on and took care of the library animals and baby dinosaur. Annabelle kept inspecting the different cars. Koichi floated between the construction zone and the library, and Theo read The Rooster Struts many times. We had snack and headed out!