First Field Trip of the Year!!!

I was a little apprehensive to go on a field trip so early in the year, but I really want to get out and do more with the kids this year. Being in the same environment day in and day out can get on anyones nerves, but when you have 5 children under 3, well.... enough said, right :) I am hoping to get out at least once a month. We have lots on our list to do.

Well, they did GREAT!!! Getting out the door took longer than expected, but anyone who knows me, knows I always take longer than expected, so no surprise there. Our car ride was fun, lots of singing 10 Little Fishy's, and If Your Happy and You Know It... riding in someone else's car is always an adventure for little ones.

We didn't make plans with the pet store we went to, but we didn't really think it would matter since we were there to purchase a fish for child care. Everyone was very excited!!

Anxious to go inside!!

The reptiles were the first thing we saw, and the Bearded Dragon didn't disappoint... he came right up to the window and eyed the kids. I actually thought about taking him home. But, I just couldn't see myself looking for a Bearded Dragon Lizard that got loose in my house :)

The reptiles were very interesting and we spent a lot of time watching them.

The Birds were a lot of fun. They moved constantly and made lots of noise. My little Scamp here actually is smiling behind that pacy. She thought the birds were very cool.

Lil Bit couldn't stop hopping up and down in her seat... she thought everything was very exciting and talked a lot to each and everything she saw.

Although the kids loved everything, I think the cats and kittens were everyones favorite. How can you not love seeing these balls of fun swat at the toys and the glass. There was a lot of giggling and laughter.

We finally got down to the very real business of making a very important purchase. First, will it be a goldfish or a beta fish... we choose the beta fish. Then which one, a male or female, blue or red?? We choose a male, who was blue and red :) It was a hard decision. But I think we made the right choice.

We made our way to the checkout (we were told by this time that there was no taking photos of the animals in the store... I was a little taken by surprise, but not wanting to make a scene, I complied with the young women's instructions :) ) We choose a nice little tank to house our fish and homeward we went.

At home we rinsed everything, added the water and are now waiting to set our new friend free in his new home. We think he is really going to like it here.

Now if we could only agree upon a name we would be all set. We will save that for next week :)

Slime Revisited

We started our morning with lots of free-play. On Mondays I like for the kids to get reacquainted by having a nice block of time for free play. We start all of our mornings off with free play, but usually we start our circle time at around 9 or 9:30... but Monday's we don't start until 10 or so. I also decided to change up our week a little. I was going to read The Mitten by Jan Brett and focus on the letter Oo... but I changed it up to do the letter Gg for Groundhog, and read some of the Groundhog books I have. It fits into the Winter/Animal theme we have for the month... so I ran with it. (Which I love that I can do!!!)



We have calendar, introduction of our Theme for the week, letter, shape, etc... then we break up into our Quiet Work Time (which is really Center Time... using the word Quiet helps with the noise level). We read Groundhog Day by Margaret McNamara to understand what Groundhog Day is all about. This book also helped us with the concept of Pretend, as they use a Hamster to be the Groundhog, and Shadow. We also went outside and played with all our riding toys with the School Aged Kids, who were home from school due to a Teacher Work Day. (I need some of those :) ) While outside we ran after our Shadow's and wondered what it meant if WE saw our Shadows.



During Free Play we took the Slime our of the fridge again and had a grand time... We started off on the table. We love how cold it is when you first take it out of the fridge and how it doesn't stick to your hands to much.






The kids then decided that the Sensory Table looked lonely without any flour in it and moved the Slime there. We then added some animals.

The animals were a great hit and got some of the more apprehensive kids involved, since they didn't really need to touch it. They just moved it around with their animal.

Though Mr A decided to try it. "It's COLD Shell!!!" We only got him to play with it with that 1 finger and his animals... but he did and that is great!!!

The kids also loved the suction noise the Slime would make when they would press one of the animals into it and then take it out. (The School Agers taught them that) It was also interesting that when they took the toy out of the Slime the Slime didn't stick to the bottom of the animal, just to the top. HUM....

So, even though we wanted to focus on the Groundhog today, Slime was the hands down winner of the morning. Fun was had by all!!! Tomorrow is a new day :)


Yesterday I posted about my dismal organization skills. Thank you Bev and Ms Debbie... It is nice to know I am not alone!!! I did get to that area next to the fridge. OK, I know it doesn't look perfect and I haven't really addressed the issue of the pile (that keeps piling up) yet, but I will get there. Baby Steps :) I think I may follow Bev's advice and put up a couple of those plastic magazine rack kinda things on the wall over there, that will at least help make the counter stay clean. I also will look into where I can put some sort of desk/Armoire thingy to hold my "office." IKEA might be a good place for that.

Before After :)

Sparkly, Shimmery, Shiny

Starting our day with Breakfast of Bagels, Cream Cheese, and a little independence!! I love that the kids can help me make breakfast, lunch, & snack. It definitely takes longer, and sometimes the messes don't quite seem worth it, but it is worth it. The kids really love it and it gives them the confidence they need to try new things and to be more independent.






We worked on our Sparkly Fish today. We read the book, Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, I know it is about a R... rainbow fish... but he is so sparkly, shimmery, scaly, swimmy, splashy... you get it. It also tied into the what we have been talking about MLK Day... sharing, loving, happiness, we all are the same, etc...

We were very proud of our fish... "Mom, I can't wait for him to swim in the pond"

Glue!!! We love glue... they have come a long way. They used to be so worried their little fingers would be too sticky this way. They would want a brush or the container to put the tissue paper on... I found that this suited their needs best... they got used to the stickiness (plus learned the art of peeling dried glue from their fingers... Yeah!!) and they could refill their dish as much as they wanted, which is always a joy!!

This is Little Miss M's finished Fish... she wanted to use the glue like paint and got very frustrated with the whole stickiness of it all.

Here is she getting a little annoyed... but she did great!! And all that stickiness leads to what.... Yup, washing our hands!!!

I love the way she has to tippy toe to get to the water. This is a beloved activity for her and we "need" to wash our hands a lot during the day. Winter months make our hands really dry here!!

I love our bathroom set up... My Dad bought us the enMotion hands free towel dispenser. Which surprisingly was very inexpensive... they get you when you order the towels. The dispenser was $15 or so... but the case (6 rolls) of towels were $80... but it is worth it. The kids love it, I love it and the spread of germs from the towels we used to have is gone :) A win, win, win situation!!!


This little lady is way ahead of her time!!! She has got it all covered... believe it or not she can tear it off by herself and everything :)

Ok, seeing a pattern.... Little Miss M was quite cute today... she loves getting in the cubbies. So, I had to get it.

CHEESE!!!!

Lunch today was an idea we got from Little Miss M's Mom!! Thanks Dana!!! It was a PB & J pinwheel!! Miss M brought them in one day and the kids interest was peaked... the next time Miss M brought extras to share... a tease :) I had to make them for the kids today... Tip though, if you want to have these for lunch, either make them a day ahead of time, or early in the morning. They are eaten very, very quickly and the kids want more and more. They made the pinwheels today with me, and they each made 1, while I made some back ups... Yeah Right... I couldn't keep up with the demand.

To make:

1. Cut the crust off bread

2. Use rolling pin to flatten the bread... go to town... the thinner the better to roll

3. Spread the jelly on 1/2 of the bread (the part closest to you) and PB on the other 1/2

4. Roll and cut... another Tip (from Dana, and I agree!!!) use a REALLY sharp knife to cut. You will have to do the cutting part, we tried to use a serrated plastic knife so the kids could do themselves... No Go :(

5. ENJOY!!!

Another Happy Busy Day!!!

Tuesday Fun

Snow!! OK not really, it was just flour in the sensory table... but for a little while we pretended it was snow :)

These 2 boys played in that table for almost 2 hrs. At 8:30 this morning they started out with the regular sifting, dumping, piling, etc... but it turned into endless possibilities when I told them it was snow.

You see, I was going to make Slime. I told the kids they could play in the flour like it was until our friends came over to play, and they didn't want me to make it wet and slimy... I said, "But it won't be SLIME then." They laughed and said they didn't care... that is when I said, "Well, it must be SNOW!!" "YEAH!!!" Then the animals, cars and little people all came out of hibernation and started playing in the "Snow" Thankfully no one else really wanted a turn at the sensory table because these 2 guys were having none of the sharing thing. :)

This is the start of it all....

(sorry the pictures came up in the wrong order... no worries though, I know you can tell what's going on)

These 2 finally got to have a turn... Yes, she is falling off the chair. She knows she wants to be like the big kids and sit in the chair while she plays, she just forgets to push it in. She didn't actually fall, she is pretty quick and got her feet down in time. We moved her chair closer, but then she couldn't reach... what a dilemma.

She finally just stood on her tippy toes and played... she did a great job too, no flour in her mouth :)

We also had the Snake Table going again since we had friends over to play. They wanted a chance to make a Slithery Slimy Squiggly Stinky Snake too!!!

Glue... what fun :)

We also sang a snake song:

1 little, 2 little, 3 little Snakes

4 little, 5 little, 6 little Snakes

7 little, 8 little, 9 little Snakes

*Slithering across the pond, then

*Soaking in the Sun, then

*Sliding down the hill, then

*Smelling Emily's Toes, then

of course Smelling EVERYONE'S Toes!!!

We had loads of fun with that song!!

We also sang a song, One Green Frog Went Hop, Hop, Hop... that Deborah Stewart from Little Fingers That Play & Excellence in Early Childhood Education mentioned that we may like, about Frogs!! It was great and I hope to get it on video so we can show just how much we liked it. It's hard when your a lone, you can't always get the things you want. If our friends come over again hopefully we can get it captured on digital :) THANKS DEBORAH!!!!

We also had Slimy Snakes for lunch (spaghetti w/butter) which is always fun... we had to capture those Slimy Snakes before they Slithered down our backs :)

We had OUTSIDE time today!!! It was warm enough that we actually got to go outside for more than 5 minutes. We ran, swung, slithered like snakes, raced cars, & just ran and played... it was time and we were very happy for the outlet!!!

Lazy 5 Ranch

We have a great attraction right in our own backyard. It is The Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC. We decided to pick that as our 2nd Summer Field Trip. I took so many great photo's, I wish I could put them all up. But I didn't want to take up all the space. Someday I will figure out how to do a collage or something... or maybe a slide show... but for now I only know how to add photo's into the post.

This guy was unbelievable... The tongue was huge and the kids were amazed at the texture. They wanted to see if their own tongue was as rough, but I had to quickly put a stop to that since we had touched this guys tongue first!!

This beautiful giraffe was so friendly... they had about 5 giraffes in the enclosure... one that had been born 5 months ago... and one was pregnant and would deliver in about 5 months... It was very sweet. A lot of babies were around for us to Ahhh over.

This Ostrich was huge, but his feet is what caught the kids attention. They couldn't believe that it could walk on only 2 toes... To cute :)

We had lunch in a perfect pavilion, nice and shady, and wonderful animals to look at close by. Of course our favorite was the playground.

The playground was great... the kids were able to run, hide and slide!! It was great to get out that energy from all that sitting on the wagon... hahahaha!! The kids were hot and tired within 10 minutes and we hadn't even been to the petting area yet.

We made a mad rush through the petting area and got a few pictures of some baby ducks, and peacocks. They were beautiful. That didn't stop the kids complaining of being hot and thirsty (they couldn't buy soda in the vending machine, so they complained quite a bit), so we left shortly after that. All in all we had a great morning... and next time we will remember to bring extra water... even though that's not what the whining was all about. Now I have to think of a way to top this trip next week...