Water, Rain Sticks, & Walking

There are pro's and con's to warm weather for a baby who isn't walking yet...

Pro... Con... Got the water table going outside today. Water is such a wonderful Early Childhood tool. It add so much to our program. They use so many skills: Vocabulary, Problem Solving, Experimenting, Investigation, Patience, Independence, Cooperation... the list could go on and on. I am just glad we have more than one water table, inside, outside, in the mud pit, and near the sand box. It is such a valuable tool.

(Looks like someone is having fun!!)

Rain Sticks were also on our agenda this week. We haven't gotten to them until today. I set everything out and they worked on them for a few minutes before the water pulled them away again. We will try to finish them after nap, if not, we will do them Monday morning. Flexibility... that is our mantra here!! I try not to lose sight of each child's childhood... Play, that is the most important job of our young children. That is where they learn the skills that will follow them throughout life, skills that will lead them on a successful journey.

Our Little Man is getting so big, so fast!! I think he will be walking soon. Here he is looking so big. He has started standing and pushing on anything that will move, to practice his walking.

Let me tell you, he is very proud of himself too!!

A little Science, A Lot of Fun

Busy, Busy, Busy... that's what we are. We had a busy, fun morning completeing some crafts we didn't get to yesterday and doing our Tornado "experiment." I bought one of those little plastic pieces that you attach 2 soda pop bottles to, then twirl it around and it makes a "Tornado" inside the bottles. The kids enjoyed making it, but when they firgured out what it did, they thought that was even cooler. We first watched a You Tube video on Tornado's and then watched one that showed an actual Tornado touching down in an open field. The kids loved watching it, and trying to guess where it would show up on the screen. On some of the video the Tornado seemed to come out of no where. Very interesting.

Yesterday we didn't get to do our Cloud craft, so we finished it today. Glue, cotton balls, & construction paper... they loved it!! We will spray the Rain Cloud with diluted black/gray paint so the cloud is not a fluffy white. Princess loved making the Rain Cloud, but it was her who said to me that the "cloud" part needed to be darker, not the white from the cotton ball... Love Her!!!

Exploring the letter Ww has been a lot of fun this week. I found this on my camera when I downloaded the photos, not sure who took the photo, a childcare child or one of my sons, but I like the colors so I put it on.

We really love our I Spy Letter bags. We have been using them to play different letter games, sound games, I Spy games, and even gross motor activities. Today we threw them back and forth, and when you caught the bag you found an item and said it's name. It's a great game for the Toddlers, for both their vocabulary and gross motor skills. The preschoolers loved throwing and catching the bag too.

I hope we get in all the activities I have planned this week, but I am not sure we will get to our worm activities. We will be doing a planting activity soon, so maybe we will make the connection to worms, dirt, and the letter Ww as a review later in the month. We'll see.

Wind, Rain, Clouds, Sun... All This Morning

Today was a perfect Weather day. The morning started off with a downpour, then some dark gray clouds rolled in with the help of the strong wind that blew, then the sun shone beautiful and bright. I could not have asked for more perfect weather for our Weather Unit!! The kids got to experience the weather first hand. Feeling the wind and rain on their faces, then watching as the sun came out and warmed up our playroom. We looked feverishly for a rainbow when we saw the dark gray cloud start to move away... it seemed to be perfect for a rainbow, a little bit of moisture in the air, dark back drop with the sun coming out... but No, I guess the weather didn't cooperate as much as I wanted it too :) That's ok, we made a rainbow anyway. We really thought there should have been one today, so we made our own. I made a large rainbow on a sheet of paper, colored some of it in so the Toddlers would be able to match colors, and set out the colored paper, scissors and glue. The kids did a great job.

(Will you look at that hand position, she is growing so quickly!!)

The Internet is wonderful!! We found a book about Dippy the Raindrop, and listened as the author read it to us. Even though it was a little long, they enjoyed it and wanted to listen to it again. Instead, we did a little experiment. I had a pan of water (our lake), and cotton balls. We pretended the cotton balls were the clouds, that start out nice and dry and fluffy. As it passes over the lake, it picks up water (the kids put their cotton balls into the water). Then when it gets to heavy with water, it rains. They loved it!!!

(I don't know if you can see the drips toward the bottom of the photo, but Princess thought it was soooo cool!!!)

Our Boat House has become a nap time castle for a special boy or girl. While the kids are washing up after lunch, I sneak into the playroom and put someones cot into the Boat House, surprising someone special when they come in for nap. They kids look forward to seeing who is going to get their cot in the special napping castle, and I have a spot to put it during nap :)

W is for Weather

A new week is upon us and we got busy playing and learning!! I bought a few new bouncy balls and Little Man found them right away this morning. Those balls kept him busy for a half an hour, he just pushed them, crawled after them, and held onto them... then repeated, over and over again. Mastering a skill, loving it!! We had some Practical Life work going on also. Last week I introduced a "tray" with a bucket, some cute character wash clothes, and a small scrub brush and showed them how to wash the tables. I'm sure you can imagine, it was a hit. I have the cleanest tables. I think I need to introduce the dusting work next, my shelves always need to be dusted.

( Even Little Man wants to help)

During Circle today we talked about the letter Ww. It is a tricky letter, because it's sound isn't the same as how you pronounce the letter. They want to make the sound "da"... so we first talked about it's sound. Then we thought about different words we could think of that started with a W... Worm, Watermelon, Wagon, Walk, and (with my hinting) Weather!!

We read the book, The Sun is My Favorite Star, by Frank Asch, and Oh Say Can You Say What's the Weather Today? by Tish Rabe, which is from The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library series. We mostly talked about today's weather, Sunny, Warm, and VERY Windy. I introduced them to their Weather Journal that we will record the weather this week and unanimously decided that after such a rainy, cold week last week, the weather was telling us to bag our plans for the day and get to the park... so that is just what we did. On the walk we talked about the wind, how it was blowing the trees, leaves, etc... and especially how it was blowing the clouds away. That was something we learned about in our weather book. Connections being made, Yeah!!!

(Ok, I know you won't believe this, but Little Miss M is doing Acupuncture on Sprout. Her Aunt does it to her, to cute!!!)

Having Fun!!!

The boat became a House today. They read books in there, played house, and built with the blocks to make a castle. By the end of the morning they wanted to turn it back into a boat though, we'll see what it become tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will get back to experimenting with the weather, but I'm glad we were able to get out and have fun.

Friday's are for Experimenting

After such a cold and wet week, it was nice to see the sun shine this morning!! It just perks you right up!!

After breakfast and some free play, we got down to business. I knew we had a lot of playing to do today, so I got us right into our day. Circle Time is a great time to reflect on our week, review what we have learned, as well as completing our Days of the Week, Counting, Weather, Shapes, and Colors. This week we added another little bonus to our Circle Time... we have been practicing rote counting to 30. We do this while clapping, snapping, hopping, or using an instrument. The kids REALLY LOVE it!! Especially the toddlers. They jump around counting as high as they can go, then just start over. The excitement on their little faces is fun to see. The movement helps them get through Circle better also.

Sprout can make a V with her arms!!

D-Man can make one with his fingers!!

We finished our Volcano theme today with an erupting volcano. The kids were so excited!

I had set up a "Volcano Station" at the art table, with baking soda, colored vinegar, and various containers to experiment with. They had a blast!!

I moved the sand volcano over to the experimenting table, this way they could experiment with that one too. It was a huge, sandy mess... but oh, what fun!!

Princess was transferring vinegar from the jars to the pitcher with the droppers. When D-Man asked why she didn't just pick up the container and pour it in, "It's faster you know." Princess said, "I like it this way!!"

Around the room we had Utensil painting at the Easel, an idea we got from Teaching 2 and 3 year olds. We had used utensils for painting last week, but we did it on the table, more horizontal. After reading Teacher Sheryl's post the other day, I thought the kids might like to try it this way. They visited the station, but there was so many other wonderful things going on, they didn't spend to much time there.

The water table seems to be a favorite!! Especially with Little Man... who, I must say, is actually getting better with putting everything he finds in the table in his mouth :)

I think the kids had another fun week!! Next week we move on to the letter Ww. Of course you can't learn about the letter Ww without learning about worms, the weather, or watermelon. I am looking forward to another fun week!!

Have a Great Weekend!!