Donation Items

We have a few upcoming projects planned that we need to collect items for. If you come across any of these, please save them for us:

• metal juice can lids - these will be used to make an alphabet fishing game and in some other literacy activities.

• letter-sized envelopes - the children will soon be designing their own mailboxes out of soy milk cartons we've saved. Please check your junk mail or bills for return envelopes you won't be using and pass them on to us instead of throwing them out... I expect this project to be an ongoing favorite with the kids (as well as a fun incentive for practicing name recognition, reading and writing)!
  

• mismatched or spare kitchen utensils (measuring spoons, cups, funnels, strainers, slotted spoons, scoops...) - between the water table and the new sensory tub, we are always in need of tools to manipulate and explore a variety of textures (sand, water, ice, clay, rice, birdseed, etc.) If you are considering discarding any of these items, please donate them instead.

Thanks so much! :)

It Takes a Village...

An interesting read from the blog 'PhD in Parenting'.

Click HERE

A quote from the kids - 7/30/09

Jacques molted today. The kids noticed right away and were understandably curious. We talked about how Jacques grew too big for his skin. We also talked about how our skin stretches when we grow but his does not, and how our skin is soft but Jacques has a harder "shell" on the outside.

(click on the photo for a closer view)

After a long while observing and talking about what we could see, the kids decided:

"Now we have an old shrimp and a new shrimp!"

Photos - 7/30/09

Nature Shelf Update

For those of you who haven't seen our nature collection lately (also referred to as the "treasure box" by the kids):

(click on the photo for an enlarged view)

Squeeeze-painting!

Preschool Play Camp: "Letters All Around"

Camp was so much fun today!

• We read these books:

CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, and Lois Ehlert
DR. SEUSS'S ABC
THE ALPHABET TREE by Leo Lionni
ALPHABET MYSTERY by Audrey Wood
ALPHABET RESCUE by Audrey Wood

• We heard songs and rhymes about letters during circle time with Ms. Steph. We talked about the alphabet and the letters in our names.
  

• We made our own coconut trees for a snack from pretzels, apple slices, red grapes and alphabet cereal.

• We laced beads to make name tag necklaces.

• We used cookie cutters to cut letters from our play dough.

• We took turns drawing action cards and following the directions for fun movements!

• We used art materials and alphabet stamps to create collages.

• We put the letters of our names up in coconut trees, just like in the book!

NEXT PRESCHOOL PLAY CAMP: July 27 "The Artist in Me"
View the flyer for Play Camp dates and themes

He finally has a name!

Though we had many creative suggestions from the kids, we decided to fall back to one of our favorite family movies. Our shrimp's name is... Jacques!

"Voilà. He is clean."

The character Jacques in the Pixar animated film Finding Nemo is a Pacific cleaner shrimp.

Preschool Play Camp: "Bug Safari"

Camp was so much fun today!

• We read these books:

BIG BUG SURPRISE by Julia Gran
ONE HUNDRED SHOES by Charles Ghigna
WE'RE GOING ON A NATURE HUNT by Steve Metzger
OVER IN THE GARDEN by Jennifer Ward
THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR by Eric Carle

• We searched the backyard playground for any creepy crawlies we could find! We caught them with our bug catchers, looked at them a while and then let them go.

• We heard songs and rhymes about insects during circle time with Ms. Steph. We talked about bugs, spiders, worms, bees, caterpillars and butterflies.

• We made our own "bugs" for a snack from crackers, cream cheese, peanut butter, pretzels and raisins.

• We hunted for bugs in the sensory table.

• We pretended to be bugs crawling on the ground and flying around.

• We played a bug toss game into the spiderweb (parachute).

• We looked at closeup photographs of insects from the National Geographic Society.

• We used fly swatters to make splatter art!

NEXT PRESCHOOL PLAY CAMP: July 20 "Letters All Around"

Photos - 7/13/09

Project Grow Update

Congratulations to Jacob C. from Logan, winner of our June drawing. Jacob C. will receive a copy of the book Ladybug Girl by David Soman and Jacky Davis!

The giveaway for July is The Block Mess Monster by Betsy Howie and C. B. Decker. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Friday, July 31st.

Project Grow!