Photos - 8/28/09

Article: Your Baby Is Smarter Than You Think

Read it HERE

Field Trip: Children's Museum

Photos - 8/22/09

A Happy Morning

Glittering grass,
Beautiful day for the park.
Wiggles and giggles and smiles all around.
A cool, gentle breeze -
Surrounded by those little faces I love...
A happy morning.

Photos - 8/14/09

Last week:

This week:

Preschool Play Camp: "Splash Party!"

Camp was so much fun today!

• We read these books:

INTO THE A, B, SEA by Deborah Lee Rose
THE POUT-POUT FISH by Deborah Diesen
WAY DOWN DEEP IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA by Jan Peck
I'M THE BIGGEST THING IN THE OCEAN by Kevin Sherry

• We heard songs and rhymes about water during circle time with Ms. Steph. We talked about the different ways we see water: in rain, puddles, snow, ice, ponds, rivers, and the ocean! We talked about all the things we use water for: drinking, washing, keeping cool - and about how plants and animals need water too.
  

• We made our own snack mix from goldfish crackers, gummy sharks, oyster crackers and marshmallow "floaties". We stashed extra snack mix away in our waterproof beach safes.

• The sensory table had colored blocks of ice in it for us to explore. We experimented with melting them using salt, water and our hands - and watched the colors mix together as the blocks melted!

• We ate some juicy watermelon - yum, yum!

• We played a tossing game with the splash balls Ms. Steph made for us!

• We made colorful art with glue, salt and watercolor paints.

• We tried to guess which things would float or sink in water - some things surprised us!

• We got each other really wet during our water play with the bubble tub, spray bottles and splash balls!

~Preschool Play Camps are OVER for the summer~

A huge THANK YOU to all of the families that made this new addition to our program a success!

Photos: Our Recent Friends from Nature

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