A Nature Study Kind of Day...

Our new tree blocks have been quite a hit since last week. We have used them in a couple different areas so far. This week they are at the circle table.

Our homemade tree blocks. 

Our new counters from Scholastic Book Order

Who Whooo...

We decided to spend some time on the "big" playground today. We spent the majority of the time investigating in the "woods".We discovered grapevines, mushrooms and seeds. (There may have been a caterpillar squishing incident, too)

I draped the grapevines up over this tree branch. In the Spring I would like
to create a more permanent
space for the vines to climb. In the meantime it makes a fun hideout.

"What's this?"

"Here's another one"

Mushroom of some sort.

Wild Grapes

Back on the little playground... they continued to investigate nature. 

They apparently wanted to find something they could actually eat. 

This was the first time in a couple weeks that they paid any attention to the garden. 

The Letter Z

This week was the start of Letter of the Week. We are going backwards!

Zooooommm Painting with Cars

Zoo Stamping

Pompom Magnets: Letter Z

Inspired by "Sew Fantastic" (see link below)

Our Preschool Farmer's Market

Making lists with the dry erase boards.

521 continued... Our NEW Hopper Balls

These pictures show how important it can be to have multiples of materials/toys. This is not only fun exercise, it also became a very social game. 

 Needless to say these children took very good naps today!

5210: Community Transformation Grant

http://www.letsgo.org/

We were very fortunate to receive an invite to participate in a Community Transformation Grant that promotes health and wellness in child care. The above image from the 5210 program is recommendations for a child's day. In my personal opinion, screen time for preschoolers should be much less, which is why we do not offer screen time here at preschool.

After completing  a self-assessment and setting some goals that would increase physical activity and help prevent obesity in children, we received a stipend for participating. This stipend was used to purchase materials that will help us meet our goals. The two goals that we decided to work on were serving family style meals and providing more variety of materials that would increase physical activity both indoors and outside.

Our first package arrived yesterday! It included dancing scarves, hopping spots and hopper balls.
Our second delivery should arrive next week which includes child-size Montessori style materials that will allow the children to serve themselves family style meals. (ie. tongs, pitchers, trays, glasses).

Let's GO!

JUMP!

Marching Marching.

Jumping

Throwing

Dancing.

Twirling.

Chaos.

More Twirling.

Rocking our babies to the slow songs.

And a rest.