Thanks!!

Thanks to Banon, Ulysses, and Meredith for bringing such wonderful and delicious veggies from their garden for us to enjoy and for the lacing cards!! The lacing cards are a new interest for many of the children as they learn to string beads, cards, and finger knit and the ocean/sea creatures theme is perfect as we move into our new learning and play adventures this week.
Thank you also to everyone who has brought in old magazines...these help a lot with cutting, pasting, collage projects, and more!
We were so happy about the change in weather today and are looking forward to cooler days ahead.
It was fun having Roman come to play with us today and the children were excited to have him join in our day.

Playing

This week we have been following many of the children's ideas for play.
Wonderful houses, forts, and cities have been built, a little teddy bear playground, lots of water activities including observing the effects of magnets, and even a bit of wishful winter longing complete with blankets and scarves. I think there is a definite sense of the extreme heat as we imagine a variety of ways to deal with it.
Thanks to Charlie and his mom for bringing in lots of paper, puzzles, and books for our classroom and a delicious cantaloupe from the farmer's market yesterday. It is so wonderful to see the children get excited about fresh fruits and vegetables! This was the best and sweetest melon and we could smell it all around the room even before we cut into it. You would have thought we were opening a new toy by the gleeful sounds from everyone when we sliced it and passed it around.

Friday will be a Fairy Fun Day as we search for fairies outside, play games, and have a special tea party to celebrate Genevieve's 3rd birthday.

Next week we will be moving into our new theme of boats, oceans, and sea life.

Frogs and persistence

Persistent Frog
The Moral: Keep Swimming


Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl.
One was an optimistic soul,
but the other took the gloomy view.
"We'll drown," he lamented without ado.
And with a last despairing cry,
He flung up his legs and said "Goodbye."

Quote the other frog with a steadfast grin,
"I can't get out but I won't give in,
I'll just swim around until my strength is spent,
then I'll die the more content."

Bravely he swam to work his scheme,
and his struggles began to churn the cream
The more he swam, his legs a flutter,
The more the cream turned into butter

On top of the butter at last he stopped.

What is the moral? It's easily found.
If you can't hop out, keep swimming around!

Jumping into our new theme of frogs has kept us fully engaged this past week!

We had a frog hunt, searching for real photos of Missouri's most popular frogs and toads that were hidden around the classroom, acted out stories about frogs, pretended to be frogs, played leap frog, lily pad hop, made thumbprint frog scenes on watery paper lily pads, and painted with green paint.
The children are narrating some of their own stories and "reading" these to their friends, doing many counting activities with little teddy bear counters as they line them up and sort them according to color and size, and learning many new frog fingerplays that have been incorporated into our summer circle time.
Our morning talk sounds something like this:

Monday:
"What color do you think of when you hear about frogs?"
Can you find other items in this room that are green?
This inspired an "I spy green" hunt

Tuesday:
"Do you know where frogs come from?" (eggs)
The mother frog lays eggs in the water.
When the eggs hatch, the baby frogs are first tadpoles!
Have you ever seen a tadpole? (we look at photo)
The frogs do not yet have their legs. Those will grow later. First they look like little fish.

Wednesday:
"Do you know where frogs and tadpoles live?
They live in ponds, lakes, and other bodies of water. (We observe photos)
Would you like to go on a frog hunt?

Thursday:
"Do you know how frogs move?
Do they walk?
Do they crawl?
Do they fly?
They hop!
Let's hop like frogs
Let's catch bugs with our tongue
Let's croak like a frog

Friday:
Listen to actual frog and toad calls to identify the various kinds that live here in Missouri

Yoga Time: Froggy Fun
Tadpole Tugs
Swimming Frogs
Jumping Frogs
Sunning Frogs
Follow up activity:
draw or write in journal or take turns speaking about each other's experience as a frog

Books we are reading about frogs:
All Eyes on the Pond by Michael J. Rosen
From Tadpole to Frog by Wendy Pfeffer
If You Hopped Like a Frog by David Schwart
A Frog Thing by Eric Drachman
Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Frog Prince by The Brothers' Grimm
Growing Frogs by Vivian French

We are in need of pond water, tadpoles, a ten gallon fish tank, aquarium gravel, plant life, a large rock, a small can or container with a poked lid to hold eggs, tadpoles, and frogs.
If you would be able to gather any one of these or all of these items, then we will have the chance to put together an indoor tadpole habitat and help the children observe tadpoles growing into frogs to further enrich our studies in the next few weeks.

Last week on Friday we were able to take a field trip to the Art Museum and look for paintings of water...which we found. A whole exhibit called "The beauty of water". We also searched for green in the art and talked about what pieces would most likely be good places for frogs.

This weeks reflection: Persistence

"The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When we forge ahead and keep trying, we are able to release our unique gifts and amaze ourselves and others with the results. Keep trying even when it seems too difficult to continue. Keep moving forward, dreaming and creating and watch what the power within you can do. You are meant to do beautiful things. Move forward.

Little Acorn Learning

A special thank you to Grace for the dried lavender which added a peaceful aroma to our room, and to Amy for the huge roll of blank sticker paper that will be used for a long time. The children love to incorporate stickers into their art and this will give us a chance to be creative and make our own to go along with whatever subjects we are studying!

Birthdays, peaches, park, and storytime

Birthday celebrations are very important around here.
All the children make their own coloring page for a unique birthday book to give, we tell a birthday story, make honey muffins together, sing songs and play games. Happy birthday to Sierra and Addi, our most recent 3 year olds.
Thanks to Sierra and Amy for bringing in delicious peaches to share on Friday and a new sand/water table for the children's outdoor play space. The excitement was fun to watch!
Thanks for all the nature magazines from Charlie and Finn's mom, Jennifer. These are always needed and used for many projects we do.
If I have forgotten to thank someone, please forgive me. I am so grateful for each and every one of you and for all the special ways you encourage and support my work and efforts with your children.
Today, we took a joyful walk to the park and flower gardens. We observed the weather, talked about the names and characteristics of various flowers, and played on the playground.
We returned just in time for a snack before the story lady from the library started her songs and books about pirates. Pirate hats, stickers, and finger puppets were the highlights!

The gift of today or "Amy's inspiration"

Sometimes the day takes on a life of its own based on one of the children's interests or an inspiring idea...in this case it was Sierra's mom, Amy, who suggested that we work on a grocery list for their trip to the store later this afternoon. Spontaneous creativity is a must here, especially in the mornings when children might need a little extra help transitioning into the day. So all of the little ones earnestly dictated the specific items they would all be needing at the store and we each made our own list complete with drawings of the necessary foods. This led to much discussion about meal plans, parties, and cooking. Taking our lists and shopping bags, we headed out to the stores to pick up, buy, and deliver food with the help of good friends.
This hard work ended with well deserved silly bubble cooling off time in the water tables and wading pool.
Rain shower excitement carried us into the house for storytelling, soft singing with the lyre, and lavender foot massages before finally drifting off to sleep.
Another beautiful and successful day......
Thankful for the gift of each of you,

Fireflies and Optimism

The Pessimist Firefly
-Sam Waller Foss

The pessimist firefly sat on a weed
In the dark of a moonless night;
With folded wings drooped over his breast
He moped and he moaned for light
"There is nothing but weeds on the earth,"
said he,
"And there isn't a star in the sky;
And the best I can do in a world like this
Is to sit on this weed and die."

"Then be your own star! Then be your own star!"
The optimist firefly said,
"If you'll leap from your weed, and will open your wings
And bravely fly afar,
You will find you will shine like a star yourself,
You will be yourself a star;

Yes, the thing you need
Is to leap from your weed
And be yourself a star."

We are learning about fireflies, lights, optimism, and bringing our own beauty to the world.
Today we read:

Ten Flashing Fireflies by P. Sturges
When the Fireflies Come by Jonathan London
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Other books we will be reading over the next two weeks include:

Fireflies in the Night by Judy Hawes
Fireflies by Megan E. Bryant
The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
Fireflies by Hall and Margaret
The Night of the Fireflies by Karen B. Winnick
Fireflies for Nathan by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim
Firefly at Stony Brook Farm by Wendy Pfeffer
Aristotle: The Firefly's Message by Elizabeth M. Brown
Fireflies at Midnight by Marilyn Singer
Lighthouse Fireflies by Anne Margaret Lewiis

It would greatly enrich your child's learning experience if you would check out some of the above listed titles to reinforce the concepts we are talking about and they would have fun reading and sharing one of the books we read here with you!

We have a short morning talk everyday about our current subject of study and we will be observing the parts of the firefly, making our own paper fireflies, a jar full of "fireflies", reading like fireflies with flashlights in a dim room, discussing lights, playing firefly math games, memorizing and reciting poems, songs, and fingerplays about fireflies, and bringing our stories to life as we act them out and pretend to be fireflies.
Taking important thoughts from these stories we will also be discussing how we can each bring our own light to the world to make it better and more beautiful.....

Our new nature walk verse:

"Like sparkles glancing to and fro
Among the new mown grass
The fireflies gleam; how strange the show!
As back and forth they pass"
-Jones Very

This week's meditation for teachers and parents:

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine"
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If we would only get out of our own way imagine what we could accomplish!
This week, pay special attention to how often you respond or think negatively about the events and day to day occurrences in your life. Listen to how you speak to others and how you speak to yourself. This is particularly effective to do when things aren't going as you had planned. Can you stop and redirect yourself? Can you act as if everything will work out fine? You will be surprised
at how quickl this change of attitude changes your life. Make note of the times when your speak or think negatively. Journal about it and be more mindful of changing your self talk by using positive affirmations."

Little Acorn Learning

What our day looks like

What do we do here all day?
We follow a very predictable routine that looks something like this:

7:45 - 8:30 a.m. Arrival with a planned activity and/or free play
8:30 - 9 Story and planned activity based on day of week and current theme
9 - 9:30 Learning games and circle time
9:30 - 10 Washing hands, setting table, preparing & eating snack
10 - 11:30 Outside time/large motor activity/group games/stories/ nature exploration/daily chore
11:30 Washing hands, setting table, preparing & eating lunch
11:50 Storytelling, soft singing, kinderlyre harp playing, lavendar foot massage
12:15 Resting Time
3:15 Children begin waking up, we wash hands and faces, brush hair, quiet story
3:30 Snack/outside time/Planned artistic activity/Stories