September 23-27 & September 30 - October 3

(9/23-9/27)

Our craft this week was butterflies made of coffee filters and pipe cleaners. We used washable markers on the coffee filters and then sprayed them with water. One class got enough rain in class to not use the spray bottles and were able to just set the coffee filters in the rain. The water makes the markers spread and turn into tie-dye colors. We let these dry and make them into butterflies with a pipe cleaner by "folding and flipping" the wings and then fluffing them out. This is a great fine motor skill activity to practice folding the paper. The other thing we had fun with this week was our puppet show. We made a whole stage with an audience and the kids used some dolls we've made as puppets and created their own stories with them, and they sure were wild. Iva, Avery and Rigel took some time to find late summer wild flowers and press them in some old books to use for future craft projects. And the kids jammed out on some mud kitchen items! Elliot, JJ, Davey and Luke all had their own band going with found objects. 

(9/30-10/3)

This week we had a special guest, Ms. Keely. She is a horticulturalist and studies and works with plants. She prepared a special hike for the children. We walked around the entire Wild Woods and identified all the different types of trees we have in the woods. We hung up identification cards on the trees that showed us the type of tree, what the leaves should look like, a fun fact about each tree and also if they are native or invasive. She was so knowledgeable and taught us all so much. She encouraged the children to ask questions. Cece was an EXPERT at identifying the trees once she learned the difference between the leaves. She was able to even tell the difference between red oak trees and white oak trees. The only difference between those two leaves are if they are pointy or rounded and she has excellent retention learning the differences. Iva and Avery got chilly on the hike and shared my flannel which gave us all a good laugh. Coco, Davey and JJ found it very fun to ask "what's this tree what's this one!!" To every single tree we passed. Ms. Keely did a great job staying patient and answering all the questions, even when it turned into kind of a game for them. At one point, Coco looked right at me and repeated "what's this tree what's this tree what's this tree" without even looking at a tree. It just became a very fun thing to say. Davey and Avery loved the sassafras leaves that have three distinct shapes and smell like lemon. The kids even had a moment where they all linked arms and hugged one of the big trees we found. We are learning so much about appreciation and respect for nature. When the hike was over we did leaf printings of our favorite leaves and labeled them. Rigel was especially interested in the leaf printings and really like the star shape of the sweet gum leaves. One thing I learned and found interesting was exactly how to tell the difference between raspberry plants and poison ivy. They look similar but we were able to see the difference in leaf shapes and tell them apart. Christian and Scout made sure to show off their impressive tree climbing skills to Ms. Keely. Micah had a bit of trouble on the hike because it was the longest one we had taken yet. Despite being "a little tired" he pushed through the whole way, asked questions and kept up. Micah always has the BEST attitude even doing hard things. There is hardly a day we leave the Wild Woods and he doesn't say "I had fun today!" 

Iva, Saga and Avery made a bakery with our mud kitchen objects. and blueberries were on the menu. They made blueberry cupcakes, and  iced blueberry cocoa. Saga made kitty cupcakes, and they were delicious.

• Kitty cupcake recipe according to Saga:

Little tiny kitty powder that looks like leaves, berries, the big leaf that is a real leaf but it tastes so good, grab a bowl, put stuff in it, mix it with a stick and you have to put the mixture in a bowl and then you're done!

• Iced blueberry cocoa recipe according to Iva and Avery: 

 blue berries, ice, banana, mix it up and put it in the microwave and then your all done! (I especially like that the ice goes in before you microwave it)

Our craft this week was orange peel garland. We cut oranges in half and the kids used a hand juicer to squeeze out the orange juice for a special treat at the end of class. Maddy was an especially big fan of this part. Nico got an orange seed in his and said "I don't like that there is a fish in mine" he was pretty relieved to find out they were just orange seeds. We talked to the kids about reducing waste and using all the parts of the orange and how that applies to a lot of things. Making sure to use as much as we can before we throw things away. Learning how to squeeze the oranges took a lot of fine as well as gross motor skills. Using the whole body to push and squeeze, and the fine motor skills to twist and hold the juicer. It required pushing, squeezing and twisting all in the same motion to get the juice out. Avery was so proud of learning how to squeeze the juice out. She yelled out "I KNOW HOW TO DO IT NOW!" And helped Simon squeeze his when he was having trouble by showing him her technique of the best way to squeeze it. The kids then used cookie cutters to cut out pieces of the orange. Simon did a great job placing his cookie cutters close together so he didn't waste space. The kids had a hard time pushing the pieces out of the orange (it took a lot of strength) but then we figured out if we put a book on top of the cutter it was easier to push down. They then poked two holes in the shapes they cut out and I helped them string them on wire. Rigel really excelled in showing off his fine motor skills putting the orange peels on the wire. These pieces will dry out and can be kept forever.The girls had a great idea to make theirs into headbands and Idris made his into a necklace. Most of the kids used a lot of different shaped cookie cutters, but Sadie had the creative idea to only use the bat shaped cookie cutter and made her whole garland bats. She even hung it up in our pavilion instead of taking it home so we can all see it every day. 

Iva reminded me it's a good idea to always keep $910 in my pocket for emergencies. 

Idris (big fan of independent play and often chooses to spend time with the teacher or off by himself) had a lot of fun joining in with William this week. William was having a hard time coming into the woods one afternoon and even decided to not come. When he got home he decided he actually did want to come in and had a great day. It was encouraging to see these two bonding, especially because of the difficulties they both had to overcome this and go out of their way to make a new friendship and take initiative being social in a new environment. Idris had a cool moment  asserting when he wanted some alone time. Avery got upset he didn't want to play with her and we discussed how we all need space sometimes and it doesn't mean that person doesn't like us, just that it's ok to want to be alone sometimes. After the talk Idris repeated to Avery that he wanted some alone time and she said ok! And went to play with someone else. 

Saga helped me plant a baby fig tree by the shed. 

We had our first fire of the year on a particularly chilly morning. The kids are noticing the change in the seasons more and more as the leaves fall and the mornings get colder. Antonina spent a lot of time by the fire with Ms. Annie "supergluing" her to the ground and "supergluing" her hair. If it wasn't imaginary superglue Ms. Annie would be having a rough day. By the end of the day we were all desperate to get out of our layers. We also had a nice rainy day on Monday! Elliot and Davey and JJ found it really fun to catch the rain in their mouths. the kids also set up pots and pans under places rain was dripping and listened to how the rain changed tone when it hit different objects. We also played tug of war in the rain and Mr. Tom joined in!