Introducing some new things...

Circle Time:  We are going to start having the children eat snacks using the family style of serving.  The snack will be placed in bowls or on plates.  The children will pass them around the table and serve themselves.  So, today we practiced passing.  We put buttons and plastic teddy bears in a bowl and pretended that they were our snacks.  The children are allowed to take one scoop or one item at first.  If they finish what they have and want more, they can ask for the dish to be passed to them. 

Story:  Our story today was A Tree is Nice.  In this book, the author describes the many things that are nice about having trees in our yards.

Small Groups:  We are beginning a discussion on trees.  After reading the story for the day, we took the children outside to look at the trees in our yard.  We made some comparrisons.  We are trying to decide if there is enough interest in trees to start a study.  During the next few days, we will be looking at things that grown on trees.  If the children seem interested in learning more, we will continue the study.  If not, we will look to something else.

We began Mat Man today.  Mat Man is a person that we can make using our Handwriting Without Tears big lines, little lines, big curves and little curves.  His name is Mat Man because his body is made with the mat on which we create letters.  There is a song that goes with Mat Man.  Your child may be able to recite a line or two.  I am including a picture of the afternoon class with Mat Man.  The children had just finished putting him together.

Art:  The children enjoyed using the liquid watercolor and eye droppers on Thursday, so we decided to extend the activity into an art project.  The children were given a plain white paper towel and the liquid watercolors.  They dropped the colors onto the towel and watched them expand and mix.  We have some very bright projects!

Snacks:  The morning class had string cheese and summer sausage brought by Maddie.  The afternoon class had honey and oats granola bars brought by Ada.  Thank you!