Morning Meeting:

Everyone got a shaker and went on parade for the neighbors- shaking the “sillies out” down the street. When they came back Elijah was the calendar helper and pointed at the numbers as they counted. Then they began to learn a short song in Spanish. Addison and Lucien fed the fish, Azul, today. Then they read a book in Spanish about a girl who grows apples, which helped them to learn some simple words. Elijah then got to show off his house full of bugs- he taught us some facts about the different kinds of bugs that he has, and let everyone look them. He had special glasses that let you see how the world looked to bugs. In the magic box we found Popsicle holders, which meant that we got juice-sicles for snack today!

Snack Time:

Pearson was our snack helper today, and helped with the popsicles, and everyone got to have their snack outside on the playground.

Outside Play:

Dalila put some water in a baby pool and let the children wash our dirty toys. Addison and Pearson “made dinner” by scooping water into a larger bucket. They tried sitting down in the cold water- it was fun to watch. Elijah has become very interested in swinging “higher than Pearson,” and when he does, he exclaims “this is fun!”

Project Work:

Today Lindsey introduced the children to painting. They were given a single paint brush, two colors, and a jar of water. We practiced getting just a little bit of paint on the paintbrush, and washing it off in between colors. Pearson was very good at this; he painted two pictures- one of a “Lightning-Man,” and one of a Man who shoots water. Elijah worked very hard, paying great attention to his detail. In his first painting he experimented with many different kinds of brush strokes, and swirling his colors together. He got the idea of footprints from a painting on the wall completed by a past student. The subject was “Godzilla destroying the city,” and it was a big swirl of marks covering the whole page. The second painting was a calm, detailed painting which he worked carefully on the details after all of the others were finished painting. It was an image of Mothra, Godzilla, and Mothra's larvae. Addison made a painting of a “choo choo.” Little Lilly also did a painting. The colors they were offered were complementary colors (opposites) and so made for some neat discoveries. Pearson discovered that red and green together make black. In today's project and yesterday's the children were tempted to add too many materials to the project- when we encouraged them to use only the materials in front of them they were able to go deeper in their understanding and exploration of the basic materials themselves, as they were not distracted by trying to mix paint colors, or use clay tools.

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Lindsey caught an insect during lunch. While everyone was napping, she and Elijah got on the Internet in order to identify the bug. They discovered that it is a Sawfly. Then he and Pearson sat and practiced writing numbers. They also each did a journal entry. Elijah drew another picture of a rolly polly, and Pearson drew a picture of himself from a photo of his family. Afterwards Pearson looked through Elijah's insect book asking “what are those things? ” as Elijah explained what he knew about the insect on each page they covered. “That's an ambush bug. Lets go to the next page and see what's next.”

Pearson and Elijah compare their feet to each others' and to the size of the beetle in the book- Elijah is surprised that their feet are not the same size. They sat looking at this book for a long time, Pearson would ask 'what is this bug?' and Elijah would tell him what he knew.

Free Play:

In the morning Lucien, Lilly, and Elijah put together puzzles until Pearson and Addison arrived. Elijah showed Pearson his bugs and his bug vacuum. It was a very exciting morning- everyone was very happy to see each other. After project time everyone wanted to dress up, and wore their costumes during lunch.

End of the Day:

We went outside for most of the last part of the day playing in the playhouse, sandbox, zipline, and swings (as usual). We decided to let our evening meeting go today because they were playing very nicely at free play when we came inside. The young ones took to the water table, while Elijah played with the musical instruments in the other room.