Morning Meeting:

We sang the morning songs louder than ever today with Draven as an additional singer. Dalila assigned jobs- Lily and Elijah were the fish feeders. Pearson was the calendar helper, and Draven was the snack helper. Pearson put up the number 30 and we counted all the way up, then he helped us count the numbers again in Spanish. Dalila went over all of the 10's in Spanish after 30, all the way up to 100. Then our helpers fed our lovely fish for us. Then we got out some pictures from our trip to the fair and had a nice conversation about what we did there and what we enjoyed the most. Then it was time for the Magic Box, which was empty! It was empty because the surprise was a grasshopper that was hanging out in our butterfly habitat. Everyone got to reach in and touch him. Elijah had his own magic box today which was a cave cricket. He let everyone in the circle get a look at him.

Snack Time:

Addison mostly helped with snack as Draven was a bit distracted. Everyone wanted animal crackers after enjoying them so much yesterday (a fresh batch is very good) so we had them again.

Outside Play:

Everyone started off swinging, having a blast. Elijah said “lets everyone swing on our bellies!” and so everyone did. Draven came to the sandbox and made a sand pie while the others climbed backwards up the slide and hung onto the rope like “George of the Jungle.” Some got the idea to pour our new wood chips down the slide for effect. We missed our end-of-the-day outside play because the boys were too excited by their machine creations (see free play) to go out.

Project Work:

We made original insects from pasta and beans, today. As usual, everyone had a slightly different approach. Pearson made two bugs, and Elijah made a family of four. Addison and Draven each made an insect as well. We got out the hot glue- something Draven had never used before, so after a bit of confusion she figured out how to make a cute little sculpture. 

Rest Time/ Focused Work:

Shortly after Elijah started listening to his CD he started looking through his binder- which is now filled with all of his work, including journals. He is very excited about his binder and is motivated to fill it- so he asked to do some focus work right off the bat. He worked on a number booklet and then did a journal entry of a turtle, jellyfish, and a fish. Then Lindsey helped him to read a challenging book about Clifford on Halloween. Pearson came out and they both got a bit of free play with some toy machine parts before Pearson did some writing practice. Then we came into the studio to finish our butterfly projects from last week (from the large cut outs and pastels). Draven came out soon and continued work on her own butterfly. We used solvent to thin out the pastels and make them like paint. Draven finished coloring, and began collage work on her butterfly body. Pearson and Elijah both finished their butterflies once gluing the bodies to the wings. 

Free Play:

In the morning we spent some time outside in the front. Elijah was a “were-man” and howled over and over. Lily “swept” the sidewalk, Addison rode the baby tricycle, Pearson ran around in circles, and Draven dressed up. When David came back from dropping off Daniel he let a couple of them try out the back seat of his two person bike. Later during focus time we brought out some constructive toys for building machines- once everyone woke up after rest time there was a good deal of play here. Elijah also got the chance at the end of focus time to paint a picture of draculas and "cute" monsters (we read the halloween book) in space ships trying to attract aliens. 

End of the Day:

We listened to the creepy crawly calypso CD and Dalila read the book to the kids and showed them what the instruments looked like that were playing on the CD.