Who works on a car?

I am actually starting the post with yesterday's snack. It was a do it yourself snack ! The kids took a glob of peanut butter and spread it then added a strawberry slice, a banana and a slice of green apple to make a stoplight. The kids loved it !

Today I found my little friends making a " parking lot" like the one I made for the game yesterday . It makes my heart smile to see things like this going on.

This morning when the kids came in I had Car written on the chalk board. Whitley first said " Is Clara not coming today?" I said " I think so.. why?" She replied " You have her name written on the chalk board." Oh...... Iexplained that it was missing a few letters to be Clara that it said something else. Katie , who was standing next to her, said " C ...a....r.." and said the word. SO proud! Both of us ! Then later Clara came in and she stood and looked at the board for a long time. Then asked could she write on it. SURE! She filled in the missing letters to make it her name. I have some smart kiddos!

We play and play and play some more., but all the while we are learning. I know you cant see in Claras hands but she has two magnets and it trying to stick them together. Hmm.. Wonder what she figured out?

More revisiting what we did yesterday. Hopefully that means it was a successful play/ lesson when they do it again by themselves.

Today we talked about " Who fixes cars?" I got all kinds of answers but mainly " grandpa or daddy". We talked about a place we can go to get the oil changed in our car. ( Walmart) I also told them a story about my grandpaw who owned a gas station when I was a child. We would go there and he would come out of the garage ( where he was working on a car ) and fill up our tank. The kids can't even comprehend a station where someone comes out and fills your gas for you. Boy, how I wish that was still a service. Kynley explained that when she and Dee fills their gas tank no one does it- it does it by itself. :)

We played truck BINGO. The papers had the alphabet and some numbers on it. The older kids did pretty well. The younger kids - let's just say, my " teacher patience" was tested. When I realized that no one was enjoying this game we put it away. ( BTW.. the paper you see was one of the second year students .. the younger kids had A B C's.

And lastly we talked about our " alone space" today- THE LOFT. The loft was an idea I had a few years ago when I won the Terri Lynn Lycoff Award. It was built as a place that a child can go be alone. That fit perfectly with our ALS PALS lesson today on " being alone". We talked about times that we come in and feel lonely or mad, we could go to the loft. We talked about when a friend has hurt our feelings or was not fair - we could go to the loft to " think". Do you have a place at home where your child can go to think and be alone. It is a great tool to teach for when we are spiraling out of control and need to regroup.

The loft is used for other things as well. We can go up there anytime we would like. There are special books, games and music up there. The rules are :

1. You must ask permission so an adult can watch as you go up for safety.

2. One person in the loft at a time.

3. You must sit.

I caught Anna up there today singing a happy song.