First Field Trip of 2010-2011

Before I give a run - down of today, let me back up to Friday to say " Hello " to a couple more grandparents that stopped by on Friday to help us celebrate. Audrey's grandma and Kimbers grandpa stopped by to share the cake the kids cooked earlier in the day.

We have spent time talking about our amazing bodies . This week we are going to narrow it down to our 5 senses. Children know they can smell, see, taste , hear and touch but it hasn't really clicked with them yet that they can use their senses to learn and discover things around us. Today we talked about our eyes and what we use them for. We read the book " Jill's Glasses" This helped us to understand a little more why our friend Dillion wears glasses.

We also played a few games using our eyes, like this cool new discovery bottle we have and an eye spy book. We played eye spy in our room too. " I spy with my little eye... a ......." This is also a great way to teach colors ! " I spy with my little eye a BLUE car." We also played the traditional " What's Missing Game" . For this game I put a few things on the tray and the kids close their eyes and I take something away. They try to guess or remember , what might be missing.

Later in the morning we visited Childers Eye Clinic.

We saw a police car.

Malea's mom, Carrie went with us. Thanks Carrie! With this being our first field trip we needed an extra set of hands. I did think though that the kids did GREAT!

At the office Dr Kate showed us what they would do if we came in for an eye appointment.

She assured us that none of this hurts. She even let Noah try out the equipment. We think he looked like a robot.

We had a great day.

If you would like to read more about your child having an eye exam , please visit here.

We walked in great lines to stay safe.

We saw an apple tree.

We saw a post man.

We left with goodies ! A CD and coozie for the adults and a ball for the kids. Thanks Lori !

Muffin Tin Monday!

I Can Move

Grrr.. I have been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to find the pictures I took today. See, I have a brilliant son who has been in town . Addam is headed to New York City right now to interview for the Mac Genius position on 5th Avenue. He is one of those computer guys that makes us all look a little silly. It's great to go shopping with him. He is able to help you pick out what you need perfectly. He sets it up for you. You THINK you understand. Then when he is gone... ouch. Last night one of the new gadgets I bought was a new SD card that automatically loads my pictures on my computer as I take them. He set it all up. I watched. I took pictures and watched them magically load and now.. I cant find them. Addam of course is gone. If I find them later I will add them or save them for tomorrow. I know how much you look forward to pictures of the little rugrats. :)

Today we learned more about our amazing bodies and how we move. We read the book " From Head to Toe " again. This book is about the way animals move and challenges the kids to do the same. They really like it.

We also talked about how different situations require us moving differently . Some examples are : If a baby is sleeping in the room, how do you move? If you see a lion and a tree, how would you move ? Children need to learn different circumstances sometimes require different reactions. Have you ever watched them run ALL DAY and then they spill milk and you say - HURRY GET A TOWEL and they almost crawl to get it ? Exercises like today hopefully help that discernment a little.

We sang more songs like "Head , shoulders , knees and toes " and changed it to " forehead, wrist, ankle, heel". Try this one at home! We also did :

Over all we had a great time today and packed in a lot of learning. We did get to go outside even though it started raining at 10:30. We went after lunch for a few minutes .

Grandparents Day is Sunday. We will celebrate all day. If you have one or more ( please remember there are 16 here and this is a house... :) tell them this schedule and then sign them up for the time they prefer. I even added a a couple times that are non eating for folks that might not have as long but require a little more whole group interaction. My PLAN right now... and that may change - is to have the child and the grandparents sit in the dining room away from the other children. There would not be enough room at the children's table for everyone.

8:00 Breakfast

9:15 Read a book to us

10:30 Cook something with us

11:30 Lunch

2:15 Snack

I Have An AMAZING Body

Today was our Monday. As expected, some of the kids came in a little clingy, but after a three day weekend early in a new school year that was expected. Soon everyone was playing and having a good time. My day started with me not feeling so hot and headed to the doctor. Ms Jodie was here to play for the day . ( The doctor told me what I expected that I had strep to gargle with salt water and continue antibiotics that another doctor had given me on Sunday. )

This week we will be talking a lot about our amazing bodies and the things we can do. Here is a picture of Ms Jodie looking at the lap top with a small group. They are looking at pictures I have already taken of them this year and finding ways they use their bodies. Such as : Look, there's Emeri and she's using her hands to beat on a drum.

I just love this picture of the boys . Working together at it's best..

Cohen was upset when his mommy left this morning, It didnt take long until we had THIS SMILE!

We could do a year long unit on pets and the children would be happy. They LOVE acting like puppy dogs and kitty cats .

Other things they did today was in circle time they sang " Head , Shoulders , Knees and Toes"

After they got good at that Ms Jodie changed it to " Wrist, Ankle, Forehead, Heel " Whew... I bet that was tough . After just doing their assessments , there are the body parts that most children do not know the names of. Maybe someone should write a song about that. Hey... I know someone that writes songs! :)