Tylenol ?

Today - Do you ever have a day that you look in the mirror and say " I KNEW better than that ?"

All 16 of our munchkins were here today. The morning went smooth. Autum's dad and mom came around 10:00 to talk about his Indian culture. He brought arrow heads, indian jewelry and a dream catcher. The kids passed around the pieces and were able to ask him questions. Most kids think of an Indian - like we see in the books with the pilgrims. As a matter of fact , Autum is convinced her daddy is not an Indian. ( I asked him was he ok with Indian or offended by the use of that word and he said no. ) I love it when we have opportunities like that to show the kids " real" things.

Then... it all fell apart.

All I am gonna say if I loathe teacher directed crafts. The kids do not learn anything or little from them except to follow directions and be patient. But their head bands are cute...

P is for Pilgrim

I love it when I see my little friends pretending to be teachers.
Kynley checking out the Indian Corn we popped in the microwave.

Audrey found a new use for the plant that Clara gave us. She was taking little animals and pretending they were in a jungle. Very clever...

Our art portfolio's are getting a little full.

Today we added feathers to our Indian vest. Assessments can sometimes we done this way. Look how Rosanna sorted out all white feathers to go on hers. We dont need worksheets! We LEARN THROUGH PLAY! :)

Today we talked about Pilgrims and how that starts with the letter P like pig and purple. We read the book " One Little Two Little Three Little Pilgrims". We took one page and distinguished who was pilgrims and who was Indians. After we mastered that I pointed at individuals on the page and they said the sounds for I and P accordingly. You could see their little brains working over time trying to do that.

We are getting ready for our big feast Wednesday. Remember... show up at the community building at 11:00 .Our plan is to start walking the kids down there at 10:30. There are some moms that have volunteered to already be down there getting ready, if you would like to help, please let me know. On the sign in sheet today and tomorrow you will have the opportunity to tell me how many to plan for and what dish you would like to bring. After eating everyone can go home and start celebrating with families.

I am a little nervous. Tonight I am hosting the Arkansas Family Child Care Associations first online training. It is in a server that allows the participants to see and hear me, I can share power points , documents and web sites. YIKES..... say a little prayer at 7 tonight that all goes well. :)

Indian Vest

Today was an adventurous day. I don't know if you have figured out or not , but I CRINGE when it comes time to do teacher directed crafts. Today we made indian vest to go with our headdresses and next week will will string colored macaroni for necklaces. Teacher directed crafts may look a little prettier than the normal art pieces you get home that are random pieces of things stuck together with a HUGE amount of glue and then painted.. but they are a real time sucker for me. The children did work on the vest in small groups today but it took 2 and a half hours to get them all completed. By the time everyone has had a turn, I think of the many interactions I missed and stories I could have been reading. Oh well..... sometimes we just have to. :)

Randy cut a pineapple open today with a new cutter we got from pampered chef. Incase you are wondering it really does work. You have to decapitate the pineapple first but then it works just like an apple corer. The kiddos will sample that fresh pineapple this afternoon.

Moon sand.. oh how they love it. Ellen, Anna's mom, brought me a recipe for homemade moon sand. I am going to try it and if it works, I will post it for you!

Indians and Teepees

Welcome to our new mode of communication!
Geneviette got to come play with us today. Amelia is in Mississippi for the week.















Today we took our teepee out to play with. The kids LOVED it. We also made these little paper teepees to reinforce what we had learned. It isn't very creative and very teacher directed. There is something about the holidays . Something takes over my body and makes me want to do all these little cutesy art projects.





















We read books about the pilgrims! And.... some of us still prefer to be snow white.












The Teepee was a HUGE hit.
Only two Indians at a time please!