Paper Helicopters

               
One of our families showed us how to make paper helicopters. 
They are easy to make using few materials.
      
Use a small paper rectangle, fold it in half, open and then cut
in half to the fold.  These are the helicopter blades.
         
Fold the blades in opposite direction of each other.
  
Now fold the corners of the other end in and attach a paper clip. 
This doesn’t have to be exact.

Time to make them fly.  
    
Lift as high as you can and let go.  Watch it twirl to the ground.
 
We climbed to the top of the playground equipment and let them go.
Sometimes the wind would catch them and make them go farther.
 
We ran across the field and flew our helicopters over and over again.
Time flew by too as we easily spent an hour outside playing together.

Caterpillar Dreams

            
The Crunching Munching Caterpillar wishes he could fly.  In this book,
by Sheridan Cain, he meets different creatures that can fly and they all
describe what he needs to have in order to fly.
 
He needs wings, be as light as dandelion fluff or float like a feather.
 
So when he goes to sleep he dreams about flying.   I love the
illustrations and how the text floats around the page.

  
I was inspired to set up a question for the children to think about
while they look at our chrysalis.
 
We started by talking about dreams and asking if they could think
of a dream they had while sleeping.
 
Some could tell a whole story about their dreams and were able to
create a dream for the caterpillar.
 
     While others drew about a dream as a wish. 
               Something that they like
                   so the caterpillar
                   would like it too.

Horsing Around

This morning we went to the Therapeutic Riding stables. 
We split into several groups to allow the children to have
time and space to visit with the horses.

One group played outside with our new pool noodle
ponies.  Thanks to Mrs. King’s Music Class blog for
the how-to.
 
I made a cube die with words on each side.  Each word was
an action a horse might do; gallop, trot, walk, neigh quietly,
neigh loud, flick your tail.
 
We started by picking one of the words on the die, threw the
die and then did that action.
     
When we got to the die we read the new word, tossed it again
and moved to the die the new way.

  
But the highlight of the trip was meeting the horses in the stables.
 
The caring and welcoming volunteers know the horses so well.  They
introduced us to each one, telling us their age, how they became a
therapeutic horse and any peculiarities the horse may have.
 
This one, Licorice, smiles especially when he gets a candy mint. 
Indigo Blue was the tallest horse.
Sadie loves to be scratched.
This one (I think was Max) loved
to give kisses.  He has a very soft nose.

All of the horses we met were gentle and patient with the children
reaching up and petting.

Families left with appreciation for these wonderful animals and
how they help their clients that have physical challenges.

We’ll take our ponies back to school to use another day.

Horse Play

      
Tomorrow we are going to visit horses at the Therapeutic Riding
Stables.   For the past several weeks of school we’ve been preparing
for our visit.
 
One week it was our sign in question.  The majority of children
do like horses.
 
We dug out all our horses from the animal baskets and set them up
in different play scenarios around the room.
 
I’ve been collecting hobby horses from thrift stores and set them
out last week.  The older children loved to ride around them room.
        
The younger children loved to get up close and nuzzle.
       
And then I noticed that the older children were feeding their
horses the wood pellets in the sensory table.
    
It got us talking about what horses like to eat.  Today for snack
we had horse food; apples, carrots and hay (shredded wheat).
         
          There was a bit of neighing going on.