Summer Holidays

School is now out for me and I'll be closed for two months.

The last few days I've been very busy sorting, cleaning and organizing the rooms.

As you can see the rooms are pretty well cleared (so the custodians can wash and wax the floors).  This is done every June and I dread it until it's almost done.  Then I start getting excited about how the room will look in the fall.  What changes will be made?  Should centres be moved around for better flow or more communication and interaction between the children, their grown ups or the families?  What ideas will the children and their families bring? 

A colleague of mine was showing me her pile of summer reading and one book caught my eye, Inspiring Spaces for Young Children.  It is a beautiful book full of colourful photos that is truly inspiring.  There is a page on Facebook called Inspired by Inspiring Designs and I'm hoping that it will prove to be as good as the book.

Another book that I picked up is called Young Investigators The Project Approach in the Early Years, by Judy Harris Helm and Lilian Katz.  I'm looking forward to taking sometime off before digging into the book later in August.

I'm off blogging for the next two months but will be back in September when school reopens.

Camping Indoors

We've had a lot of fun this month with our camping dramatic play area.

The camp fire was the most exciting.  The children built it, cooked fish and stew over it, roasted vegetables and anything else they could think of and the favourite, toasted marshmallows for s'mores.

 

 

Yes, it was a great to finish off the school year.

Sand Bracelets

Sand bracelets are fun and fairly easy to make.  It takes a bit of patience and a lot of coordination.

Two sizes of tubing is used with one being just a bit smaller than the other so it can fit snugly inside as the connector.

 After measuring the tube around your wrist and cut to length, start filling.

The tricky part is getting the sand in the tube.

We tried little funnels but the sand was a bit too granular to fit through.

It was easier to spoon it in.

Then connect the two ends and slip it on.

Or make handcuffs.

Goodbye Snails

School is winding down and since we'll be closed for two months we have to find homes for any creatures that live in our room.

I've posted before about our snail garden and everyday the snails put on a show for us.  They are wonderful to watch for young and old.  Plus keeping track of them helps our counting.  But today was time to say goodbye.

Looking at this picture, I feel like the Pied Piper.

There were lots of offers of help.  And quite willing to show the snails around.

Story - Little Crab and It's Magic Eyes

With our focus on the ocean, I was happy to find this story about a little crab.
I did change two of the animals in the story so it would be familiar to where we live.
I changed jaguar to cougar  and vulture to eagle.
Here is the story.

Fly Swatter Painting

Bring out the paint smocks because you are going to need it for this art project.

Square, flower and butterfly shaped fly swatters were used.

It's very easy.  Paint the swatter than hit the paper with it.

 

I even provided big art shirts for the grown ups but the splatter wasn't that great.

Even the youngest had good control.

She giggled every time she hit the paper.  It's a lovely sound.