International Fairy Tea Party

September 23 is International Fairy Tea Party Day 

and this was our first year we participating.

We held it at a local park.

Doors were hidden around the park with gifts for the children left in front of each.

When the children arrived they picked a pipe cleaner and received a map.

I explained that the stars on the map showed where they could find the doors.

And off they went.

It was a very wet morning but many families came and enjoyed the park.

After they found the doors they collected a little bead from the jar 

and rang the bell to say thank you to the fairies.

They strung the bead onto their pipe cleaner

keeping count of how many doors they found.

After finding as many, or all the doors, they made a fairy wand.

Then it was Tea Time.

I'm very fortunate to have people that help run an event like this.

Thank you Andi.

Thank you Dese,

and thank you Delfina.

It takes a community and I live in a fabulous one.

Going for a Bus Ride

      There’s a bus stop about a fifteen minute walk from our school. 
       Everyone was excited and walked happily all the way there.
 
While waiting for the bus I gave everyone a map to use as the bus tours us through the city.  I modified the transit map by adding little pictures of buildings that we will see.
          
We all got excited when we saw the bus come around the corner and
                                drive toward us.

          The children are free but they paid their grown-ups’ fares.
            
                        We filled up the back of the bus.
 
Using our maps we kept track of where we were and looked forward to what
                                 was coming next.
  
       We had to transfer to another bus half way through our trip. 
                 The second bus was bigger and had two doors.
                       
Some of the places we passed the children recognized and told me what they do
                           there; like swimming at the pool.
                         
Introducing the map encouraged us to look for and read signs. Learning that the signs tell us about each store.  We began to look for letters we knew and recognized.
 
Our bus ride was an hour long then we were back at the start.  A few of the children started to doze during the ride and needed to be carried back to the school.
               
                        Overall this is a great field trip. 
              I think we may need to do it more than once a year.