Snail Time

        
 
Every year we create a snail garden right from scratch.  Planting their food,
grass, lettuce and a few surprises from the compost.
 
Tending the garden is an important part of learning to care for others. 
Learning what they need and following through. 
 
Keeping the soil moist and making renovations to the grass when it
gets too long prepared us for the snails arrival.

    
Combining art and the caring of the snails helps us look closer
at them. 
      
What do they look like?  How can we replicate it?
  
Using lazy Susan turntables helped us learn about spirals. 
If we used our finger to follow the spiral on the snail's shell
we learn that it goes round and round.
    
Holding our paint brush in the middle of the plate and
spinning the turn table helps us get a similar effect.
    
And just like the snails each of our art work is unique.

Love to Ride My Bike

        
This week is Bike to Work week and we will be hosting
a Bike at the Playground event on Thursday.
       
I've had a difficult time finding good, easy to sing bike
songs and each year I try a new one.
       
This year I learned a song I heard on Jamie Barnett’s
cd called Ride My Bike.
     
I made magnet board pictures and added sign language
to the song.

Here is a video on me singing and signing the song.

 We love to ride our bikes, do you?
 
Do you have a song about bikes that you could share?

Tree Rubbings

 
We went out into the woods again today to have a closer look at trees.
          

We went prepared to do some rubbings. 
Each page in our books told us what to look for.
 
As they walked through the woods they touched every tree, connecting
with nature in a new way.
   
Making comparisons to each others rubbings.  How are the leaves different?

Finding rubbings wasn’t the only thing we discovered.
 
            We found a fort to play in,
 
    lots of mushrooms poking through the ground,
 
a snail without it`s home and a tree perfect for climbing.
    
    We found the oldest tree in this woods.
   
  It took seven of us to measure around the tree.

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.