Another Day at the Pond

            
Today was our last day of our Pond study and we finally found eggs.

We’re not sure if they are frog eggs.  We took some back to school to watch.

Here are a few other things we wrapped up.
               
We noticed that the tent caterpillars nest has gotten bigger.
 
April 15 to today, we can now see the caterpillars without the aid of
a magnifying glass.
 
We looked at the trees that we picked earlier in April.  The first picture
is from April 8th, no leaves on the branch.  The second picture is from
today, look at all the leaves.
          
We enjoyed another story about a beaver who built a raft called
“There’s Always Room for One More”.
           
 
After the story we ventured to the water’s edge and made either a beaver’s
lodge or a raft.
 
But the most fun was just digging in the dirt and playing in the water.
 
               
We’ll visit the pond one more time this school year, to release our frogs.

Book–Frog’s Lunch

Our tadpoles arrived last week. 

With that our books about frogs were put out on the shelves. 
A fun frog book and an easy read is “Frog’s Lunch” by Dee Lillegard.
          
The puppet came with another book but it worked great for telling this story.  It was a small group for circle time so I quickly made up ‘flies’. Black pom poms on straws, one for each child.
     
Frog is hungry and it’s lunch time.  The children buzz their flies.
      
He sits quietly and waits and watches.  Along buzzes a fly.  Closer to the frog.
       
Snap, gulp, lunch time!  The children's flies are eaten by the frog.

New Sensory Table DIY

In the past week I had a couple of parents ask me where I bought our sensory table.  I told them where and the cost ($250).  Then I told them how they could make one themselves.

This morning my husband and I went thrift store shopping and I found this small table.  It’s about 18 inches tall, perfect for toddlers.  At another store I found the white tub.
         

At home I explained to my husband what I wanted and this is how he made it.
   
He measured the inside diameter of the bowl first then on the table he found the centre point.  Using a pencil on the string he drew the circle.
               
      
Next he drilled a hole through the top then used a jigsaw to cut out the circle.
      
It’s a very sturdy table, as you can see there are two layers and two circles.  The bowl fits almost perfect.  It was a bit loose so he screwed pieces of padding to make it snug.
         
Our new table cost $10.25, not including the cost of the cake I made
             as a thank you for my husband’s work.

Beach Hammering

Today we closed early and headed to one of our local beaches.  This beach
is rocky and tends to have lots of driftwood, perfect for today's activity.
     
                   All I packed was hammer and nails. 
   
   We walked the beach collecting wood till we found a place to set up.
       
      The children choose all kinds of driftwood.  Some were very large,
    
                              some medium and some small.

The children love to hammer and using real hammers and nails is even more attractive.  Using real tools is more authentic and heightens the senses allowing them to hear and see the action.
 

They were very focused and you can see their determination to place the nails
                                           just right.
        

A few children created boats and tested their buoyancy.
     
     

One child made a plane. Everyday that he comes to school he makes a plane
                so this was no surprise, although the size was.
            
        A few of the others pretended to be mechanics on his plane.
              

We also found a few other items on the beach; seaweed and an animal bone.
           
        Being outside exploring and creating was a terrific way to end our week.
                  
           Hope you have a peaceful weekend full of outdoor adventures.