Therapy Dog Visits

We've been talking and playing with animals at StrongStart.

Today we invited a Therapy Dog, Samara, into visit.

We learned a lot about how Therapy Dogs help people;

seniors, people in hospitals and children who have difficulty reading.

We learned how to approach a dog.

First by letting her smell our hand before petting her.

 And she got lots of pats,

 and strokes.

 She felt very soft.

We had a chance to ask questions too.

And Samara sat patiently the whole time.

She can count to 5 and 10.

Samara also loves to give hugs.

Children who have never had an opportunity to pet a dog did today.

Their parents were quite happy to see that their reactions were very

positive.

Painted Toast

Interesting reactions at the snack table this morning.

We painted bread before toasting it.

 The children were very willing to paint the bread,

pop it in the toaster, 

even to cut it with a cookie cutter.

By what I saw in the garbage can, many didn't like the taste.

 Or maybe it was just to soggy in texture.

Next time I'll provide smaller, thinner paint brushes

What Started as This Ended Like That

This morning the art table was set with paint, paper, crumpled tin foil, waxed paper and plastic wrap.

A few children had fun experimenting with this method of painting.

But as the morning progressed a child was interested 

in making Chinese Lanterns.

A grandmother and her little one, who had already visited the table, 

decided to use their painting to make their lantern.

What a great idea!

So others started to make theirs that way.

That's how I imagine the art table working everyday.

Chinese New Year

Welcome to a couple activities that were available today

to celebrate Chinese New Year.

 We had tea with fortune cookies.

The fortune cookies are made from felt circles with a pipe cleaner

glued inside so they can bend.

 

It was fun to watch the children play with chop sticks.

One little boy came dressed in his finery.

It is beautiful.

At the art table there were materials to make dragon puppets.

Red cups and plates, googly eyes, wooden dowels and crepe streamers.

The children's dragons were creative and unique to themselves.

 It looks like chaos,

 but was very producive

 and cooperative.

Here are a few finished dragons.

 

 

 

 

I was quick to snap a picture as this little one was leaving

making her dragon puppet fly.

Mitten Sensory Play

Our sensory tub this week contained mittens and clothespins.

The children were able to squeeze the clothespins

and hang the mitten on the thick wooden rod.

I was worried that it might be too thick for them to manage.

Sometimes they needed a bit of guidance.

 But with practice,

  they were successful.

Or they preferred to figure out how the clothespin worked

and took them apart to see the spring.

Yesterday we had a lot of snow

so I filled a big tub and added it to our play.

 Now they used the mittens in another way,

a way that was familiar.

 When finished playing in the snow,

the mittens could be hung to dry.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that

this sensory tub was used a lot more than I had expected.