Learning About Why We have 4th of July. :)

This morning we talked about why we celebrate the 4th of July. We are celebrating the birthday of the United States, where we live.

Micah and Mason made sure we knew that their birthdays are in July also.....

We did a color sheet and we also colored a flag.

We used the flag while we did the song below. We took turns marching while singing the song.

The children will bring the flags home on Thursday since I am closed on Friday. Ask them to sing the song for you and see if they remember. :)

Way Up in the Sky

(Sung to: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

Wave, wave, wave the flag.

Hold it very high.

Watch the colors gently wave.

Way up in the sky!

March, march, march around,

Hold the flag up high.

Wave, wave, wave the flag.

Way up in the sky.

The kids had a blast marching around!

Monday - August 29

We spend the lst 2 weeks doing some testing. I wanted to review and see what letters, colors, numbers and shapes the children knew plus some other things. The kids are doing awesome I'm excited to say...

Today we spend the morning making 4h of July t-shirts. They turned out awesome...

~Testing~

We're spending that next week or 2 on testing and evaluating. I like to find out every 6 months or so where the kids are with their ABC's, etc. I will give you the results of your child's process when I am done.
We have also been spending every free minute outside, enjoying the cool weather. I'm wondering if we're going to see summer soon!

Abby and Riley will be leaving the end of this week to spend the summer at home with mom and their new baby brother Gavin. We'll see them back in the fall. :)

Our Butterflies :)

Well our butterfly are all grown up and they have ventured out into the world on their own. We let them go on Wednesday and they were anxious to get out and discover the world. We were lucky that they left one at a time so that we could watch them just a little bit longer. Out of 5 caterpillars - 4 turned into butterflies. The last one stayed in his cocoon. I'm going to put that in a small jar and add it to ur science center.

Our New Toy!

Today we got a couple new sand diggers. I heard about them from another child care provider and Marie was nice enough to run out to Woodbury to get me a couple. I did put one together, and the other one I'll put together after naptime...

I wish I could buy this stuff already out together. :)

The kids did enjoy it though....

Our Butterflies Have Emerged!

Over the week-end, we had 2 more butterflied emerge from their cocoon. We have one still waiting. I know the kids will be excited. We will let them go either today or tomorrow.

~Reading Center~

I've been having problems with the throw pillows I had in the reading center. Kids have been removing them, so I ordered a little couch for the reading center, and I got it yesterday.

Here's Riley and Abby checking out the new addition to the reading center.

Of course the kids loved it. :)

Riley and Athena checking out the wood center.

Riley and Evan

Our Block Center

Our new block center and future wood center..... Mason, Evan and Ashley checked out the blocks and people.

This is where the wood center will also be. We might check that out this afternoon. I have to dig out some scrap wood from the wood pile to put in there so the kids don't use my new blocks. :)

The kids had a very busy morning.... The new kitchen and block center.

The Kids are Cooking....

Our New Kitchen!

Our new kitchen is up and running.... The kids were very excited to use the new kitchen and they were pretty good about keeping everything on the rug area. (My new rule so I'm not searching for play food all around the play yard).

In the corner is a reading center for the kids to relax and read book when they want. It's used on a daily basis. :)

Tuesday ~

Yesterday was beautiful outside. Some of the kids didn't want to go out. They thought it would be too cold, but it was just perfect. We didn't have to worry about over-heating. I got the new kitchen play set put together yesterday and I'll put the stickers on today when we go outside. I'll have to remember to bring the camera so that I can take pictures.

Side note: Travel Tos will be coming on June 3rd and June 17. Please remember to add the fees to next week's check, or you can pay in cash. Whatever is easier. :)

I will be done with monthly newsletters for the summer and I will start up again in September. I will continue of course though with the blog... :)

Our Giant Caterpillar

This week we are finishing our Caterpillar to Butterfly theme. Last Thursday we started a caterpillar project and we put it together today. The kids had fun watching our caterpillar grow and grow. I included a couple pictures. The 1st one is of the children with their part of the GIANT caterpillar... The 2nd picture is our finished caterpillar - hanging up in the dc kitchen...

I think it turned out awesome!

Our Caterpillars are now Cocoons

It is amazing..... but our 5 caterpillars have changed into a chrysalid. (cocoon). I can't believe how fast they work. In the morning 3 were still caterpillars and after naptime we checked to see how they were doing and they were all transformed. We have to be very careful with the jar now. We don't want to move it because we want to make sure they don't fall from the top. Today we're going to discuss when we think they're going to turn into butterflies. The butterflies we have are Painted Lady Butterflies. This is a wonderful project. I enjoy it as much as the children. :)

Our Caterpillars

Our caterpillars are getting soooo BIG!
They're starting to get ready to make their cocoon's. 2 of them are now hanging from the top of the cup and I'm thinking any day now all 5 will be ready....
It's so much fun to watch and I can't wait until they turn into butterflies. The kids love this part.:)