Fun in the sun!

This week we spent a lot of time out doors. I figured it has taken so long to get nice weather that we should go outside and enjoy it. So, we just took our curriculum outside :) We started out the week by putting some purple sand in our sandbox and letting the children explore it for a while. They loved it! We added water and made multicolored sand castles.

We lined the bike track with paper and let the kids take of their shoes and socks and walk, crawl or slip and slide through piles of paint. This gives them sensory experiences that you don't find too many other places. They had so much fun! They were going back and forth seeing how the colors mixed, watching to see how their footprints changed as they got further away from the paint. Some were a little more hesitant than others, but by the end they were all having a ball.

Of course we had to wash off all of that paint, so what better way than water play? We broke out the sprinkler for the first time this year and let them wash off in that. We love this sprinkler, because it is a mat that sits on the ground. It didn't take the kids long to discover when you step on the edge the water shots up higher everywhere else. They were soaked, but not paint covered anymore...

We also put up our jump house for the kids to enjoy. They were beside themselves! It was great, they all learned some team work skills as the older ones learned how to help the younger kids navigate their way through. The kids were impressively good about taking turns and staying aware of their surroundings. Talk about hands on lessons of mathematical spacing and some gross motor development!

We decided that since we were outside it was a good time to do one of my very favorite activities, spaghetti painting :) This is where I prepare a massive amount of spaghetti by cooking it and them instead of sauce I cover it with different colors of paint. Then I hang a large piece of paper out back and the kids get to throw the spaghetti at the paper. The spaghetti makes a really cool print and sometimes the spaghetti even sticks to the paper. It is sooo much fun!

Easter Eggs and Tie Dye

This week we had some fun with Easter. The kids made bunny ears and wore them around for an entire day. It was adorable, but not so easy wearing them outside. I thought them all how the do "The Bunny Hop". So much fun! Talk about some large motor development, they were bunny hopping up and down hills...

We also dyed some Easter eggs. The children were able to play with the different colors in the dye and see what happened when you combined more than one color or left it in longer. They really enjoyed coloring on the eggs with the clear crayons and seeing it appear after they put it in the dye. Everyone was excited to see if what turned up was actually what they thought that they had drawn.

And since we were in the coloring mood, we made some tie dyed shirts for all of us to where when we go on field trips. They are amazingly cute! They had sooooo much fun! Of course Tiandra and I learned that we should have prepared the shirts before had because we could barely keep up with the enthusiasum. I was so wonderful and now we will be easier to identify as a group when we go out.

On Friday the Easter Bunny himself visited our house. He hopped though the playroom and kitchen leaving pink and yellow bunny footprints on the floor! He hopped all the way to the backyard and magically turned invisable. The kids looked all over for him. They found lots of clues about where the Easter Bunny had been, there were some chairs that had been tipped over, and some toys that had been moved... But we couldn't see the magic bunny. Then we went inside to have lunch and storytime. Wouldn't you know it, while we were inside that sneeky bunny was hiding eggs all over our backyard. So after our story we all got to go out and hunt for eggs. We had a final count of 125 eggs! That sneeky Easter Bunny ;)

New Blog!!!!

We are making some changes at Jibber Jabber. Unfortunately, as a result of these changes we find ourselves needing to start a new blog. I am sorry to say that the old blog will no longer be available, but I promise to make this one even better! Stay tuned...

Sometimes it helps to look at the problem from a different point of view... Jeremiah (2) and Sammy (3) were playing in the backyard coloring with sidewalk chalk. They were having trouble deciding who got to use what color and I was sitting back watching them trying to work it out. All of the sudden, Jeremiah dropped his chalk in between his legs and stood up to look for it. He ended up standing upside down and told Sammy "I see you". She stood up and looked at him the same way. They continued to stand there and have a long conversation upside down. They forgot all about the chalk. I was cracking up I just love the way kids work things out!

We are going to grow a garden!

I am so excited to say that we have started working on our garden! Now that spring time has come (some days) we are going to plant a vegetable garden. We will be growing some of our own fruits and veggies for lunch time soon! We have a great stretch of land just waiting for us to get our hands dirty. So yesterday I took the kids and we started turning the dirt :) We all got shovels and I wanted them just to loosen the top of the dirt so that we can level the area out before we put down our new dirt that we will plant in. The kids were so excited to go help me. We all put on our boots and got shovels and went over there to dig. They were really into it until I said "Hey, that is the biggest worm I have ever seen." That was the end of my help...

They found a worm Daddy, Worm Mommy and 2 baby worms. Then they walked around the backyard carrying them asking the worms where they would like to make their new worm home. It was adorable and I finished leveling the dirt myself :) I can't wait for next week when we get to really get to work!

Building an Empire

Lately the kids have been building. Building what? Everything... They have been breaking out the maps to figure out where they would like their buildings to be. Then they find what ever they can to create a build of their own. Some times they use the large foam blocks and build elaborate empires with Kings and Knights.

Sometimes they go out to the backyard and build trenches and moats with the mud puddles.

They have taken out the wooden table blocks and built fasinating castles on the tables at work time.

They have come up with the best ideas and details. They have had flags or gates, ramps and stairs, one even had a boat only entrance. I am so proud that they are being so creative and finding so many ways to express themselves. I love these guys!

Wormland

Today we fininshed up Worm Week. A day late, but worth the wait. We made "Wormland" last week the kids fingerpainted worm tracks on some brown paper so that it looked like the worms were digging through the dirt. Then we colored some paper different shades of brown and black to show the different types of dirt the worms lived in and then crumpled up the paper to look like dirt clumps which we discovered that the worms prefered to live in. We found lots of those during our worm hunt. Then we used clay to make some worms. The kids had a blast rolling the clay into different sized and colored worms. Then we put it all together and made "Wormland" on the wall. So much fun and great way to close the worm exploration.