It's been a really busy few days. On Thursday, it was a rainy day, and we spent a lot of time indoors. We started the day with a "Town Meeting" or a big circle time with a lot of agreeing on the summer program. The kids were all excited about new programs and new ideas. We developed the Knights of the Round Table Reading Forum for the children who are reading chapter books.
We also have a puzzler corner for three teams who will compete building 750 piece puzzles.
Our theme this summer is a blend of animals and theatre. That means studying old cartoons and puppetry and theatre terms. I think the children will love it, but we don't have a lot of time to explore these things because we will be out of the school every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
On Friday, we went to Audubon Park. It was teaming when we left, but by the time we got there, the rain was beginning to stop. We split into two groups and while one group had a lesson about birds of prey the other group did an art project with paint. I was absolutely dumbfounded when I saw Jack's work. He is quite an artist.
We will do a lot more art lessons like that one at school this summer.
We did some new things with lunch this time, and the children took to it with gusto. We ate everything I brought, and the children wanted more cookies. That means I have to double the cookie recipe and add another container of chips.
The new sandwich scheme seemed to work, even under the canopy of gloom and doom weather.
We took a walk in the woods and the children seemed to like the experience. I told the children that the woods were a home for many animals and plants and insects and spiders, and because it was their home and not ours, that we should respect it and not do damage to things we may not understand. The children were fascinated by the number of daddy long legs spiders, and I told them to watch the spiders not to try to kill them. "You'll learn a lot more about that creature if you watch it than if you slam it." The children looked up as if it was a new concept.
It was probably one of the nicest field trips. The children were allowed to run as far as they wanted as long as they could see me. That's a helpful rule because it allows the children some flexibility and some independence and some integrity building. Nearly all of them honored the rule.
On Thursday, we will do school pictures. Miss Beve is an excellent photographer and willing to do a lot of crazy things. I once had her photography Miss Rachel for the cover of a book I had written. She did an excellent job. She will be following our theatre theme and we will allow the children to pick one of four hats to wear in their photograph. We have a top hat, a cap, a floppy brim and a bowler. Should be fun.
Monday is swim day, Tuesday in school, Wednesday is swim day, and Thursday picture day, and Friday we are going out to the zoo.
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