Holy Rollies and the Wilderness

It’s Monday and at Miss Amy’s that means “Outdoor Classroom”.  We take a short journey to a nearby park and explore what mother nature has to offer. The children look forward to it and it’s the perfect cure for the Monday blues. We let them guide themselves and try not to intervene too much. Today we brought clay for impression making, their sketch books, pastel chalks, charcoal, pencils, and a bug net.

The park we visit is beautiful but it is far from a jungle or even a forest, but the kids always equate our visits to being in the wilderness. They seem to go into foraging mode almost instantly.

A feather collection is started

The bug net spiked their interests immediately. They caught and observed a firefly, dragonfly, and an earwig.

 

Then one little boy noticed some decaying wood under a tree. He lifted up the wood and exclaimed, “Look Holy Rollies!”. One of the older kids said, “Do you mean Roly Poly’s ? They like to live under wood!”. The younger boy agreed that that’s what he meant, but for the rest of the day almost everyone referred to them as holy rollies.

-Miss Amber

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Snowy day fun.

We have been watching the snow come down from inside Miss Amy’s Child Care and we have tried to catch snowflakes on our tounges outside in our playground. We have made tracks in the snow with our feet and played with snow and ice in our outdoor kitchen. We made snow angels and looked for our sandbox (hidden under all that snow). Where was it? We made snow balls and contemplated why our mittens became wet after having played outside in the snow for a while. Where did the water go and where did the ice come from? We discussed the difference between snow on the ground and falling snow. We designed snowmen and looked hard for snowmen parts – sieves with long handles for the arms and tin buckets for hats as well as sticks and anything else that may look good on a snowman. What does a snowman taste like? Today some of the children decided to find out for themselves by licking one of them! Miss Susie started a game of snow soccer on our snow clad lawn, the children had not lost their touch!

– Miss Maria, teacher for the 2’s class.

What does a snowman taste like? Have a lick and find out!

Snow soccer!

 

A different kind of kid comes to school

There are all kinds of kids in this world, and the kind that visited today was extra special. Meet Maggie Jean:

Pajama Party!

It’s an annual tradition here at Miss Amy’s to wear your pajamas all day long, one day in the month of January. You may even bring a special stuffed animal along for the day if you’d like!

Today was a perfect day for a Pajama Party; Outside the snow was falling and  inside it was warm and cozy.

We spent the morning playing, as usual. Before lunch we all watched Stella Luna, the movie and then we ate pizza and had fresh fruit for dessert.

After nap time, the Pajama Party continues with a birthday snack to honor all of our friends who have a winter birthday! Hip-hip-hooray!

We may or may not go outside this afternoon. The sun is looking down on us every now and again from between the clouds…

Wishing you all a great weekend!

– Miss Maria (the 2-year-olds-teacher)