Kokorodza Marimba Ensemble

From Kings School the Kokorodza Marimba Ensemble came to visit our school and had a great performance! At first the sound from their xylophone type instruments were surprisingly loud, but once the toddlers got used to it they couldn't help but dance and move to the rhythm of the music. The children were given rhythm sticks to play with during a few of the songs and they were also allowed to bring out our shakers. The songs that the kids from Kings played were so unique, and the children had so much fun, that we have to invite them back again soon!

Growing Up Wild Lesson

I brought in some logs for the toddlers to investigate. The first 3 pictures show how two children took our toy bugs and made them a home with the bark! We also touched the bark and talked about the textures we felt. The outside of the log was rough and when we took the bark off the inner layer of the log was smooth. Some of the toddlers even tested their strength and carried the logs around the room.

Mad Science came to visit us and taught us about the sounds we hear from different instruments. The pictures below show the children hearing the vibrations of the cymbals and when they touched the cymbal the sound/vibrations stopped.

We went outside to look for animal homes. We found nests in the trees, ant hills near our fence, bugs on leaves, and small black beetles in a wild flower.

We made our own tree house inside our classroom! We first colored a white plastic tablecloth, then draped it over a table. For the rest of the day the toddlers played inside their new tree house!

We got creative with this project! First, we collected leaves from outside, then found some hammers within our toys. The toddlers hammered the leaves under a piece of paper and the leaves bled into the paper making a cool picture. The toddlers seemed to enjoy being allowed to hit something!

(one of our infant friends)

These two girls just wanted me to take their picture!

Rain, Rain, Go Away?

On this day we just had a big rainstorm in the morning and I thought it would be fun to take off our shoes and play in the wet grass. I got the hose out to fill the water table with water and the toddlers poured water on my feet, felt the water spray out from the hose, and used various outside toys to scoop up the water. There were big mud puddles in the play area next to ours and we went over there to walk in the puddles. Some of the toddlers jumped right in, while others put their piggy toes in first before standing entirely in the water. We felt the mud squish between our toes and the soggy grass tickle our feet. We also walked over to the trees and shook the branches to feel the raindrops fall on our heads. We were all soaked after all of our activity, but it was the one of the best times we have had this summer.