Dramatic Play
Eee Ooo, Eee Ooo! The dramatic play area turned into a fire station! We really enjoyed dressing up as firefighters with our uniforms, boots, and helmets. Whenever there was an emergency, we rushed to the destination as a team. Some of our friends even brought a back-up hydrant on the fire truck in case we ran out of water. It was a huge responsibility packing the fire truck with adequate equipment before heading off to emergencies. We made sure the truck had water hoses, extinguishers, megaphones and enough seats for all our friends. We loved putting the fires out in the house and many other places too! Sometimes our friends would need to be saved from the burning house or sometimes it was just a fun place to sit and play!
Art & Literacy
We really enjoyed sculpting baked goods with the kinetic sand. It was fun forming different shapes with the cups. It was exciting to see the sand change shape and "ooze" after making something. We also really enjoyed creating art with the sea animal stickers. We drew big houses and oceans for them to live in and talking a lot about the different animals. We love using the tracing boards and stones to make different shapes too and it's been a great way to work on our patterning and fine motor skills!
Cognitive Area
We had a lot of fun playing with the different puzzles, especially the bear that needed help to dress up. It was difficult helping the bear zip up his zipper, button his buttons, and tie his shoelaces. We practiced a lot and when we were able to do it, we were really happy! We love talking about letters and still are very focused on the letter puzzle and abacus and well as the light table letters and numbers. The magnatiles continue to be exciting and we love seeing what we can create with them. We have been making lots of 2-D and 3-D things.
Nature Area
We really enjoyed looking for different animals through the view finders. It was fun sharing the views with our friends. There were times we spotted gigantic tigers and wolves! Whenever this happens, we pretended to be hunting for the wolves. It was fun chasing after the wolves and running away with our friends to hide in the teepee. The rocks and shells also have been added to lots of different play, especially with the blocks and the shells often are passed out at treats and ice cream.
Block Area
It was fun creating different types of buildings and towers with the blocks. Some friends built large castles for the fire trucks to live in. It was especially fun when we got to crash the building down together afterward. We really enjoyed rebuilding the structures and then knocking them down again. We often think of new ways to make the new building bigger and stronger than the previous one. The crane and elevator have been useful tools to help us build and we have been enjoying using them to move blocks, cars, and even people around.
Quiet Area
With the gloomy weather rolling in, we really enjoyed snuggling up on the beanbag with a blanket and a good book. Some of our favorite books include, “Flashing Fire Engines,” by Tony Mitton & Ant Parket and “Firefighters A to Z,” by Chris L. Demarest. We really liked pointing out and comparing the fire equipment the books used to the ones we had in our classroom. We also really liked reading about the different components that make up a fire truck. We still read a lot by ourselves or just with friends, but we love being read to, and often all gather when someone starts reading!
Music
It was really fun creating different types of music with our friends! We really liked playing piano notes together and singing along. Our friends also really liked joining in by grabbing an instrument and adding to the music. We have been pretending to recreate different songs we know and have heard and have started even including the lyrics along with our sounds.
Gross Motor
We really enjoyed playing “Monkeys Jumping on the Bed,” together on the mattress. After jumping until we’re tired, we liked to gather blankets and stuffed animals for a slumber party to rest up! It was fun helping our friends get tucked in. If you were lucky, friends would also deliver ice creams to the slumber party once in a while. A few vets also attended the slumber party to keep all the stuffed animals safe. We also use the horse as an ice cream truck, and a delivery truck to take different things and people around.
Outside
It has been a little gloomy outside, but we had a lot of fun playing in the rain! We especially liked building sand castles and making huge cakes in the sand pit. We talked about how it is easier to build with wet sand because it stays together. We also liked jumping into puddles around the yard. We also pretended to go down a water slide since there were rain droplets. We really enjoyed experimenting with the chalk while it was wet too. It was really fun looking at the different type of texture chalk created when we tried drawing on the wet chalkboard. We also used the log as a boat and went onto a sea adventure! We made sure to hold onto our friends’ hands so no one would get left behind. Many of our friends found a special pet rock and took care of them during outside time. There was a doctor office and grocery store for friends to get materials they needed to make their pet rocks happy. Sometimes pet owners became busy, so babysitters helped watch over the pet rocks. We also had a lot of fun running races around the climbing structure with our friends. Some of our friends were also cheering for the runners by giving out high-fives! We always took water breaks to keep our bodies hydrated. We still love the swing and always find new ways to use it and ride together. Its often a spaceship or a bus, and we like to spin fast!