Dramatic Play
Many of us have trips coming up this summer, or parents that have gone on trips which prompted lots of discussions about airplanes and airports. So, this area became an airport complete with a security/baggage check, check in desk and airplane! We loved going through security with our luggage and finding lots of other things that fit through. We enjoyed dressing up as pilots and flying the plane. We all chose different destinations, including San Francisco, Paris, London, and New Jersey. We are some well traveled kids! We spoke like flight attendants to our passengers, and even acted out turbulence. We loved pretending to check ourselves and others in on the keyboard and make calls on the phone. We handed out lots of tickets and mimicked a lot of the things we have seen people do on planes. It was lots of fun!
Block Area
We loved having the wooden airplanes and helicopters back and extended a lot of our airport play with them. We used the wooden blocks to build lots of towers and build homes for the planes and people too. We continue to use the little vehicles on the rug and all over the room. The community worker figures have been fun to incorporate into our play and pretend that they are going on trips too.
Quiet Area
We continue to read books all the time throughout the day. We love looking through them together and pointing out the different things we see. We have discovered the Richard Scarry books and love looking at all the different funny animals and pictures and finding the different hidden things on each page.
Nature Area
Our chicks hatched!! Our 5 fertilized eggs resulted in 3 healthy live chicks. We loved getting to watch them and once they were dry we loved holding them! We learned all about the hatching process and how to take care of them after. We have watched them eat and grow so quickly! We often check in on them throughout the day and ask to hold and pet them all the time.
Art/Literacy
We celebrated 3 birthdays! The child we are celebrating gets to choose the colors for the birthday canvas painting and then we all collaborate on it together. We also played with slime in the big sensory bin! We loved getting to feel it between our fingers and watch it stretch and ooze. We asked lots of questions about how it is made and how it works. We have been pretending to write on lots of our projects and especially love using the magic writing boards to write and erase.
Gross Motor
The ball pit is back and it is still so much fun! We love jumping into it together and pretending we are swimming. We have been practicing jumping with 2 feet off the ground to get into it and using the mattress to get even higher. We still often play 5 little monkeys on the bed too. We have been wrestling a lot and love rolling around on the ground together!
Cognitive Area
We have still been enjoying the peg builders and are finding lots of ways to use them. We have been stacking them and filling up the boards and Finn and Aria even pretended to make cakes by filling them up and sliding them into the "oven." Bo discovered that if you blew into one end they made a noise and sounded like a flute!
Outside
We continue to find lots of ways to use the pipes especially in the sand pit. They have become diggers and tools, and we enjoy filling them up with the sand. Reza pretended to use them as a lawn mower and Alex and Joe used them as spyglasses. We have been searching for lots of bugs in the backyard, and love watching spiders crawl around. We have also found a few rollie pollies and even some ladybugs! One stayed and crawled on everyone for a long time before we put it back in the flowers. With the heat wave, we have been very hot in the yard so we turned on the sprinkler to run through! It was so much fun and we all got soaked. It was a great way to cool off and we ask to do it all the time now!