A Cold Friday

Lots of kids out sick today and meager supplies for this sole co-oper (a shout out to Marcy for helping with clean-up) but spirits were high at the end of another fun week.

At circle, Melissa surprised us with a puppet show featuring a pirate named Lola, a starfish named Starry, and a robot whose name was a secret - story and puppets supplied by Daisy. Several kids were subsequently inspired to create their own stories and have been dictating to Melissa.

No outside time today - too cold - so everyone played their hearts out inside, goofing with Oran, reading books, stamping letters, or building elaborate structures with our new pvc pipe pieces and connectors (turns out they are great to talk through or send ping pong balls sliding long distances).

Have a great weekend, one and all!

Thursday Jan 28

Much fun was had at circle time as Melissa read Oliver's story about a curious cat who did some dumpster diving. Yoga Jenny's practice for today incorporated the three R's we are all learning so much about - recycle, reduse, reuse. Ask your little yogi to show you their toe-picking-up-trash moves! Leggos, puzzle-making, moon sanding and dough-shaping was enjoyed by many. And we even had time for playing outside. It was a great day.

Capoeira and Museum of the American Indian

The day started with the purple group leaving for a field trip to the American Indian Museum. They took the bus and the metro to see an exhibit on recycled art.

The remaining groups took turns with Jeremy practicing their capoeira in the back room. In the main room, there were many structures assembled and then just as quickly disassembled using the magnetic blocks.

After a snack, everyone rode bikes in the courtyard while Jose the monster terrorized the inhabitants of the house.

Back inside, there was a good mix of play dough rolling and cutting and lego building. After clean up time, there was some impromptu dancing in a ring, capped off a by a story from Natasha.

Chris (Henry's dad)
Karen (Maia's mom)

Tuesday, January 27

Happy Tuesday everyone. Today we had a great day. In circle we sang all our regular songs, plus we signed Victor and Oliver's names and heard a story by Athena as told to Melissa. This cooper especially looks forward to hearing the little ALG'rs stories.

We spent some time inside building with blocks and knocking them down, playing people family and wolf family and dragon family, and stamping with ink pads and stamps to name a few activities. Outside we sag songs, played witch and ice cream store, and rode our bikes very fast. The blue group went on a walk around the block to pick up trash. Way to keep the neighborhood looking good ALG!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Today turned out to be a beautiful day, and we had some great fun.

In the morning, we sang some songs about trash and practiced our signing. After circle time, we broke into our groups and had music with Tiffany. Later some of the children worked on vanilla play-dough creations, while others played with trash trucks, read books or made a splash in the water table.

We all enjoyed recess outside, as the weather was beautiful and temperature warm. Some mud puddles caused some of us to become messy, but overall it was great. At noon, everyone went inside for lunch and cleaning. Later, as the one o'clockers were leaving, some children enjoyed story time and then went outside to play again.

Ruxandra(Roland's mom)

Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010

Another fun day at ALG, made special by celebrating Jose's birthday with songs in English and Spanish. Happy Birthday Jose!!! Jeremy was here again for more rounds of capoeria. The children remembered the names of several musical instruments in Portuguese as well as the moves. They also had fun taking turns leading the singing.
The rain stopped and the children were able to play outside. It was a bit muddy but that didn't stop the fun- Taking turns riding bikes and playing in the house, as well as playing with the remnants of the snow/slush. Recycling continues to happen, as well as compost with dropped pieces of lunch being shared with the worms in the compost bin. The afternoon is to be filled out with more dramatic play with Pickett

Back to School Tuesday

We had a low key and fun day today. There was a lot of singing and signing at Circle time. The red and blue groups played in the back with Pickett and Melissa. Everyone had a chance to recycle, drive the garbage and recycling trucks, and be different members of families. Other people made fabric collages, drew, built with blocks and legos, listened to books, snacked and so on. Then there were dance parties, motor speedways and musical parades in the courtyard before celebrating Penelope's birthday with delicious muffins.

--Rachel (Anna's mom)

Blog from Wednesday 1.13

Today was an energetic day! At circle time, Cara led us in the alphabet insign-language and then we spelled a couple of student names in sign language. Then half the group joined Jeremy for capoeira, followed by the second half of the group. Jeremy shared instruments and we all enjoyed fun movements, counting in portuguese and clapping. Highlights of the rest of the day included a trip to the "hospital" with Stacie helping to fix many many "hurts" and "broken bones". Athena and Michelle built a wood block house complete with both recycling and garbage bins. Then Sebastian and Oliver had fun burying tucks under the rocks in the plastic bins. Edison and Athena joined and we all buried cars, trucks, and even our hands! There were also nifty clay projects on the blue table--spraying water on clay sculptures was another highlight. Many folks played oustide for a bit and then latin-dancing and clean up finished up the day!

Michelle (Edison's mom)
Stacie (Sophia's mom)

Today our yoga class with Jenny reinforced the lessons we've been learning about trash and recycling. We pretended to be a variety of garbage items--banana peel, tin foil, apple core, pizza box--and discussed which ones should be thrown away, which ones recycled and which ones composted. We spent some time in the side yard, being chased by the Jose Monster and the Deborah Monster. Indoor games included Lego work, building a swimming pool out of big blocks, and pretending to be bread which didn't want to be toasted or eaten. (In related news, a number of lunchbox items also protested being eaten, but we decided that our hunger had to take precedence over the objections of the apples, pretzels and yogurt.)

Carolyn Parkhurst Rosser
(Ellie's mom)

Tuesday, January 12

We had such a great trip to the Recycling Center today. There was so much to see and learn. We learned what types of things could be recycling, how it's sorted and then compacted to ship off for someone to use to make something new. Then the real excitement came when we got to tour the factory and see for ourselves exactly how it all plays out. It was truly fascinating! Ask us about it.

Trash Prep!

Today was Music Monday with Tiffany, always a great way to start the week. It was too cold to go outside, but we kept busy indoors with a strong focus on trash and tomorrow's trip to the recycling plant. We played trash truck, sang trash songs, and read trash books. We filled the clothes line with fresh paintings [remember to pick them up!] played with moon sand, and did lots of puzzles, too. Big rumpus in the back room and a dance party clean-up time helped us release lots of energy. Big field trip tomorrow!

Yoga Day

Yoga Jenny came today! The yellow and blue groups went first, then red and purple. We did sun salutations and themed poses like "the worm" and "the banana"(composting), and "the garbage truck", vrooming around picking up trash. We also talked about what goes into trash, what goes into recycling, and what goes into composting. After yoga we had lunch and listened quietly while Melissa read stories dictated earlier in the day by Sophia, Maeve, Kieran, and Sophie. Then we went outside in the courtyard for a short playtime. Brrr! It was cold, but we all enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine. And those small snowdrifts that have yet to melt are still fun to climb on. We kept warm dancing to boombox tunes -- mostly Queen. After the brisk outdoor time we came in and warmed up with play dough, coloring, and garbage truck pretend play.

Garbage Garbage

Another day of garbage-truck playing and stories at ALG. The children were very excited to be recycling after snack and lunch.

Jeremy resumed the capoeira class today. First with the red and blue groups, then purple and yellow. In addition to capoeira movements the children had fun taking turns leading the song and with musical instruments. They had fun learning the Portuguese names for the familiar and unusual instruments.

Even though it was cold out, it wasn't too clod for outside play today. The children had fun playing on the piles of snow that haven't yet melted in addition to their bike riding and playing in the house.

Another playful day at ALG!

Tuesday, January 5th

Still stuck in the cold spell, we played indoors today as one big group. The kids had a chance to jump from one activity to another, and many incorporated playthings from one area into new and unique areas. Bye bye to bakery items, and hello to TRASH! Trash appears to be highly popular. Trash trucks were zooming all over ALG. We had a brief circle meeting to discuss playing gently with toys, as one of the new trash trucks suffered as casualty. There was some talk of whose dad would be able to fix the broken part. Melissa and Pickett hosted creative play all around the subject of trash and recycling, we have new songs to sing on the topic, and new recycling centers set up for kids to use.

We celebrated two birthdays- Daisy turned five over the holiday, and Margo turned three today. Daisy shared delicious birthday muffins that she helped her mom make, and both kids got to blow out candles! A nice day indoors.

Monday, January 5

It was a great first day of 2010 at ALG.

Circle time was filled with new activities, including a new song about trash (which is the next topic of learning for the kids) and an introduction to the sign language alphabet. Then we divided up into groups, with half going back to have music time with Tiffany.

During music time, all of the kids learned about measures, and reviewed how many beats there are for each note and rest. They also learned some new songs about garbage.

Natasha made play-doh and everyone had a good time making birthday cakes and other fun things. Many kids played with the blocks today, and others put on bright orange vests (like garbage men) and played with the garbage trucks that are now out for playing.

While many kids ate lunch, Jose told a great story that kept everyone's attention for a long time and Natasha took some to the back room to burn some energy with the noodles.

Finally, it was clean up time - there was a lot to clean up today - almost every block had been taken out and played with.

It was a great start to the year!