Muddy Fun! Muddy Thursday! We celebrated the hot day by going outside to the side yard, where we listened to stories, flew like birds and dragons and looked at bugs under logs! Then we turned on the cold water hose and ran in the water. Brrr! And YAY! Lots of the kids had swimsuits on ...but that didn't stop the kids without them. A big mud bath for all where we sang Pollywog, and Hokey Pokey, and danced in the mud. The muddy kids were taken to the courtyard to be hosed down (which was just as much fub as getting dirty) and change into clean clothes. Everyone ate lunch (kids were hungry!) and then Natasha started an assembly line face-painting extravaganza. Puppies, and butterflies, and horses, and batmans came tumbling out of her paint brush and onto the kids' faces! Free play and boogie clean-up came. The day flew by!
Don't forget to send your kids with extra clothes for the next time! Only one week left of ALG for this school year!
Karen Z (Maia's Mom) and Greg (Edison's dad)

Mache Monday at ALG

Friends, friends, friends 123...I'm so glad you are blogging with me.
And paper mache is my friend, and the water table is my friend,
And riding bikes is my friend.
Friends, friends, friends 123...all my friends are making masks with me.
And Jose's story telling time is my friend, cleaning rabbit cages is my friend,
and building with tiles is my friend.
Friends, friends, friends 123 today is Cara's birthday!
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1415060118819779386#

Guacamole Thursday!

This morning Natasha and some kids picked cilantro from the garden to make guacamole. While a small crew of guacamole-makers (Penelope, Clara, and others) carefully mashed avocados with the other ingredients, the rest of us played in the big room, building magnet structures (Kieran's space station!) or playing hopscotch or feeding the bunnies carrots. After a snack, we all went out to the side yard to enjoy the beautiful weather. The bunnies came out with us and got to hop around in their new fenced-in area. They are getting so big! Then we all came inside for lunch and enjoyed the guacamole on freshly toasted tortilla chips, courtesy of Natasha. Another great day at ALG.

Wednesday, May 19

Happy Wednesday! Since the rain stopped we spent a LONG time in the side yard today. We brought the bunnies with us and had a great time watching them in a natural environment. We dug and weeded in our garden. We smelled flowers (the honeysuckle smells amazing!). We chased Josh (Pace's dad) and he chased us! We played duck, duck goose, sang songs, listened to stories, watched insects, chatted, climbed trees and just all around enjoyed each others company. It's so nice to see how the childrens friendships have blossomed over the year. When I was watching I noticed how much they truly care about one another. The relationships are so innocent and sincere. It's really a lovely sight.

After the side yard we were very hungry, so we came in and had a great lunch and suddenly it was 1 o'clock..

It's been a grey wet morning here at ALG, but no real rain, so we managed to get outside to run out some energy in the courtyard. The atmosphere inside was bright and high energy, with guacamole production/consumption in full swing with our very own cilantro harvest; box decoration with Melissa; lots of stories; and a lively back room romp to give the post-lunch wiggles room to run. The tadpoles' legs are ever so slightly longer, and the bunnies received plenty of attention and snacks.

Rainy Monday...

Although today was a rainy day, the kids had a ton of fun! After circle time this morning, some of the kids played outside in the sprinkling rain while the rest played inside.

A bunch told stories to Deborah, painted beautiful paintings with Kara, and others made all sorts of shapes, cakes, and burritos out of clay!

While some children were out playing in the rain with Jose, other listened to stories inside and played with blocks, puppets and legos...

We ate some lunch, drew some pictures and made the best of a rainy day!

Butterflies are free to fly.... fly away!

What a great day to end this sometimes dreary week of rain and cold! At circle time we were treated to a new Story of the Day by Henry Mills, a complex tale about a man who went "boing" and ended up in Neverland with some pirates. We then spent the first part of the morning baking bunny muffins - not actually for the bunnies, but with ingredients they might like (zucchini, carrots) - to celebrate Cocoa and Inky's 3rd month birthday. Once in the courtyard, the sun was out in full force, the rabbits played and practiced new escape routes from their pen, and the kids climbed trees, chased a Jose monster, and started a rousing game of Duck Duck Goose. The highlight of the day was the birthday party for the bunnies, at which we sang "Hoppy Birthday" and enjoyed the yummy muffins in the sunshine. Oh - and by way of explaining the title of this post - we finally set the butterflies free! (Most survived.) Have a great weekend, everyone!

Butterflies and Chicks 5/10/2010

Today the children got to see the newly hatched butterflies as the last ones came out of their chrysalis over the weekend.

The eggs, sadly, did not hatch as expected as the incubator has a malfunction. Kara took a group of children to the courtyard to crack open the egg and see what happened. Some of the children opened eggs that looked like they never started at all, other eggs contained almost fully matured chick fetuses. It was smelly, but equally fascinating.

There was a range of maturity that showed that, while none of the survived they made it through various stages of development depending on where they were positioned in the incubator. - An order will be put in for some egg laying chicks to see if we can get some eggs to hatch.

After a brief snack the purple group went out for a walk in Rock Creek Park to find the trail that lead to the water. On the way down the trail, we spotted a lone dear strolling through the woods. After throwing rocks over the footbridge into the creek they decided to do some more hiking.

On the way back to school, we spotted a whole family of deer at the trail head we all stopped as we looked at the deer and the deer looked at us... then they ran off into the woods.

Lunch and games in the sunny courtyard with some rock n' roll music and the a quiet story time.

-Jon Fukuda (Kaiea's dad)

Monday, May 3, 2010

Today was a fun day. Seemed like the children had lots of energy. At morning circle we talked about how there are only two days left until our chicks hatch from the eggs. After morning circle, most of the kids had a snack then headed outside to play in the rain. However, the rain had stopped so they played outside and some kids still managed to get wet. The kids who stayed inside played with Legos, blocks on the light table and some drawing activities. When everyone came back inside, some did puzzles or listened to book readings, and later most of the kids had some physical exercise time on the mats in the back room with Natasha. That was around the time Marcy came back from the Vet with the bunnies, and that made everyone happy. During lunch, everyone listened to a great story by Jose. RB