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

THURSDAY JOYS

Today was a really busy day, with a lot happening at ALG. This morning, a group of us built some exercise toys for the bunnies--we built a really cool slide that lets the bunnies go down "two stories" to the bottom of their cage. They are also able to jump on a box before they get to the tall top of the slide. They seem to be happy in their new home, munching on carrots and apple slices.

We also spent most of the day outside enjoying the sunshine. the purple group walked to Upshur park with Deborah and Pickett. The rest of us went between the side yard and courtyard. In the sideyard, Maeve led us in a search for interesting insects under all the stumps. We found cool white fungus, millipedes, lots of squigly worms and a very hairy spider (Which we didn't dare touch)!

We also planted our lettuce sprouts so that the bunnies would have good food to eat.

We did have one sad thing happen today--we had to say goodbye to Pickett whose last day of the year was today. She is spending the summer in Oakgrove, and will be missed!

It was a grey day here at ALG, but the atmosphere was bright and high-energy. For starters, we met two new furry friends, Bunny 1 and Bunny 2, who now inhabit a cage over by the incubator. We are thinking of good names for each, and will vote when there's a strong short list. We did go outside for a romp in the courtyard, and did lots of triking and chalk work. Victor, Alexander, Sebastian, Oliver and Henry transformed the corner tree into an improbable pastel wonder. Back inside, we got even more energy out in the back room, where Deborah led a mighty rumpus with the colorful parachute. Clean-up was extensive -- and nearly as much fun as making the mess.

Thursday, April 22 - EARTH DAY!

Circle time included the kids pretending to be seedlings that grew into potatoes, carrots and flowers. After circle time, one group went with Pickett, while Layla, Harry, Clara and Eli R. decided to paint. Sophia painted a calendar, and Jay painted three pictures! Some kids crowded around the caterpillars with Natasha to watch their progress.
With different groups throughout the day, Pickett and Melissa read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," then acted out the story with the kids. They had scraps of fabric that could be used as butterfly wings.
Outside, some kids lined up to climb up and down a ladder, while others told stories to Melissa, ran an ice cream parlor and raced tricycles. Jose entertained us all by singing Michael Jackson songs all day.