Today marked the grand opening of our sand table turned water table, and the Little Frogs were eager to test it out. Before we actually poured water into it, we had a planning meeting to discuss how best to use it. Planning ahead is a developing skill for our crew, and they were excited to think about what they did and didn't want to happen with the water.
We introduced a variety of water tools, and generated a variety of theories about what caused the water to move around. Once someone had mastered a tool, they carefully explained to their friends how to make it work. "You put this end in the water and then squeeze the blue part and then the water goes up there."
Other friends experimented with the new play-do, and worked on building new ramps and roads.
Several of the dolls also got a change of wardrobe.
At morning meeting, the frogs learned some new songs - they particularly enjoyed the one where they were monkeys falling out of the bed.
Then, despite the inclement weather, we put on boots and raincoats and headed out on an adventure. We decided to walk over to the Triangle gym with our friends the Turtles. When we arrived, the door was locked and nobody was there. Undeterred, we headed over to the meetinghouse, where we played some movement games (walking, crawling, running and rolling like many different kinds of animals). Then, we heard a story about "Herman the Worm," and both the Turtles and the Frogs helped him with his problem. This kind of storytelling encourages the kids to be active participants in bringing the story to life - so they helped add the ingredients to the potion, stirred it up and made most of the sound effects.
