Water Water Everywhere

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.

Mixing and Music

We began our day gathering up ingredients to make play-do. The Little Frogs carefully touched and tasted many of the ingredients, and made guesses about what else you could make from them.

Then we took out our recipe card and measured and counted and added and stirred each ingredient.

After some discussion, we decided that it should be yellow, so we went down to the cupboard to find some food coloring and added that in. Carol took our gloppy mixture down to the kitchen for cooking later on.

We had puzzles out for Choice Time, and many of the Little Frogs are learning how to put them together. The friends who have good puzzle skills are also learning how to teach their friends.

This group was particularly proud of their effort. As soon as they'd gotten it together, they dumped it out to try it again!

We went out to the grove to explore the tree that has been cut up. We noticed the different shapes and figured out how they might have gotten that way. We also discovered more SPIDER-IDER-IDERS and webs. Some of them were so fine that they had managed to catch water.

We found another kind of spider that makes its web in the grass and builds its own "cave" in the middle of it.

We also revisited our pile of rocks and stacked them up to build a doghouse. It was heavy work, but the Little Frogs are a very strong bunch. Some bugs were also living in our rock pile, and we took some time to study them.

We even found a parade of ants, munching on Cheerios.

Soon, it was time for our very first music class in the John Barnes room. Our new teacher, Jennifer, played the guitar and taught us some new songs.

One song was actually a story about a seal and a rabbit, and we got to pet the puppets. We also got to do a little dancing and singing while we played the shaker eggs.

Back outside, we did some climbing and balancing, before it was time to go in for lunch. At lunchtime, we had a wonderful discussion about our day and noticed who had the same kinds of food in their lunches, and thought about the kinds of food that might make you grow.