Caterpillar Dreams

            
The Crunching Munching Caterpillar wishes he could fly.  In this book,
by Sheridan Cain, he meets different creatures that can fly and they all
describe what he needs to have in order to fly.
 
He needs wings, be as light as dandelion fluff or float like a feather.
 
So when he goes to sleep he dreams about flying.   I love the
illustrations and how the text floats around the page.

  
I was inspired to set up a question for the children to think about
while they look at our chrysalis.
 
We started by talking about dreams and asking if they could think
of a dream they had while sleeping.
 
Some could tell a whole story about their dreams and were able to
create a dream for the caterpillar.
 
     While others drew about a dream as a wish. 
               Something that they like
                   so the caterpillar
                   would like it too.

Horsing Around

This morning we went to the Therapeutic Riding stables. 
We split into several groups to allow the children to have
time and space to visit with the horses.

One group played outside with our new pool noodle
ponies.  Thanks to Mrs. King’s Music Class blog for
the how-to.
 
I made a cube die with words on each side.  Each word was
an action a horse might do; gallop, trot, walk, neigh quietly,
neigh loud, flick your tail.
 
We started by picking one of the words on the die, threw the
die and then did that action.
     
When we got to the die we read the new word, tossed it again
and moved to the die the new way.

  
But the highlight of the trip was meeting the horses in the stables.
 
The caring and welcoming volunteers know the horses so well.  They
introduced us to each one, telling us their age, how they became a
therapeutic horse and any peculiarities the horse may have.
 
This one, Licorice, smiles especially when he gets a candy mint. 
Indigo Blue was the tallest horse.
Sadie loves to be scratched.
This one (I think was Max) loved
to give kisses.  He has a very soft nose.

All of the horses we met were gentle and patient with the children
reaching up and petting.

Families left with appreciation for these wonderful animals and
how they help their clients that have physical challenges.

We’ll take our ponies back to school to use another day.

Horse Play

      
Tomorrow we are going to visit horses at the Therapeutic Riding
Stables.   For the past several weeks of school we’ve been preparing
for our visit.
 
One week it was our sign in question.  The majority of children
do like horses.
 
We dug out all our horses from the animal baskets and set them up
in different play scenarios around the room.
 
I’ve been collecting hobby horses from thrift stores and set them
out last week.  The older children loved to ride around them room.
        
The younger children loved to get up close and nuzzle.
       
And then I noticed that the older children were feeding their
horses the wood pellets in the sensory table.
    
It got us talking about what horses like to eat.  Today for snack
we had horse food; apples, carrots and hay (shredded wheat).
         
          There was a bit of neighing going on.

Alphabet Rocks

        
I’ve noticed that many of the children love rocks.  They pick them up on their walks, they fill their buckets when they are at the beach and often they’ll arrive at school to show me a rock they have in their pocket.
               
One day when I was at the beach I collected rocks and decided to make
ABC rocks. 
                
Each letter of the alphabet has two rocks; one for the upper case letter
and the other for the lower case.
          
The little white cups have the same letters printed on them.  They can drop the two matching rocks into their cup.
               
As the children played with the rocks they didn’t always put the rocks into the cups.  They enjoyed moving the rocks around, feeling them and turning them over.  Carefully exploring each rock.

Sometimes they would ignore the rocks and simply stack the cups within each other.  I noticed this same thing after they finish their snack.  They like to stack their drinking cups as high as it will go. 

Hmmm, I’ll have to put just cups on another table and see what they’ll do with them.

Bus Makeover – Part 4

  
The next day, at school, we began painting the bus.
     
At the art table we had collected materials from our storage
and art areas for the children to create parts to add to our
cardboard bus.  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of
them creating only of the finish pieces.
New black tires.
Mirrors for the driver.
Hand straps in case we have to stand.
The pull cord when we get to our bus stop.
The money drop box.

A destination panel, lights and license plate adorn the front
of the bus.
Rear view of the bus.

"All aboard", the bus is ready to roll and passengers are waiting.
 
 
The passengers pay as they step on to the bus.
  
The driver checks that all are on board and the bus is on it’s way.

This project has included planning, designing, building,investigating,
exploring and sharing our ideas.  It has allowed us to follow the
interests of many children, of various ages, in our program and
create alongside them in the development of a new dramatic play
area with exposure to real life experiences.

Thanks for joining us on this trip of playing and learning.