Tiny Tribe: 2010-07

Class Time with the Beetles

John, Finn, and Eli practiced drawing circles, dots, and lines with Jenna this morning.

Ruby was very excited to come to Tiny Tribe today. She picked out all of the class time activities and really wanted to work with play-dough! When the Beetles needed help rolling out their play-dough, she was more than willing to help!

Finn was very excited to play with the new puzzles that were donated to us! The puzzles even make sound when you place them in the right spots. Finn said "it sounds like a piano!"

Music and Dancing with Bonnie

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Everyone got into dancing and acting out songs with Bonnie today. Experiences moving to the music and actively participating in the dramatic play of the story melds their growing comprehension skill, motor skills, verbal and listening skills all in a fun playful way.

Centipede Class Time

The Centipedes moved about and worked some of their fun energy out while keeping their ears open and eyes alert as they followed the directions of the Hullabaloo game.

The Centipedes came in after their walk and explored ways to move the ping pong balls. They bounced them, tried blowing them out of the tubes, and rolling them down the ramps they built. Exploring simple items can sprout creative minds.

Where oh where did our little friends go, where oh where could they be?

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4 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

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The Centipedes were busy taking care of their babies this morning.... here is some of what they talked about.

Jackson: The baby needs a diaper change. It's poopy.
Jackson: I will burp the baby
Kaito: Burp it.
Jackson: The baby's asleep can you watch it?
Kaito: Okay.
Quinn: I know what you baby can sleep on - that (the changing table).
Jackson: The baby needs to sleep.
Quinn: The baby's cold (places a blanket over it).
Kaito: Here's its milk, here's this one and this one, that's it (Kaito bring bottles over).
Jackson: Here's one but is old.
Kaito: Yeah it's old, it's orange juice, babies don't like that.

Kaito and Jackson make tea with at the table.
Jackson: All done
Kaito: Yup all done.
Jackson: I need to drink my tea.

Kaito and Jackson move over to the babies
Kaito: We need some cups for us (for the babies to eat).
Quinn: I have these and some baby applesauce.
Jackson: I feed them the apples ( using spoons and bowls to feed babies).

Creative Minds Exploring Playdoh

The Centipedes all requested playdoh this morning for class time. We took a step away from all our playdoh toys and explored what we could do with it with just our hands and imaginations. Here's some of the things they came up with:

Olivia:
I made a worm guys all by myself.
Look a hot dog.

Quinn:
I made a balloon, I rolled it and rolled it then made a stick - who wants it?
I 'm making a chain with part for each day of Christmas.
This is a baseball.

Jackson:
It's a choo-koo and it's head ripped off.
It's a whole guy.

Serena:
It's an animal.
I rolled and made holes in it.
This is a swing.

Kaito:
I made a submarine.
I made an O, it's hard to make an O with playdoh
A cocoon.
I made a part of the earth.
I made an airplane.

Beetle's Magnet Towers

The Beetles enjoyed creating their own towers out of magnets today. They enjoyed stacking as many magnets as they could until their towers fell down. Finn thought it was funny when his tower fell down!

Beetle Sponge Painting

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Animal Treasure Hunt

We had budding archaeologists this morning, looking for and digging up buried animals in the sandbox.

Creative Story Telling

During circle time the Centipedes made up a story using story cards. During class time Jenna read back their story as they drew pictures of parts of the story using the stencils for help.

Here is their story:

Once upon a time
Torry: The fire truck came. There wasn't a fire and the fire fighters got mad.
Max: The fire trucks splashed into the ocean.
Dorothy: The dog came and the dog splashed into the ocean too.
Serena: A goat goes and fetches them out of the ocean.
Olivia: The turkey goes to the fireplace with the fire fighters.
Jackson: And then they all went to the castle.
Torry: The horse came and said why are you in the castle? They rod to the horsey form, and rode their own horsey.
Max: Then they raced home in a race car in the middle of the night. It crashed and turns into junk. They cash into trash cans. Pee-Yew!
Dorothy: Then they splash in to a river and thy go out of the ocean onto the sand.
Serena: Jump back onto the castle. They go into the night time and go to sleep.
Olivia: Her fish was in the ocean and swam into the castle. He goes inside and sleeps in the bed.
Jackson: Then the airplane comes into the castle and sleeps. Everyone wakes up and goes on the airplane for a ride.

The End.

Circle Time - Exploring with Dora

The kids really loved the opposite cards. They enjoyed working together to figure out what the opposites were on the cards. We also sang a song about our first and last names to help identify one another.
"The name of our friend is Grace Carroll, Grace Carroll, Grace Carroll, the name of our friend is Grace Carroll, that's the name of our !"

Fun in the Sun - Water Play & an Obstical Course

This morning, the Beetles and Centipedes played in the sensory table with water. Some painted the fence, slide, house, and deck with paint brushes. The others loved getting wet and pretending to save the toy animals from drowning.

Max, Jackson, and Kaito loved going through the obstical course. They climed through the tunnel and ran around the cones. They also had to go down the slide and play the ring toss game. Needless to say, they had a blast working together to complete the obstical course!

Gorgeous Day at the Park

Today was too gorgeous to stay at school. We headed out to Lincoln Park to enjoy the sun and work our bodies.

Max was working his muscles as he attempted to swing across all the monkey bars on his own.

The bridge was a favorite spot today. They jumped and swung on it and chased each other about.

Snack time, refueling as we enjoyed the day and met up with future friends from neighborhood schools.

We met the nicest man today as he was working on his yard. He cut a bunch of flowers for us to take home to our families.

Picnic Lunch in the backyard

We couldn't resist on such a beautiful day to have a picnic in the backyard. Reid and Finn thought it was "silly" to eat lunch outside on a blanket!

Noodle Necklaces and Collage Creations

The Beetles liked making their own collages this morning. They enjoyed gluing paint on their paper and decorating with tissue paper, different shapes and colors, and stickers.

The Toddlers had a blast making noodle necklaces! Two year olds need a lot of practice using their fingers and hands. Activities that use these small muscles, such as puzzles, bead stringing, give Twos a chance to solve simple problems and use their eyes and hands together. They are very proud of what they can do by themselves. Every new thing they learn to do with their large and small muscles builds their feelings of confidence.

Floor Drawing

The Beetles enjoyed drawing with markers on paper that was taped to the floor. They practiced tracing their hands, making circles, dots, and lines.

Stopping to Smell the Flowers

On their walk today the Centipedes stopped to smell all the beautiful flowers in bloom. They also listened and looked for the animals that they thought they could see in the greenbelt off of Graham St. They shared what kind of animals they thought might live there such as chipmunks, squirrels and birds along with some more exotic ideas. They listened and began hearing different birds coming from the trees on the street. On our way back we look for the birds' nests. We recognized some crows flying about that we read during circle time are very intelligent. Several said that if they were a bird they would want to be crow.

Making Bird Masks- Paint, Glue and Feathers!

After reading about different kinds of birds in circle time. The Centipedes could choose to make their own bird mask. They talked about what kinds of birds they liked and what colors they wanted to be.

Some of their conversation when working on their masks:

Serena: I'm painting it all white (over red). It changed colors - pink.
Claire: Mine is a supposed to be a hawk, but its not turning out like one. I need to use some feathers.
Max: I'm making my thing to be more brown.
Claire: Look I'm making orange. First I put on yellow, then red, then more yellow.
Torry: I need lots more feathers.

Table Painting with Foam Rollers

The Beetles had a blast painting with foam rollers and paint brushes today. They started out with primary colors and ended up mixing some of the other colors to make new colors. They were surprised when the colors changed.

If You're Happy and You Know It

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Beetle's dressing up

Today during free play, the Beetle's chose to dress up with the dramatic play clothes. Finn chose to be a doctor and helped Jenna find her heartbeat and pulse. This type of dramatic play is a great way to help the children learn and understand how the body works!

John chose to dress up as a construction worker after reading a few of the truck books. He had a great time running around to the different toy cars and fixing them with the tool kit! The beetles love reading "Tough Trucks" and "Dazzling Diggers", and knows the names of different types of trucks and cars, and how each of them has a different purpose.

Bus Ride Adventures with Jenna