Snack at Pocket Park

Hello, Sunshine! This morning we took advantage of the beautiful weather to get a snack at QFC and eat it at the Pocket Park.


The Beetles chewing on some dried mango, happy to be outside in the sunshine!

Lena

Eva

Anna Lee

Kaya

Hope you all got to enjoy the sunshine too!

9 Fishes in the Sea

During circle time this morning, Carrie sang "9 Little Fishes in the Deep Blue Sea". The Beetle's had fun singing along, and calling out what color the fish was! Each kid got a turn to put the fish on the felt board.

9 little fishes in the deep blue sea, what color fishy do you see?

Purple, Purple! This little fishy is purple.

3 little fishy in the deep blue see, what color fishy do you see?

Blue, Blue! This little fishy is Blue! Two little fishy in the deep blue see, what color fishy do you see?

Yellow, yellow! This little fishy is yellow!

Morning Snack

We are now incorporating math concepts during our morning snack time. The preschoolers were really excited about our new math sticks. Using both the numbers and dots, all of the kids were able to count how many servings of apricots and peanuts to take.

When the kids counted two dots or read the number 2, they knew to take a maximum of two scoops of peanuts with the tablespoon. When the kids read or counted the number 3, they knew to take a maximum of three apricots. This made it fun for the kids to learn math and proud that they could serve themselves.

Grace, Bodhi, John and Aliza all enjoyed serving themselves! :)

Easel Painting

Earlier this week we moved the two easels into the hallway, to make a nice little art area. The kids love the new location and they have easy access to the drying rack to store their paintings :)

The Centipedes neatly stored their artwork in the drying rack.

Today on the easels we used watercolors. Ava made a portrait of a bird and a bird nest!

Finn made a portrait of a firetruck.

Aliza and Grace were excited to get a turn with the easels. Aliza drew colorful rain and Grace painted a rainbow :)

Funny Quote

Jenna (teacher) to John (3 yr old):
"John, please wait in line to wash your hands for lunch."
John to Jenna:
"No, sorry, my mom doesn't let me stand in lines."
:)

Cupcakes and Decorations

This morning we took a walk around California and checked out all the Valentine's Day decorations in the store windows. On the way back to Jena's, we stopped into Coffee to a Tea to take a peek at all their cupcakes. Each lucky kid got to pick out their very own mini cupcake to celebrate Jena's birthday today! We'll enjoy them after we eat our snack this afternoon.


Saige and Myla :)


Finn and John being silly


The Beetle's checking out all the hearts in the store front window


The Centipede girls ready for some cupcakes!

Positive Discipline Parent Education Night

Tiny Tribe Parent Education Night (note date change)
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 6:00-8:00pm

Try Kindness and Firmness at the Same Time

-by Melanie Miller, Certified Positive Discipline Trainer

Ever feel like you’re doing the “Parenting Dance”?
Rather than trying to balance kindness and firmness, try using kindness and firmness at the same time. Some examples of this are….

Think “Kind and Firm”: When your child is pushing your buttons, think in your head “kind and firm, kind and firm”. See what happens with your voice, your body language and your actions.

Eliminate “OK” from the end of your sentence. If you say to your child, “We’re going to leave the park in 10 minutes OK? You are now asking your child for permission to leave.

Connect before Correct: Meet your child at eye level with a friendly face (connect) and then be clear about what you expect (correct).

Use “I” statements rather than “you” statements: Say, “I need you to clean up your art supplies.” rather than “you need to clean up your art supplies.” If your child felt a need to clean up the art supplies they would have already been cleaned up! Take responsibility for your needs and start more requests with the word “I”.

Let routines be the boss: “We have 20 minutes until we walk to the bus stop, What else do you need to do to be ready for school?”

Give limited choices: “It’s time to make your lunch for school. Do you want to make the sandwich or pack up all the other items”

Use ten words or less: No need to lecture, the fewer the words, the better.

Ask with curiosity: “What needs to be done in order for you to be ready for bedtime?”

If you set a limit, follow through: With mutual respect for your needs and the needs of the child use a calm, firm attitude and voice with no shame or blame.
Kindness and Firmness at the same time helps me to set boundaries and limits in my home. It allows me to have respect for my needs and respect for my children. If I can be kind and firm with my children, I notice them being kind and firm with each other and with me. It quiets the dance. It gives me some peace of mind. I can be the kind and loving mom that I want to be while having respect for my needs and the needs of our family.

Fun in the Sun

Here's Anna Lee getting ready to go down the slide.

Lena showed off her climbing skills and climbed on top of the climber.

Eva slides fast down the slide. She had so much fun, she did multiple times.

Kaya was interested in the hula hoop and tried spinning it around her body.

A Light in the Attic

During circle time, we read A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. The kids enjoyed listening to the silly poems and the funny illustrations to go with it. Here was one of their favorites:

Messy Room
by Shel Silverstein

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or-
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh dear,
I KNEW it looked familiar!

Cleaning

After we are done with an activity, we like to make sure everyone contributes to keeping our classroom tidy. One way to have cleaning be fun is to use a cleanup song. Once the kids hear the song, they know it's time to clean up and transition into a different activity. We sometimes see if we can pick up the classroom before the song ends, which makes it fun for the kids and they laugh trying to find toys to put away before it's over. Using songs to help with the cleaning process can make it fun for the kids, instead of an annoying task.

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8 Limbs Yoga

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Yoga Adventures

During Yoga today, we took the bus to the forest, walked through the tall trees, ran into a few bears and tigers then came back and finished with our sun salutations. :)

Eli became a bear in the woods!

Grace did some good stretching today


Luka was able to grab her feet with her hands too.

We also came across a few flying unicorns as well!

Eleanor being a silly frog, stuck her tongue out just like one.

Making Egg Carton Dragons

Rubber Band Peg Boards

One of our class time choices today was making shapes, patterns, and designs using the rubber band peg boards.

John discovered that by wrapping the rubber bands around four pegs he could make squares. He set to work making many squares on his peg board and was proud to show off his work.


Finn decided to make a pattern of lines, both vertically and horizontally, across his peg board.

Fun with Oobleck

The Beetles were immediately intrigued by the Oobleck that Carrie gave them each to explore this morning. Anna Lee wasn't hesitant to dip her fingers in right away to feel the soft and wet combination of corn starch and water. After mixing it with her fingers for a while, she put both of her hands in and got messy.

Eva said the Oobleck felt "good and cold." Eva helped scoop out more cornstarch and fill up hers and the other toddler's bowls again.

Kaya was hesitant at first but was soon mesmerized by the texture of cornstarch and water. When she felt it with her fingers in the bowl it was solid and hard. As she picked up a piece of it and held it above her bowl, it quickly turned into a liquid again and fell through her fingers.

Chloe was more interested in watching the other toddlers around her than she was with examining the Oobleck. She was very curious and looked at it intently, but she chose not to touch it.

Lena joined the Centipedes for circle time this morning and Chloe joined the toddlers for a morning of fun, singing, reading new books together, and exploring our box houses. The box houses aren't only just for fun either. By putting a giant "R" on the door of Raya's house, all of the toddlers will learn to associate that letter with Raya's name. Eventually they will understand that letters have sounds and combinations of letters create words.

Attention Beetle Parents:
We need your help decorating the Beetle's box houses! Please bring in items for decorating that you find around the house. A small shoe box could make a great mailbox. Family photographs are great to personalize with. Other items we could create with- old contact paper, wrapping paper scraps, material, carpet scrap, or a paper towel roll for a telescope. If it's easier, you can email some photos and we can print them out too.

Young at Art-

This morning we checked out the new art studio just a block away from school.
Young at Art http://youngatartws.com/

The director of Young at Art, Theresa, had projects ready for us to celebrate Chinese New Year. We moved through three different stations; paper lanterns, paper bag dragon puppets, and Valentine hearts.

Cutting lines to make our paper lanterns was nice scissor practice for our preschoolers. It's challenging to hold the paper, use the scissors, and be careful not to cut all the way to the other side. That's okay, we had more paper and tape!

We each chose from a wide selection of crayons and markers to decorate our dragon masks.

Some of the preschoolers were very particular about their color choices and their marks on the paper. Some of the preschoolers enjoyed using large arm strokes and scribbling lines all over.


When we finished our dragons, we cut them out and glued them to a paper bag to make hand puppets.

We had a great time making art at the new studio and the preschoolers were very excited to bring their creations back to school and hang them on display. Check out their lanterns hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen by our cherry blossom tree.