Irene!

I am so thankful that we were spared from the brunt of Irene! When we finally made it to SDS yesterday afternoon, I had the best surprise. One of our chrysalises was open, and the butterfly was out. He is a little early, but I attribute this to the less than ideal place where he settled down. I am guessing that the wind and rain encouraged him to come on out. He was a beautiful sight there, amongst the toppled plants.

Here is a picture of the remaining chrysalis. It is hard to see, because he is in the right place, tucked away, under a leaf. I circled him with yellow. It is fascinating to see how he suspended himself with two thin fibers, which must be very strong to have withstood all of that wind!

I love the roly poly and little cricket who sneaked into the picture too!

All in all, we were okay through the storm. I was surely worried that something would happen to our playground before we could enjoy it! The only problem we had was a good sized limb fell and broke our fence. We should have it all fixed by Thursday though.

Marbles!

Have you been to Marbles, the children's museum in Raleigh? Well today was my first trip and I am enchanted! We took a family trip there to celebrate the last week of summer vacation for Winds and I. Thank goodness Nate was with us because someone had to watch the baby! I was all over the place, looking at the art, collecting ideas, making plans, getting inspired, taking pictures, and you name it. I am going to share the highlights from our trip today, but to experience it fully, you will just have to make the trip! There are so many areas that I did not document because I was doing what I was supposed to be doing- playing!

The first exhibit was an enclosed dramatic play area. It is set up like a town, complete with an ambulance (pictured), veterinary hospital, boat, barn, stage, and it goes on and on. The coolest part is that the children enter the exhibit by boarding a bus, and then slide out the back into the discovery area.

Winds was very excited to drive this boat.

This is the grocery store, where we did not play, but wanted to share it. The details of the place are amazing. It is ALL about the kids!

This is the veterinary hospital. It is just like being in a real hospital, just pint sized.

The museum has made great use of all the spaces. Out in the open areas, there are giant versions of several favorite games. She loved this connect 4 set.

A picture will never do this pirate ship justice! Towards the top you can see Winds headed to the top deck. I saw kids dressed as pirates, raising and lowering flags, and dropping anchors. It is so real seeming!

This is where things got interesting! We LOVE water, so she was in heaven. You will notice that most of the little children are wearing water-proof smocks- nope, not us! That is why I pack extra clothes I guess...

This exhibit featured light houses from NC. Even though it just looks like "play", there is so much more going on. The little sign on the light house states facts about the Currituck light house, educational for adults and children alike.

This outside water exhibit was amazing. So amazing that Nate was even impressed. So impressed, that he is working on a plan for us to have one at SDS. I am so excited I can hardly stand it! What you can't see is the well at the end. There are boats, sea creatures, rubber duckies, and all sorts of floating things that the children send down the river.

We skipped a lot, and had a wardrobe change after the water area, but I just can not recommend this trip enough. It is closed on Mondays, but open all other days. It would be fun for babies -big kids. Have fun!

Outdoor Classroom Part 2

Dinosaurs!

I do not know why, but dinosaurs have just never been my thing. I am guessing that it may have something to do with the fact that my mother never cared for them, and did not make them a part of my life as a child. That being said, I know that there are some preschoolers out there who LOVE dinosaurs. I have seen this often, and have really learned a lot about the creatures over the years through reading books to the children. Recently, I watched a show on the Discovery channel about discovering dinosaur bones, and I got an idea. We have an extra play area on the playground, now that our spring vegetable garden is gone. I decided that it would make a wonderful place for a "Dinosaur" garden. I covered the area in wood chips, placed some rounded edged stones around, consulted the exterminator about bugs, and planted some potted grasses. Finally, I pulled out that big ole' bag of dinosaurs that I had collected, but never taken out of the tub! So, here it is... our SDS dinosaur garden. I think that this will certainly be the hit of the playground for awhile. I have ideas to add a pond for the dinosaurs and maybe some other props too. Wouldn't it be cool if I could find some toy dinosaur bones...

Empty dinosaur garden.

I am going to be doing a lot of "research" between now and the first days of preschool to find out the names of these guys. I am really going to be missing Kyler, my dinosaur expert! Maybe he will stop by and give me a tutorial...

I am pretty sure that little grey one is an elephant, with tusks but I will make sure and get him in his right place!

So, if anyone needs me, I will have my nose in a dinosaur book for the next few days!

Waiting for Wings

The kind ladies at Shelton Herb Farm in Leland, NC, were nice enough to sell us some wild celery that already had caterpillars on it. So, we have a head start. I have been watching those little guys each day and was delighted to find that over the last 2 days, they have stopped eating and begun the process of metamorphosis.

This little guy is a SDS caterpillar. I found him on the dill that we planted in our spring garden. He had run out of food, so I transferred him to our butterfly garden, where there was a plenty for him to eat. He is doing well, and munching away.

This is one of the caterpillars from the herb farm. He is done eating and has moved to a neighboring plant where is hanging like a "J", which is what they do right before they spin their chrysalis.

I am sorry that the children are missing all of this, but they will be back in time to see the caterpillars emerge, and that will be amazing! Hopefully, by then we will have more caterpillars to watch!

The Outdoor Classroom Part 1

It is true, no 2 preschoolers are the same; however, they do share common characteristics. One of those is an innate curiosity. What better way to capture their attention than to purposefully place learning opportunities in all parts of their school day. I have given this a lot of time this summer and have decided to focus some attention on creating an outdoor classroom. Sure, we already do a lot on the playground- running, jumping, climbing, catching, throwing, pretending, imagining, but I think the outdoors offer so many other chances to learn.

Each year I am always excited to share the life cycle of a butterfly with my students. I understand that the concept of metamorphosis can be abstract for young children, but the results are always the same... wonder, discovery, excitement about science, increased love of literature, and a desire to know more. I have always done this in the classroom, but this year I wanted to try it outside, in a more natural environment. The process of creating a butterfly garden can be simple. Here is what we did:

1st Attract Butterflies: I did lots of research and learned which plants we needed to attract our local butterflies. The hope is that visiting butterflies will lay eggs and help you get started.

2nd Have the Right Caterpillar Food: Once you get caterpillars, you need to have food for them. for Monarch caterpillars, you HAVE to have milkweed, which is not easy to find. For swallowtails, they will eat parsley, dill, fennel, wild celery, and lots of others. They are a little easier to work with since they do not have such a discerning palate!

3rd Water : We placed a shallow pan, lined with rocks in the garden. This gives the butterflies a place to drink, but won't let them drown.

4th Good Books: One of the best parts of butterfly garending is getting to share the great books that go along with it. We love Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Lois Ehlert's Waiting for Wings.

This is the beginning of our butterfly garden. I have added a lot to it and will share more later.

It is Finished!

Today marks the end of some serious planning and orchestrating for me. The new play structure at Sunshine Day School is complete! The only thing left to do is place the wood chips. I certainly could not have gotten it all done without the help of some generous volunteers. Thank you to the Casey, Parks, Blanton, Coombs, and Stutts families. It is all I ever hoped it would be and more! I simply can't wait to see my "little ones" climbing and sliding soon!

This is day 1. The day we learned to read the directions, that had no words.

Workday 2.

3rd and final workday!

Windsor was more than eager to try it out for us!

First Slide!

Good News

I am excited to announce that Sunshine Day School has been awarded its first grant! I recently learned of an opportunity through Pet Smart's Pets in the Classroom grant program, to place pets in the classrooms of young children. Since we added our new classroom, I thought we should give it a try. We Won! Our new classroom will receive everything we need for a new fish habitat. We also get a 50% off coupon for the cost of the pet. We could have gotten a bird, giant lizard, or hamster, but I think we will start of something a little more simple!

Having pets in the classroom is a big part of helping children develop responsibility and helps in the creation of classroom community. In addition, pets provide children with opportunities to be scientists. They observe creatures in their habitats, record data, make predictions, and most of all these pets foster the child's innate sense of curiosity.

I am so thankful to Pet Smart for supporting teachers and students all over America! Make sure to tell them thank you when you shop there!