March 26th Grocery Store

Field trip day! Now that the weather is nicer I'm excited to take the kiddos out and explore more of what we've been learning in a field trip setting. Today's visit was the Grocery Store. On the way we talked about everything that we saw. The boys were especially interested in the trucks at the Dealership. When we got close I asked if they could show me the store...of course they knew where it was! :) All three kiddos piled into the cart (which made it soo much easier for our lil' expedition). "Cheese" said Riley as I took the first photo.

We talked about everything that we saw: the muffins in the entry, the floral area, and the deli with it's sandwiches, but spent most of our time in the produce section. With each item we went over the ASL sign: most were review, but some were new signs. Here is Riley signing "bread." He remembered that one on his own as well as "banana," and was anxious to learn and review the other signs.

Carsten was especially impressed with the asparagus "that grows by the water" and is kept at the Grocery store, in the water.

A little cheese snack.

And of course we did some tasting and our "snack time" on the go. We smelled the produce and talked about the shapes and colors. The boys loved to laugh at me when I asked them silly questions...like, "what color are the grapes, are they blue? yellow?"
Overall, it was a wonderful grocery visit. The kids had a great time and were so much fun to be with. The Bakery man even gave the kiddos some "tasters": croissants...what a treat!
After our Grocery adventure, we ran home to grab some juice for the thirsty explorers, and then headed to the park at "The Crossings". I especially like this new park because it is definitely developmentally appropriate for these kiddos. They had plenty of things to explore, enjoy, and I was not afraid of them getting hurt. From the store, home, and to the park, we saw many animals and talked about each one, the sounds they make, etc.

Riley loved the slides! He would ask Carsten to give him a "push" to get going.

Carsten the climber...he was so excited to do it himself!

Anneclaire wants to climb too.
"Hello, Hello, hi, how are you?"

Riley was such a ham! He started putting wood chips and snow on his head, calling it a "hat."
Anneclaire loved Riley's new game!

At the begninning of our morning adventure, the kiddos enjoyed Train Time. There was a large track already set up, and Riley and Anneclaire enjoyed a few trains, as Anneclaire gathered up the trains from Carsten's room. Soon Carsten joined in and together, Riley and Carsten built one large train together on the track. Riley even donated his car "Salty" to the cause. I was impressed with the way that they played, shared, and worked out any disagreements this morning. We're so happy Riley is feeling better and glad to have had such a wonderful morning together!

"bumble cake" 5 March

Carsten & Riley ran to the food/cooking center. Carsten immediately picked up boxes of empty food and asked Riley what they were. "This milk?" Carsten would ask, and Riley would laugh and say, "no, crackers!" Definitely coming from our project time when i have them help me decide which ingredients to include. This went on for quite a while. Eventually they brought the food to the kitchen table and started to make their cooking creations there with Anneclaire.



Riley loves the block center. He can always find something new to create each session. Here he made a "peek-a-boo" hole to talk with us through.

The boys reading in the book center.

During our movement time we read Eric Carle's From Head to Toe. The boys made me smile as they acted out the movents of each animal. I think their favorites were the "arch my back like a cat" and "kick my legs like a donkey."

We moved to the piano for Music time, taking turns singing, playing the ivories, and singing along to the Children's Songbook from UsBorne.

Snack Time: crackers, cheese and juice

Riley made his own graham cracker/mozzerella cheese sandwich. He even ate most of it :)

Project Time: the Bumble Cake

Carsten has been wanting to make a "bumble cake" with Riley for the past two weeks. Here, he is showing Riley their next task.
A close-up of our intent: vanilla ice cream scoops, melted chocolate top & bottom of bee, peaches create the stripes, cookie wings, and chocolate chip eyes. Of course we tasted our toppings before putting them on the bumble cake. I believe this is why Riley's bee was a bit different than the picture. He did not want peaches on his cake, though I do believe his bee had six eyes. :)

We tried! :) They did most of the decorating of course!
So maybe the decorating was not as perfect as in the book, but the cakes both disappeared...they must have tasted good!

Outdoor Time: It's been so nice! We drew with chalk for a while. The boys especially enjoyed tracing their shoes with the chalk.

The snow was just hard enough for the boys to walk on it without sinking. Carsten explored the snow, making tracks and trails.

Riley enjoyed stomping the snow with his boots.

Anneclaire happily picked some of the emerging grass.

The last adventure was Riley's idea: gathering pine cones. They had quite the collection by the time our session ended.