What a Beautiful Fall Day!

On Thursdays our snack helper not only assists with snack, but she/he brings our food to add to the compost.  Emma is turning the food which decomposes to make the soil that Heidi uses in the garden. This is one way for our children to learn about the importance of taking care of our earth!

This Thursday Kim, who teaches with Heidi, explained to the class that we were going to plant some flowers in the garden.  After Kim gave the children their own shovels and directions, they were ready to plant!

When can we plant?

After Patrick dug a hole, he squeezed the pot so the flower and its roots would be ready for planting. We were pleased to see how carefully the children  followed Kim's directions on taking their flowers out of the pots.

While Patrick plants his flower, Saul and Jake are digging their holes. The soil was very moist,but the challenge was to make the hole deep enough for our flowers. It was a workout for our small hands!

Alex searched for the right place to dig his hole.

Amelia is starting to dig and Govind is patting the soil to make sure that his plant stays in the ground. The children enjoyed this hands on experience with nature.

After we planted, Kim took the children to the science room . When Kim took Houdini, out of his ball, she gave the children a choice.  They could pet Houdini, or hold him with her help. Govind and Noor chose to pet Houdini.  They thought that his fur was very soft.

Zoey wanted to hold Houdini.  Daniel and Saul were very patient as they waited for their turn.

Houdini decided to climb into Charlotte's and Alex's hands.  As with the planting, the children listened to Kim's directions and they were very gentle with Houdini.

At the end of our lesson in gan, Kim told the children that she would put Houdini in his ball so he could walk with us.  Amelia is role playing as she shows the children  how Houdini would walk down the hall. The planting and playing with Houdini were both wonderful ways for our class to connect with nature!

After gan, we decided to go outside and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. When we opened the gate, the children exclaimed, " Yeah, we have the whole playground!" Several of the children wanted to swing.  Noor used the swing to pretend to fly!

Charlotte is being a great friend as she stopped swinging when Govind asked if someone could push him. She said," I will give you two pushes and then you need to swing!"

 Suri decided to lay on the swing, but she used her legs to twist the ropes and soon she was spinning.

Jake, Daniel, Saul, Briana and Amelia chose to climb. They all had a good time climbing to the top of the playground equipment!

Zoey, Patrick, Alex and Emma played with the sandbox tools. As you can see, the children  found a variety of ways to use the shovel and the rake.  We were so lucky to have such a beautiful fall  day to be in the gan and out on the playground.!