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The children and I had a lovely, busy Monday morning. We did our regular calendar and weather routine and were ever so happy to change the clothes of "Tim the Weather Kid" from winter gear to rain gear. The official first day of spring is inching closer and closer and we counted a mere five days until we can change our calendar's season tag! Yay!
We followed up calendar, weather, and circle time with some music. It's so cute to watch the littles move and bop to the music, and I'm so proud that the big kids know nearly all the words to our "March Wind" song by heart. It's fun to have them sing along.
After music time, we planted our last installment of seeds.
This time we had three varieties of marigolds to plant- white, yellow, and orange, and so we constructed tiny toothpick signs designating each color for later planting. The children took turns carefully picking up the light-colored end of each thin, pointy seed and gently poking it down into the seed starting medium.
I gave the containers their first watering and now the waiting game continues... but with good news on the herb and vegetable front! We went to water the rest of what we've planted already and we noticed that the dill and cilantro have already sent up tiny green shoots, the bulbs have begun leafing out, and some zinnias we planted have begun to pop their heads through the soil! It's so exciting!
After planting time, hand washing and snacks, we headed outdoors to play with balls. Everyone was prepared for the remaining muddy patches and was looking around for the little stream of snow runoff water, but it was nowhere to be found. The ground is thawing quickly this year, and lots of it had soaked up or disappeared into the wetland area to the north. We might go there and try to find some tadpoles to raise later on...
We practiced throwing and kicking the balls with great success. The big kids surprised themselves with how much farther the ball went with big throws and kicks.
I'm can easily see that they've put on muscle and have become much stronger than they were last fall when we put the outdoor balls away. The littles loved chasin the ball all over the yard after the big kids.
I encouraged some cooperative games of passing the ball between the older and younger children, and then it was time for the opening of the sandbox!!!! The children were thrilled and spent nearly an hour engrossed in all sorts of wonderful sensory activities.
I focused my time on helping the littles learn the ground rules of the sandbox while the big kids worked together to make sandcastles, roads, and "whirlpools" in the sand.
It was clear that they all enjoyed the sandbox with great enthusiasm and can't wait to play in it again!
Later in the day we read That's What Leprechauns Do and reviewed our vocabulary words as well as adding "spade" and "slickers" to our list of vocab words. The children adore this story and ask for it every day! The littles got their own reading time and enjoyed interacting with the Spring touch-and-feel book and Count Monet's Lilies, a counting book that features artwork from a variety of impressionist painters.
What a fun day! See you tomorrow.