This morning we began our day with several rounds of homemade memory games. The games featured animals, colors, and one set had favorite cartoon characters. The children did a fantastic job matching and saying the name of their matches! This is a great game for strengthening recall and focus as well as honing fine motor skills.
A bit later, we worked on learning about the parts of flowers as we "built" a flower from its parts. By the time we finished, each child was able to point out and name the flower's roots, stem, leaves, and petals.
This guided art project was just right for building on children's sequencing skills, hand strength (that glue is tough to squeeze!), and listening skills.
There were showers on an off through the day, and I monitored the window in hopes of spotting a rainbow. Sure enough, a beautiful, bright rainbow appeared in the afternoon, and we all gathered outside to view it. One of the littles loves the rainbows that she sees on the walls. They are made by a crystal hanging in the window. She flits from one rainbow to the next, pointing them all out and exclaiming "rainbow!" When this particular little saw the rainbow in the sky, her eyes widened in wonder and she screamed "RAINBOWWWWW!!!!" It felt wonderful to share this amazing moment with her!
In the late afternoon the children and I enjoyed dancing to music and worked on shaking jingle bells and maracas to the beat of each song. The bright sunshine brought a fun and joyful mood to the experience.