Have a Happy Summer!

This summer session at the CDLL went by so fast! Today we had our last day of school having our family celebration. We had fun having snacks, photo booth, face painting, foam flowers drawing activity, and bubble blowing! We had such a great summer session and hope you all have a great summer! See you in the fall!

Divine blowing bubbles!

Ms. Prudhomme and Sage while she paints the Captain America that he wanted on his face!

Andre: "Look at me!" when he is getting ready to go inside the photo booth!

Michigan State Standard:\

Social and Emotional Development

3. Early Learning Expectation: Children develop healthy relationships with other children and adults. 

Paige Prudhomme, HDF 409

An Exciting Afternoon!

Today was a busy day in the CDLL. This afternoon featured two pleasant surprises. First, the children gathered in the indoor movement room for rest time. We watched The Peanuts Movie and ate snack before some children went outside. The water was turned on in the sandbox, and the children dug holes to fill with the water. Then a special guest came to visit: Mr. Dan! He sang lots of songs with the children. He even sang a book!

J.J. dug in the sand near his water hole.

"That feels weird," he said about the foam

that topped the water.

The children, Mrs. Weller, and Ms.

Goodman danced to a song about fish

sung by Mr. Dan.

Mr. Dan sings a story about a king who

spends his entire day in the bath!

Emily Andersen 

HDF 409

TS Gold Objective 34: Explores musical concepts and expression.

Building in the Oak Room

Today in the Oak room, the children got creative with the multiple different types of building materials that are provided. The children used blocks and legos to construct many structures that they made to represent different places that can be found within a community. 

Lilly C. added onto a structure made of blocks.
She said "This is our school but very tall!"

Coen built a truck out of legos.
"This truck can help to build different buildings"

Mathias and Divine building a structure out of blocks.
"This is a really tall store people can shop at" said Mathias

Teaching Strategies Objectives:

14: Uses symbols and images to represent something not present.

7: Demonstrates fine motor strength and coordination.

Courtney Shatney, HDF 409

Police Visit!!

Today the CMU Police came for a visit! We started the day off with the police talking to us about safety in childhood, what is an emergency that the police should be called for, and what it takes to be an active officer. After our discussion with the police officers, children got to try on a police hat, their 20 pound belt that they wear everyday, their uniform, and their vest! Children then were able to go and explore in the police cars with the police officers explaining what they have inside. And of course the children had a blast playing with all the different sirens that the cars make. Lastly, we finished off the morning with a picnic lunch in the dining room and having fun conversations! It was such a fun day!

Officer Martinez:

"What is an emergency that you need to call a police officer?"

Harper: "A fire"

Audrey: "A robber, stealing something"

Victoria: "When someone steals"

Michael: "When a bad guy gets out"

James: "When a cat is stuck in a tree"

JJ trying on a police hat.

Busola pretending to drive the car while Jace, James. and Graham play with the police sirens.

Hunter riding the police bike with Officer Martinez.

Michigan State Standard:

Social and Emotional Development

3. Early Learning Expectation: Children develop healthy relationships with other children and adults. 

Paige Prudhomme, HDF 409

Fun in the Sun!

Today the children experienced different temperatures! It was warm outside in the morning, hot in the late afternoon, and nice and air conditioned inside. There was a wide variety of activities at the center today. Outside, the art cart featured loofah painting and spray bottle painting. The full body clay was also moved outside. Indoors the children experimented with peppermint and lavender scented play doughs. There were water beads and Legos at the light tables.The Bridges program had their final visit for the school year, and our senior friends joined the children for snack. We look forward to seeing them again in the new year!

Annika was carrying mud bricks back to the teacher after seeing which ones broke when dropped.

"Look! I'm balancing it!" Ryan exclaimed.

Gavin and Avryl worked together to carry a tray of unbroken mud bricks back inside.

Emily Andersen

HDF 409

TS Gold Objective 3: Participates cooperatively and  constructively in group situations.

Watering the flowers!

Today while outside the kids had a chance to water the growing flowers we have here. Thanks to Miss. Potter, the children could go and fill up their watering cans and find flowers throughout the playground to water. They really enjoyed helping keeping our outside looking great!

Miss. Potter helping the children fill up their
watering cans

Graeme: "I'm keeping the flowers alive!"

Michael helping water the flowers

Spencer: "I like this, this is fun!"

Taevion agreed that watering the flowers is
a good way to help them grow

State Standard:

1.  Early Learning Expectation: Relationship in Place. Children begin to understand and interpret their relationship and place within their own environment.
                    5. Demonstrate a developing sense of respect for nature and its components.

Caitlyn Key, HDF 409

Shaggy the Llama Visits the CDLL

Today the children got a surprise visit from Shaggy the llama! This afternoon during rest/center time, Shaggy and his owners stopped by to visit the children. The children loved being able to pet him and some even fed him some grass and leaves outside. While outside, the children walked him around the playground showing him where they play and enjoyed the sunshine!

"His lips tickle my hand!" -Coen

The children got to walk Shaggy around the playground.

Shaggy visits the Maple room during rest time!

Michigan State Standards:

Early Learning in Science

2. Early Learning Expectation: Children show a beginning awareness of scientific knowledge related to living and nonliving things.

Courtney Shatney

HDF 409

A Hot Day Calls for Popsicles and a Surprise Visitor!

Today Ms. Goodman's and Ms. Weller's small groups got together to make homemade popsicles! The children had the option to have strawberries, blueberries, and bananas to put inside their popsicles. Children got to cut up their fruit by themselves and then put it inside of their popsicle tubes! Also we had a surprise visitor, a police officer! The police officer joined in some fun with  the children playing with the racetrack! Today was a fun filled day!

Asher: "I am cutting these strawberries really tiny so it fits in my popsicle"

Today Spencer tried kiwi for the first time! "I like it, it's a juicy fruit!"

Taevion putting the strawberries into his popsicle container!

Playing cars with the police officer!

Michigan State Standard:

Social and Emotional Development

3. Early Learning Expectation: Children develop healthy relationships with other children and adults.

Paige Prudhomme, HDF 409 

A Very Busy Day

Despite the chillly, dreary weather this morning, the afternoon sun shone bright! The children were excited to be back at school today. They explored new forms of painting such as bubble paint. They dipped bubble wands in a homemade paint and blew bubbles at their papers! They rode on tall rollarcoasters in the Light Studio simulator. They had slimy hands after manipulating the soap clay. They also continued to discover with the vet clinic set up in the Pine Room. It was truly a very busy day!

"I have a kitty bed." said Livy.

Husain was a doctor and gave the teachers check-ups.

"Time to got to school. Going to school. Going to school. Going to school." Roman sang.

"I'm looking out," Lila Beau told a teacher.

Emily Andersen

HDF 409

TS Gold Objective 31: Explores change related to familiar people or places.

Special Olympics Field Trip

Today instead of rest time, Pod B and a few students from Pod A were lucky enough to take a field trip to the fields behind the Student Activity Center (SAC) on campus to watch the Special Olympics! After a fun walk there, the students sat down, ate snack, and got to watch the athletes as they competed in bocce ball and a relay race. The kids really enjoyed watching them play and cheering for them!

It's hot outside! -Farrah

The children cheered with the athletes after they

announced that they had won!

The children enjoying snack as they watch the

athletes practice bocce ball

"I think they are good players!"-Asher

6. Early Learning Expectation: Participation-Cooperation-Play- Networking-Contribution. Demonstrate increasing ability to be together with others, in play or intellectual learning opportunities and/or making positive efforts for the good of all; join a community of learners in person and digitally as appropriate.
               Emerging Indicators: 4. Recognize respectfully the similarities and differences in people

Caitlyn Key
HDF 409

Painting in the Maple Room

Today in the Maple room, children had a lot of fun using the different varieties of painting that is offered. Between painting with Ms. Potter for the outside garden and painting with the flip flops, the children created many different types of art work. 

Avryl painted a house for the garden.
She said "I'm using two different colors for the roof"

Hunter used the flip flops to make different patterns with the paint.
He said "I'm using the same colors for paint as the flip flops"
and "these colors make me happy"

"I mixed the purple and green colors on the shoe and it looks really cool!" stated Avryl.

Teaching Strategies: Demonstrates knowledge of the physical properties of objects and materials. 

Uses language to express thoughts and needs. 

Courtney Shatney, HDF 409

Outdoor Triple Play!

Today during outside centers, our staff decided to have more opportunities for children to play with! We added the race car track that students and Mr. Jonaitis worked so hard on over the weeks, a camping tent with chairs, and DIY chalk paint! Children had so much fun with all of these new additions! 

Gavin: "I made chalk paint and now painting"

Hunter: "I'm roasting some marshmallows!"

Alijah "We are racing our cars!"

Early Learning Expectation: Children show increasing initiative and curiosity about their work and play in all areas of the curriculum.

• Approach tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, inventiveness, and confidence.

Paige Prudhomme, HDF 409

Rainy Days

The past few days have been cloudy and rainy, but that doesn't stop the kids from having fun outside! Lately, they've been interested in all the different kinds of bugs that are out there. Its a great opportunity to learn about living things in the environment, and how to interact with them.

"The bugs live outside because that's where their families
and food are" -Andre

"This is a green bug so maybe it eats green leafs" -Ella

Early Learning Expectation: Knowledge about the Earth. Children show a beginning awareness of scientific knowledge related to the earth.
              Can talk about the observable properties of earth materials (sand, rocks, soil, water) and living organisms

Caitlyn Key HDF 409

Sensory Table Fun

The sensory tables in the Walnut room got a lot of use today. The children love adding objects such as balls and rocks to the water and seeing if they float or sink. We have a lot of different beakers and tubes that the children can use in the water and observe how the water flows through and could be used with these objects. The children liked mixing the colors of the water from the two different bins to figure out which color it would make, and loved making different sized waves in the water. 

"When I add water, it comes out of the little hole in the bottom very slowly" -Leanes 

Livy and Leanes enjoyed the water tables in the Walnut room. Livy said "When I move this cup, I can make different sized waves in the water"

Teaching Strategies: 26: Demonstrates knowledge of the physical properties of objects and materials. 

28: Uses tools and other technology to perform tasks. 

Courtney Shatney, HDF 409

Art Cart Fun!

Although it was overcast outside, the rain held off until the end of the day for us to enjoy some outside time! On the art cart we added something new for the children to use their imagination to build what they wanted. They got to use Magic Nuudles! Children came up with many different ideas for their own projects and had so much fun!

What are you building with the Magic Nuudles?

Livy: "I'm making a long caterpillar! It's for my best friend!"

Graeme: "Look! I'm making truffula trees!"

Zoey: "I'm making a rainbow!"

Teaching Strategy:

Approaches to Learning
Approach tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, inventiveness, and confidence.

Paige Prudhomme, HDF 409

Welcome to Monday!

The children were very energetic today! Fun happened across the school. Outside, they made leis and did marble painting. Many small groups went outside today to play games or go for a walk. Inside, the children had the opportunity to try out a driving simulator in the Light Studio and to try on their bug wings in the Pine room.

Johnathan said, "I'm higher than everything."

Sarah buzzed around the Pine Room as a bee!

Rohan built a lego house and put a dog on top.

Ryan used the tower and a board to make a ramp for the car.

Emily Andersen

HDF 409

TS Gold Objective 31: Explores change related to familiar people or places.