Picture Frame Fun

Today during center time outside the children were able to decorate a picture frame with any type of jewels or stickers they wanted. The children got to work together and make designs with their classmates. Most of the children participated at some point to help create their picture frame. They were involved in fine motor skills along with communication and cooperation among their peers. The children were not given any instructions except for here is the glue and gems you may do what you would like. Their creativity took over and they began to design.

 What the children didn't know was that they were creating a frame that they were going to be able to pose with their peers. There was a photo area set up outside at the end of the day where the children could come up and dress up in silly clothes and make faces at the camera. They could grab their friends and come take a picture or they could grab their closest peer. Some even posed with some of their teachers.

Some children made funny faces...

And some smiled with their "friends".

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Ms. Moraw

Teaching strategies gold objectives

Social Emotional 3: Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations 

Physical 7: Demonstrates fine motor strength and coordination 

Slip and Slide!

Today was Water Day at the CDLL. Returning children from the previous year were so excited on the weather being nice first thing this morning when they walked into the classrooms. It wasn't nice enough to have water day last year so they were ecstatic! Children spend the afternoon on the playground or in the Zen Garden doing water centered activities. There was a bike wash, shaving cream pool, water table by the sand, and the slip n' slide. Many children came over to the Zen Garden to slip n' slide on the tarp throughout the afternoon.

Zin realized how cold the water was at first but after some positive encouragement he ran down the tarp many times!

"Watch me do this guys! Watch me army crawl!" said Makayla

Some children were able to slide on the tarp on their bottoms, knees, or their belly's. 

After a few turns of going one by one, the children wanted to go with one another. They really encouraged each other to try doing it different ways. "Hey Gabrielle! Go on your knees on it like I did" Elizabeth asked, "I'll go with you, ready? 1...2..3!" exclaimed Gabrielle.

Water Day was a big success at the CDLL today. All the children played in the water, shaving cream or laid in the sun. It was so fun to watch the children's reactions after realizing what they could do on the slip n' slide! 

~Ms. Mantha


Teaching Strategies Gold:
 Physical: Objective 6- Demonstrates gross-motor manipulative skills. 
Social-Emotional: Objective 3- Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations

Fun in the Sun!

Today was WATER DAY! The children have been excited about this day for the whole week, but it was finally the day and thats all they could talk about. Although, before it started I caught a few moments that were unrelated to water day.. The Art Room had a lot of sweet words, creative drawings, paintings, and collages.

Luke: "I'm using all colors, its turning brown."

 The teacher asked Nikayla what she was working on, and she said "two books." "One is for my mommy, she likes when I draw." The teacher asked about the other book, but Nikayla said "I don't know yet!"

Nikayla: "Look at all these hearts, its for my mommy." 

 Fifi helped find music for the art room. She played with egg shakers and shook the instruments while dancing around.

 Olivia and Jaquez worked on collages in the Art Room. Olivia said she was making a garden for her mom. She counted five flowers in her garden. Olivia pointed out all of the different colors on the flowers and the sticks. Jaquez was making a collage too, he said " This is just a flower, a boat, and a car."

Then.. the children waited patiently for the water stations to be set up.  Finally, it began, and the children were so excited! The children played at the water table together, worked together to get through the slip and slide, and took turns all afternoon at all of the different stations. 

Water Wednesday was a complete success! The children and the staff had a very busy, exciting and fun filled day outside. 

Objective 3: Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations

Objective 4: Demonstrates traveling skills 

Taste Test Tuesday!

Not only was it taste test Tuesday in the kitchen but Mrs. Bristley's small group invited Ms, Weller's small group to taste test their lemonade Popsicle's they made using real lemons. "We squeezed 500 lemons," Owen told the group while enjoying the Popsicle's.  Ms. Weller's small group was asked to taste to see if the Popsicle's were too sweet, too cold or too sour. I'd say the group consensuses was too good!

I'm excited to hear all about water day and see pictures Thursday when I'm back in CDLL.

Mrs. Fair 

Frozen Lemonade!

Yesterday during small group Mrs. Bristley's group made and prepared some frozen lemonade to test out for their lemonade stand.  Today, Ms. Weller's group taste tested the frozen lemonade and gave Mrs. Bristley's group some feedback on how the frozen lemonade tasted.








 The two small groups met in the Zen Garden to eat their frozen lemonade.  The children loved it!  They said it was perfect and tasted delicious.  We even had a surprise guest!  Officer Ballard stopped by and tried the children's frozen lemonade.    









After finishing their frozen lemonade, the children enjoyed the rest of small group running, playing, and rolling in the Zen Garden!




Teaching Strategies 
Social Emotional
  - Participates cooperatively and constructively in group situations

Kylie Fagan

Bridges Together

Today in Mr. Jonaitis' small group the older adults from our Bridges Together program came to share our small group time with us! First, we started with an Ice Breaker, Mr. Jonaitis passed around an egg shaker and had each child and adult tell each other their name and what they did over the weekend. After the ice breaker, Mr. Jonaitis read the book, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day". Some of the children were all cuddled up to an older adult or two listening to the awful day poor Alexander was having!

After reading the book it was time for a discussion! Mr. Jonaitis asked everyone to sit in a circle so we could see the person coming into the middle to act out their horrible day, then having others guess what happened! Leeny acted out when she fell off a snowmobile and broke her leg. PJ put his right hand on top of his left hand and began clapping them together, "you got bit by an alligator" Mr. Jonaitis guessed. "No, my mom was curling Mimi's hair and my finger got burned. Then my dad put an ice pack on it and it was a good day again". Makenzie told everyone about the time she fell over and hurt her leg. Tommy said that his bad day was when he had to go in timeout. Leah explained that she had a bad day today, she fell off a porch and it hurt! 

After our conversation it was time for an activity. Everyone got a big white sheet of paper and folded it in half. On the left side of the paper we drew a good day, and on the left side of the paper we drew a bad day. Everyone was working together on their pictures and discussed their good days and bad!

Ms. Bemis  

What Have We Learned about France?

Today, Mrs. Gursky's small group played a guessing game about France. The children have spent the past couple of weeks learning about France, including the country's architecture, food, and famous landmarks. Today's activity allowed the children to recall the knowledge they have gained about France thus far, and also gave them a chance to share what stood out most to them about the country. For the game, each child had an opportunity to draw a picture of something they remembered about France. Every child also had the opportunity to be a "guesser," while the rest of the children made up the audience. The guesser was the only person who guessed what the picture could be. The audience watched quietly as the guesser took their turn. If the guesser needed help solving the picture, they were able to ask members of the audience for assistance.

The Eiffel Tower was a very popular drawing among the children, but they also created drawings of "the basement of the Louvre", "the old stone building," bridges, and other famous French landmarks! 

Michigan Standards: Children grow in their capacity to use effective listening skills by gaining information from listening, showing progress in listening attentively, and understanding the concept and role of an audience (such as being quiet and considerate). 

 Ms. DeRidder