Hope you all have a great weekend, and that you can get outside and enjoy the sunshine!  

The Preschool and Pre-K classrooms each have 6 painted lady caterpillars.  They come in a cup with food on the bottom.  The small caterpillars eat the food, grow bigger, and within 2 weeks have climbed to the top of the cup and have attached themselves to the cloth there and have spun cocoons.  We transfer them to a butterfly house and within  2 weeks or so they begin to emerge as newly transformed butterflies.  When all the butterflies have emerged and their wings are dry, we take them out to the playground and release them.  What a wonderful opportunity to explore metamorphosis in action!  This is one of our favorite spring time activities, and one the kids never tire of!  Stop by and take a look!

Ellen Galinsky has captured relevant early childhood research and spelled out for parents and teachers the practical applications for raising well-rounded children who will reach their full potential in Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs. She groups this research into seven "essential life skills":

• Focus and self-control
• Perspective taking
• Communicating
• Making connections
• Critical thinking
• Taking on challenges
• Self-directed, engaged learning

Control- click on the link above to read an excerpt from the book.  I like the idea that learning is more than "a-b-c & 1-2-3".  That's why we let the child put away their own coats, etc.  and pull up their own pants after pottying, giving them the opportunity to "take on challenges."  It's not always easy to wait for the child to do things but it will be worth it in the long-run.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
Albert Einstein

It's fun to watch the children delight in the signs of spring.  They get so excited to see the pea plants sprouting and call over the teacher to see several times, as if they grow every time you turn away.  And the bugs and worms that are crawling around now are fascinating to no end!  The children imagine the worms as mommy's and daddy's, and construct whole scenarios on how the worms spend their days with their families.  The endless supply of pill bugs, beetles, and dragonflies have the kids using magnifying glasses on the playground as they observe how they crawl, slither, fly and hide.  Ah, to be a kid again, and to let the wonder of spring take precedent over everything else...  Enjoy the nature show!

What a fun day we had!  We began our day in circle time where we learned about Easter, and we sang about the layers of the rain forest.

Then we broke up into small groups and some of us did finger painting and some did egg shell art.  It was lots of fun breaking the egg shells and gluing them on the paper.  Then we rotated so that everyone got the chance to do both activities.  For our fine motor activity,  Miss Nicole made tree puzzles that we helped put together.  It was fun working as a team, and we liked putting the trees together just like in the rain forest.       We can't wait to come back tomorrow and see what other fun things Miss Nicole and Miss Tabitha have planned!

Our Pre-K class (and our school ager) had a great time on the field trip to the Salmon Hatchery.  They got to see salmon eggs, and the salmon fry (after they lose the embryo sac).  We got to feed the rainbow trout and watched them jump out of the water!  We were very well behaved, and did great on the van, even though it was a little bit of a drive.  We ate lunch at the park and played there for a bit.  Overall, a great field tip.   Thanks to Jamye Judy (Haeden's mom) for chaperoning. 

Nothing makes a Monday more pleasant than a little sunshine and some blue sky!  Hope you all had a great weekend.  

We have a fun week planned: Infants - learning basic as well as animal sign language;  Toddlers - Building a rain forest with blocks and animals; Preschool - constructing butterflies and discussing insects; Pre-K - Looking at the WA Hoh rain forest and comparing/contrasting temperate and tropical rain forests.  

We have some of our school agers here this week (elementary schools are on Spring Break), so we'll go with the Pre-K class to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery on Friday the 11th.  

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Happy Friday!  We have lots of fun things planned today: Melted Crayon and wax paper pictures (touching, seeing, hearing and moving around), counting insects (learning about my world; math), singing a rain forest song (communicating; art) and doing stamp art (learning about my world; touching, seeing, hearing and moving around; art).  We're proud to be participating in Early Achievers and have improved the quality of care through use of the developmental guidelines and structuring our curriculum to meet individual needs.  We work hard to provide the highest quality care for your littlest learners.
Have a great weekend!

We're welcoming spring time here at Discovery Center!  We've planted our outside garden, and the preschool and pre-k classrooms have started plants from seeds!  We'll be seeing and smelling herbs and wildflowers pretty soon.  The children have been enjoying the sensory experience of digging in the soil, feeling and smelling the seeds, and pouring the water.  They're working on math and science skills through classification of seeds, and charting how much each plant has grown.  Come on in and see the beautiful colors blooming!