What a fun day we have had so far. It looked like more rain today so we decided to go outside earlier than usual so that we'd have a little time to play before it got really wet out. We started working on our garden today. Raking up the old leaves and wood chips and scooping them into bins. Ryan and I raked the piles up and the children picked them up and put them into the bins, occasionally stepping on the pile to smash it down. They LOVED this job and worked at it for a long time. We also found some worms under a piece of tree bark today! Our first "creature find" since fall! We examined them and put them in a safe place in our garden. We are so excited to start planting and playing in our beautiful garden! Right now it doesn't look like much but hopefully in the next couple of months we will notice it changing quite a bit.
After our work outside we came in and did our "Who Likes The Rain" movement and creative drama. (pictures and story on post below.) I had cut out little hats for the duck and frog, the flowers wore flower headbands on their heads and the brook wore a long blanket and shook it to make the water look like it was flowing. The children in the story wore rain boots. We took turns being the different characters and learning the words to the story. It was so cute, the children loved this and could have kept going and going with it but my voice was getting tired reading the story so many times in a row. Maybe we'll do it again when they wake up. They love to act out stories and participate in finger plays and puppet shows and it's a wonderful way to learn to listen, take turns and develop language and confidence.
For lunch we had chicken salad sandwiches, blueberries, re fried beans, mexican corn, edamame, and milk. The children washed their dishes and put them away and then we watched a few minutes of the show Ni Hao Ki Lan while waiting for our music teacher to come. The children are really interested in learning Chinese and all things to do with Chinese culture so we're looking into some Chinese classes for this summer- if you know of anyone that may be able to teach Chinese lessons, music, or culture please let me know!
We are also in the process of getting a Hindi class going once per week here so we'll let you know the details when that is worked out. We're hoping for around 12:00 on either Tuesdays or Thursdays but times might change in the summer months.

Music was BUSY today! We learned the sign language words for spring, sun and wind and did a movement activity with all three words included. Then we danced with silk scarves. To end we played our favorite instruments and sang "You are my Sunshine".

After music we got the room set up again (we have to put the shelves, table and chairs all back in their places) and we got out our mats and blankets for naptime.
Then we joined together on the carpet for our story time song and book. We read the book "Say Hola To Spanish" and practiced some of our Spanish words. The children are amazing to me, they have such wonderful memories!!!! Tanmay especially knew so many things in Spanish I couldn't believe it.
We sang our Siesta song- 3 times

We are going to Siesta
Siesta's the best time of day
We are going to siesta
To sleep the afternoon away
Ola!

Sang goodnight to our friends by name, sang our R-A-I-N-Y weather song a few times (because we love it so much!) and got tucked under our blankets and then said our good night poem and went to sleep!
I have no plans this afternoon yet. With these rainy chilly days we haven't been out as long and we've been doing so many indoor activities that I'm running out of rainy day ideas! Hopefully the sun will come out again soon!