Thursdays are "Discovering Great Artist Day" at First Discoveries. Today we discovered the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci was not only a great artist. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, a town planner, inventor, scientist, a writer and a musician. He was one of the greatest geniuses the world has ever known. The children were quite impressed with this amazing man and his many skills!
Leonardo Da Vinci wanted to learn everything he could about the world. One way he learned about things was to take them apart! He asked questions about everything and drew pictures of every little detail he found. He was one of the first scientist to cut open dead animals and people so that he could study the muscles, bones and organs inside. Da Vinci's drawings were used in medical books for hundreds of years because they were such accurate drawings.
For our project today we drew pictures of three everyday objects- a clothes pin, a pen, and a flashlight. Then we took the objects apart one at a time and examined the insides. We drew all of the insides with as much detail as we could including labels. The young children weren't very interested in this project but the older ones thought it was very interesting. They really worked hard to include the small details like screws and buttons. They were surprised to find so many little parts inside the pen!
After our Great Artist project we spent some time outside playing with the tire swing, bikes and sandbox. We plan to take a trip this afternoon to Beetles restaurant for lunch. This is one of our special Spring Break activities! We may stop at the flower shop to see what's growing and try to imagine our play yard garden. We talk about our garden everyday and are so excited to begin planting again!

*AFTERNOON UPDATE*
Wow what a fun trip we've had today!!! We got to Beetles a little later than we thought- it always takes longer to get everybody ready and with potty, diaper changes, snack prepared, shoes and jackets and everything else we need to bring along it seems to take over an hour to get it all together. There were only a few tables left at the restaurant so we split the children up. Tanmay Milan Anna and Arhan sat at one table, Kennedy, Annie and Kane sat at one table, Ryan Elia, AJ and I sat at the other table. We explained to the children that sitting at a "Kid Only" table was a huge privilege and that they needed to practice their best manners while in the restaurant. Well, of course they surpassed any expectations we had of taking 9 children to a crowded restaurant! They were amazing! They sat so nicely in their chairs and talked with quiet voices. They ate grilled cheese sandwiches with fries. We were complimented by the Waitress and 3 other tables!! As we were walking out a man told us "Wow they really have great manners!" And another woman said "Congratulations! They are wonderfully behaved children!" We were so proud of everybody so we decided to walk to the toy zone on our way home and let the children choose one prize from the bins in the front of the store. Most of the children chose cloth rainforest animals with sparkly fabrics and a couple of the children chose animals that grow in water. The toddlers slept in the stroller on the way home and the older kids raced back home. They run a little ways ahead to a certain predetermined spot and then wait for the rest of us to catch up, and then they run run run again. It's great excersise and keeps everybody going all the way home without getting too far ahead or too far behind the group. We had a really fun special spring break day today! We plan on eating ice cream as a snack today to continue our special day.