Totally Awesome Tie-Dye!

One of our last camping activity was to tie-dye t-shirts!  It was super fun.  Each child decided whether they wanted to do a swirl, bulls eye, or stripes.  Ms. Harmony helped put the rubber bands on.  Friend "K" wanted vertical stripes; Friend "H" wanted horizontal stripes.  Ms. Harmony chose polka dots for Baby "K's" shirt.  Then the children had four colors of dye to choose from and applied it to their shirts where they wanted it: green, blue, purple, and pink.  Friend "K" dyed Baby "K's" shirt for her.  Today we all came back wearing our fabulous creations!  Tie-Dye AWESOME-NESS!!!

P.S.  Ms. Harmony loves how Baby "K" and Friend "K" matched today with the tie-dye colors on top and pink on bottom.  That was totally unplanned.

Camping is Just TOO Much Fun!

The last two weeks have been full of "camping" adventures at Harmony's House!  One of Friend "H's" top plans has been to go camping with his bunny.  He usually tells me about his plans for his rabbit as soon as he comes in the door.  He can't wait to get to the House Area, find the rabbit, pack him up in the carrier and get going into the tent!  He takes such good care of his rabbit, making sure the bunny has food, water, bandages when he needs them, and a soft bed for naps. 

Friend "K's" favorite plan for the tent is to read.  Her top stories include Acorns Everywhere!, Green, and Count to Ten with a Mouse.  She most frequently chooses the baby deer to work with.  Her deer listens to stories, takes naps, and eats in the tent.  She uses fabric squares to make fluffy beds for her deer.

Today, the school friends elaborated in their camping plans to include packing for, and preparing food, for an outdoor picnic.  We had everything including sunglasses, food and silverware, forest pets, and a ring toss game!  It was awesome!

Outside of the House Area, we have worked with forest animals in the Toy and Puzzle Area.  Today we built a forest "small world" with trees, Native Americans, animals, acorns, and pine cones.  In addition to naming different animals that live in the forest, we had interesting discussions about the usefulness of acorns and pinecones to both flora and fauna of the woods.

During Small Group, we used counting bears to think about forest animals and math.  Friend "H" worked on sorting into "family groups."  He put all the yellow bears together into one family, all the red bears together, etc.  He also worked on making A-B patterns and used the cards as a guide to build a pattern.

Friend "K" has practiced A-B patterns a lot.  She was challenged to make more difficult patterns based on bear size and color.  She used her bears to make A-A-B and A-B-B types of patterns.  She really focused and enjoyed making patterns, "something that happens over and over."








Bears, bunnies, and deer aren't the only animals you find in the forest while camping.  Bugs are a big part of the natural world!  Both children enjoyed working at the Alone Table where they matched insect x-rays to the picture cards.

For snack, we also really got a kick out of eating "worms" and "dirt!"  You can't go camping without getting a bit dirty!  But thankfully this dirt was totally edible and super yummy: chocolate pudding, crushed oreo cookies, and gummy worms.

Camping, however, usually includes eating fun snacks and meals!  Although we didn't have a real fire to make foil dinners, roast hot dogs, or fire up a s'more, we did do s'mores in the microwave for snack one day, and they were super yummy!

We also worked some literacy and math into making trail mix.  Sometimes you hike when you are camping, and taking trail mix with you on the trail is a good idea.  We used a pretty fancy recipe to mix up our trail mix!  ;)  Stir it up!  Fill your bag!  And now we are ready to hit the trails!

Transparency and Shadows

To follow up this post, Ms. Harmony added boxes, wooden community helpers, and flashlights to the Toy and Puzzle Area.  The children have been experimenting more with light and shadows.  Exciting stuff!  The Rainbow Blocks are transparent, and when the light goes through the block, it comes out the other side in a new color!  The wooden people and Mirror Blocks make shadows.  The people block the light, and the mirrors reflect the light.  It's been super fascinating to hear the child's language about their discoveries!

Friend "H" noticed if he waved the flashlights really fast it made his shadow people look like they are "dancing."  He also learned that building in the boxes made the shadows show up better because the light from the window didn't "get in the way." 

Friend "K" enjoyed watching the shadows grow and shrink based on how close or far away she put her flashlight.  She also discovered that she could make the shadows move and change size based on how high she put the light source, above, even, or pointing up at her blocks.

Getting after those "Flies"

Okay, so there weren't any real flies.  But there are bugs when you go camping!  We used our fly swatters and paint to squish imaginary bugs.  This was such a cool project to see the paint splatter and mix!

B-B-Beginning Sounds and Work Time Creations

During Small Group today, we worked on a phonemic awareness skill of isolating, hearing, and matching beginning sounds of words.  This was a fun game of sorting toys based on how they sounded.  We started with two forest animals: a fox, and a bear.  We listened to the first sound of the word and matched it to the correct flashcard.  Then we all took turns drawing toys from the basket and matching them as well.  We tested out saying the word with a B-sound and an F-sound.  It made some of the words REALLY funny, like Ffffflashlight Bbbbblashlight or Ffffffeather Bbbbbeather.  

The B-words included bus driver, beaver, beetle, bandaid, and ball.  The F-words were fly, flashlight, feather, fire, and firefighter.  

Once all the toys were sorted, we each took a turn using the toys to tell an alliterative story.  For example, "Fox and fly were camping with a fire.  All of a sudden, a feather flew by and waved the fire into a huge forest fire!  Fly flew off and buzzed in the ear of the firefighter, who grabbed his flashlight and ran into the forest!  He used his giant hose to put out the fire and everyone was saved.  The end."  :)  The children used one collection or the other to create silly stories and we all laughed and laughed.

When we got to Work Time, a lot of the morning was spent in the Art Area.  These children are very creative and work hard.  Here's some of their art plans:

Friend "H" experimented with beads in a few ways.  He started by stringing them onto fuzzy sticks.  This plan evolved into poking them into red play-doh.  Ultimately he chose to use the beads on a paper towel tube.  His process was to drizzle glue all over the top of the tube.  Then he applied tape and cotton balls.  Finally he scooped and poured beads all over the top of the tube.  We carefully took it to the drying rack.  We learned that because the tube had a round shape, instead of a flat shape, the glue, and some beads, would slide off the sides.  We reapplied the beads and hope it will be dry by the time we meet again on Thursday!  It was really exciting to see Friend "H" get so involved in his plan that he wasn't concerned about his hands getting sticky or glue getting on the table.

Friend "K" also wanted to work with beads.  She decided to string hers onto fuzzy sticks to make a necklace.  One fuzzy stick was not long enough to go around, and so we twisted a few sticks together to make it longer.  She also worked through the issue that some of the beads had holes too small to slide over the combined fuzzy sticks.  Finally, without prompting, she decided to count how many beads she had put on her work.  She accurately counted 20 beads on her necklace!  Nice work Friend "K!"

Let's Go Camping!

Family trips are done and it's time for Harmony's House to resume the summer session!  Yes!  We are starting a new theme: Camping!  (Ms. Harmony is obviously very excited.  She has spent quite a bit of time changing out each area with new things.)

Ms. Harmony built this awesome "tent" in the Book Area, so school friends can grab a book about forest animals or insects, roll out a sleeping bag, and get reading!

We've got forest animals, awesome tree blocks, rocks, fabric squares, and more in the Block Area.  School friends typically love using the tree blocks to build forest homes or tree houses for the animals and people.

We've got soft forest animals, a ranger, and pet carriers in the House Area in case any animals need to go see the veterinarian.  The doctor's kits, notepads, and phones are still in the house area so any doctoring can continue to happen. 

When you go camping, there're going to be bugs!  Check out the bug world we've got in the Explore Table.  Bugs are hiding out all over in the sand, under logs, and in the plants!  Use those tweezers and carefully find and collect all those bugs!

Even the Toy and Puzzle Area has forest animals, trees, and Native Americans to make a small world forest, not to mention the Lincoln Logs to build cabins and a silly "Skunk in the Campground" game!

Now we just need the school friends!  Welcome back!  :D