Frogs on a Log

These frog friends have been super helpful with sorting, patterns, and counting.  Today we used them as a planning tool.  Some children made patterns with the frogs, and then decided what they would do next with their time at Harmony's House.  Other children focused on the fine motor activity of putting one frog on each bump to fill the log, and chose the colors that they most enjoyed.  These children were asked to count the frogs before they moved onto their own plans.  Some of the conversations between the children during this activity were:

• "I'm going to make a pattern with purple and blue."
• "I am going to do orange and red.  I changed my mind.  I want to add green and yellow too."
• "I have three green frogs."
• "Mine is a rainbow log.  My mom told me all the colors of the rainbow but I forgot what comes next."
• "A pattern has parts that happen over and over."

New Work for the Fall

Fall is finally here!  (Although some days it still feels TOO hot!)  With a new season comes new work to the Areas here at Harmony's House.  Friend "K" chose to work on patterns with fun fall counters like pumpkins, owls, squirrels, acorns and apples.

 Friend "S" is working at the new Alone Table where she is bringing Fall to the forest.  She can use trees, acorns, rocks, and logs to make forest homes for the animals on top of the mirror.  The children each really enjoyed building on the mirror and using the reflections to build in "two directions."

Friend "B" is enjoying the new finger puppet stage in the House Area.  She made a show with forest friends like owl, fox, rabbit, and bear.  The storytelling and creativity is awesome!

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!

Over and Over Again

Patterns have been happening in Harmony's House!  We define patterns as something that happens again, and again, and again.  The children have worked with patterns during a few different parts of our day.

Circle Time- patterns were introduced as something that we can act out with our bodies.  I demonstrated two body parts that I could tap in the same order, over and over again.  "Shoulders, head, shoulders, head ..."  We patted alternating body parts to this tune:

"We can keep a steady beat, a steady beat, a steady beat.

We can keep a steady beat, (friend's name) show us how."

Then the next friend would pick two ways to use the body in a pattern and we all copy, say the pattern, and do it while singing the song.  Friend "B" came up with the funniest pattern!  Instead of doing two body parts, she chose two actions!  First she raised her arms like a cactus, then she pretended to dive into water.  Her pattern was "cactus, swim!  cactus, swim!"  Everyone loved doing that pattern the most!

Then I told the small friends that patterns can be colors too.  We used Magnetile squares to make AB, and ABC patterns across the floor.

Small Group- Since we were also working with the idea of Earth health, we used frogs in a pond to make patterns on a different day.  Frogs can tell us if the environment is healthy because the water that washes into rivers or streams is absorbed into the frogs through their skin.  If the water carries a lot of pollution, the frogs get sick and grow in strange ways.

To work on patterns, we used green and brown paper squares to be "lily pads."  The children made patterns of different kinds with the lily pads to help the frog cross the pond.  Friend "B" worked on AB patterns again.  This is friend "Z's" work.  She made an AAB pattern to help her frog.

Work Time- Friend "K" enjoys doing patterns so much she chose to do it on her own during Work Time with Magnetiles.  AB patterns are her favorite ones to create.