Animals in Spring

Some are hatching! Some are growing! Some are changing! And it's been an adventure at Harmony's House this month to watch, study, and play with animals. We worked with critters indoors and out.

We looked at bird nests, seeds, and local bird figurines in our play.

We got brave and found many earthworms, slugs, beetles, ants, a lizard, and even a salamander in the damp earth under our playground mats, not to mention the Daddy Long Leg we caught in the playhouse.

We studied pictures of a variety of caterpillars, talked about their defense mechanisms, and made our own models with play-doh, beads, and toothpicks.

We watched for birds.

We pretended to BE birds in an extra large nest!

We visited birds on the farm! We saw real ducks sitting on their nests, with an abundance of eggs. We pet chickens and got their breakfast ready for them.

We visited the growing piggies who are always hungry! Good thing there is a variety of available food in the springtime for animals to eat.

We adopted classroom caterpillars and have watched them grow faster than seems possible! All of our caterpillars have successfully formed cocoons.  

We've floated our duck toys in the pond and learned a new song:

"Ducks in the pond, QUACK a happy song!

Mother hens cackle the whole day long.

Birds in their nests, and wind in the treetops,

All join in singing, a happy song!"

We have hopped Little Bunny Foo Foo through the forest many many times.  <3

We made our own nests for the birds with baskets and clothespins and pretended that corks were the eggs!

Our butterfly habitat is prepped.  Now we are just waiting for our butterflies to emerge! It is so hard to wait!

Just today we were very creative using tree slabs, bricks, and logs to build a big duck home. It was unseasonably chilly today and it seemed fitting that they should have somewhere warm to go to huddle inside together. What was most beautiful though about this plan was how collaborative the children were. Almost every child helped in someway to build this, by carrying bricks, coloring them with chalk, finding the ducks, and placing them carefully inside. 

Spring is here, animals are busy, and so are we. <3

We Felt the Love!

During March, Harmony's House held a book fair through Usborne and more people participated than ever before!  We need to send out a big thank you to everyone who bought books through our book fair!  (Thank you cards should be coming to you soon in the mail.)  Thanks to our supporters, we were able to get $750+ to buy books.  This added up to 60 pounds of books in two boxes delivered to the preschool, and we didn't even pay shipping.  These books will be treasured and used for years to come for many, many children.  Thank you and we love you too!

We got a great assortment of nonfiction, fiction, and activity books.  This isn't even all of the books we got since some of the gardening and bug books are already in the playground library.

Our next book fair will be held in the Fall.  Stay tuned toward the end of the year if you need books for Christmas!

Spring Breathes Life to the World

After a long Winter sleep, Spring is officially just days away, and we are anticipating the seasonal changes that wake up the Earth.  When the Northern Hemisphere warms up, we expect to see plants bud and bloom.

Today we dissected old flowers from a bouquet.  As we took apart petals, stems, and leaves, we found interesting flower parts like where a flower keeps her eggs!  And, how the pollen is dusty, and sneaks down the tube to find the hiding eggs.  We also talked about different functions of the plant parts: petals are usually brightly colored to attract birds and insects to the nectar, stems hold up the flower and act like straws to suck water up to the top of the plant, and plants need to share pollen so the eggs can grow into more flower seeds.

We pretended to be "flower fairies" to help the garden grow.  Plants grow in order: roots down, shoots up, leaves, buds, and sometimes flowers and fruit.

We used toy butterflies to pretend to drink nectar from our flowers, and carry pollen around.  The flowers and leaves helped hide the butterfly eggs so we can "hatch more baby butterflies" (AKA- caterpillars).

Our Friend "Bride" decided to decorate the tree by adding flowers, and it was exciting to see Spring bring out her blossoms!

Outside, we continued to learn about Spring weather (even though today was very cold!).  The mountain snow will be melting and filling our rivers with fresh water.  We loved simulating a full spring brook with this flowing, specialized, water table.

When the bucket fills enough to tip, it makes a big wave that sends our boats over the waterfall and fills the next bucket.

The anticipation of the bucket flipping is intense!  Well worth the wait, it's exciting to see the wave of water work in a cause and effect method.

And let's remember that air warmed by the Sun doesn't just sit around, it moves!  Spring can be a very windy time as warm air rises high and cool air whooshes low.  What better way to play with wind than by chasing bubbles in a breeze?

Welcome Spring and all the fun, interesting, and colorful aspects you bring to the world!  We might be young at Harmony's House, but we notice you Spring.  In fact, we are learning all about Spring with our whole bodies and all of our senses.  Life just couldn't be more exciting!

Summer is coming... Prepare Now!

The Summer Session at Harmony's House runs from May 31 through August 6th.  What will you do with your preschooler all summer?  If you have a little one aged 2 1/2 through 5 years old, you should definitely check out Harmony's House!  We work on academic, play, social, and outdoors skills ALL SUMMER long, not just for a week or two.  Our class sizes are small, and there are only a few spots left.  Make your summer plans soon! 

*Please note that Harmony's House does not do full time childcare.  This is a 2 half-day preschool program.* 

Please contact Ms. Harmony at harmonyhutson@gmail.com with any questions.

Workin' in the MUD Kitchen!

Thanks to one of our wonderful parents (J. Covington), we have this awesome new mud kitchen in our outdoor classroom!  We have been enjoying "cooking" with sand, water, mud, snow, and even ice!

Check out the oven!  It's the perfect size for all the birthday cakes and cupcakes we make.

This day we made lemonade and floated tree biscuit "lemons" in it.  They looked just like real lemons!

Sometimes we make hot chocolate.  You have to measure everything JUST right.

This has been a fantastic addition in the few weeks we've had it!  Spring will only bring more fun to the MUD Kitchen!