At The Beach!

The morning started with a Touch and Feel Pool full of colored artificial flowers....and sticky gum balls.  The kids had fun making bouquets and using clothespins to keep them together.  The gum balls were fun too....but you had to be really careful not to get poked with their sharp edges.

Ms. Danielle had her last Young Athletes today....and it was dry enough for us to be out in the courtyard!  She had five different stations set up for the kids to rotate through.  She even brought some extra new grown-up friends to help the kids in each station.  One station was basketball, one was balancing, one was soccer, one was hockey, and one was jumping.  All the things that we have practiced this spring....and the kids had a blast showing off their skills.  Before we left, Ms. Danielle gave everyone a purple Young Athletes shirt.....which almost everyone immediately asked to wear for the rest of the day!

This was our last day of music with Ms. Stacey!  We started out with using the spinner for our hello song, which told us to sing while jumping, sing softly, and sing slowly.  After that, we sang the Seasons Song one last time.  Next, we talked about all the places to play in the water during the summer in our song about the beach ball, and we used the parachute to roll the ball all around and pop it up and down.  This was a different way to use the ball and parachute, since we had to take breaks and be still and sing along.  After that, we sang Down By The Bay, since a bay is a place where water comes into the land, and used interlocking puzzle cards to find matches of rhyming words.  Last, we played an instrument game where the kids got to decide in the song to keep playing the instrument they had or pass it around the circle.  During this game, we also had to listen real closely through all the instruments to know when to stop playing with the guitar cue.  After coupled practice rounds, the kids did really well!  We wrapped up with singing our goodbye song together one last time.

Today's book was Pete At The Beach, of the Pete The Cat series, by James Dean.  Pete is spending the day at the seashore.  He has fun collecting shells and building a sand castle until he gets too hot.  Luckily, there is a whole ocean for Pete to cool off in, but it looks scary.  Pete's brother, Bob, offers to teach Pete to surf.  Pete is scared at first, but then he loves it....and realizes that even though it's ok to be afraid, it's really good to be brave!

Mr. Jon was also here today for the last time this year!  After a warm up, we started the session with a super fun obstacle course.  First each kiddo had to balance across the beam, then they walked up the plank and over the obstacle.  Next was to climb over a tall obstacle using your muscles to pull you up.  The last thing was to roll, sideways or head first, down another mat.  The kids LOVED it!  Then we played a fun game of Snowball Fight using soft balls.  The kids tried to hit Mr. Jon, while he tried to hit them!  There was lots of running around and laughing....but the most important thing was to listen as Mr. Jon called out the seasons....because there are no snow fights in summer, so everyone had to freeze during that season and wait for winter!  Mr. Jon didn't mention it....but there was LOTS of gathering balls during the summer waiting time.  The kids wanted to be ready when it turned winter!