Our First Outing

>Today began with much excitement about our “field trip” to the library. I kept getting asked “Is it time to go to the library yet?” As hard as it was, we played in centers for a bit, and then had circle time before we left.
This morning I asked Debbie to preheat the oven before I got to work so I could bake some biscuits for breakfast. I got to work and she had turned the oven on, but there was no heat…uh-oh. So as I was going to throw away the biscuit dough I had put in the pan, I thought. “maybe the children can play with this…”and they loved it. Just using a different substance rather than playdough can awaken their interest in using the rollers, cutters, and other tools that are normally passed by. We put the golf tees and hammer out again, but they were challenged to pull the tees OUT that had been hammered in yesterday. Jaxson did well using the claw part of the hammer to pull the tees out enough to where he could pull them out with his fingers. It was interesting how many of them lost interest in the activity when they realized they had to pull the tees out first!

Before circle time, I put a National Geographic shark movie in the DVD player to be playing in the background with no sound. Can’t beat the chance to see a real shark on screen instead of a illustrated one in a book! In circle time we read “Smiley Shark” and listened to Clifford’s Day at the Beach. Then I sang a few songs from Take Me Out of the Bathtub, a book of silly songs with familiar tunes. They are cute and fun to sing for the kids, and they even tried to sing along after recognizing the tune.

Then it was time to head to the library. The children did so well walking and holding hands with their buddy. We got to the CROWDED library just fine, and they filed in to find a spot on the carpet. They sat so well and listened to the short introduction to the Summer Reading Program, and then the instructions on how to make a tie-dye shirt. It is a really simple way using plastic cups, rubbing alcohol and sharpie markers that I had not seen before. After seeing the mass amount of children that were heading outside to the tables to tie-dye, I decided it would probably be best for our group if I went this evening and purchased the supplies and brought them tomorrow to do the tie-dyeing here at school. Much better for me, and less competition and stress for the kids, I think. So we headed into the Children’s Area of the library, and waited for all the others to go outside before we attempted to make it outside and across the bridge to the park. We found 3 non-fiction books about ocean animals, and checked those out to read tomorrow to finish our 2 week ocean study. We saw some old classmates, as well, and were very excited about that: Katie Davis, Elliot, and Clara!!! We played at the park for a bit and then headed back to school. We did so well, we got treated to Popsicles while Ms. Beth prepared lunch. It was a GREAT day!