It is hard for me to believe that Summer is over and we just finished with our third week of school.  I always feel stumped writing the first post of the year.  Those first couple weeks are a whirlwind of activity.  We spend a lot of time adjusting to a new schedule, learning the rhythm of the day, making new friends, and of course comforting and easing the anxiety of starting preschool and kindergarten.   I use this blog as a means for documenting what the children do throughout the day, a little window for parents to peer into and see their children at school.  I also try to make it informative so that parents who stay home with their children, or educators can use it for project ideas. Today's post is a smattering of the various outside adventures we have enjoyed over the past three weeks.

Round and Round, Up and Down we go!  The playground has been a thrill for the children.  Our Bike Merry-Go Round is a highlight, as well as our climbing dome.

We not only are blessed with a little swing set in the playground, but we are also next to a school with a large swing set that we take a little path to on the days when we have older children who all want to swing at once.

Our new playground has some really fun teeter totters as well 

And who can resist a ride on a kiddie kopter or finding shelter from tag in the tunnel.

Sand and gravel pit play are always a nice centering activity for the children.  I often see them run for a while and then play in the sand box to recharge.

Exploring with some tubes in the gravel pit.

Cruising along on the "brake bikes" as the children call them.

The Kindergartners have been enjoying several nature walks around the school and the property next door.  

We have a bunch of children who like to pretend they are monkeys swinging from branches.

We are surrounded by beautiful oak and maple trees, and the children have been enjoying gathering acorns and leaves.

One of our favorite tag games is "The Old Grey Cat"  where one child is the cat, and the others are mice creeping around the sleeping cat, but when the cat wakes those mice better run, and boy do they have some room to run at the new school!

We have also had some visits from natures little friends.

I feel very blessed with the playground and surroundings of our new space, it has been wonderful watching the children explore and enjoy.

Making Paint with Spices and Berries

Summer is flying by us and it is hard to believe we did this project two weeks ago!

The children were set up with an invitation to make paints using turmeric, mulberries, tea and coffee. 

Before our art time fun began, some of the children helped collect the berries for our fun.

We first started by picking the berries, but many were too high, so in the end I shook the limbs of the tree and the berries rained down on the children.

Since we were not eating the berries, we had no problem gathering them from the ground to fill our container.

While the children played a little inside I set up little containers with the berries, tea, turmeric, and coffee.  I also set out some test tubes, funnels, a strainer, pipettes, and paint trays.

We first passed around the different items to see if the children could guess what was in each container.

This little guy was excited to let everyone know that it was coffee he was smelling

The one item that stumped everyone was the raspberry tea, but they enjoyed smelling and working with that one the best.

The children filled their test tubes with the items they wanted then added water and mixed them around to make a type of watercolor paint.

The berries they had to smash down in the tube with the pipette to get the colors release.  

After they made their watercolors they strained their concoctions into their paint trays. 

They actually made some wonderful colors that the children later painted with on watercolor envelops.