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Today we had a great time taking advantage of the outdoors in between (and partly during) rain showers.
We began our day the usual way with calendar, weather, and our fingerplays. Since the weather looked uncertain, we decided to suit up and put on sunscreen so we could have as much fun as possible enjoying water play outdoors.
I pulled out the water slide and the children had fun learning about water and developing their gross motor skills.
The big kids worked on their sense of timing as I encouraged them to jog to the inflated pillow and hop on without breaking stride.
The littles and I worked on walking on a slippery surface. All the children had smiles the whole time and truly loved interacting with the thin streams of water all along the slide.
We all tried to catch and hold the streams of water and talked about how the water felt in our hands, then we gathered bowls and a watering can to gather water from the streams. We used some of the water to pour onto thirsty flowers and bushes, helping our garden grow.
One of the children picked some beautiful white clover blossoms and gave them to me. I felt so special!
Soon the overcast skies caused us to gather back inside the house, but not before a few sprinkles came down. It was fun and interesting to feel the cool raindrops on our arms and faces!
Once the children and I were dry and warm, I set up a series of obstacle courses with cones. The children and I worked on their gross motor coordination and lateral movement as they ran a slolom course, then we worked on bi-lateral coordination as they did some crawling races where they pretended they were horses. Last, the big kids did some jumping races to strengthen their legs and increase their stamina. The best part was that all those races were fun!
Later in the day we read several books including two of Mercer Mayer's "Little Critter" stories, a book of animals, and a book about individuality called Cupcake. All in all it was a fantastic day chock full of wonderful activities.
See you on Monday!