Welcome to the Forest

Our first two weeks have been filled with adventure and new friends. We have spent our time getting to know each other, learning routines, and venturing out in the wild. We even welcomed some old friends back. So lets get busy with some snapshots. I hope you enjoy.

New friends making soup. So much good conversations happen in the kitchen. Some people say "Life happens in the kitchen" or in our case "The kitchen stinks"...…. There was the smell of death on our kitchen. We couldn't find the dead animal but it was for sure in the surrounding area. This was the day after we canceled preschool because the well broke. It was the same day the main pipe broke to the well the day after another part was fix. It was an exciting week for us. Back to the kitchen talk. Most see a mess but we see friends working together and learning to communicate what's ok to do and what's not. It's ok to join a friend but it's not ok to dump out their creations. We also learn it more fun with a friend.

This small group was in deep discussion on what they were going to create in the kitchen, Check out the two in the back filling the bucket with sand and water. Did you know sand is a toy? The less a toy does the better it is. A child's imagination can run wild when they are given an object that does nothing. Sand is great for imagination and sensory play. When engaged in sensory play children use all of their senses. It promotes sensory integration which is the ability of the body to integrate and process all of the information it receives via the sensory modalities of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and vision. As children pour, dump, build, scoop, and explore they are learning about spatial concepts (full, empty). They learn pre-math concepts along with language and vocabulary. Messy play can be relaxing to children. It is not really isn't about making a mess and getting dirty; it is an essential component to learning that encourages exploration and discovery through play. We love our kitchen.

Is it too early to teach the word graffiti?

I see some future artist here.

At Woodland Forest we really work on working together

as a team. Life is all about team work rather it be at home, in a classroom

or at work. It's important to us to teach life skills to our friends. Would be surprise how

quickly they catch on and enjoy such independence to make their own decisions.

Some more friends engaging in sensory play. This time its

warm sudsy water. They started a car wash after discovering many

of the wheels were full of sand and no longer rolled.

Friends helping each other find bugs. They were great at making sure

they both had some.

I enjoy watching friendships blossom.

We started exploring the forest and it was an absolute delight.

Meet Sharon, not the boy silly, the worm. Sharon was a boy worm who was very

"sleepy" in the forest. Lucky for him a little friend carried him so he could rest.

There were many friends who were discovered and some traveled in pockets and came to class meetings.

He's one of our best hunters.

My eye spies something yellow and fuzzy.

I spy... Wait is that a face I see?

Thanks for taking a peek into our week. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we have. Don't forget to come back each week and see what we are learning. We are exploring rocks and gems, all about me this coming week.

I'm signing off into the great outdoors!

~Mrs. Ann