Happy Friday!

We celebrated Eren turning 5 today! We hope you had a wonderful day!

After breakfast, we transitioned to the outside space where the bikes were made available along with the art table! We actually stayed out all morning because it was quite bearable and everyone was engaged in various activities.

Teachers AND children love the flexibility of our outside time. If we want to stay outside all morning, we have the option to. There are so many benefits to having a high quality outdoor space. There’s an informative article found here that I enjoyed:

http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/201411/YC1114_Quality_Outdoor_Play_Spaces_Wright.pdf

“Children need opportunities to do things that are exciting and adventurous. We can create a sense of risk and challenge in a safe environment. Open-ended components, such as a long, balance beam, stump, or flagstone path, challenge children’s physical, social, and cognitive abilities by encouraging them to create their own challenge or obstacle course and engage in increasingly more difficult and complex activities.” (Spencer, Wright 2014)

Of course with the heightened temperature, we decided to stay inside where the play dough was made available to friends! Our imaginations ran wild! The art table became a pizza oven where many different pizzas were created.

Breakfast– Corn cakes with no nut butter and plums.

Lunch– Turkey and melted cheese quesadillas, grapes and cantaloupe, and our very own garden cucumbers!

PM snack– Eren’s birthday treat: homemade banana muffins along with strawberries and cottage cheese.

Wee Sprouts– Cucumbers.

Hope everyone has a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 7/22