Project: Surfboard Gifts

Last week we had our Father's Day Luau to honor the dads from our center! For our father's day gifts, Magic Kingdom made surfboard magnets that featured our pictures on them. They're really easy to make, and a perfect gift for many occasions!

Here is the template, just click to view the full size, and print. The pattern is 8 inches tall so you can use it sideways on letter-size foam, or you can always resize it to be a bit smaller.



















Next, transfer the pattern to a bright piece of foam and cut out. You can also experiment with other materials.

Take a picture. For best results, the picture should be a head-n-shoulders shot. Print so that the picture is about 2" - 2.5" around. Cut it out in a circle shape and laminate the photo.

Use double-sided tape to adhere the photo to the middle of the surf board. Write your greeting under the photo with foam marker or a thin sharpie.

Turn your child loose with decorations! We used foam flower stickers that we picked up at JoAnn's, but the possibilities are endless!

At the end, I tried to fashion a surfboard tail to adhere to the back so the surfboard would stand up on a desk.... suffice to say that it failed! Nothing I seemed to do worked and I was making a complete mess of things. So instead, we decided it was better to slap a small piece of magnet tape on the back. If you make a surfboard and devise a way to make it stand, please share!

So here it is: the final product!



















Have fun making these, and if you do, take a picture and show us!

Aloha!

(This post was written a week prior to posting it)

This week has been a busy start to our summer program! We kicked off by having a photo shoot for our summer passports. After applying for the passport and making sure the information was correct, we received our first “stamp” when we 'traveled' to the Hawaiian Islands!

After discussing where Hawai'i was located and looking at some pictures, we created our own leis to wear and also to give away to the father's at the luau. We also talked about surfing and how it was a very popular activity in Hawai'i. Unfortunately we don't have waves around here big enough to try surfing ourselves, we did get to design our own surfboards. Some of the boys were disappointed they didn't get a chance to “slash a wave”.

Other highlights of this week included making posters about ourselves to share with our old and new friends for the summer. We also created a special surprise for our wonderful fathers! Despite the overcast weather, we were still able to enjoy our first water play day of the summer! The children had a blast running through the sprinkler!

Our week culminated by hosting the Father's Day Luncheon, which we made a Luau this year! Several of the youth group kids helped serve our fathers a well-deserved lunch. We had a great turn-out this year and really enjoyed seeing all the father's get together with the kids!

We hope you have a great weekend! Monday we 'leave' for Mexico!

Welcome to Summer Youth!

This summer our youth program will be getting ready to embark on a trip around the world! We will be starting our summer journey by visiting Hawai'i – a tropical paradise filled with colors and fun flowers of all kinds! We will create surf boards, make flower leis, and learn to Hula dance. Our Hawai'i week will end when we host the special Father's Day Luau.

Please check back often to be kept up to date of our weekly adventures as well as upcoming field trips. This is sure to be an exciting, fun-filled summer. I'm so excited to have all your kids come along for the ride!

Cascading at the Picnic

Or Picnic-ing at Cascades? Whether the children were cascading or picnic-ing still remains up in the air! We had a great time playing on the huge playsets and going back and forth around the area with our friends. The slides were still a bit wet when we got there, but that didn't deter most of the children – they just had really wet pants. I think they all dried pretty well though after about 10 minutes because the children were so active. They raced down the slides, jumped on the bridge, and climbed the rock wall.





































































After a little while, we decided to go on a “walk” (in children-ese that means run!) up the big hill. They started off on a big race but Andrea and I couldn't make our legs go any faster than a leisurely walk. The children didn't last too long running though... about half way up they stopped running and waited for us to catch up with them. At the top of the big hill, the children were so excited to “be on top of the world” and look out over everything. Then we looked into the cascades and dreamed of swimming days ahead. The run back down the hill was just as fun!
















Then after our tasty lunches at the picnic tables, Miss Andrea was the waitress and took all the ice cream orders. Altogether we ordered 5 vanilla, 9 twists, and 1 slushie. When the bus came back to pick us up, we were exhausted! Four of the children even fell asleep on the bus!

Simple Activity, Complex Learning

Many of the most fundamental aspects of a child's growth and learning can be fostered through even the simplest of activities. Earlier this week I came across a bucket full of great learning potential disguised as colored alphabet balls. These balls expanded our children's knowledge far beyond letters and colors. They were exposed to sharing, teamwork, learning, postive reinforcement and fun all at the same time.
We carried the bucket outside and took advantage of the beautiful weather. All of the balls were spread out covering a small area in the grass. The children took turns choosing a ball and telling us its color. I asked Gabbi what color ball she was going to look for. "I want the purple one," she answered and then went and found a purple one. Noah especially enjoyed this activity, as he is already able to recognize all 26 letters of the alphabet. Noah brought me a ball and said, "it's a green 'n'. 'N' for Noah." After the children finding and naming the ball of their choice I decided to modify the activity. I began to ask the kids to find a specific color or letter. When one of our friends had difficulty finding a color or letter another friend always came to the rescue. "This one's red," Griffin said, as he walked over and pointed at a red ball that Maria was looking for.
Our friends loved choosing the balls, searching for specific colors, and helping each other out. I believe they felt empowered as they were having fun while they were learning and assisting their friends in learning. This experience was beneficial to the kids in many ways. It was exciting to watch their confidence increase with each little colored ball. It is always inspiring and exiciting to realize that sometimes the simplest of things can also create the most complete learning environment.

























































Reminder: All of our fathers are encouraged to attend our Father's Day Luau, this Friday from 11:3-12:30. Hope to see you there!
~ Ms. Jolene and Ms. Lois

Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!!

Bubbles are one of the most-loved activities among children! Blowing Bubbles is a fun and inexpensive way to incorporate sensory activities into our classroom. How many things can you do with bubbles? Well for starters, you can paint with them, chase them, blow them, touch them, and of course pop them!

As soon as we came near the children holding the bottle of bubbles, their faces lit up with excitement! The bubbles soon filled the air and the children smiled and clapped their hands. Some of the children crawled after the floating bubbles. Others watched the bubbles fall lazily to the ground. And some others tried popping the bubbles with their tiny hands, then they would laugh at the sound and the fact that the bubble had suddenly vanished!

Here are a few pictures from our bubble fun and the time we spent in the sandbox this week!

Little Toes and Hands Having Fun in the Sand!

Finally the sunshine and the warm weather has arrived!!! For Sesame Street that means a lot of little toes and hands will be exploring the sandbox. Our Sesame Street friends have been really having a blast filling and emptying buckets of sand, as well as burying little hands and feet. Marshall enjoys the sensation of the cool sand between his toes as he buries his feet in the sand. Bryce and Lola explore filling and emptying buckets of sand.











































This week we sadly say goodbye to Tyler temporarily because he will be spending lots of time with his family this summer. We will miss him, but we are looking forward to seeing him again in the fall when he joins Big Bird Buddies' classroom!




















Inside the classroom we have been using our big waffle blocks to create many different things. We've made robots with the blocks and then gotten inside of them to pretend like we're the robot. But I think the children's favorite thing to build is motorcycles because we get to pretend to drive on them. We even tried making a tunnel with the blocks and crawling through it. Some children make it through the tunnel just fine, but others haven't figured out that they have to army crawl to get through it. At choice time, the children make the blocks into a track on their own and they drive their cars on it or walk/run on the track themselves. The blocks sure are a popular item at the moment!




















Finally, don't forget that we will be having a Father's Day Luncheon on Friday, June 19th starting at 10:45am and it will last for an hour. We would love all our fathers, grandfathers, or any other special relative to join us as we celebrate father's day. We thank you for all the hard work you do and the unrelenting love that you give to these very special children.

Have a pleasant week and enjoy the beautiful summer weather!

Family surveys

What do you enjoy doing with your family? A couple weeks ago Ms. Lois and Ms. Jolene sent a “family favorites survey” with our Big Bird Buddies. We have received several of them back and we are waiting for just a few more. It has been so fun to get to know each of our families a bit better and of course the children feel great having their own family pictures to look at while away at child care.

Every day the children laugh, point at the pictures, and name each of their family members in the photos. Today at choice time Gabbi laughed and pointed at her creation, then excitedly announced, “Mommy! Daddy! Carter! Sissy!”

One of the family survey questions asked about what was the family's favorite indoor activities. Ms. Lois responded to the question with, “watching movies and watching birds in the bird feeder.” Ms. Jolene said, “playing cards and reading.” Some of our other friends have said that they loved to do silly things to make each other laugh, play with toys, make puzzles, and read.

The survey is definitely helping us to become better friends with each other. It is so fun to learn about what each of our very unique families is like and it helps the children start learning about diversity in families. So, what is your favorite indoor activity?

Fun on the floor

Today we decided to focus on floor time by using the floor mats. The infants really enjoyed using their large motor skills that they've developed as they crawled, scooted, and rolled all over the mats! The vinyl covering on the mats was cool on their skin and many of the children loved the feeling of it as they moved. Other children liked to hear the sound of the vinyl moving back and forth and rubbing together because they would keep their ears close to the mat and bang on it.

Caitlyn looked like a penguin as she slid from one mat to the other. It was so cute! Josh, Bailey, and Billy spent lots of time sitting on the mats and playing with some of the other toys. Many of the children had fun sitting in between the mats as though they were in an enclosed play area! We sure love the mats as a versatile play material with so many options in the classroom!

Here are some pictures from this week!

Musical Chairs in Sesame Street

Recently, our class has been practicing playing musical chairs. It’s quite a sight to see the children having such fun to the music! We're slowly getting the hang of it though. The children love to hop, stomp, march, and walk backwards around the chairs. Some of our friends still need to be reminded about how we sit when the music stops and stand when the music starts. But we all are having fun playing the game nonetheless.

We've also been going crazy over markers lately! Our friends think it is so cool to take the lid off and then put it back on. They do this over and over again to their little hearts' content, especially Lola! ;) We think that Aiden's favorite color is green because he asks for that color most of the time and usually spends a long time coloring with it.

Here's a couple pictures to enjoy taken today. See you next week!

Camping out… and more!

O dreary Monday!  We weren’t able to go outside today because it was too wet on the playground.  But we did have a camp-out indoors!

Rather, some of our children set up the house area for a camp-out.  Susie, Annalisa, Ellie, & Morgan decided to start piling blocks inside the house.  They laid them out like bricks on the floor, then called it a big bed!  Some of the girls brought their own blankets into the house, while the others grabbed our playtime baby blankets.  They snuggled up inside and pretended to sleep.  Then Ellie and Morgan moved their campout to the outside of the house.  It wasn’t long before their camp-out party attracted more guests!  Caty, Maya, and Sophie joined the girls in the house.

Susie opened the window of the house to talk to me.  “Ms. Maria? Are you okay outside? It’s very dark outside.” I confirmed that I was alright under the stars. Then all 5 of the children left the house briefly.  Annalisa announced that they were on their way to a friend’s house. “She has her own club.”  When they came back – about 15 seconds later – Annalisa said, “The club wasn’t really that fun.”  They settled back into their “beds”, turned on a “movie” and then I heard 3 of them say, “This ROCKS!”

In other areas of the class, Zoë got dressed up and played a solo game of candy land in our quiet area.  Max and Haruka drew pictures at the writing table.  Ernie and Maya went bowling with the blocks using fruit from the kitchen area.  I think Ernie knocked others’ blocks over more than his own. :)  Riya and Miss Rachel looked at books, then played Candy Land together.  And Rosalinda pretended to brush her teeth with some of the kitchen area’s plastic food.  Here is a collection of pictures from the day’s events.

 

 

 

Finally, last week we were borrowing some magnet blocks from Kanga’s Kids.  They were such a big hit that they never went neglected if there was a spare moment to play!  On Tuesday Noah was playing at the table with Miss Andrea and building with those magnets.  He told Ms. Andrea, “This is a house.  My house has two living rooms. Dad and brother are watching TV. Dad is here and brother is here.”  He points to the places he indicated.  He goes on with his story, “Mom is cooking dinner.”  Ms. Andrea asked him, “What is she cooking?” Noah answers, “Pasta in the kitchen.” Then Noah’s magnet house fell when the table got bumped.  He took it in stride and simply started rebuilding it.  We can’t wait to see what other things the children build with the classroom’s blocks!

Oh the Benefits of the Sun!

Pooh Corner had lots of fun in the sun today! Bailey and Owen explored the sand in the boat. They got only a little sand in their hair this time! Maverick and Anna enjoyed a stroller ride which was so relaxing that they fell asleep. :) Isabella was content watching others play from her bouncy seat and she fell asleep as well. Joshua was busily pushing the lawn mower all over the playground. When he got tired, he stopped to take a break. It didn't last long though because he was back up and pushing that mower before you could even say “fun in the sun”! That sure is hard work! The children really enjoyed all the time they spent outside today!

Well that's it for the week! Youth Group will start their posts next week when Casey is with us all day! Have a great sunshine-y weekend!

Leather, Vinyl, & Wool... Oh My!

What do leather, vinyl, and wool all have in common?

Well... in Big Bird this week, those are the things we have been using to create touch 'n' feel baby farm animal books! Already we have colored a calf, a lamb, and a piglet. After coloring the pictures, the children glued on their sensory materials: black leather on the calf; pink-textured vinyl for the piglet; and of course, white wool for the lamb. The children are really enjoying the activity and its appeal to their sense of touch in a variety of ways.

We are also anxiously awaiting the rest of our family fun surveys. We are excited to learn more about our families and to display their pictures in our room for the children to look at throughout the day!

Happy Thursday!

-Miss Jolene & Miss Lois

Oh the Fun we have in Sesame Street!

Poem by Melissa

Lola, Tyler, Emilio, and Aiden

Were having so much fun in Sesame Street playin'

They played with the animals and rode on the trucks.

We even had a good time connecting the ducks.

Tyler sang us a song

While all of the others followed along.

Aiden showed us his red hat,

And Emilio said, “Look at that!”

Lola giggled while Ms. Melissa tickled her tummy,

And all the other children thought it was quite funny.

We have a blast in Sesame Street, you see,

Won't you come and play with me?

New Faces in Magic Kingdom

To kick off the first official blog post from a class, I am going to share some news about some new faces you can see in our class.  We’ve recently had a couple children move from Big Bird Buddies into our class. A couple weeks ago it was Connor, and today we welcomed Buster! Miss Andrea and I are happy to have a couple boys joining our ranks, as the boy population in our class has been outnumbered for the entire school year.  We’ll see what the summer and next school year brings, but maybe our ratio of boys to girls will flip-flop.  Here’s a picture of Buster playing on his first day officially in Magic Kingdom!

We also welcomed a new grown-up face in our room.  Miss Rachel will be student-teaching for 3 days each week. She’s a student at Jackson Community College and will be with us for only 3 weeks. We are certainly happy to get to know another teacher and the children love her already. First thing this morning, I was getting ready to read a book to Rosalinda, and as soon as she learned Miss Rachel was going to be helping in our room, I was left in the dust. She immediately left and asked Miss Rachel to read her book. :) Here’s a picture of Miss Rachel exploring noodles in the sensory table with some of the children at work time.

 

And finally, one last story.  During small group time today, the blue group started exploring the music area.  The children came up with many great ideas about what materials we could use in the music area and how we could use them.  Today, Maya and Max decided they wanted to use the music sticks to bang on the pots and pans from our house area.  The first few minutes was used to bang away freely watching for the cues to start and stop. Then we practiced imitating sound patterns and rhythms.  I think we drove the red group insane while they used stencils in the art area though.  We’ll be sure to try something a bit quieter tomorrow.

Come back tomorrow to hear about some new in Sesame Street! Until then, here are a few more pictures from today and Friday.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new blog of ABC Academy on Laurence Ave. in Jackson, Michigan! We have some fun things in store for you like activities, stories, pictures, and more! Be sure to check back on a regular basis. Our normal posting schedule will begin Monday, June 1st in the afternoon. The blog will likely undergo some minor aesthetic changes over the course of the first week or so. If there is anything you would like to see added to the blog or changed in any way, feel free to leave a comment here, or email me at abc.magickingdom@gmail.com! Looking forward to serving you!