Fly to Florida

A beach, Busch Gardens, the Everglades... oh my! Every year ABC Academy transforms from a child care center into the Sunshiney State of Florida; engaging our student's imagination and creativity by promoting an exciting and stimulating learning experience. Each room portrays a different Floridian theme and the classes rotate between them. This year we boarded an "airplane" in Kanga's Kids and prepared to visit the beach, Busch Gardens, a bibbitti-bobbitt boutique, and the Everglades.

At the beach... Big Bird Buddies was disguised in a sand and shovel covered floor. Three water tables were filled with fish and fishing poles, boats, and ducks for the students to explore. Sea shells, sea creatures, and a real lobster were displayed for their observation.

In the boutique... Magic Kingdom became a salon fit for a queen or kids! There were princess and fairy costumes for the students to dress in, hair styling materials, and children's make-up for creating the ultimate "princess" feel. Then we had crowns and eye-patches to be worn by our little pirates and sensory table filled with shaving cream!

Visiting Busch Gardens... Sesame Street was the home of stuffed animals caged by waffle blocks. The students were given a cup filled with beans and rice and encouraged to fill the food bowls inside of the cages. They also had the opportunity to decorate a jellyfish using glue, tissue paper, aluminum foil pieces, and markers to take home as a souvenir.

The Everglades... Kanga's Kids provided stuffed alligators for the students to explore. Buckets filled with water and plastic sea creatures for the students to "dive" and search for.

We are grateful that we have the ability to provide such an enriching and amazing experience for our little learners!

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
Chinese Proverb

Kanga's Kids in February

Doctors and dentists filled the dramatic play area this month. Our students had a great time pretending to work in the doctor’s office located in our play area. Some favorite items included a keyboard, schedule, bandages, dental tools, big teeth and a heart. Putting on the stethoscope and listening to our hearts we hear the sound, “bump, bump, bump,” said one student. “There now you’re all better,” said another.
*Key Experience(s): Relating to other children, Relating to adults, Initiating Play

For Valentine’s Day the students wrote their names on big envelopes that they decorated with stickers. Taking turns they passed out their treats while practicing their friendship manners. We are working on using words of friendship like; “please” “share”, “thanks”, and “would you like to play?”
* Key Experience(s): Writing, Creative Representation

We will be ending this month with a field trip to Burger King to see “What happens behind the counter. Then we will take a pretend field trip as we “fly to Florida”.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."
Albert Einstein

Educational Value in Conversation Hearts

This week Big Bird Buddies and Magic Kingdom students were able to explore Conversation Candy Hearts! The students were given a small basket with approximately fifteen candy hearts inside. They were encouraged to manipulate the candies independently and creatively.

Maddie sorted her hearts by color and then counted the number of hearts in each sorted pile. Emilio arranged ten hearts into the form of the letter 'c' and then said, "look Jolene, I made a 'c'." Later Emilio laid them across the table in a vertical line and reported, "I'm making Yedi tracks!" Noah used one to one correspondence and counted that he had fourteen hearts total. Aiden began to notice that the candy hearts had a scent, he bent towards the table and said, "Oh, those smell good." When it came time to taste test our candy hearts Logan scrunched up his face and said, "it's sour."

Key Developmental Indicators that correspond with this activity:
Initiative: Initiating play.
Social Relations: Relating to adults, Relating to other children
Creative Representation: Making and building models, Pretending
Mathematics and Science: Sorting objects, Identifying patterns, Comparing properties, Counting, Identifying materials and properties.

"Children are the world's most valuable resource and it's best hope for the future"
John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Splish, Splat

Butter lids make wonderful painting tools. Yes, butter lids. I hot-glued cardboard rings onto butter lids to create a handle to help our little hands with their panting. The children placed spoonfuls of paint on their paper and then used their new tool for splattering the paint across the paper.

Some of the children used the lids as spreading implements. Lola used the butter lid for a few minutes and decided that her fingers were better equipped for her desired result.

Though this experience required some extra clean-up it was entirely worth the mess. They enjoyed the opportunity to express their creativity through new material.

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Erich Fromm