6 years, 3 months/4 years, 1 month.

Light rain on Memorial Day = a deserted Governor's Island, free for the exploring!

6 years, 3 months/4 years, 1 month.

A little playground friend with the Ottos before driving back to Brooklyn!

6 years, 3 months/4 years, 1 month.

Weekend at Nana's!  We visited Graham's first best friend, Sam.  They have since moved to the Philadelphia suburbs and the boys hadn't seen each other for more than 3 years.  They didn't seem to remember each other, but instantly got along and had a great time playing.

After our visit with the Renos, we had a delicious picnic dinner with the cousins.  Thanks for having us, Nana!

6 years, 3 months/4 years, 1 month.

Graham is boldly going where neither Will nor I has gone before--the World Trade Center observation deck.  L to R, Hadley, Ellis, Graham, Georgia.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Seedlings":

Dear Everyone,

Our week began with a second observation of our seeds. "I see little
red things, those are the roots." "Vines on the bottom." "Roots." And,
"My shell cracked open!" After looking at and examining them, everyone
got to plant their seeds in a cup. Someone said we should put one
scoop of dirt, the seeds, and then another scoop of dirt on top.
Several children agreed saying, "Yes, so the seeds are in the middle."
We got to work scooping dirt, adding water, and placed them on the
window sill.

In the big room we played our usual tricycles, block building, dress
up, food exchanging, and jungle gym climbing. There were families
taking care of babies and each other, workmen building, speed-racers
driving tricycles, and monkeys on the jungle gym. Right after cleanup
everyone turned into puppies, kittens, joeys, a German shepherd, and
one dragon with hard plates on his back for protection.

On our trip to the Prospect Park Zoo we  saw two peacocks, a python,
turtles, an owl, baby sheep, goats, and seals. We got to feed the farm
animals and pet the snake. The trip went off without a hitch.

Our seeds are still growing in little cups. We watered them two more
times this week. Outside we took turns using two rakes, a hoe, and a
shovel, to till the dirt. Everyone worked the land diligently clearing
weeds, dead leaves, and discovering loads of crawling things in the
dirt. After the rain, we found three slugs, two healthy and one no
longer with us. There was also a "worm observation table".

We watered and observed our seeds a third time on Friday. There was a
bit of excitement over the fact that some of our seeds had changed
overnight.

Next week we will plant our seeds and begin our study of the ocean.

Have a great weekend,
Therese

6 years, 3 months/4 years, 1 month.

Graham is reading Matilda and listening to the audio recording over and over again.  He mentioned the other day that he is just like Matilda--a great reader and extremely smart.  I would say he also has plenty of self-confidence.

6 years, 3 months/4 years, 1 month.

Taking 4 children to the food coop is never the most relaxing undertaking, but there was a long enough pause in the chaos today to snap this shot.

6 years, 3 months/4 years, 1 month.

Old First Nursery School zoo field trip.

6 years, 3 months/4 years, 1 month.

Our trailblazers were more enthusiastic river explorers than distance hikers today.

6 years, 3 months/4 years.

Last Family Friday of the year!  Daddy and Graham made a trestle bridge out of marshmallows and toothpicks and read Graham's non-fiction book about frogs.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Plant eaters and plants":

Hi All,

This week we painted with plants, planted seeds, made stamps using fruit and vegetables, and ate plants for snacks. All in honor of plant-eating dinosaurs. You guys can do the meat eaters at home.

We started our week by painting with flowers. Everyone made a variety of different patterns and prints with the flowers. The next day, we made stamps using a bell pepper, an orange, an apple, and an onion.

We also planted seeds in baggies. The children said they need water and sun to grow. We added water and hung them in the window. The next day someone asked if they had grown? They had not. Thursday while half the class was making music with Alex, we made a chart to see how many of each kind of seed we had all chosen. The children noticed by looking at our chart, that most people had chosen to plant popcorn. Lima beans and kidney beans were tied for second place.

After waiting a few days, we decided to observe our sprouting seeds closer. Everyone got to take a close look at their seeds. We asked, "What do you see?" Some answers were: " I see lots of little white things!" "Nothing." "Roots." "I see the stem." 

We have been spending a lot of time in the yard. Please apply sunscreen to the children before school if your child needs it. Genevieve donated a bottle to the classroom if we need to reapply later. Thanks!

Quiet time has been sleepy. Five and six sleepers, often. 

We have been eating lunch outside too. Our yard does have bits of shade, to sit and eat under.

We took two balls outside to encourage hand-eye, and foot-eye coordination. We used bins of water on the bench to practice pouring and to keep cool. The children took turns playing in the water in pairs. 

Whew, it was a hot week!

6 years, 3 months/4 years.

On a 90 degree day, Connor switched out his summer jammies for fleece, leg warmers, and fingerless gloves after bedtime.

6 years, 3 months/4 years.

Notice anything missing?  No training wheels!  Connor is solid on the training wheels and gets plenty of tricycle practice at school, so we decided to give it a go without them.  He did some good balancing and pedaling but has a ways to go before he's stable enough for me to step away long enough to snatch a video.

6 years, 3 months/4 years.

Lily & Graham engagement photos, Spring 2017 edition.

6 years, 3 months/4 years.

Looks like all that monkeying around tuckered Connor out.  He went to bed wearing dragon wings and my 80's costume  from the PS 321 fundraiser auction.

6 years, 3 months/4 years.

The boys retreated from the action at Henry's birthday party to enjoy their cupcakes in peace.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Hot lava":

Dear all,

We worked on our volcano for three days layering and adding crumpled newspaper, careful to leave the crater open. We smoothed two days' worth of clay over the paper to give it an earthy feeling. We read two myths of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, and her  oppositional sister who ruled over the sea. We looked at pictures of Hawaiian Monk Seals and read Margaret Wise Brown's The Little Island. We also read Zoom and noticed a volcano on an island. Lilly shared a book she made at home about volcanoes and showed us her experiment.

In the yard we have been observing snails, larvae, worms, and birds. We talked about how to observe animals to learn more about them. A group of children sat for a while watching two snails and making observations. The children discovered a dead baby bird in the yard. There was much speculation about how the bird got there, if it had fallen in the shell that was beside it, or out of the shell. Some children thought another bird may have robbed it and dropped it there. We observed a nearby bird chirping and the children wondered if that was its mama or daddy? After quiet time a few children buried the bird. Speaking of quiet time- five and six sleepers early in the week. Seven on Friday.

We finally got to add potion to the volcano. There were squeals of delight aplenty. We added vinegar, baking soda, dish soap, food coloring, and paint. We predicted which side of the volcano the lava would roll down.  We added small dinosaurs so we could see how the lava might have extinguished them. Our dinosaurs survived our eruption.

We also did a soda and Mentos volcanic-like explosion in the yard. Everyone sat a safe distance away while we watched the soda spew up into the air. It was an exciting mess.

The children made cards for Mother's Day filled with love and some with letters.

We have been occasionally having small meditations, for several weeks. Many children already knew how to sit with legs crossed and hands on knees. We have sat quietly for one minute using a chimed timer mediation app. The last two times we did it several children asked if we could try two minutes. The two minutes was a bit more challenging. We talked about using quiet bodies during meditation, quiet time, and calming our bodies when we're upset. One person said when he's at home and gets angry, maybe he'll go in his room and meditate to calm down.

Next week we will plant seeds and watch them grow. And of course we'll make more lava!

May the force be with you,
Therese

6 years, 3 months/4 years.

In case it isn't immediately obvious, this is a carefully constructed dam preventing the water from the pump from going down the drain thoughtfully placed by the NYC parks department.

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Not sure what we did to deserve this.

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

After Charlotte's ballet birthday party, we met up at Melody Lanes for Lily & Jacob's combo birthday party.  Graham made some important points while Connor used all his strength to get those 8 lb balls down the lane.

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

After an early-bird t-ball game, we headed up to Central Park for an afternoon of exploring the new playgrounds and doing a little bouldering.  We wrapped up a very big day with dim sum in Chinatown.  By the time we got home, Connor was asking if he could please go to bed.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Meteor, Dino Dig, and Gloop":

Dear parents,

Monday morning we began creating a meteor to hang in our solar system.
The children helped squish paper and tape it down to form a ball. They
said meteors were made of rock. We added foil and orange tape which
they said was for the fire. They wanted to hang it near our planet
Earth. The children explained, recalling from a book, that one theory
was that a meteor hit the Earth, contributing to the extinction of the
dinosaurs.

We went outside to play and brought eight large dinosaurs to use in
our dinosaur hunt. We buried them in the sandbox and let the
"paleontologists" dig to find them. Then they got to hide them for the
next group. It was a successful dig.

We used the small dinosaurs to make fossils. The children found
pictures of fossils in our books. They pounded the red clay as flat as
pancakes and then pressed the small dinosaurs in to leave imprints
like the ones we examined in books. We left them to dry and went out
to play cat, puppy, lobster, hamster, various other animals, and
family members.

Wednesday in circle we greeted each other by counting and clapping the
syllables in all of our names, then we did the same for some long
dinosaur names.

We had music with Alex on Wednesday and Thursday this week. While half
the class made music, children in the classroom wrote more
collaborative stories. We made a list of the characters for children
to choose to act out.

Thursday in our small groups, while one group had music with Alex, we
revisited our story from the prior day, reading the title, then
comparing with a book to note what else we needed. We added the
authors' names, then after that we noticed that our books have words
AND pictures, so there are authors and illustrators too. We re-read
our story, pausing to imagine and visualize characters and events.
Then we went to the tables to draw that character or scene. We played
outside and had a picnic lunch outside.

On Friday we read the recipe and matched it with the ingredients and
materials on the table, then took turns measuring, pouring, and mixing
Gloop. We voted on which color to use. Then we played with the gloop
during the morning and again in small groups during free play. Gloop
was had by all.

Thanks to Kay for the write-up while I was at the conference.
Highlights at the conference were social and emotional learning, the
power of positive thinking (mentioned more than once), mindfulness,
and promoting self-worth.

Have a sunny weekend,
Therese

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Scrub-a-dub-dub, 4 kids in the tub.

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Connor is taking a Super Soccer Stars class while Graham takes a kid's club class at PS 321.  Connor's years of observation while Graham played seem to be paying off--he's having a great time and seems to get it (at least compared with the other kids in the class).