6 years, 11 months/4 years, 9 months.

We started out the day snow tubing at Campgaw Mountain and finished it up with the Eagles first (annual?) Super Bowl win.  A good day.  

6 years, 11 months/4 years, 9 months.

Will and the boys went to Madison Square Gardens today for baby's first live Duke game (v. St. John's)!  The outcome wasn't exactly as hoped but there's always tomorrow.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Shake, shake, shake and Baby Chicks Rule":

Dear parents,

This week we began working on our papier mache maracas. The children
helped tear newspaper into long strips, then we worked in pairs to dip
the newspaper in a glue and water mixture and cover the balloons. It
is a messy, time consuming, delicate task that the children worked on
for four days. On the fourth day, we listened to the hissing sound of
the balloons when they were pulled out of the hard paper shell. Each
person got to help fill a maraca with kidney beans, lentils, or rice
using a paper funnel. At the end, we all had colorful, noisy, musical
maracas! We shook them high, low, left, and right.

We have been playing our instruments and singing the A,B,C’s, Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star, and many other songs. We also listened to How The
Turtle Got Its Shell and played along.

Farmer Tom came and introduced us to the proud parents of our baby
chick eggs, Max and Ruby. He told us how the rooster uses his claws to
protect the hen and baby chicks from dogs and foxes. Everyone who
wanted got a chance to pet Ruby while Max steered clear. The children
helped dictate signs to post near our incubator to ensure their
safety. We also made a Baby Chicks Rule sign to remind us how to sit
when holding baby chicks next week. We have been observing the
sleeping eggs each and every day. No cheeps or activity yet.

Parent shares! We would love love love to have parents come in and
share their musical talents. Singing, guitar, bass, piano, horn,
violin, kazoo, cowbell, or any other instrument would be welcome and
appreciated. One, two, or three songs? Most days for the next two
weeks are available for bookings. Preferably during circle which is
about 9:45- 10.

Next week we are making kazoos.

Have a musical weekend,
Therese

6 years, 11 months/4 years, 9 months.

Good thing Will has these guys around to help him build his Christmas presents.

6 years, 11 months/4 years, 9 months.

We biked/jogged around Prospect Park on a crisp sunny day.  The boys made it the whole way...except for the giant hill which is for walking as far as we are concerned.

6 years, 11 months/4 years, 9 months.

Playdate with Ellis/Bryce/Evryn.  FYI in case anyone is looking for a good way to extract a barely-loose tooth--eat a rice krispie treat in below-freezing temperatures.  Worked for Graham!

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "More Guitar!":

Dear everyone,

The children all got to choose a box to use for their guitar. We
painted inside and out. We added glitter glue and glitter glitter.
Everyone chose different colored rubber bands to add for the strings.
We took turns plucking and describing what happened to the strings.
The children said they were wobbly, blurry, bouncy, fiery, wiggly,
twirly, salty, and colorful. “They look like two strings when they
pluck,” someone noticed. We talked about the word vibration. We reread
Ben’s Trumpet and saw how the drumsticks in the illustrations looked
like many sticks indicating vibration.

We counted how many cans we had to choose from for our drums. Everyone
chose a color of duct tape to decorate their drum, and cut the tape to
cover the cans. Afterwards we took turns beating patterns on our drums
and copied each other. Some children played small sounds with one
finger while others banged with whole hands loudly.

Next week we will make the much anticipated papier mache maracas.

Half the class slept on Wednesday. Quiet time remains quiet.

Have a healthy weekend!  

6 years, 11 months/4 years, 9 months.

No cavities!  Graham and Connor are taking a soccer class together, which is great in terms of scheduling and not so great in terms of sibling rivalry.  

6 years, 11 months/4 years, 9 months.

Graham is learning a lot of important things in school.  This is part of his current non-fiction study.