Happy September

"By all these lovely tokens, September days are here. With summer's best of weather and autumn's best of cheer." -Helen Hunt Jackson

We had a wonderful time this month transitioning from the end of summer into the start of fall. Here's just a glimpse!

​Science of Soap

Soap has so many possibilities. From bubbles, to making art with them, the kids loved getting into soap while the weather was still warm. They enjoyed blowing colorful bubbles with their own pipe cleaner bubble wands. They also made art with those bubbles, and their foam prints were incredibly vibrant and had a really cool texture and pattern! 
Below is the result of our "Magic Milk" experiment. The kids answered the question: "What happens when soap is added to a dish of milk and 4 separate food colors?"

More Science!

We learn math through science: children counted the number of water droplets from a pipette that a penny could hold!

Art

From collages, to finger painting, to gluing feathers and leaves, to stencils and stamps, to watercolor painting, to making clay prints with shells and wooden design rollers, the kids are always welcomed to a new project every day.  

Cooking

​Purple Pickles

The kids did a great job helping us make sauerkraut ("Purple Pickles"). While the kids were pressing the cabbage down for our kraut, we all counted to 10 for each kids turn!

​Pear Butter

We had such an abundant pear harvest this year from our pear trees. The kids loved chopping pears freshly picked for pear butter.

​Magic Soup

The kids had a great time scooping out seeds from our garden squash for our soup, and tearing garden kale for our "Magic Soup" as well! It's amazing how many kids love eating our soup!

Literacy

Dot paints are a great way for the kids to practice letters and counting all in one. 

Math

Children are natural scientists and mathematicians, simply learning as they move through and explore their world. In fact, research shows that early introduction of structured math lessons can interfere with proper brain and concept development. Nature and play-based childhood environments are rich with opportunities for developing knowledge of math concepts! These concepts are accumulated and constructed through the child's own experiences and physical understanding of the world. This knowledge develops through the manipulation of tangible materials, including the children's physical bodies, collection of 'data,' and organization of that 'data' in a way that makes sense. ​

Ordering, Seriation, and Patterning - Singing daily, weekly, or yearly rhythms. Seasonal festivals. Circle games! Story-telling, poetry, or verses using the rhythm of language. Using rhythmic clapping. During play, lining up cars, blocks, or trains in order of size, color, or weight. Stacking toys. Putting toys away into their places after playtime. Experimenting freely with materials to create a pattern.

The kids love experimenting with balance, counting, and physics by making obstacle courses and all sorts of shapes and structures with both magnet tiles and rainbow blocks!  ​

Sweet Friends

The smiles, curiosity, and laughter are endless!

Gardening

 As our summer garden transitions into fall garden, the kids and our bunnies are amazed by our giant collard greens. Every week, kids are also invited into the garden to help us harvest some of our food for lunch. Featured here: giant magic green beans! The kids learned how to open the green beans and eat the beans from inside them. 

Snack & Lunch

We invite kids to take part in the preparing process of their food by giving them spoons to spread dollops of hummus, homemade pear butter, and more on their sandwich bread and rice cakes! We also love to read the kids social emotional learning books during snack, and singing to our garden during both snack and lunch!

Equinox Party

"Autumn leaves don't fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on their chance to soar." --Delia Owens

Happy Equinox--the first day of the season of Autumn! We threw a lovely equinox party, where parents brought yummy food to share, Jacqueline painted amazing faces on kids, and we hung our wishes for the fall season on our maple tree. It was so wonderful to have parents and their children come together for a celebration!

See you next time!