Rain, Rain, Go Away!

June has always been such an exciting time. It marks the end of the school year and of course, the opening of our town's favorite spot-Tobey Pond! However, so far this month's weather has been nothing short of dreary! Although the occasional sunshine has felt amazing, it has been such a tease.  These days, the children have been coming to our little school equipped with sweatshirts and jackets instead of sunscreen and sandals!

Fortunately for us, we have found many ways to keep busy despite the rainy weather.  Not many facilities can say they have a gym and boy are we thankful! We've been utilizing this space for indoor recess a lot in the past few weeks.  Here, the kiddos have the opportunity to let off some steam by running around, using ride on toys, climbing on the slide, playing with kickballs & basketballs, hula hooping and jump roping too! Even our youngest friends have enjoyed using push toys and putting baby dolls in strollers for a little walk around the gym.  As many of you know, our school age classroom is also located on one side of the space.  This has been very exciting for the children to explore and it offers a refreshing array of toys that the preschoolers aren't exposed to on a regular basis.

The rain has also given us many opportunities to engage in art projects and sensory experiences.  Here's a quick glimpse at some of the work we've done: 

During Pond Week, the children took a walk around the property and collected small pebbles, sticks, ferns and other things they thought might be found in a pond environment.  We added some small creatures and water and we had our own little pond! The children loved making beaver dams, stick rafts and feeling the sandy pebbles!

We do projects daily but we thought these turned out pretty cute.  The turtles were made from old cd/cartridge type cases that were donated to us by a friend.  The children glued tissue paper inside and added foam pieces for the body parts.  They really enjoyed playing with them once the glue was dry and during the process, they liked the feeling of painting the glue onto the smooth plastic-an art and sensory craft all in one! This is the second project we've used these cases for...here's the first from Insect Week...Bug Week! No worries, we released our critters when we were done examining them :)

A Father's Day Card that worked well with Pond Week...And who doesn't love a cute footprint keepsake?

Finally, we've found it's good to always have a supply of sensory products on hand for rainy days or spur of the moment "add ons" to the curriculum.  Our favorite? Shaving cream! The kids love practice writing their names in it, drawing funny faces and squiggles too.  Plus it makes the classroom smell fabulous!