Falling Rain, Zooming Cars

I am always amazed at this point in the year to realize how quickly the children have made the classroom their own, how naturally they follow routines, and how much they are learning!
On this rainy day, we couldn't play on the playground, so in small groups, we went out on the porch, bringing ramps and cars with us. Bringing these incline planes to a new area sparked a whole new exploration of the properties of gravity and cars.

Inside, children worked with our marbled play dough, mixing liquid water colors into the play dough.

At another center, we offered the children sand trays for tracing. Some children used their whole hands to make "butterflies," and other children traced letters. Fran would say different sounds, and children would make the sound letter connection, tracing the letter in the sand. This activity mixes the physical skill of writing letters with the aural skill of phonemic awareness.