A Visit from a Special Builder

In order to prepare for our BIG house project, Matthew's dad Milton came to talk to the Turtles about all the different kinds of tools that are used to build and how to use them safely.  He first talked about using tools only when a grown-up is around and then showed us his big tool box full of tools!  He showed us goggles to protect our eyes and gloves to protect our hands.  Some other things Milton showed us included a tool belt, a drill, a paint roller, pipes, wires, screw drivers, pliers, and a level.  The Turtles were so excited to learn about some of the new tools Milton showed us, but also to see that some of his tools and some of the Turtles' tools were the same!  We even got to pass around some tools!

After we thanked Milton and said goodbye, the Turtles and the Little Frogs got ready for Inside-Outside day because of the beautiful weather!  Some of the choices inside included making monsters, using tools, sand table, oil pastels, and book corner. Our friends even looked through a book called I Need My Monster to get some ideas for their monsters.

Some of the choices outside included, riding bikes, climbing trees, playing with our sand toys, and even moved an entire table to make a reading table!

A New Medium for Turtle Artists

We introduced a new art medium today: Oil Pastels! Oil pastels can be be beautiful for blending colors, as well as for making vibrant colors. Another advantage to oil pastels is their small size, which encourages a tripod grasp on the pastel, an important pre-writing skill.

Other choices included:

Missy had lots of new games for use today:

Musical Chairs

The Chicken Dance

Twister

Soccer with goalies

"We Will, We Will ROCK YOU!" (and clap in patterns!)

At the logs, we discovered that we have grown bigger and stronger and some things that we couldn't do before we can now do!

While at the logs, we smelled smoke. We looked around the horizon, and noticed that there was smoke coming from one chimney. We went to investigate, and found several teachers working in the Short Stable, with a beautiful fire in the fire place!

Fran reading "Snowballs" by Lois Ehlert

A Quiet and Rainy Friday

The morning began with lots of building!

The structures that were built turned out to be a school for kittens!  These kittens read stories and were great listeners to the teacher kitten.  Our builders made sure the structures were nice and sturdy.

Then the Turtles were faced with a Big Bad Wolf that was trying to blow their house down.  King Caimin was there to help!

We had other friends who painted a dinosaur, using two paint brushes at one time!

Being the awesome cooks that they are, the Turtles made milk pie, apple pie, and lots of other goodies out of sand!  Beverly was so full by the time they were all done!

The Turtles also did puzzles,

played the snail race game,

and the penguin game,

and made up to 25 play dough balls,

and even made a baby snake!