Last week at our light table had transparent blocks and small plastic bugs on it, and Ju-milia re-mixed of one of the songs we sing. This new version of “Five Green and Speckled Frogs” was adjusted to include the materials we were offering in the classroom:

Five little speckled bugs

sat on a speckled log

eating the most delicious leaves — yum, yum!

one jumped into the pool

where it was nice and cool

now there are just four speckled bugs — BUZZZZ!

(We sing this song until all the bugs have jumped into the pool and none are left on the log!)

This week, we explored this song further during meeting time. We began by singing the song together and showing the progression of five bugs to zero bugs on a wooden block — then eager friends took turns moving the bugs off the block themselves. On Wednesday and Thursday, things really got exciting as the children themselves became the bugs! Four to five children at a time stood on the “log“ made out of hollow blocks or soft mats. Each child waited until the teacher called their name within the songs and jumped off. This was a such fun way to continue developing our number sense, to practice waiting our turn, and to enjoy singing together.

During choice time, children used the trains without the premade tracks and instead built their own out of blocks. At the water table, the large and small droppers continued to challenge and excite friends as they tried to fill them up the whole tube. We added ice trays, and Lily meticulously filled in each compartment with the dropper. “Look what I did!“

At the play-dough table, children noticed that the material was set up as long logs, which Louisa called “snakes.“ Friends were curious how to recreate them , and practiced rolling the play-dough back and forth with two hands. Some times the play-dough got too thin and broke, and we learned to pinch it back together to repair it. After making a long snake, the next step for many children was to snip it into many tiny pieces with our play-dough scissors.

Outside, we enjoyed the sunny spring weather! Zoe created a hammering activity using wooden hammers, golf tees, and foam blocks. Tapping the nail with the hammer reminder some of us of drumming on our goodbye drum — Clive started singing our “Goodbye friends“ tune, which we changed to “Hammer the nail, hammer the nail…“ Amari and Briar discovered a new ball rolling game using the narrow wooden bench as a sort of track. Eli prepared obstacle courses made out of hollow blocks and milk crates for Afternoon class, and they enjoyed stepping through it and jumping off at the end. After a few rounds of this, Briar and James turned the obstacle course into a train. On Thursday, Wyler and Willy took the invitation to clean the walls very seriously and dunked the sponge rollers into soapy water to scrub off all the paint from the week.