Some changes outside

   I know I am a bit behind on blogging but I wanted to make sure all you parents were aware of some changes that are taking place in the outdoor classroom, now and in the coming weeks.

  First off fall is here and the weather is cool in the mornings and half the playground is in the shade in the morning so a light weight jacket in your child's backpack is something they could relay use. Unless its pouring rain, blowing wind so hard we can't play or there is a crazy weather catastrophe we have the outdoors open for play time. I have a lot of friends who love to be outside and will stay out all morning so if your little one is one of those kiddos I would defiantly make sure they have a jacket. This goes for parent helpers too! If you think you may end up outside bring a jacket as well I personally always have one in my car for emergencies so I am never without one. Also some mornings the playground is a little wet so if you work outside please help me check the slides, plastic cars and picnic benches to see if we need to wipe them down.

  We have made some schedule changes in how our mornings run after free play is over and the the Orange Owl's and Green Dragonflies are separated into their small groups. Then snack begins for the first half of the children. After they are finished eating the children will be allowed to do activities at the tables. There will no longer be extra free play time after snack. There will be 2 activities set up at each group of tables for them to choose from. Some will be art, some will be math, some will be play dough and so on.This is to help aide in the transition from the outdoor time to the group time inside, and help the children to have a more productive small group time when its their turn. So parent helpers will stay at the tables and help with these activities when they are outside.

  There have also been some changes made to snacks. Beginning in October the state has placed new regulations on schools as a part of their campaign to encourage healthy eating and proper portion sizes being served. From here on out there are portion sizes posted on the snack calendars and there are no exceptions to those sizes we are held accountable to make sure your little ones are eating proper portion sizes for their ages. We have also stopped putting the milk in the containers for the kids to pour a lot of our friends love to pour drinks and we were tossing a lot of milk down the drain. So from here on the water will be self serve and the milk will be served by a parent helper, with a limit of one half cup of milk per child. If they are still thirsty we can assist them to rinse out their cup and they can have water.

  We have also designated 2 days a week as bike days. The bikes will be out for sure on Thursday's and Friday's unless there is a special event taking place those days. This will help some of our friends to visit more centers during free choice time. You can encourage your child visit different centers each morning before school. I always talk to my daughter every morning about what centers she likes and what ones she likes to visit and I also encourage her to visit the centers she doesn't visit often(like science and math) I talk it up over the breakfast table or on the ride to school. On days you work let them know whats going on in each center and encourage them to visit your center you are working as well as others. As the year goes on I know the kids will all adjust to this center rotation and they will get a lot of enjoyment and a lot of learning from visiting different centers and different classrooms as well as teachers. I encourage you as parents to do the same if you always work the art center venture out of your comfort zone and try cooking or blocks who knows you may learn something new as well!

  I want to thank everyone staff, parents and kiddos for all your support, encouragement, kind words and the fantastic poster! The MS ride was a great success and once all the donations clear I raised $1575 for the fight against MS! And my husband raised over $2600 for MS as well. We are already looking forward to training for next years ride!

  As always if you ever have any questions or suggestions for outside feel free to visit or send me an email I love new ideas!