The Great Outdoors/Camping

We ended our PLA Summer Academy session with a camping week!  On Monday we sat up our big tent in the classroom for a quiet place to enjoy books and make up stories with our camping story stones.

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We finger painted with the colors of a camp fire and went fishing for alphabet fish on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we made clean mud on the playground.  http://www.theideabox.com/Clean_Mud.html  We added color water in squirt bottles so our mud was a little more colorful then the link I posted.  It was a very cool sensory activity.  I can’t believe this is the first time I have made clean mud!

On Thursday we made a  S’mores collage with light brown felt for the graham crackers, dark brown foam chocolate, and cotton ball marshmallows.

Friday, we took our project back to the playground.  We did some science exploring:  we had colored and scented water with droppers, cornstarch, baking soda, vinegar squirt bottles, fresh and dried herbs, and tools for exploring..  They had so much fun and the favorite were as always baking soda and vinegar!  My step dad, Don, came in and read some books and poems to the children.  For snack we made real S’mores!  Yummy!

REMINDER: PLA is closed for the next 2 weeks for teacher work week and summer vacation.  We will reopen on August 10th.  Our first day of the 2015-2016 school year is August 17th.  A new school supply list was put in your child’s cubby or was included in your packet, these need to be brought in by the end of August.  If you didn’t get a list and need one let me know and I will send you one.  Thank You for all you do!  If you need anything between now and the 10th email, text, or call me carina@plaacademy.com 573-216-3855. We are very excited about our new school year!!  See you soon!!

Christmas in July

We had so much fun revisiting one of our favorite holidays last week!  There is nothing like decorating a Christmas tree and singing Jingle Bells when the temps are close to 100 degrees!  We even got a visit from an old friend (Spidey our Elf on the Shelf)  thanks to a little Santa magic!  On Monday we decorated our Christmas tree and brought out the little tree again.  The best way to keep little hands off the tree is by giving them their own tree to decorate as many times as they want!

On Tuesday we made torn paper Christmas Trees…

On Wednesday we made spoon painted Christmas lights…

On Thursday we made sun catcher ornaments…

A perfect way to end Christmas in July week…. Polar Express Day!  We wore our jammies, decorated sugar cookies, read The Polar Express and listened to the soundtrack, we made a train, and drank chocolate milk!  It was a little too hot for hot chocolate.

Mystery Week

This week we were tiny detectives and we had to solve a mystery!  Our big scooters were missing and it was our job to find out who took them, why they took them, and where are they!  On Monday, we discovered fingerprints on the slide and in the classroom… big fingerprints!  The children had their first clue.  We used ink pads to make our own fingerprints.  We observed our fingerprints with a magnifying glass and compared them to our friends fingerprints.

On Tuesday we found a big purple handprint!  We collected our evidence on our evidence sheet and then painted with watercolor paint.

On Wednesday we found a giant footprint and we had a secret message that we discovered after we water colored our paper.  It looked like it was a guy that was wearing a baseball cap.  The children found a person with a baseball hat next door at Casey’s.  They thought maybe we should call the police!  We also added scrap paper to our sensory table!  They had fun ripping and cutting the paper!

On Thursday, we received pictures in a hidden envelope of our scooters splattered with paint and a side view of a man in a baseball hat.  We think that is who took our scooters, but we still don’t understand why or where they could be!  We thought since our scooters were covered in splatters of paint it would be fun to do some splatter painting!

On Friday, we had to go through a laser maze to get to the end of the hall.  When we got there we discovered the kitchen door was shut!  When we opened the door we found our big scooters and a note from Mr. Billy.  Billy took the scooters to clean them.  He accidently splattered paint all over them and took them to clean them!  The mystery was solved and our detectives did figure out it was Billy before the letter told them!  We have some wonderful tiny detectives!  Nurse Katie, from the Camden County Health Department, came in to talk to the children about staying healthy and how important exercise is!  She also told them how easy it is to get our bodies moving through play… you can exercise and have fun at the same time!  We found a praying mantis and put it in our bug catcher to observe!

Monday will begin our Christmas in July Week!                                                                                                            REMINDER: PLA will be closed July 27-August 7 for Teacher Work Week and Summer Break.  The week beginning August 10th will be a child care only week and August 17th will be our first day of school for the 2015-2016 school year.

Celebrating America

This week was all red, white, and blue!  We talked about our country and the real superheroes that keep us safe and are the reason we celebrate Independence Day!  We have a daddy right now serving our country, Joel Grout X, thank you for the sacrifices you, and your family, have made for our country!  I am lucky enough to not only get to be your daughters teacher, but also have gained a lifelong friend! We are very proud of you, and so grateful for what you do!!

On Monday we made red, white, and blue art using star and flag cookie cutter and paint.  Painted at the easel with firework pictures as an inspiration.  We also made red, white, and blue play dough!

On Tuesday, we talked about our flag.  We read the book Betsy Ross by Becky White.  We counted the stripes and stars on our flag today, and compared it to the first flag created by Betsy Ross.  We made flag inspired art with white paper, red stripes, and blue square and white paint.

Wednesday we took on a huge project and Tie Dyed T-shirts!!  Totally worth the red and blue hands Big Emilea and I ended up with!

Thursday was a day full of Fireworks Science!  We made fireworks in milk http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/science-nature-activities/home-science-experiments-color-changing-milk

Fireworks in a jar- http://www.aboutamom.com/science-fun-for-kids-fireworks-in-a-jar/

One of my favorite 4th of July activities brings a little explosive fun!!  Exploding Fireworks Painting – http://inspirationlaboratories.com/exploding-fireworks-painting-4th-of-july-craft-for-kids/ They loved this so much we did it twice!  I also posted a video on our facebook page www.facebook.com/plaacademy

We want to wish everyone a Happy and Safe 4th of July!  See you Monday!

REMINDER: PLA will be closed July 27-August 7 for Teacher Work Week/Summer Break