Gull Wings Children's Museum

Joy of Interest and Curiosity Day 2

Today started off with reading.  The children really enjoy being read to.  We read Curious George's Valentine Party, and The Berenstain Bears Valentine Party and then Mouse's Valentine Party. Sense a theme here?  That's right, we talked about our own Valentine's Day party next week.  We decided for our party:
-we would like to invite our mom's
-we must decorate cookies
-They should perform a puppet show without any help (mmm, this will be interesting)
-we would exchange Valentine cards and they should all say nice things on them
-we should have balloons, but not allow them to pop
-and we should have special boxes to put our Valentines in.
After we read all the books, we revisited the lessons from last week and made important decisions.
We tried to sing together, but it was mostly me singing and them watching me, so I gave up on that pretty quick.

We moved swiftly into snack time, making heart pancakes

(shout out to the grandmas for the awesome heart shapes!) Yummy with strawberry milk and fruit.

If your children didn't eat much the rest of the day here is why: This group knocked back 30 pancakes, a gallon of milk, 2 pints of strawberries and a bunch of grapes.  They didn't stop there.  After about an hour we got out the rest of the salami, cheese a box of crackers and more fruit.  They all must be growing!  They are really truly Very Hungry Childpillars ;) To work off the massive calorie carbo load we had an extra long outside play time.  They used the hula hoops as spaceships and went "flying" through the yard.  Then Grandma started pushing the swing, so they all needed a turn at that.  They enjoyed the sunshine and exercise for a good 45 minutes.  I love hearing their imaginations at work as they "b-tend" stuff.
Eventually, I convinced them to come inside.  We all shared our heart necklaces we made at home, and told about getting mail.  They watched a short "Elmo's World" clip about the post office.

This mellowed them quite a bit.  I think if I had left the DVD on, they would have fallen asleep.  However, I showed them the mailboxes we had to decorate for our party and they were all excited.

Usually only one or two of the children take craft time seriously, but this was intense.  They were very interested in making a beautiful mail box.  They even had a very darling discussion about what their mother would say about their box.  Your opinion matters so much to them.  I loved hearing their impersonation of their mommy's gushing compliments.  Soooo cute.

We managed to squeeze in some learning, and made a list of all the "n" words we could think of, and we practiced writing capitol "N" and lowercase "n" or our supercool chalkboards.  We finished the day playing with balloons and sidewalk chalk outside.



Joy of Interest and Curiosity Day 1: Love Bugs

The Joy of Interest and Curiosity started off all bugged.  We read Diary of A Spider and sang Itsy Bitsy Spider. We read Lyla the Lovesick Ladybug and sang Ladybug Fly.  It was so much fun we read the Very Hungry Caterpillar book and sang the Butterfly song.  We had a very long discussion about bugs that bite and bugs that don't.  All of the children are serious authorities on bugs that bite.  It was determined after a while that ants do not bite, they just tickle. So we sang Ants Go Marching as we marched into the kitchen for snack.

For snack, I retold the Very Hungry Caterpillar and we tried ALL of the foods the caterpillar ate. 

The fruit was a big hit, except for plums.  No one liked the plum (it was very sour).  Of course, all of the "sometimes" foods were well liked, but no one asked for seconds on any of those.  I was surprised!  I told them they didn't have to eat anything they didn't want, but if they were curious they could try everything.  Joseph wins for trying all of the food.  He tried pickles, salami, sausage and swiss cheese.  Isabel and Kai loved the salami. Grant had seconds of the sausage, and everyone had seconds or thirds of fruit.

After snack and free play outside in the backyard, we started our craft

While our caterpillars dried we played the question game, and they tried to guess what was hiding in my bag.  We talked about feeling curious.  They finally figured out I had magnifying glasses in my bag.  We went on a walk and used our magnifying glasses to look closely at all the things we were interested in.

 Evie found a stick

Yellow flowers




Purple pretty



Kai and Sean found itty bitty pine cones

A tiny lonely ant



A spider web.  The spider ran into the hole when he saw us.

We finished exploring and returned home to finish our TWO crafts, what a busy day!

Cute little caterpillars turn into . . .



Beeeeautiful butterflies

We finished up our very busy day with letter practice and writing in our journals about what we found on our walk.

Hot pink flowers



Joy of Obedience & Decisions - Day Three

Today the kids were in high-gear with energy level, which can make things extra fun, but also took more managing. To burn energy, we'd transition from place to place in the house doing different parts of the schedule, then choose a way to get to a different area with a new body movement(ie, swimming in the air, tip-toeing, making a train, etc). The transitions were always great because the kids could make decisions and everyone enjoyed doing them. I don't know if it was because it was the 3rd time at our place. It seemed each one had trouble focusing today at some point, with, of course, the boys feeding off of each other. We had a few time outs and I had to use my stern schoolteacher voice I used in Junior High for the first time today. It's no fun having to be stern; I hope they could all still have fun when I was disciplining. Despite all of that, hopefully your cuties still came away having learned some important things and had a good time today. I'd love to hear their feedback -- please let me know their comments, good or bad!

Today we reviewed RULES/LAWS and DECISIONS by playing the Question Game. By saying it was a game made it more fun to answer questions. We sang the Rule Song again with a new activity, and learned the words to the song "Decisions" we listened to last time. It seems that each of the friends have a good grasp on what these concepts are. We talked about the FEELINGS associated with decisions, how we feel good when we make good choices and repent. We discussed how we sometimes make bad decisions. We also talked more about repentance today, in that we can make up for doing something wrong by saying sorry, doing our best to fix it, and trying not to make the bad decision again. We had a few opportunities come up for friends to "repent", and it demonstrated the concept nicely.

We did the letter M today in their notebooks -- they did fantastic. We talked about how we carry around the letters "L" and "M" on our hands with us, wherever we go (can create with our fingers).

We practiced following rules and making decisions in everything we did today:

* Reading Time at the very beginning -- each of the friends read books when they first arrive for a little while. I've gotten new books from the library each time. They all did a fantastic job -- the cutest part was Isabel reading the "No No Yes Yes" book from Day One to Joseph. They were engrossed. They wanted to finish the book before coming to sit down for Circle Time. She was a great little teacher :)



* Circle Time

* Music Time -- singing the Rule Song, Decisions, and we played "Simon Says". All of the friends could take a turn being the leader. They all became really good at this game! And very creative. :)

* Finishing our picture frame craft -- we had to share the different colors of glitter glue as a rule, but could make decisions what to glue onto the frame. We had a lot of options to choose from, but most friends only wanted a few things on their frames. Most of the friends wanted to hurry and finish so they could go out to the sandbox. Grant was the trooper who stayed at the table until the end to carefully place his stickers. How did your cuties like making their frames? We'll get a good picture of the kids and put it inside! Maybe one outside the theatre on Thursday?

* Storytime & Snack were combined -- see below!


We made cake mix cookies and followed the recipe exactly. Each friend put in an ingredient or helped mix. Each put their own cookie dough scoop on the sheet. They all did a fantastic job helping each other and taking turns. The friends are all very good following the procedures of each block in Joy School -- they've got it down!



While the cookies were baking, we read the Berenstein Bear's book "The Bear Scouts" which talks about how the little cub scouts :) were following the guidebook. Papa Bear wanted to be their guide but did everything his own way. It never turned out well for him, while the cubs always were successful because they followed the rules of the book. We returned to the kitchen and talked about how we just did what the bear scouts did -- we followed the recipe/rules and we'll taste the results & see how they turned out. The friends all guessed they would taste very yummy.

Before we could taste the cookies, we had to try making a batch the way Papa Bear did -- do everything our own way and not follow the recipe/rules. A few of the friends knew from the start that the end result would not be as good. Each one could choose an ingredient from a bunch of options to add to our cake mix cookies. Evie added about 1/3 cup salt. Kai chose to add about 2 Tbs. Lowry's season salt, which the friends thought looked like sand. Emily wanted to add 5 eggs, and Joseph helped. Isabel chose to add about 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. Grant added about 2 cups oil. Joseph really wanted to mix.

They chose to bake it for however long it took to read the last story, called "Franklin Gets Lost" (actually suggested in module). It was a good book to demonstrate following rules, how not doing so makes people worried or sad and it's dangerous, and how we can repent from bad choices. The kids then ate each kind of cookie with a clear favorite. They decided it's always best to follow the rules because we get good results when we do. They also chose which kind of Cheerios to eat (Honey Nut, Fruitie, or Multi-Grain).

The friends each brought one cookie from each batch home to share -- I'd love to hear how they described them.

We didn't have the chance to get to a few other neat things planned for the lesson and playtime/interest centers, but the good thing is that I think each of the friends understands the concepts well.

Looking forward to Thursday's play about decisions!

Joy of Obedience & Decisions - DAY TWO

Today was another great day. We received RULES & LAWS from last time with a visit from Joy Boy. Joy Boy asked the hard question, "Is there a rule/law for everything?" Some said yes, others no. We talked about different examples and how there isn't a rule for everything. The big word of the day: DECISION. We get to choose, or make a decision, when there is no rule or law helping us know what to do.

We practiced making decisions the entire time. Some examples:
* Joy School Rule Song -- each friend took turns choosing a rule to lead the group in singing. Some had ahard time choosing one, and JS friends were encouraging in positive ways. It was great to see.

* Dancing Partners -- at the beginning we had music on to get our wiggles out. The friends could dance using whatever moves they'd like (early practice making decisions). Jumping, gliding, twirling, stepping, etc. Emily & Isabel asked how girls dance in partners. I showed them holding out their skirt with their left hand, and raising their right hand. I showed that their partner holds their raised hand & puts the other hand lightly on their side. Kai dances at home a lot & asked to try, and Emily volunteered. Then Isabel & Eve wanted to join in, & persuaded the other boys. We stopped the song a couple of times & made a decision to switch partners. They could choose. I have a short video of it -- they all had a blast. We danced to the song "Decisions" on the JS CD. We heard this song probably 8 times throughout the day, so they should be very familiar. :)

* Decision Pizzas -- for snack, we made honey wheat bagel pizzas by making decisions what to put on them. The options: homemade marinara sauce, mozarella cheese, parmaseam cheese, cheddar cheese, broccoli, mushrooms, sliced honey ham, and pineapple. The kids all had different creations with all kinds of combinations. Joseph ate 3 bites before we got it in the oven. :) Kai and Grant both had big pieces of broccoli on top. Isabel liked the ham. Emily loved pineapple. Eve stacked her pizza with everything.
* Strega Nona -- while the pizzas were cooking, we read the book "Strega Nona" by Tomie dePaola. They were all captivated by it. We'd stop every so often and talk about the decisions being made. At the end, they didn't know what Strega Nona would do, but Evie was spot-on in guessing.

* Interest Centers -- This is why we were running late at the end. :) The kids LOVED this time, so I extended it. There were three centers where they could make a decision what they wanted to do. They could be in the sandbox outside, at the table with play-doh or puzzles, or in the toy room with trains or the pirate ship. It was quiet and everyone played SO well together during this time. We didn't have any yellow cards until the end, when a couple of the boys were tired and ancy. It was magical!


* Picture Frame craft -- the kids are making picture frames to use as they wish, but also to maybe have a Joy School friends picture to put in. We just did painting today--they were very creative in deciding which colors to use, and where to paint on their frames. Next time we will decorate by gluing things on top. I have a wooden letter for each friend to put on representing their name, as well as other small decor. We invited each friend to bring a small item from home to glue on their frame next time (decision practice).


Lots of fun! Looking forward to next time and we'll be on-time. :)