January Library Day

Sorry, no pictures for this one.  Our photographer was home with sick kids and no one else remembered a camera.

We started with an inspiring lesson from Rachel on music and dancing.  She showed the kids a clip from the old Classic, Singing in the Rain.  It was the "Make Em Laugh" number and the kids loved it.

After our opening (prayer, song, pledge) we read The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster and Chris Raschka and had a fun discussion while we read.  Some of the kids shared things with us that they were excited about.  Especially interesting were Sam's home grown crystals.  Wish we had a picture of them to put here (hint, hint, Andrea;).

Next was stations.  We colored valentine's that we will be delivering to the rest home we visited at Christmas Time.  We also played a memory game.

At the end, Rachel talked to the kids about music and had Andrea show and play her violin.  Rachel talked with them about how the violin sounds and then told them to listen and see if they could hear the violins in a piece of music she shared with them.    Finally, she got them all dancing "Make em Laugh" style.  They had the best time and it was hilarious to watch.

Halloween Library Day

We had such a great time at the library today!  The kids all wore their costumes and we found it amusing that so many of them were animals.

We read the story A Mother For Choco and talked about families.  (Really great adoption story and helpful for teaching kids that appearance doesn't matter.  Choco is a yellow bird who is adopted by Momma Bear who has also adopted an alligator, a pig, and a hippo.)

Then we had 3 stations: painting miniature pumpkins, matching animal pictures with their habitat (jungle, ocean, savannah, farm), and making a spiderweb out of yarn, chairs, and people.

When LaDonna gets the pictures up you'll be able to see how fun it was!

May Class

Today we had only two families at the library.  Andrea read Horton Hatches the Egg to us and we had a good discussion.  Great story!

For stations Andrea brought a seed experiment that her family did this month.  They planted bean seeds in paper cups with potting soil.  One of the cups they watered regularly but kept in a dark cupboard.  One of the cups they kept in sunlight but didn't water.  One of the cups they watered and kept in sunlight.  The results were very interesting.  I don't know what the time frame was.  The unlighted plant was long and pale with pathetic leaves and a weak, floppy stem.  It looked like it was searching for light.  The unwatered plant had barely surfaced from the soil and was green.  The lighted and watered plant was a healthy green, had a strong stem, broad leaves, and it was shorter than the unlighted plant.  Andrea initiated a discussion with the kids on the differences between the three plants and then the kids got to plant 3 cups for themselves to duplicate the experiment at home.

I brought things to estimate.  I brought a clear plastic container with about 100 dried beans in it, a plastic bag with about 30 blocks in it, and a smaller bag with about 20 plastic baby forks and spoons in it.  I also had a paper with prompts and a timer so kids could see how many times they could jump up and down or touch their toes or say Peter Pumpkin in a minute and how long they could hold their breath.  I encouraged the kids to guess how many things were in the containers and then count them.  I also encouraged them to guess on the physical feats before they attempted them.  The 100 beans were a little too much for the oldest kids.  The physical feats were a great way to use up energy.  I think I'll do another version of this station someday.

Stations from Oct 09' to Apr 10'

I'm doing my best here to remember all the things we've done over the last year.  I know I'm forgetting things.  Help me out Andrea and Rachel.

Making hygiene kits to donate to LDS Humanitarian Services (we've done this a couple times)
Making personal mail boxes (inspired by the Post Office in Little Women)
Painting eggs
Making posters of the Solar System
Magnets (all sorts of games/experiments)
Playing with telephone wire (same month we visited the telephone museum)
Skipbo
Blocks
Toy horses
Making batteries
Stringing Popcorn
Sound Bingo