Caterpillar Wrapup

Today we are finishing up our Very Hungry Caterpillar unit.  It's stretched out for six weeks or so and everybody has really enjoyed it.  Tomorrow we'll begin some Dr. Seuss things and then next week will be full-on Seuss week.

I've tried to record our wall reading of the book before and usually somebody starts yelling about other stuff or falls off the couch or what have you.  I was pleased that today I finally got the whole thing on tape, so to speak.  It's 3 minutes so I don't know if it will even upload, but this is what we do every day.  I read the actual book during circle time while they're sitting, and then some days they like me to use the pointer for the wall pictures so that they can retell the story.  As you can see, they all have it memorized, even though some are more verbal than others.  :)  I'm looking at you, Miss Alice who isn't even two yet!!  You have to turn the volume to hear her, but she lists off ALL the foods that the caterpillar ate on Saturday when he got a tummyache.  It's kind of impressive.

Then for lunch I served as many of the foods from the book as I could find in my kitchen.  We had apple, strawberry, orange, tiny piece of chocolate cake and a smidge of ice cream, pickle, swiss cheese, and salami.  I really, really enjoyed watching Perdita's face while she ate her pickle.  She ended up spitting it out and I couldn't catch the twisted expressions.  She looks way too normal here.

All the gang, ready to eat!

 Digging in amidst discussion.

 Lady inspecting the cheese.

Here's a closeup of the plate.  I didn't allow seconds of the chocolate, even though it really was tiny bites.  They don't need it.  A couple of them didn't even touch it anyway.  I think only Alice and Mater ate it.  They all loved the fruit, of course, and several of them really liked the salami and cheese.  Alice and Mater chowed down on thirds and fourths of pickles too.

It's kind of an unorthodox lunch, but they all had a wonderful time and it initiated lots of fun lunch discussion.  I like that.

Sending home copies of the caterpillar book today for those few who don't already own it.  Green eggs and ham for breakfast tomorrow!!!

Dancing!!

I think they're really enjoying themselves!!  Lots of new things to learn- the hardest being SITTING while friends take their turn on the beam or the mat.  I took lots of pictures and some video too.  There aren't too many of the videos though where nobody's name is mentioned, so I'm not going to post those. 

Mimmie had a prior commitment next week that conflicts with our class time, so we'll start classes March 8.  She will prorate that month, so it'll be $30 plus the $20 registration fee.  $50 first month, $40 for following months.

They did some warm up moving and stretching, and danced for a few minutes.  Then she got out the balance beam.  They did walking, kicking, jumping, and backwards walking.

 Lady did well.  Mater was a little sad it wasn't his turn yet.  Mimmie made me laugh- she counted the lying down as sitting.  Thank you for sitting!  Now it's your turn!

 And then he was very happy, even with only one shoe on.

 And then he was sad again while it was Alice's turn.  Alice really wanted it to be her turn every time too- she kept getting up and trying to step on the beam.  Mimmie worked a lot with sitting and waiting for your turn.

 Perdita and her kicking feet!

 Remy jumping with a little help from Mimmie.

Girl Friday was the best at the backwards walk, which makes sense since she's the oldest.  She also had AWESOME sitting and waiting behavior.

Overall she said she was really impressed with them- even though they milled around for a bit and didn't like to wait at first, they all got the hang of it really quickly.  She always picked the one who was waiting the most nicely to go first.  That's a good motivator.  OH!  I don't get to take a turn until I sit down, and if I choose not to sit down at all, I don't get a turn at all?  Whoa.  I better sit down!

 Everybody did a quick job of sitting when it was time to get a stamp!

Some random dancing!!!  (saying that makes me want to do iCarly and Sam movements and that probably doesn't make sense to you unless you have older kids, but there it is.)

Enjoying...

Many things these days!!  Just to name a few:

• Perdita's word for milk sounds like gnocchi.  Or sometimes nookie.
• Alice's discussion of herself in the third person.  "Where's Alice?  What is Alice doing?  Alice's mommy loves Alice."
• Remy is the snuggliest thing ever.  He comes over thirty times a day to lay his head on me and pat me.
• Mater is having a letter explosion and goes around spelling out words.
• Lady usually wears her coat all morning.  She comes around and holds out an arm for me to take it off and when I say, "would you like me to take off your coat?", she laughs and says no.  
• Merryweather is chubby-cheeked and smiley and delicious.  She's getting really close to rolling over and I can tell she's dying to be mobile.
• Girl Friday is the social studies nerd of the group, which I love.  She reminds me a lot of Duchess at that age- she knows presidents and songs about states and all the capitals of South American countries.  Having a history teacher parent who sings a lot will do that for you.  I need to get my map back out and have her teach the others.  :)
• Looking forward to the upcoming enrollment of a fabulous new squishy one.  I haven't met her yet but her big sisters are adorable.  
• We've been doing The Very Hungry Caterpillar for over a month and they're still enjoying it.  There's not a lot of art coming home lately because they're really into all the gross motor activities- we crawl on the floor like caterpillars and run around flapping our wings like butterflies pretty much every day.  They do still really enjoy the painting and so we do that some.  I tell you what, send home a big cocoon painted brown, and you'll get big sisters asking why they painted poop at school.
• Speaking of a cocoon, O'Malley calls it a raccoon every time.  I sometimes correct him but I love it so much that I don't always.  He'll get it eventually.  Lady and Alice are starting to correct him so I don't have to, actually. 
• I think we'll do caterpillar stuff for the rest of February and then kick off Dr. Seuss week in March.  His birthday is March 2 and there's lots of fun stuff to do!  Plus Alice and O'Malley both have upcoming birthdays too and it's fun to just celebrate for an extended period.
• Oh!  And Ms. Mimmie is coming back to dance with us soon!  Everyone is very excited.  It's been a couple years since she did classes here but we've had great success in the past.

Closings and Events for 2013

In addition to my paid holidays for the year, I also reserve the right to take 4 paid personal days.  Any additional vacation days I take will be of no charge to you.  If you are on vacation, please remember that you must continue to pay to hold your child’s space.
 

Monday-Friday, December 31-January 4: closed. 

Friday, March 29: paid holiday for Good Friday, IF we do not have a bad weather day before then.  We will treat this day in accordance with the local school district and be open or closed along with them.

Monday, May 27: paid holiday for Memorial Day

Thursday, July 4: paid holiday for 4^th of July

Friday, July 5: paid personal day

Wednesday, July 24: paid personal day (sshh.  It’s Duchess’s 10^th birthday and I’m not telling her I’m taking the day off for her.  Sorry about the weirdness of being closed on a random Wednesday, but this will make her SO excited!!)

Monday, September 2: paid holiday for Labor Day

Tuesday, November 26: feast day, if we do it this year.  Depends on how many big kid helpers I have then and how many families are in town that day.

Wednesday, November 27: paid personal day

Thursday/Friday November 28/29: paid holiday for Thanksgiving

Monday, December 23: paid personal day

Tuesday, December 24: paid holiday for Christmas Eve

Wednesday, December 25: paid holiday for Christmas Day

Tuesday, December 31: paid holiday for New Year’s Eve

(Wednesday, January 1, 2014: paid holiday for New Year’s Day)