Parksdale II

I had the children participate in an awesome activity today...we all got together and made caramel apples!  Fall is in the air!  These are so easy to make and are so appropriate for this time of year as we approach the Fall festivals.  As you can see from the pictures below we also made shapes with our yummy fruits.  Enjoy our yummy pictures.  ^_^

 

Parksdale II

Today I had the kids make their own posters...time to be creative!  The kids cut out some of their favorite things from a variety of magazines.  Part of this exercise was to cut out names and quotes that we all use in life, common phrases if you will.  Some had really good ideas...pictures to follow.  I also did my own poster and I had a great time putting this poster of pictures and sentences with names together letting our imagination run wild.  I realized after doing this activity that I have so much to learn from these kids because as they're getting older, new things just pop into their wonderful minds...enjoy this beautiful weather and take time to enjoy the view where ever you are.

Cottonwood Creek

Hello Everyone and happy first week of Fall!

I am so exited...first of all because of the beautiful weather that we have been having lately!  We have finally been able to go outside the whole hour with the kids and they have been absolutely loving it!  Since the weather has really been good to us here in Madera I took full advantage of it and decided to head outside and have free play on Monday!  The kids loved it, some were playing dodge ball and others were playing with the hula hoops we have!

The children asked me if they could show me a few games they had created and of course I eagerly watched!  They also asked if they could play the games they showed me the next day and they also put on a show with hula hoops, juggling, and magic! WOW!!!  (They were still crazed about the movie we had watched a few weeks back...(Madagascar 3)...the next day they practiced for a bit then they put on the show! They raced the hula hoops, juggled and "made magic...it was so much fun

Someone even brought bubbles and they tried to see who could get the biggest bubble out of the bunch!  The next couple of days I took advantage of a lecture/teachable opportunity...I wanted to teach them about illusions and hypothesizing.  It took us the next couple of days to explain what hypothesizing was and what we were going to do.  Science at work.  I wanted to keep it real simple so I went to the dollar store and got some of those growing capsules that turn into animals when they expand with water.  First I showed them all the materials we were going to use and wrote it on our worksheet.  Next we defined what hypothesis was and we then hypothesized what was going to happen with the materials as we implemented the procedure.  I had them write that down (so we could have something to compare to actual vs. hypothesis).

I instructed the children on what to do step by step:

1. Take a cup

2. Fill it with water

3. Take capsule and put it in cup

4. Let sit for about 1 hour (in our case until next day)

5. Explain what happened (by today the capsule would've busted open and the figure would've formed)

6. Ask the children to write if their initial hypothesis was true

Last week was so much fun and the children learned so much but they didn't even notice it because they were so preoccupied in hypothesizing in knowing what the capsule really was!  It was great!  Also, an update from last post about the fair, I finally got our fair collage of drawings and paintings together and am now looking forward to decorate and have lots of fall activities! Enjoy and Happy Fall!!!

 

Parksdale

Today is Tuesday September 19, 2013 and we are having some free time. The children have been really busy with school and focusing on getting good grades.  So today the kids decided to play candy land and take a mental break. It's such a fun game to play.  It's a simple racing game...The race is woven around a storyline about finding King Kandy, the lost king of Candy Land. The board consists of a winding, linear track made of 134 spaces, most red, green, blue, yellow, orange or purple.

The remaining pink spaces are named locations such as Candy Cane Forest and Gum Drop Mountain, or characters such as Queen Frostine and Gramma Nutt.  The game is won by landing on or passing the final square and thus reaching the goal of the Candy Castle; the official rules specify that any card that would cause the player to advance past the last square wins the game, but many play so that one must land exactly on the last square to win.

Everyone have a great day!

 

Parksdale II

Yesterday we had a special birthday party because it was Elizabeth DeLeon's birthday.  Elizabeth is a very out going person...she can make your day in an instant.  Elizabeth can make you smile even if your not having a good day.  Wow!  What a special gift to have and to share.  So today Parksdale II wants to wish Elizabeth a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

 

Joke of the Day

Q:  Why don't oysters give to charity?



A:  Because they're shellfish!!!    LOL!!!

Cottonwood Creek

Hello everyone!  We've been fast at work doing lots of activities!  To begin with, last week when we celebrated the Labor Day holiday we colored and learned about why we celebrate the holiday.  The kids did a great job coloring and explaining why we should appreciate all members in our community.  After this I noticed that some of the kids have lots of trouble spelling and putting sentences together so I decided to put together some common words that they use and put them in a spelling list so the kids can practice.  The older kids wrote about their future career and got to do a little research on the career they are interested in.

This past week the kids were so excited because the fair was in town, naturally they were talking about the trip they were going take with the school.  So we got to color some pages depicting some things you would do at the fair.  The kids were sooooo pumped that today they wanted to share all about the weekend and what they did at the fair with their friends.  I took this chance to have them be creative and abstract and draw something they saw, did, or hear at the fair.  What they came up with was great because I didn't give them too much they couldn't draw so it was pure imagination that they put on paper.  Enjoy!!!

Rolling Hills

Hello to all Coordinators.  Here at Rolling Hills we have been very busy all summer long...we've been involved in some spectacular activities...We have been bike racing, face painting, Mission Impossible day games, blow the biggest bubbles day, bring your own stuff animals day.  All the students had a blast.  Since it's back-to-school, we're focusing on homework and good grades.  Be cool, stay in school!

 

 

 

Lincoln Plaza

Hello Coordinators,

Here at Lincoln Plaza we have begun to decorate our computer lab with various Halloween crafts. Our focus this month and next is to get the computer lab in haunted house mode in order to give us that Halloween and Fall spirit. We have started to create some spiders and some haunted mansions. This week we will be doing some spider webs and some creepy spiders. However, since football season begins this week, many of the boys saw some cool football team flags and have asked me numerous times if we can do one to kick off football season.

After much thought I feel that we will be doing these flags this week too. After reflecting on various learning lessons this past week, my advise to all of you is, we aren’t just coordinators nor helpers, we are educators and role models for these kids as well. So no matter what happens at our sites, we must remember to always keep our cool...I am deeply appreciative of the work we do because we do a lot for these children. AFTER ALL THEY ARE THE FUTURE!

Here are some spiders our kids have created!!!!!! getting ready to finish that Haunted House and our spider webs. Enjoy!