Viscaya Gardens

 

Hello,

The holidays are upon us here at Viscaya Gardens and we have been quite busy these last few months.  Not only have the children been busy completing and turning in their homework on time, we have made time to stimulate their artistic side as well.  October was a great start to the fall, we had a Halloween pizza party and the children made lot's of creative crafts, dressed up and made skeleton cookies along with playing games like loteria, monopoly and other fun board games.  Come November we all got into the Thanksgiving spirit and made plenty of turkey and pilgrim fun crafts along with a coloring competition.  Now that December is upon us we are planning a Christmas party to kick off the Christmas spirit fun!  It's always a joy seeing the children this time of year as their eyes light up waiting for Christmas Day to arrive! Happy Holidays!

Joke of the Day

Q:  What kind of motorcycle does Santa ride?

A:  A Holly Davidson.


Q:  What do you call it when you have your Nana on speed dial?

A:  Instagram.


Q:  Why do ghosts hate to go to Prom?

A:  They have no body to dance with.

Lincoln Plaza

Hello Coordinators,

Since the Holidays are here, we here at Lincoln Plaza are getting into the spirit of the season by decorating our computer lab room with Christmas decorations.  This year, for our Christmas decorations, we have decided to decorate/paint nutcrackers.  Since we have done Santa's, Christmas Trees, Gingerbread men in the past, we decided to step it up.  I have assigned this activity in pairs and according to family size.  The families are so supportive and encourage their children to participate in all of our arts and crafts activities.  Like all my activities I make sure to cater the activity to the appropriate age group.  The younger children will be making their own nutcrackers out of clothes pins.  When I told them about the idea many of them asked if they would be able to decorate their nutcrackers with beards, swords and with gold trim.  I informed them that it's up to them to decorate their nutcrackers (personalize it to your hearts content).  I love this time of year simply because the children make me smile and get super excited when I let them know about the fun we will all be having with our arts and crafts activities during the Holidays.  Before I forget, we are done decorating our picture frames and jewelry boxes for our parents.  These are gifts we have decided to make so that each child can give to their parents on Christmas day. On a another fun note, we are building actual gingerbread houses from scratch this year.  The children are super, super excited and I can't wait to see their finished products, they are so talented!  Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas  Wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

 

 

 

 

Joke of the Day

Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly so they lit a fire in the craft.

Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you cannot have your kayak and heat it too.  Bahahahahaha!!!

Have a Great Day!!!

Joke of the Day

Q: If Frosty the Snowman and a vampire had a baby, what would they name it?

A: Frostbite!


Q: Do you know how to make a tissue dance?

A: Put a little boogie in it.

Casitas Del Sol

Casitas Del Sol created a bulletin board for the community room "Fall Into Reading" with some of the children's favorite book titles.  We also made cool cultural masks for Dia de los Muertos, representing the deceased.  We are working on Fall wreaths at the moment.  Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Parksdale II

Happy Holidays everyone!

Today the children are making a two sided blanket for the holidays.  Everyone brought two blank blankets/material for this craft activity.  The children cut approximately 2 inch slits around all side's and made knots with the slits creating a fun and simple design to their blankets.  Hope you try this, its fun and easy to do.  Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

 

Cottonwood Creek

Hello to one and all!

We have been beyond busy here at Cottonwood Creek but here is a small update on what we have been working on here at the computer lab.  We are working hard to make it look festive for the upcoming holiday.  The leaves are so beautiful this time of year, Autumn leaves changing colors brings a sense of calm to the world.  With that in mind we wanted to apreciate them as much as possible so we made prints of them by simply collecting some large leaves, painting the side with the veins and pressing them against white paper.  The children thought it was the coolest thing!  What's so great about it is that it is about a half hour project and half hour prep that involves taking a walk around the beautiful complex, enjoy the scenery and collect Autumn leaves.  How fun and relaxing!  Well for now I'll leave it at that but will send you updates as soon as we start on our Christmas decorations.  Hope everyone enjoys this very wonderful holiday, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

 

Sand Creek

Hello everyone, hope you're enjoying this month of November as much as all of us here at Sand Creek.  During the past month of October, children made lots of creative crafts like pumpkins, skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, bats and lots of scary stuff.  They also played some cool games like bingo and loteria (Spanish bingo) and won some really nice prizes.  Not like a car or anything crazy like that but cool stuff!  On Halloween day the children came dressed up as their favorite Halloween character, we also made fun food activities which involved them decorating their own cupcakes and playing fun games with one another.  The children are looking forward to the next fall festival that we have planned at the end of this month.  They have a full list of wonderful games and great craft ideas.  We hope everyone has a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

 

Villa Del Rey

Halloween 2014 has come and gone...the residents had so much fun!  Please enjoy the pics below...
until next time.

 

 

Goshen Village II

Hello!

Halloween is almost here.  Whew!  Fright Night, YEA!!!  The children have been working on Halloween decorations to have everything ready for the party on Friday.  They are so looking forward to the festivity and with the Giants winning the World Series, it's going to be an even better party.  Have fun everyone and please be safe if you're trick or treating...the weather forecast is calling for rain, which we are in desperate need of...please enjoy our decorations below.

 

 

Lincoln Plaza

Hello Everyone,

So a while back our supervisor sent us an email about keeping it safe and being safe. Well today at work it was brought to my attention that there has been a number of people dressing up like clowns, going through towns scaring and threatening people.  Not cool!  From my understanding this has been occurring in Tulare Co as well as in other neighboring counties.  So with that in mind my number one rule in life happens to involve being safe and aware of your surrounding at all times.  Since its getting darker earlier, I suggest as coordinators we walk our children home just to ensure that they get their safe.  I know I run my program until seven and by then its dark, so with efforts in keeping myself safe as well as the children safe, I will be walking them home to ensure they are all home and I can go home with peace of mind without worrying that a child went missing or a child was attacked.  Let's all do our part to be safe and please pass on safety tips to all your students in your after school programs.  Thanks for your time, until we meet again through this blog, keep learning fun and be safe.

Joke of the day

Something to make you go hmmm:

I've been doing quite a bit of thinking and I've come to the conclusion that their are 3 types of people in the world, those that can do math and those that can't.

Happy Friday Everyone...don't forget to smile today.

Washington Plaza

Hello, I’m sure everyone is having a good time preparing for Halloween. It is a time for excitement and spooky fun. By now you've probably heard of the game Minecraft and you may think it is just another game and a big waste of time but I see it differently. Let me explain...when kids grab a sheet of paper most of the time I see that they draw a house with their family, maybe a swing outside and they try to detail it as best as they can.  Well I've over heard several kids talking about Minecraft and thought I could probably find a free alternative online.

There are several to choose from and the kids really enjoy it.  They can design and build their own structures.  The children like building their own houses and comparing them with the other kids.  It's really fun to engineer and architect in this imaginary 3D virtual world.  The best part is that it is open ended. They may start to build one little room and before you know it, that one little room may develop and expand to a much bigger building snowballing into something huge!!!  Talk about cool creativity.  I think it really takes some wonderful imagination and creativity to play a game like this and not waste time with just another run of the mill video game.  We gotta keep the brain active and this video game definitely accomplishes that.  Games such as these may help to spark the next engineer or architect in the community...here's to making learning fun!

Parksdale II

Hello,

Today I'd like to talk about exercising.  What have you done today to get your heart pumping?  Do you have a regular exercise routine?  There are so many ways to exercise and get healthy each and everyday.  Today the children decided to exercise to "Just dance 4."  They really had fun dancing to it.  They even got to sing along to the music as they exercised.  How much fun is that!  Find out what you and your students would like to do around the theme of physical fitness and try something new.  It can be as simple as a walk around the park or as complex as a rhythmic dance routine...the point is to get moving for your health sake.  Please enjoy our action pictures below and try some fun physical fitness today.

 

 

Joke of the Day

Q:  What did the vegetables say at the garden party?

A:  Lettuce turnip the beet!





Q:  What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary?


A:  A thesaurus

Goshen Village II

Hello everyone!

This week the children have been very busy working on homework and art projects.  Please enjoy the photos below.  Till next time...

 

 

Cottonwood Creek

Hello Everyone Out There in Cyber Land!!!

We have been working on a few different things here at Cottonwood Creek.  Fall is definitely here!  Aside from working on homework and take home projects, we have also been working on writing stories (creativity/grammar/penmanship) and for the younger kids, we have been working on writing sentences (grammar/penmanship). What better way than by coloring a picture of choice and then having them write a story about the picture.  Our minds are full of information that can be channeled through our fingertips.  In between all the writing, I rewarded the children last week with a scary movie (not to scary) and some refreshing popsicles...this got the children pumped up about Halloween!

Needless to say, they loved it!  This week I have tried keeping everyone at bay with interesting info about our country, before we go on to Halloween overload.  Yay!  We have been learning and researching about each US state. We have even colored State flags and researched on line to learn more about each one.  The children have actually enjoyed it!  They have done such a nice job...I even made a window display for everyone in the complex to enjoy and learn a little bit more about our states in the union.  I can't wait for the month of October to roll around...it will be nothing but fun decorating the whole place for Halloween!  Can't wait to see all the other apartment complex's decorating ideas!  Until then I hope you have a great rest of the week!

 

 

Joke of the Day

Something to think about:


If attacked by a mob of clowns…go for the juggler…”



“I stayed up all night to see where the sun went…
 Then it dawned on me”



Have a great day everyone and don't forget to think today!

Rancho Lindo

Hello Everyone,

This week our computer lab room has been converted into a woodshop but first and foremost, I make sure our students do their homework and then read for 15 min before any arts and crafts activities begin.  Studies have shown that starting children to like reading at an early age greatly improves cognition / aptitude later in life.  Once homework and reading time is complete, I reward the children with some cool wood crafts, from a birdhouse, racecar, jet fighter plane, pirate ship, helicopter...it's so much fun and the children get to practice fine and gross motor skills.  I explain to them the importance of reading directions, looking at the picture on the package and common sense visuals to put the crafts together.  Hope everyone is doing well, until next time, have fun learning.

 

 

Sunrise Villa

Hello everyone,

This last month at Sunrise Villa has been great.  The children have been engaged with their arts and crafts as well as our physical fitness activities...for their participation, I've rewarded them with yummy candy.  Don't forget to brush those teeth kids.  We had some jump rope days a couple of weeks ago...it really is important to stay active and be fit!  We have also made crafts to decorate the room for the start of the school year.  We made tie dye glitter apples and some funky pencils.  The children have also been drawing their own pictures to put up on the wall as well.  Last but not least the children enjoy winning prizes when we play bingo.  Start of the year, it's time to concentrate on getting good grades.  I make sure to have each child work on homework before they get on the computer...I know that computer time is fun and educational but homework comes first.  Here's to a successful school year!!!

 

 

Joke of the Day

Q:  What did the old pirate say when the Police officer asked him his age?




A:  I’m eighty ( Aye Matey)

 

 

Sand Creek

The past few weeks at Sand Creek have been great!  During the month of August children got ready to go back to school.  They were so excited to meet their new teachers and make new friends and see old friends they haven't seen all Summer long.  We've recently been working on how each one of us can/should be better people by making positive changes within each of our lives.  If we want this world to be a better place, let's be nice and respect each other.  I also had the children work on some fun arts and crafts activities...from the picture below you can see they created cut outs of little people, which represent themselves and then I had them write a short paragraph about their own goals for this school year.  Children are amazing and we should help them think positive in order for them to meet their goals.  Hope everyone had a great Summer...now it's time to get ready for the Fall.  Halloween is right around the corner.