It felt good this week to not have to carefully layer the children with rainboots, hats, and jackets. It's getting easier to get out the door after our snack, though changes of clothes happen before lunch with the need to shed wet, sandy pants and soaked socks. 
This week we planted our Scarlet Runner beans, cucumbers, swiss chard, and potatoes. Watering the garden has become an exciting task that is greeted with much enthusiasm! We are still playing in the wooded play area, but alas, I have pulled up poison ivy over the last week, and so our hikes in the forest will have to come to an end until next fall. 

 The children have enjoyed playing by the Easter egg tree inside. The eggs are actual blown eggs, but the children look very carefully and touch them so gently, there has only been one egg casualty when one just simply slid off the branch. Some sewn felt bunnies and felted eggs are under the tree, and the children right away created little stories to play together. We have started practicing our May pole songs together, and the children love to sing and skip around in a circle. They began working on their May crowns this week by painting coffee filters, what else? The children can paint til their heart's desire and they create a beautiful, slightly transparent paper that's stronger than tissue but more malleable than watercolor paper. A big win. 

This week was a busy week of crafting and baking. We dyed eggs, baked a special bread, filled eggshells with dirt and mud, and played in some newly created mud by our rainy Monday. We had guest "old school" visitors to join us this week, who brought fresh new ideas to our playtime. And with families visiting the beach as vacations are planned, one of the newest games has been to "drive a van to the beach". A playstand gets turned on it's side and children all pile in with their suitcases, snacks, and pets. There are stops to the gas station to refuel and get extra snacks. Then they get out at the beach and some children roll in the sand, some swim, and some prepare for the ride home. 

Using some of the Springtime crafts we've worked on over the past two weeks, we created little "Easter gardens". The children painted egg cartons and we put in the egg candles and felted eggs we made last week, and then added in the egg shells filled with dirt and moss and "planted" miniature mushrooms and flowers in them. The children also chose a little spring animal friend to place in their "garden". 

One of the children's favorite circle rhymes right now have been "Pitter patter raindrops" which is appropriate for this time of year. It's very easy and they love to do it faster and faster: "Pitter patter raindrops (on feet), falling on the tree tops (on head), falling on the garden beds (feet), falling on the children's heads!" 

A thorough, drenching cold rain welcomed us back from our spring break this week, but it brought with it many flowers to grace our playtime! It worked well because our story this week was about a kind grandmother who finds a baby fairy sleeping in a tulip in her garden. Despite the rain, the children still took time to water our garden each day. Maybe we'll be as lucky as the grandmother in the story! Once the weather cleared up, the children broke out the water and set to "painting" and scrubbing all of our toys and the garden stones. The warm change of weather certainly reinvigorated our outdoor play and energy! 

We have started work on our seasonal craft for Spring. We are making "Easter gardens" in egg cartons and each day making a little something (or two!) to put into our egg cartons. This week, the children helped pour not-too-hot wax into some egg shells for little springtime egg candles. They also wet felted some wooden and styrofoam eggs with wool. Soft wool is carefully wrapped around an egg form and then dipped in warm soapy water and squeezed gently until it begins to bind together. As it begins to bind and get tighter, the wool can be rubbed faster until it has completely felted itself around the form. It's a very interesting sensory experience and requires that children carefully squeeze and rub the wool without pulling  or stretching it; a strong exercise in self control! 
 
A fun little fingerplay I've been doing with the children has a strong rhythmical sound to it, and they just love it. It goes "Rabbit, rabbit, carrot-eater, said that there is nothing sweeter than a carrot everyday! Munch, munch, munch and run away!" See if they can do it for you. Our fingerplays are a much anticipated part of the day, and while stimulating many parts of their brain for language and fine motor coordination, they are simply great for settling the children down before a story.