Wow!!! It's the time of year at Nonotuck when everything winds up changing at a breakneck pace!
We have lots of updates for you, so lets jump right in!
First up; The Birds...
On Wednesday, June ninth, we snuck a camera out to try and take a photo of the babies before Mama Robin came back from gathering worms. This is what we found;
Look! Feathers!!!
No more little naked chicks with bulgy eyes. Just a trio of tiny birds!
The following Monday, we snapped another photo.;
No more babies???? We were worried for a moment, until a parent who was doing some work on the playground over the weekend told us this story;
"while I was working I noticed the Mama Robin hanging around on the playground fence. Then I heard her call out to her babies, and they all came scurrying down to the ground. She sort of coaxed them over to her and after a little bit, the babies all flew off and joined her in the trees around the playground!"
How lucky that he was on the playground to witness this! Good luck, little Robins!
Next up: Silkworms...
Our silkworm larvae continued to eat, and eat, and eat! This photo was taken on Thursday, June twenty-fourth;
(You can't really see a whole worm, but they are about the length and width of an adults pinkie finger.)
When we came in on the following Monday, this is what we found;
Making a cocoon
Finally, Pupa!!!! The Frogs have been pretending to be pupa, wriggling inside imaginary cocoons while changing into their insect forms, for weeks. We are delighted that the silkworms have finally caught up with them!
Speaking of transformations....
Last up; The Frogs!!!
The Frogs are changing too!!! Our first batch of "Senior Frogs" is orienting to the Possum room this week. We also have a few children who will be leaving Nonotuck soon to move on to new schools. Way back when we were waiting for our chickens to hatch, we devised a method to help the children keep track of how many days were left until the chickens (hopefully) came out of their eggs. We made a long paper chain with twenty-one links, and removed one link every day during circle time. Since chicken eggs typically take 21 days to incubate, when all of the links were gone, our chickens started to hatch! The Frogs really loved this ritual, and we could really see how it made waiting patiently for a big event easier. With this in mind, we made each child their very own paper chain, with one link for every day they have left in the Frog room. Every day during circle, everyone removes a link and counts how many are left. When all the links are gone, we have a special something for each child to keep in recognition of all of their growth in the Frog room (more on that in our next post!) We also made a paper chain for someone who is not technically a Frog, but has nonetheless been an integral part of the Frog group, as well as Nonotuck as a whole. This week, we removed the last link on the chain we made for Margery Heyl. Over the last thirty-ish years, Margery has been a parent, teacher, and most recently director at Nonotuck. On Wednesday, we celebrated Margery's immeasurable contribution to the Nonotuck community with a breakfast party on the playground, where we dedicated a beautiful flowering pear tree that was planted in her honor.
Thank you, Margery, for all you have done for Nonotuck, and for Early Childhood Education in Western Massachusetts! We will miss you!
You can give them a problem to solve, like "How do we get the toys out of there?"
...and then talk about the experience together.
You can ask them to bring in something to share with the whole entire group...
...something from their yards...
Whatever we do, it seems that sharing experiences and then reflecting back on them, over, and over, and over again, takes this group of toddlers, with different ages, interests, and levels of ability, and turns them into "Frogs".
