Swinging into Blackberry Blossom
We had a fantastic first week at Blackberry Blossom. Thank you to all the children, parents, and staff for joining our community and supporting our goal of getting kids outside. You would think that the first week of September would be perfect weather, but nothing could be farther from the truth. It was in the upper nineties! But of course the kids beat the heat with no problem. We spent our time in the shade, playing in water, and lapping up that vitamin D. We had some epic water play this week. Lots of splashing, tossing, hosing, running, and lounging in it. One of the children’s favorite games was putting a kink in the hose while it was attached to our lobster sprinkler. Then they would send one “unassuming” person to see what was wrong with Mr. Lobster. Was he sick? Was he injured? Then they’d let ‘er rip! It never got old, especially when I was the “unassuming” victim. They also enjoyed hauling water up to the top of the playground, filling reusable water balloons, and throwing them at targets made of tires or to people holding buckets and pans.
In addition to water play, we definitely enjoyed some mud as well. One day, we filled up the wading pool and instead of getting into it, we filled it with sand, mud, “herbs”, and bark to make a GIANT vat of soup. We played with monster trucks in the mud, and then we took them to the “car wash”. In the mud kitchen there was a lot of transition between parallel and collaborative play as the kids navigated sharing, planning, and communicating with one another.
The kids really worked on their hand muscles and fine motor skills this week. We used spray bottles to paint paper, each other, and our environment. We used droppers to transfer colored water to other containers. We made shape mosaics with tiny, beautiful objects (and did a lot of dumping too!). We even excavated dinosaurs and woolly mammoths that were frozen in ice!
Finally we read lots of great books. The kids loved hearing me read picture books to them while they snacked and lunched. I already visited the library again and went way over my limit for the coming weeks. All in all, Fluffy and Snuggle Bear would agree that it was a great first week!
