Utopia Preschool

Donovan: Down to his house! Fiona: Jupiter. Cause the moon comes out and the sun is shining through the moon. Chloe: It lives in the water. Cause I watch The Hungry Caterpillar and I see the sun go down and close it's eyes. Arden: To the zoo! She sees a giraffe. Cian: Get dark. And we can sleep.  Rylie: Maybe Jupiter? Cause that's his home. Rian: In the sand. Cause in the beach, there sand.  Ismael: In the ocean? Cause I've seen it in shells. Charlie: I don't know. I only know where the stars go in the day. It's too bright in the morning so we can't see them. Jude: Down. It's sleeping! [It goes down to] places to explore. Like in the woods. Kattaleya: It goes down because we have to sleep.  Pamela: Down here in the ground. So it can sleep, then we can see.  Lorelai: In the water. It goes somewhere else to wake up, then it goes up again to wake up someone else.  Emily: I think it goes behind the houses, down low. Because I seen it in the window. It goes down ...

With all the rain we received this month, the weather was all the children were talking about! We decided to take the children on a Rain Walk to look at the weather up close. Before the walk, we talked about special clothes and tools we use when it rains, like umbrellas, raincoats, hoods, boots, and windshield wipers. Then we went on our way! On our walk, we asked the children to pay attention to their senses: What did they See, Hear, Smell, and Feel? Afterwards, the children drew pictures of their observations. We also collected rainfall in cups to measure how much rain was falling each day. This activity supports the children's understanding of nature, our local environment, language development, fine motor skills, and numbers.  Avree, Mikey and Kattaleya jump in a puddle during the walk     Our Rainboots. We're the different and the same!  Teacher Mary collecting hail during the storm  Colin, Franco, and Donovan observing plants covered in raindrops  Mak...

After all the rain and wind this week, we were finally able to get some fresh air! The children were surprised to see so many branches, leaves, and debris that had collected on our yard. Many of them asked to help sweep it up and collect it into a large pile. This started some conversations about our environment and the weather. Lorelai asked, "What happens to the birds when there's a storm? Their house might fall down!" Other children noticed that with the ground being wet, their chalk drawings were a lot brighter and looked more like paint!  We expect more rain to come in the coming weeks. We hope to use this opportunity to investigate and learn with the children about the weather and world around us.   Charlie, Colin, and Fiona help sweep the debris from the big storm Aaron, Donovan, Charlie, Lorelai, Raegan and Colin use chalk to make drawings on the wet ground. They walk on top of Colin's chalk line, like following a treasure map.          ...