wrapping it up

First of all, Sue and I both want to thank you again for all the love you showed us at the end of this school year.  Thank you for the many thoughtful gifts, the teacher appreciation luncheon, and our early birthday gifts!  We were spoiled!

Now let's get to the fun of the last days of school:
Water day was a huge hit, as we expected.  They all just jumped right in to the fun!  We emptied the rice table from our room and turned it into a water table, had a small pool, and another container of water for them to pour, dump, splash, and sit in :) We also had a fire hydrant sprinkler on for a little while.   Take a look...

We took a break to go to art, and this happened on the way there.  So cute.

 Then they made art in their swim suits!

 Then it was back to the water fun.   The girls started an impromptu game of musical water bucket...

 After lunch, the kids enjoyed a special water day treat from Ms. Sue.

 On the last day of school, we claimed this covered outdoor area as the toddler sidewalk where we made our mark in chalk!

 We traced everybody so they could see how big they've grown.

 We missed Ms. Sue, but took a class pic when we were finished here anyway.

 After lunch we enjoyed some ice cream with sprinkles and then blew bubbles outside.

We ended the day with our traditional music and lots more bubbles.  It was a really nice last day together.

I hope you've enjoyed going through the bag of all the goodies we sent home.  Lots of nice memories!  What a wonderful year it has been.  We love each child and are very grateful for the trust and support you've given us throughout the year.   Have a wonderful summer!  Hope to see you again soon...

Time flies...

Back in March, sweet nurse Katie (Graham's mommy) visited our class to share a little about her job. She was spectacular!  She brought pictures, nurse equipment and a package of band-aids for each of the children.  Thank you so much nurse Katie!

 Look at how interested all of the kids are during story time now.  Wow, they've come a long way in becoming great listeners!  We love it!

 In April, we've been talking about everything that God has made, right down to the tiny insects in the grass...here we let the children hide the insects in the tall, tall grass:

Of course, we talked about the Easter story.  We waved palm branches and sang, "Hosanna to the King" like they did on Palm Sunday.

We learned that Jesus is the lamb of God, and that he died and came alive again!  He is risen!

And, of course, we had an Easter egg hunt.  We hid them in fairly obvious places all over the gym.  It's always interesting to see who wants to find as many as they can vs. who just wants to find a couple and open them right away.

 We evened out the bags after, just to be fair :)

 How proud were you of your little ones at the spring sing along ???  Wow!  We were super impressed!

 The weather has been gorgeous, so we've been able to have lots of outside play time instead of going to the gym.  We took this opportunity to try and get a nice group pic...at least they are all looking at the camera ;)

 And I just had to include a few joyful bubble pics from backwards day.

Well, it's hard to believe that there are only two more weeks of school after this week.  We will keep it action packed and make the most of the time we have left before summer.  See you tomorrow for our last school day of April!

Bonus!

I'm doing a little bonus post today just to highlight a few great things from this week...

Our class got to participate in a trial motor skills class with Ms. Kristin (from My Gym) on Wednesday.  The other classes in the school do this regularly and we wanted to test it out with our group since they are such natural climbers :)  They did awesome!  And Ms. Kristen was wonderful with them.  I took as many pictures as I could, but our help was needed so I wasn't able to capture everything.  Here's what I got:

Warm up / stretches

 Up and over

 Balance walking

 Some fine motor work with frisbees

 And games and songs with this fort

 It really was so much fun and they did a great job!  If you are returning to TOT Time next year, motor skills will become a regular part of the schedule.  And since this trial lesson went so well, we are also hoping it may be something we can do with the Toddler class during the second part of next school year.  Go toddlers!

And then today, EVERYONE wore fun socks, along with spirit day t-shirts, to school to support Down Syndrome awareness!  Thank you so much parents!  We loved taking our shoes off for a bit, stretching our toes out and looking at ALL the different socks.

 Have a wonderful weekend!  Enjoy the gorgeous weather while it's here :)