Firemen!

Who knew so many different skills could be targeted with a touch and feel pool full of colorful eggs and plastic frogs?  We worked on colors, matched the top and bottom of the eggs, and used fine motor skills to get the top and bottom to fit just right.  We also used fine motor skills to push the tail of the frog to get it to hop, and we pretended to make the frogs hatch out of the eggs.  We also pretended that the eggs were real as I cracked them on Bristol and Ryan's heads and felt the eggs "ooze" down their hair and faces.  Once I opened that can of worms, it was hard to get all the kiddos to stop with that pretend play...so silly and so fun!

 On the playground today, Ryan was all about "starting his engine" as he initiated play with another little boy to race shopping carts around in circles.  After a while, they decided it was more fun to just crash their carts into each other.  Boys will be boys.... Bristol took it upon herself to try to stack her favorite balls on top of each other, but soon figured out that this was not going to work very well.  Great problem solving skills in action!  They both thoroughly enjoyed a good game of chase which ended with me picking them up and spinning them around in circles.  We had great eye contact and used great social interaction skills to request this game over and over again!

For Language Circle today we read the book, Fire Engines by Anne Rockwell.  I don't know a single child that doesn't have a fascination with firetrucks, and both Bristol and Ryan were very attentive during this story.  This book tells the story of a dalmatian puppy who wants to be a fireman, and he takes the reader for a tour of the firehouse pointing out the different types of trucks, ladders, pumps, hoses, hydrants, sirens, and flashing lights.  As always, we used picture cues to further comprehension.  After reading the book we made our own 5 Little Firemen.  Using Bristol and Ryan's handprints in red paint, we added circular heads on each finger, red hats, a hose, and painted some blue water coming out of the hose.  Surprisingly, neither one of them minded having their hands painted or being messy!  Then we read a short poem that went went with our artwork.

Once we finished our masterpieces, Bristol and Ryan wanted to continue using do-a-dot paints to create their own pictures, and then we got out some play dough for some more fine motor strengthening play.  We made circles by pressing the tops of the play-dough containers into the dough.  We rolled the dough into balls and pushed them back and forth to each other, using our signs and words for "go!".  Then we created snakes, alligators, giraffes, dinosaurs, and Christmas trees.  What an assortment of random items that kept them totally engaged and attentive!      

It was such a great day for both kiddos today.  Have a wonderful weekend!  We are looking forward to learning all about Thanksgiving and turkeys on Tuesday and can't wait to share a feast with all the parents and kids.