We are already at the end of July and had so much fun under the rain!

It has been unusually rainy but that did not stop us much. We welcomed some new friends at school , and for some of them it was their very first experience in a group. All children did quite well at adjusting to their new experiences.

This month we have explored different places in the forest. Children love to go to the pond and observe the water. They rarely can keep their boots dry when we get close to the water, but that's ok it is part of the discovery. Childdren like to throw rocks in the water and observe the birds, ducks and dragonflies

At school we have bben busy with a few projects. the children helped make a mural inspired by the book "Rainbow fish".

They first had to paint the background. We poured paint on a big paper and had the children in charge of spreading to cover the whole surface.

In a second step we mimicked the botton of the ocean by adding sand on the paper. Each child had an opportunity to decorate thier own fish that we added on the wall decor. Our classroom looks quite beautiful with our Rainbow fish decor!

Inside or outside children enjoy a lot of playtime, or sometimes like to get challenged with some games or new puzzles. Pretending cooking is a favorite in the classor in our mud kitchen. Usually children make small groups or larger groups based on their interest at the moment. Their pretend play around the kitchen can last for quite a while especially if they are cooking for their teachers.

  • Collecting shelves mushrooms for mushroom soup!

On our hikes we have a few stops and children like to practice climbing. They like to try again and again and are really proud once they make it to the top!

Teachers don't help they just watch and encourage the process. They also like to climb the little wooden structure in our back playground.

numerous times the children observe the little creatures on the ground and wonder who they are and what they do. We even have magnifying glasses for this.

Some days have been soooo rainy but we made the best of it!

Splashing in puddles, running under the rain, going under the gutters and feeling the rain over our heads. It provided us with an interesting sensory experience. Some children liked it a lot and some others went to shelter under the pavillion.

So much rain makes mushrooms grow a lot and children loved to discover them as we hiked in the woods. All sizes and colors, we have seen so many. Ms Evelyne even found some that she took home to eat them. But we mentioned many times that we do not want to eat mushrooms or berries that we just find in the forest without makeing sure it is edible. It is also food for the animal so we have to make sure we leave it for them to eat.

Our pumpkin vine is growing more and more and doing beautiful flowers!

This past week we made spiders with pretzels and marshmallows, and ants on a log with pretzels rods and peanut butter. For some reason a lot of children wanted to do a spider!

The past week we painted rocks with vibrant colors, they might transform into creatures!

This month gave us plenty of opportunities to observe animals. Children dug for worms, observed insects, and bay frogs . We released Monarch butterflies and found a baby bird that we rescued for a few weeks. He is now almost fully grown up, he still has to learn to get his full supply of food by himself to be completely independent.

At first we did not really know what to do with the baby bird and if we should keep him but after calling a good number of rescue centers we realised nobody wanted to take him so we did our best to help him. It has been a wonderful experience for the children as they have shown patience, empathy and care for the little bird. They also made sure to dig for worms to feed him and some days provided a full little container of food for him.

In the past 2 weeks the birdie has gone from being unable to move and being so fragil to being flying on his own and now starting to get more independent and get food on his own. The children have definitely contributed to this successful adventure.

We are ready for our second part of summer.

Let's see what August brings us!