Playing on the playground!

The counselors set up paint at the easel with paper and brushes, as they have done many times throughout the summer. Today the children had another idea as to how we could use the paint at the easel. Eliza and Hannah decided to place their hands in the paint and finger paint the paper as well as the easel itself. Then they started to move the paint with their fingers up and down their arms. Lizzie liked their idea a lot. She came over to the easel and proceeded to paint her hands and arms with her fingers. When she was done, Lizzie announced, "I am an alien!" Zach was observing the activity at the easel for quite some time. When he approached the girls he asked them ,"Can I paint too?" He had a different idea, Zach picked up the paint brush and painted his hand then his arm with the brush only. Hannah and Eliza just finished washing off when they saw Zach painting with a paint brush. This inspired them to do the same thing! The girls then proceeded to paint their hands and arms with the paint brush.

At that moment I said to myself, "It does not get better than this, this summer has been great fun for children!" They have had the opportunity to play with sand, water, mud, paint, glitter, and glue outside on the playground!

Friendship Fruit Salad

Everyone brought in a favorite fruit from home to make a fruit salad for our special lunch, on the last day of Summer Fun! The children enjoyed dicing and slicing strawberries, melon, bananas, juicy watermelon, and apples. They placed the cut up fruit in a bowl and we all enjoyed the fresh fruit for snack and lunch.

Yummy Pizza!

Making pizza for lunch on the last day of Summer Fun was a big hit! The children spent a lot of time preparing the pizza dough. Then they used spoons to spread the sauce, and the finishing touch was sprinkling the cheese all over the pizza (some of which made it in to their mouth). Delicious!

2:00 Pick Up!

Hannah and Eliza were very excited to be staying until 2:00! As soon as they walked through the gate this morning they announced proudly, "I'm staying until 2:00!"

When the morning children left for the day, we all continued to play, play, play! Ryan made drums out of the plastic seats, Hannah, Micah, Rachel and Eliza decorated visors with fabric paint, Jacob created his own zoo with the animals and Lizzie played with the magnitiles. Let's not forget to mention that we took a walk down to the Community Room kitchen, and helped ourselves to a cool refreshing popsicle...YUMMY!

Working at the car wash!

The children washed the cars, the walls, the tables, you name it we washed it! Everyone had their own style or way! Some children washed the cars while sitting and other preferred to stand. By the end of the day the playground was sparkling clean!

Tomato Update...

Everyday Leo checks on our tomato plants and gives them water if they need it. According to Leo, "There are about eight green tomatoes growing, and the yellow flowers will grow tomatoes real soon!"

Clay Sculptures!

The children created clay sculptures with red clay, buttons and shells. Some children just had fun playing with the "cold wet clay", others had something very specific in mind they wanted to create. Ryan sat down at the table, looked at the materials and said, "I can't wait to make something complicated! I am going to make a complicated ship with oval buttons." I then asked Ryan, "What does complicated mean?" His response was, "It's something that is very, very tricky! My Dad told me that." Lizzie created a button and shell sculpture, Leo created a sculpture with buttons on the inside and outside and Jacob spent a lot of time creating a bunch of worms. Tomorrow the sculptures should be dry and ready to take home.

Face and Hand Painting

At summer fun today, the children had the option of having their face and/or hands decorated with a special face paint made from cold cream and food coloring. Rainbows, butterflies, and happy faces were everywhere.

How Refreshing

Check out how some of us kept cool today. There's nothing quite as refreshing as dumping a bucket of water over your head to stay cool in this summer heat . What fun!

Summer Birthday Celebration

Happy Birthday to you, Nathan!

It was Nathan's school celebration for his summer birthday. We made crowns, his mom Jenny came to read a story and we sang happy birthday in English and Hebrew.

Sea Shell Sculptures

This morning at summer fun we made sea shell sculptures in playdough.

Brett and Rachel hold the conch shells up to their ears to hear the ocean.

Jacob's Robots!

Jacob likes to draw many things but today he decided to draw robots all over the black top...A baby robot, a crying robot, a tired robot, and a robot named Jacob!

Check out Jacob's robots!!!!!!

Fun with letters!

Today the children had the opportunity to decorate a white box or brown paper bag. On Thursday they will use their bag/box to participate in a fun scavenger hunt.

Some of the children sat for a long time picking out letters and sticking them on to their bag or box. When Leo was done he was so pleased with his work! "I spelled DOK, TSB, 5LM, RUF!". Rachel took it a step further and decorated a large piece of paper with the letter stickers.

Respect all living things!

The children called all the teachers over to see a spider and it's amazing web on the slide. They were so excited to show off their discovery! We talked about how spinning webs takes lots of time and hard work. Then someone asked, "How are we going to go down the slide with the spider in our way?" I then asked, if anyone had any ideas, as to how we should handle the situation. Ryan said, "I know we can use the slide on the other side!" Another child suggested we move the spider to a different spot on the playground. Leo said, "We have to leave the spider alone so he can live!" Everyone agreed with Leo and used the other slide for the entire day!

Wow, what a great lesson for all of us to learn... Respect all living creatures!

Thanks Julia!

We all look forward to singing with Julia at the end of the day! The children put their belongings down and then find a comfortable seat...Under the tent, on a lap or a spot on the wall. It's a nice warm feeling to gather together at the end of the day with Julia and her guitar, to sing some of our favorite songs with friends and family!