This month in Moonbeam we are learning about spring, growth and lifecycles. Our Moonbeam gardeners have been having fun in the sensory table. It is full of organic soil and gardening tools such as- shovels, rakes and plant pots. As an experiment, we added some dry beans for the children to examine and play with.  We were interested to see if anything would happen to them. We were very surprised to see them sprout and try to grow roots, shots and leaves. It was a great hands on opportunity for the children to examine the different parts of a plant in close up. Outside, the children really enjoyed working together to plant cucumber plants in “Peggy’s Garden”. Everyone worked really hard to weed our area and very carefully put in the plants. Many children got excited to make a connection between this activity and their home gardens. Through taking care of our plants we are learning about the similarities and differences between living things.

We are looking forward to receiving our caterpillars which we will take care of and observe how they change into butterflies. Moonbeamer’s are learning new songs about the lifecycle of butterflies, and of course we are reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and making lots of art work to help reinforce all the new concepts that the children are learning.

In addition, we were very fortunate to have a visit from Hunter; Oren’s dad. He brought in his banjo and entertained us all with classic songs such as “Old MacDonald” and “Hokey Pokey” The children loved it and they were especially pleased to get an opportunity to touch and play the banjo at the end.

We took a walk to Pierce Pond to enjoy the beautiful spring weather, and played with balls, bubbles and hugged some trees! We even found some frogs that the children were able to hold them in their hands, before watching them hop away.

Have a great summer!