Feels like summer!  No?  Well, it did in class this week.  Our "Summer Vacation" theme inspired lots of imaginative play, memories of vacations past and anticipation of summer vacations and trips happening soon.  It sounds like every one is going to have a super fun summer this year!
     We enjoyed "class vacations" this week.  We visited the beach.  It was fun to pack up our suitcases, and drive, walk and fly to the ocean and splash in the waves.  We also went camping.  We built a campfire (and talked about never playing with matches and lighters and what to do if we saw any-tell a grown up!) and pretended to make s'mores.  We roasted our marshmallows over an open campfire and ate them up with chocolate and graham crackers.  Tegan said "Yum"  It is super fun to pretend BUT it is even more fun to really make s'mores!  Since we did not have a real fire to roast our marshmallows we made a s'mores salad.  We added the ingredients in a bag and then squeezed, mashed and shook everything up.  Lou was worried that they were toy marshmallows and chocolate chips so he was super excited when we were able to actually eat it.  Tegan again said "Yum!" but with a little more enthusiasm.
     Even though the sun was missing outside most of the week, we made sure to do a lot of summer sun art.  We painted with sunny colors, made paper plate suns, and wrote and illustrated a book called What We Like To Do When It's Summer.  Palmer said he likes to "Play that game outside in (his) grass" and Andy likes to "put toys somewhere and get pop sickles out."  Everyone agreed they also liked to get pop sickles out.  We painted with flip flops and everyone thought that was very silly and we all decided we should not do that with the flip flops we wear on our feet.  Our favorite project was our pool painting.  We all had to hold the swimming pool together and a ball would roll around through the paint as we moved the pool.  It was a great group project which required teamwork and cooperation and the paintings are beautiful.
     Our letter of the week was n!  N is for nice and nose.  We made n's covered in numbers.  We also made noodle necklaces.  Well, we began to make noodle necklaces.  Dylan M. decided to make a fishing pole instead and so all of the kids made fishing poles and Dylan led some of the kids on a fishing vacation.  They caught many fish and had a great time.  Neil even said the fish were very yummy.  Even though Kristin made a fishing pole too, she did write a rhyme about noodles for me.  "Noodle crack, noodle stack!"
     A big thank you to Aaren's big sister Ashlyn for being a teacher's helper last week.  It was so fun to have you with us, Ashlyn!
     Thanks also to the toddler class for making us the cutest graduation sign.  You guys are so sweet.  We love our "little" pals!