Trip to the Dentist Office

Lifetime Dental Care invited us for a visit to their office to meet Dr. Brier and to see what he does there for the community. Dr. Brier showed us what a dentist does, how the tools look and feel and how we can keep our teeth healthy.

It was a fun trip with lots of funny and exciting things to do and see. The kids enjoyed a cartoon about sealants and had fun putting on Dentist garb, ie. rubber gloves and masks.

They all got to take home floss and tooth brushes. It was a good field trip.

Plant a Tree

We had a great time with our Arbor Day celebration. Not only did the kids get to participate fully on Arbor Day by planting a tree. They were able to witness how people work together to make our community a better place. Matt Watkins, City of Pasco Mayor Pro-tem came and helped and we had a lot of help from the City Parks Facilities manager, Dan Dotta. I was told that this is the last step for our city to become a Tree City USA! It was great for the kids to be a part of such an important community event. We really appreciate the support and help we got from the City of Pasco. It was a wonderful event that the kids will remember for years to come.

The BBQ we had afterwards was great as well. The kids earned the money for the BBQ by selling over 2,000.00 worth of candy bars! The proceeds went to support our CampFire USA council and all of the wonderful things they do. The kiddo's did a great job for their first candy sale ever. Everyone played with bubbles and played on the park toys and enjoyed all the hot dogs and burgers they could eat. It was a fantastic day!

Ecology/Discovering Nature

With our big Arbor Day celebration right around the corner we decided to do the trail to nature, Ecology and Discovering Nature. The kids pre-meeting activity was a online interactive program with Pierre the Acorn and a tutorial about trees called Trees are Terrific - Travels With Pierre run by the University of Illinois Extension. As soon as that was done we sang our Hello song and started the meeting. Lots of business including discussion of a thank you note from the Cathedral of Joy Clothing Ministry for the clothes we donated, we talked about the money we earned from the candy sale and about ways we can use it including the arbor day picnic, we talked about Arbor Day and about the helping the City of Pasco plant a tree next week. The kids are excited, I'm excited... It's going to be a lot of fun. We have a back log of emblems to hand out so last night the kids each earned 3 and were very proud and happy!

We talked a lot about trees and the parks and how they help us and the animals in the park. We talked about different animals and where they live. We did a finger play poem and two "Bird Motion" activities.

Houses

(hands cupped together)
This is a nest for a robbin.
(hands fist clasped in the other hand)
This is a hive for a bee.
(Form a hole in the fist)
This is a hole for a rabbit.
(Put finger tips together forming a triangle)
This is a house for me.

Hatching

Here is a general idea of what you can say to create the hatching experience with young children. Say, "Close your eyes. Curl up very small; as small as you can. Lie on your side. Think how dark it is inside your egg. Yes, you're in an egg! You're tiny and curled up and quiet. It's very dark. Very warm. But now, try to wiggle a little--just a little! Remember, your eggshell is all around you. You can wiggle your wingtips a bit, and maybe your toes. You can shake your head just a little. Hey! Your beak is touching the eggshell. Tap the shell gently with your beak. Hear that? Yes, that's you making that noise. Keep tapping. A little harder. Something is happening. The shell has cracked--oh, close your eyes. It's bright out there. Now you can wiggle a little more. The shell is falling away. You can stretch out, stretch to be as long as you can make yourself. Stretch your feet. Stretch your wings. Doesn't it feel good, after being in that little egg? Stretch!! You're brand new--can your stand up, slowly? Can you see the other new baby birds?"

Little Birds

One child can be the mother bird and the remainder of the children can act out the story.

All the little birds are asleep in their nest.
All the little birds are taking a rest.
They do not even twitter, they do not even tweet.
Everything is quiet up and down the street.
Then comes the mother bird and tapped them on the head.
They opened up one little eye and this is what was said,
"Come little birdies, fly way up in the sky."
Fly, fly, oh fly away, fly, fly, fly
Fly, fly, oh fly away, fly away so high.
Fly, fly, oh fly away, birds, can fly the best.
Fly, fly, oh fly away, now fly back to your nest.

Snack was decorating tree shaped cookies and apple juice.

Our last project was making bird feeders.

Simple Bird Feeders

Leave bread out for a day or so.
(I cheated and used the oven on low for a few hours)
Use a popcicle or craft stick, "drill" a hole through the bread somewhere close to the edge (but not too close).
Tie a piece of yarn through the hole.
Using the craft stick,spread peanut butter on the bread.
(We used Adams, its probably better for the birds)
Then cover the peanut buttered bread with bird seed.
Hang in a tree for the birdies to enjoy!

Travis Pfister Memorial

I took the kids to the Travis Pfister Memorial, we stood amongst hundreds of people to give our support to the family of a fallen soldier. It was a fantastic community event, the kids were very happy to be a part of it. I have to admit when we first arrived I was very choked up, I cried and cried, it was an awesome experience. The memorial was on a Sunday so many of our members were not able to attend but we tried to represent them the best that we could. Probably the most heart warming part of the whole event was when motorcycle clubs around the region rode in with more than 400 bikes and flags. Again, it was a great experience and a teriffic way to help the kids get involved with the community.

Water and Plants!

Picking up from where we left off on our field trip to McNary Wildlife Refuge, our horticultural studies continued with discovering (or review) of how plants live and grow and how plants benefit us. The kids colored and constructed their own "plants" placing all the parts, ie. roots, stem, leaves, blossom, where they belong. We talked a little about where plants can grow and how they stay healthy.

We opened the meeting with the song, Hello Hello and a quick review of our field trip to the refuge.

Ken, a helpful dad, joined us to talk with the kids about surface tension and play in the water a bit. Using skim milk he demonstrated how surface tension holds milk in a blob on the table. The kids put some food coloring drops in bowls of milk and then watched the colors explode as Ken broke the surface tension with liquid dish soap. OOOHHH, AHHHH!

We had a talk about plants that we get food from and as a group made a fruit salad. The kids loved being able to cut up fruit and add them to the salad bowl. But being able to eat the project afterwards was the best part.

Lori led the final project, little buddies. Our form of a "chia pet" small plastic cups decorated with faces on them. The kids filled the cups with soil and then sprinkled grass seed on top. They got to take the buddies home with them to care for and watch grow.

We closed with our closing song, Make New Friends.

McNary National Wildlife Refuge Trip

On February 10th we went to the McNary National Wildlife Refuge in Burbank, WA. It was a great experience for the kids to see how some people in our community work to help wildlife and the environment. We met a volunteer at the refuge named Naomi who led us on a tour of the grounds and facility and helped introduce the kids to a basic awareness of the world around them. The natural vegetation was great and there were hundreds of birds for the kids to see. The kids also had a great opportunity to participate in an invertebrates activity. It was a lot of fun, I'm sure we'll go visit the refuge again in the future.

Trail to Creativity and Valentines for Veterans

Last night was a fun filled meeting with sensory art. We started with a pre-meeting activity of play dough. We had the kids describe how it felt and moved and how it even smelled. (We put peppermint oil in some and packets of invisible cool aid mix in others for scents, some we left plain for that scent too)

Play Dough Recipe
1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 c. water
2 tbsp. oil solid (like Crisco)
1 tsp. food coloring any color you want

Combine all dry ingredients in a saucepan.
Gradually stir in 1 cup water and oil.
Add food coloring.
Cook over medium/high heat.
Stir constantly until ball forms.
Remove from heat.
Place dough on table and knead until smooth.

Then Edna led the group in the special Valentines for Veterans activity. The kids discussed what veterans are and learned that they are not people who take care of animals when they are sick. After discussing what the kids could do to say thank you to veterans they decided that making valentines would be appropriate. They took pre cut hearts and stickers and crayons and made valentines and we mailed them to the main office in Spokane after the meeting.

I talked with the kids about solids and liquids and gasses. We played a game where the kids took pictures of solids and liquids and separated them into the correct groups. We then made and played with GOOP! or Slime or Oobleck or whatever you want to call it. A concoction made up of cornstarch and water that can be both a solid or a liquid. The kids again were asked to describe the characteristics of the substance and to just have lots of fun with the activity.

Slime Recipe
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups cornstarch

mix untill well blended
add food coloring if you want

Trail to Creativity: 2nd Meeting

What a fantastically fun Camp Fire Meeting! The kids had a blast. Everyone was laughing so hard, some parents even had tears in their eyes from the laughing fits.

We started the meeting off with Shaving Cream Fun... The kids played with piles and piles of shaving cream, feeling it, smelling it... writing their names with it drawing in it. Loads of fun and easy to clean up (we used two lg, plastic lawn bags cut in half here for a table cover).

Next 3 nursery stories were read to the kids. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Gingerbread Man and The Three Little Pigs. The kids were then given supplies to make puppets and worked on puppet shows to perform for eachother. It was a blast! Edna, a parent helper, narrated and the kids would act out the appropriate parts. The kids had such a good time and learned a lot about planning and following through with a "performance".

The "stage" was simply a expandable shower curtain rod placed in an entry way with a blanket over it... cheap, easy, perfect!

First Patches Earned

Everyone in the Club Recieved Their First Patch for
Trail to Knowing Me: My Family and Me
We did the flag salute for this very special meeting!

We Started a New Trail, The Trail to Creativity.
In this trail the kids explore and express
themselves through a variety
of musical, dramatic play and art.

After we learned some finger plays
ie. Bear Hunt and Baby Shark.
We cut out outlines of our feet and taped them to the floor.
We then played a listening game where we ran in a big
circle and then when the music stopped we would find our
"foot prints"and go back to them.
This was the favorite activity of the evening.

Then as we explored more of music and creativity
we listened to two different types of music and then we
listened again and colored with the music. We drew
how the music made us feel or whatever
the music made us think of.

During snack time we played: What is it?
Where the parent helpers would play a musical instrument
while the kids would guess what musical instrument it is.

At the end of the night we played simon says.
The kids would follow Simon as he led them through
acting like animals doing contrasting sounds.

STOMP LOUD like and Elephant!
creep quietly like a Cheeta!

We closed up by singing Make New Friends.

December

December started off with a club skating activity at Rollarena in Richland. We're so far away from our council in Spokane that it's pretty riduculous for us to try to get up there for council activities like skating and hiking. So I went ahead and contacted the local Rollarena and got us a club discount so that the kids would still have fun "club" activities to do. We had a pretty good turn out about half of the club +siblings and parents came to rollerskate for two hours on the first saturday of December. We had such a great time I'm sure we'll do it again soon.

We finished up two trails in December. Both in the Family & Community Unit. A Gift of Giving and Helping Others. Since the bulk of "A Gift of Giving" had been completed except for the collection of the clothing. We focused most of our attention on the meeting plans for "Helping Others". The kids learned a little more on how the community works together. How people in a store work together to help customers get what they need. We discussed how parents work in the community, how they earn money, to get food, goods and services. We talked about the differences between goods and services. We discussed laws and rules in a community and did activities reinforcing those discussions. The kids did great in this trail, there was a lot of brainstorming and participation in the activites we did at the meetings.

Here are some of the activites we did during our meetings...
We role played a game of pretend shopping... They got to swap roles beteween clerks and customers. This activity was to let the the children explore how they are helped by
businesses in the community.

Taking Turns Being Clerks and Pricing the Products

Cierra Getting Ready to Check Out!

We discussed rules in the community called laws, we talked about how rules are important and did an obsticle course. We changed the obsticle course had the kids make up new rules and talked about what would happend if we didn't follow the rules to the course.

Do a Forward Roll Over the Pillow Stack.

Walk On the Jump Rope, Pretend it's a High Wire.