Rainy day fun

Rainy days got you down? Not our kiddos! At the Academy of Forrest Crossing we take full advantage of the rain! We love getting to go outside and have fun but when the rain comes we make even more fun inside! Gross motor activities play an important part in physical development for our growing friends. Creating indoor obstacle courses, playing with parachutes, having dance parties, and sometimes even breaking out special equipment like a bounce house are all great ways to get those little bodies moving and grooving and growing! These activities also help to get those silly mid day wiggles out. Going outside and playing on the jungle gym, throwing balls, and running in races are always so much fun, but when the rain comes our kiddos know that some special rainy day fun is coming their way.  So even though sometimes the rain can be a bummer, we still have a blast! 

There are so many ways to have fun with a parachute! We can put balls in the middles and make them move like popcorn. Or we can pop the parachute up and quickly get under it and create a bubble! 

Look at those skills! We love getting to practice our bean bag tossing game! 

Does a rainy day ever put you in the mood to play a board game? These preK kids love breaking out board games when the weather gets yucky.

Our infants love getting outside too but when the rain comes we improvise!! These babies love getting to stroll around and look at all the fish! 

Taking turns hoping on, around, and over the buckets! 

Slide, scoot, walk, or tiptoe across the climber to the end! 

How fun is this!? A bounce house?? INSIDE?? crazy! 

Can you crawl through the tunnel and then walk across the climber? Be sure to finish with a creative dismount! 

We love when the bounce house gets set up! Its so fun to see the kid's faces when they see it! 

Dance party!! We love getting to have dance parties. We usually add things like scarves or instruments to amp it up! 

These kiddos had so much fun jumping around with their friends. This is such an exciting activity for them to do! 

For more information about AoFC and the programs we offer, please click HERE

For more fun activities to do on a rainy day, please click HERE

The Start of a New School Year!

We are so excited to have just begun a brand new school year. Kiddos that have been with us for three days all the way to 3 years are digging deep into learning and getting their hands messy, their brains working, and their bodies moving! The teachers are having a great time watching their kids grow and learn through play! We follow age-specific curriculum provided by Frog Street Press. This curriculum takes us through several different themes helping the children learn about their family, animals, being a big helper, and so much more! Each theme focuses on four developmental domains: Language, cognitive, social and emotional, and physical. Each domain has sub parts that allow the teachers and children to explore and successfully grow in these areas. Although we are just getting started, the development, growth, and excitement is noticeable! 

Our curriculum begins with our littlest friends at just 6 weeks. Here, you can see our friend working on her physical development. A key concept for this week is working on pushing up and practicing rolling over. We are nailing this skill!! 

Language developmental can happen through talking, singing, babbling, reading, etc... Our Toddler 3 class is working hard on this developmental domain as they read books and then use pictures from the book to talk about what they just read.

WWOW!! The Wonderful Word of the Week is: SOCIABLE! This class talked about the definition of sociable and where we can be sociable. Sociable means being friendly in public and we can do that anywhere! At school, at homes, at a party, at the park, anywhere!! The WWOW is an important part of our language development! 

We are typically learning many skills at one time and just don't know it! While this Infant one teacher  reads the touch and feel book to help the baby develop language skills, the baby is also able to explore cognitive learning through sensory as she touches the lamb's wool and the bird's feathers! 

There are so many ways to learn! This Preschool two teacher is introducing small groups to her class. They are learning about shapes and colors. We can see our friends putting the correct color peg on the matching colored shape. 

Each Frog Street theme comes with a set of books to read that go along with the theme being taught. This week, the book provided was Little Red. The book tells a story about a girl taking a delivery to her grandmother and meets a very curious and troublesome wolf along the way. The kids love acting out books after reading them! 

Learning through art and sensory play is so much fun. These friends are able to make and create whatever their imaginations come up with! Look at those beautiful masterpieces! 

Sometimes when we learn so much our brains feel overloaded so we have to take a break! The best way to refresh our brains and get those juices flowing again is with a dance party!! We love to dance and sing and wiggle and jiggle! 

Whoever said learning wasn't fun is crazy!! Learning through play is the best way! These kiddos got to make fall scented play dough. They carefully followed the recipe and got to small the apple cider scent. It smelled so yummy but they were very careful to not eat it! The kids made some cool shapes and got to use their imaginations! 

When the weather is too hot, cold, rainy, or gross we can't go outside. BUMMER! But that doesn't stop us from having fun! Gross motor activities are essential to learning and growing. The heat did not stop our fun this week because our creative and very adaptable teachers were able to quickly come up with this AWESOME hallway obstacle course! the kids got to run, jump, spin, crawl, and slither their way through to the end! 

Pancakes and Pastries with Grandma and Grandpa

what's better than pancakes and pastries?? Having them with your Grandma and Grandpa of course!! The Academy of Forrest crossing recently got to celebrate all of our dearly love grandparents. We had delicious pastries accompanied by a make your own pancake station with all the toppings you can think of. Yummy juice and milk were also served along with a sweet treat grab and go for the Nanas and papas there! Once all of the kiddos got to share a breakfast with their loved ones, memories were made at our craft stations. We offered a make your own frame station where the kids could decorate a frame to put a picture of them and their grandparents in. If they have a frame they need a picture!! We took care of that with our photo booth complete with a big cozy chair that families could curl up in to snap a quick pic! Last but not least, we know our grandparents rock so what better way to celebrate that than with a rock painting station!! Our families really loved getting to come in together and share a couple of hours together to connect and make memories. We hope that all of our deeply loved Grandmas and Grandpas had a great time and a happy Grandparents Day! 

Our grandparents ROCK! Paint your rock to show how much you love your grandma and grandpa! 

Frame making stations are so much fun when you get to do it with your grandparents! We loved getting watch the kiddos decorate and create! 

muffins, and pancakes, and cinnamon rolls, oh my!! This and so much more was served for our families to enjoy! 

Snap a quick pic with your nearest and dearest loved ones! big smiles for making memories! 

The best blue rock I've ever seen! His nana and papa are certainly going to love this! 

Three sweet boys making frames for their grandma! She sure is one lucky lady! 

The families loved getting to snuggle up to their littlest loves and posing for a picture! 

This room was full of love, laughter, and of course pancakes! 

Because our grandparents are so sweet, we wanted to send them off with a bag full of treats! 

For more info on AoFC and the programs we offer, please click HERE

For more fun activities for your kiddos to do with their grandparents, please click HERE

Visit from Spider Man

We recently has a super fun, super cool visitor come to our school to surprise our kiddos! They all had a blast pretending to shoot webs with Spider Man! Our special guest got to hang out in every classroom. The infant's eyes lit up when Spider Man came by. The toddlers proceeded with caution but were quickly captivated by Spider Man's quick moves! Our preschool and pre-k friends were so excited to get to hang out with him and show off their own spidey moves! We love when special guests come to visit and look forward to having the next one. I wonder who it will be! 

Watch out! Spider Man is on the move!!

A sweet friend giving big love to Spider Man. Our friends love showing love to everyone they meet! 

These cool dudes were so in awe of Spider Man they just couldn't believe it!! The real live Spider Man was right there in front of them!! 

The little friend had some super cool Spidey moves to show off before posing for a quick pic! 

Learning how to shoot webs. Spider Man couldn't shoot his real webs in the classrooms but he definitely got those kiddos using their imaginations! 

A little Spider Man in the making. Spider Man, if you ever retire, this guy has got you covered! 

WOW! Look at those moves! This friend was teaching Spider Man moves he didn't even know about! 

Everyone wanted to crowd around Spider Man. They just could not believe their eyes! How could Spider Man really be here? 

WHAT!? There's more than one Spider Man in the house today! I can't tell who the real Spider Man is!! 

For more informations about AoFC and the programs we offer, please click HERE

To check out more cool pictures of Spider Man's visit, please follow us on Instagram at aofkids