THANK YOU!!

Thank you so much for spending the summer with The Speech Garden Institute!  We hope your children have had as much fun as we have!  Have a great school year....and we can't wait to see you all again next summer!

Last Day of Camp

Our last day was a fantastic mix of emotions! This last week of camp was a blast for the Frogs. We covered some out-of-this-world topics - the planets, stars, astronauts, and the moon. Today, we read the book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and talked about the rockets that blast off to our moon. 

Our book of the day. 

After we read our book, we completed a Story Chart. As a class we reviewed details of the story, such as the title, author, illustrator, setting, and other important details. After we completed one as a group, the Frogs went on the complete their own story chart. 

Chander saying good-morning to the class!

Chander completing his chart with the help of Miss. Hayley.

Miss. Lenna reading our book of the day.

Soon after that it was time for bathroom and snacks. 

After snack it was time to go outside! The Frogs really spread out today and played on different equipment and with new friends.

Bobby going down his favorite slide!

Today, Aarav discovered that there was clay under the sand!

After recess was over, we came back inside for art. Art was super messy today as we made our moons! By mixing flour with white paint, the Frogs created a chalky texture that they spread with their fingers on black paper. We used water bottles to make craters in the moon and decorated the space with stars and other cool galaxy things. All the Frogs got super creative today! 

Austin used his spoon to spread his texture because he wanted to keep his hands clean.

Garrison, Chander, Dylan, and Grayson mixing away their flour and paint.

Nikhil and Aarav showing each other how messy they got!

The Frogs getting creative!

Olivia filling in her circle!

Caleb working on his creation.

After art it was time for science. We did something so awesome today that we had to go outside! First, the Frogs had to predict what would create a "rocket." Putting mentos in coke or putting beans in sprite. 

The predictions before the experiment!

We took an adventure outside to find out. The beans and sprite made a tiny rocket but it was nothing compared to our coke and mentos! It shot up in the sky so far that we were all shocked. It even got all over Miss. Lenna!

We were surprised that the beans had a reaction with Sprite!

A video of how high our coke explosion got!

After coming back inside from our cool experiment. It was time for center time play. The Frogs were all over the place today! Running around and having a lot of fun on the last day with their friends was awesome to watch. 

Aashu,, Chander, and Dylan reading by the rocket!

Olivia, Dylan, and Aarav really dove into reading today!

Austin and Caleb sharing the rocket.

After centers it was time for lunch. The Frogs got super silly at lunch today! 

Garrison happily eating his cheese!

William striking a pose!

Austin enjoying his sandwich

Aarav being silly!

Soon after, it was time to wrap up our day with music. Today we sang some of our favorite songs, I Like Money, Tootie Ta, the Hand Dance, and Ride That Pony! We also played a fun round of Hot Potato and Musical Chairs! 

The class got competitive during musical chairs! 

Miss. Lenna leading the class for a Tootie Ta!

Some hugs were exchanged between the frogs today for good-byes.

As we were singing our good-bye song, parents arrived one by one to pick up their Frogs. Saying good-bye was hard, but no one left without a hug or a high-five! We loved having your children with us at camp this summer. Thank you for letting us spend such quality time with them. They have truly brightened our lives and we hope we have affected theirs. 

Have a great rest of your Summer!

Miss. Lenna, Miss. Hayley, Miss. Aris, and Mrs. Holly

Frogstronauts!

Today, the Frogs got to explore space as if they were astronauts! After playing in centers, greeting our friends, and introducing ourselves, we settled in to listen to Miss Aris read. The book of the day was Mousetronaut and it was written by Mark Kelly, who is a real astronaut with NASA!

Miss Aris holds the book of the day.

The Frogs listened to the story to find out what would happen.

Listen to the story again here:

Next, Mrs. Holly came to class to demonstrate how to write a four-star sentence that has punctuation, spacing, a capital letter at the beginning, and makes sense. After she modeled for us, we practiced writing our own four-star sentences using vocabulary words about space.

Miss Aris and Mrs. Holly demonstrate a four-star sentence.

Austin and William making sure their sentences will get four stars.

Aashu wrote a sentence about the moon.

After we finished language circle, we enjoyed our snacks and talked about the things astronauts do in space. Immediately after, we blasted off to the playground for some outside fun!

Dylan, Austin, and another camper experiment with gravity by pouring sand on the roof.

Caleb whizzes down the slide.

William flying on the back of the bumblebee.

Aashu and Olivia sit on the beehive and take a break.

Nikhil, Aarav, Chander, and Austin collect sand.

During art, we transformed ourselves into astronauts 

floating in outer space!

Chander, Dylan, Grayson, and Garrison add finishing touches to their galaxies.

After art, Miss Aris introduced us to the concept of gravity during science. We watched some videos that showed how gravity affects astronauts in space.

Next, each Frog made a hypothesis to answer our question of the day. The science question of the day was "What will hit the ground first: a cotton ball, marble, or both at the same time?"

The Frogs have gotten very good at making a hypothesis!

Then, it was time to complete our experiment.  We dropped cotton balls and marbles dipped in paint on paper to see how fast they would fall. We then observed that gravity pulled the marble to the floor faster because it was heavier.

Miss Hayley and Miss Aris help Dylan and Nikhil test gravity.

After science, we spent some time in centers, then Miss Lenna quizzed us on the order of the planets! We ate lunch and sang our favorite songs before ending the day with an exciting game of hot potato with Mrs. Holly! We'll practice our fast passing skills some more tomorrow :). We're excited to head to the moon tomorrow with Miss Lenna for our final day of camp!

We'll see everyone tomorrow in their BLUE camp T-shirts!

The Frogs and the Stars

Space Day 2: All About Stars! 

Today was the Frogs' second day in space! We started our day by greeting our friends at the door, playing in centers, and then heading to welcome circle. During welcome circle we sang our good morning song, introduced ourselves to our friends, and then picked the special helper of the day. 

After welcome circle was finished, Miss Hayley taught the Frogs a new word: Constellation! She explained that a constellation is when the stars in the sky start to look like a picture if you connected the stars together. 

Miss Hayley with our book of the day!

Then Miss Hayley read our story of the day called Henry's Stars. The book was about a pig named Henry who lives on a farm. One night he looks up in the sky and sees the stars make a picture of a pig! He runs off to tell his other farm friends, but they dont see a pig. They see a cow, horse, sheep, and chickens. Henry gets discouraged because he can no longer see the picture of the pig in the sky. He walks away from his friends, and as he gets closer to home he can finally see the Great Pig in the Sky again! 

Miss Hayley reading our story of the day. 

This book taught us that no two people can look at something and see the same thing. That we can all see something different and that is okay!

The Great Pig in the Sky Constellation. 

After Miss Hayley read our book and we all said the word constellation again, Mrs. Holly came to help us with our written language activity. Today we used a Venn Diagram to compare land and sky. We took turns placing pictures of items that can either go only on land, only in the sky, or in both. 

Caleb putting a picture on the Venn Diagram.

After we did this, we all went to the table and filled out our own. Since we have done a venn diagram every week, the Frogs have really gotten the hang of it. Today we encouraged the Frogs to write sentences on the backs of their papers when they were done. 

Chander filling out his Venn-Diagram. 

After written language, it was time for bathroom, snack, and recess! Before lining up, Miss Hayley showed the Frogs a video about stars and constellations. 

Miss Hayley showing the Frogs the video. 

Our ticket out the door was to tell Miss Hayley our special vocabulary word of the day: Constellation!

Left: William playing with the trucks. Right: Miss Hayley helping Aashu jump off the beehive!

Chander, Nikhil, Grayson, Aarav, Garrison, and Austin playing in the sand. 

After recess, we came inside and it was time for art. For art today, the Frogs made two projects. The first project we made a galaxy bag. The Frogs each got their own ziplock bag and put blue water beads in to represent the sky. They then were able to add glitter and star confetti to represent the stars! After we sealed up the bags, the Frogs got black pieces of paper and star stickers. They were encouraged to form their own constellations after looking at the stars in their bag. 

Caleb showing off his constellation. 

After art it was time for science. To continue with the theme of stars, we asked the question, "What are stars made of?" Our two choices were gas and water or rocks and water.

Miss Hayley explaining the science experiment. 

After each Frog made their prediction, we went to the table and passed out water bottles. Depending on their choice, the Frogs mixed either rocks and water or gas and water. For this experiment we used oil to represent the gas in a star.

The Frogs predictions. 

Left: Miss Aris helping Nikhil pour. Right: Aarav, Chander, and Dylan checking our their star. 

After the Frogs had their ingredients mixed up, Miss Hayley held up a bottle with rocks and water, and a bottle with gas and water. She had each of the Frogs look at it and answer which bottle looked more like a star. The decision was unanimous that gas and water makes a star!

Miss Hayley comparing rocks and water with gas and water. 

After science it was already time for centers. The Frogs who mixed rocks and water had the chance to re-make their stars, so that they could take a "star in a jar" home with them. 

After centers were all finished, we took a bathroom break, washed our hands, and sang songs until the Frogs' parents came for lunch! The Frogs were so excited to see their family, eating lunch with them, and then showing them around our classroom. 

The Frogs eating lunch with their families!

After lunch it was time for closing circle and music. We sang a few silly songs that the Frogs love, and then it was already time to go home! Thank you all who attended parent day, it was great to get to talk to you and show you a little more about our day. Get excited for tomorrow, because Miss Aris will be turning us all into astronauts!