Meet our newest gekko friend!

Our Animal Embassy visits in December and January included frogs and turtles in many different sizes and colors and with a range of talents from digging and climbing to swimming and jumping.  They live in the trees, in the water and/or on the land.  We also saw a ferret, a hedgehog, a gekko and the fours saw a duck.

The youngest children study each of them and the older groups progress to asking questions and sharing observations.  They talk about their eyes, their feet, their tongues and anything else that is observable.  The older children often ask if it’s a boy or a girl and what they like to eat.  One of the Older Toddlers asked “Does a barking frog lick?” and one of the children in the 4′s room declared, “The frog is happy for no good reason.”  In addition to the talents and characteristics of various animals, they lessons of respect and care of animals is always woven into the lessons we learn from Animal Embassy.

Watching the turtles eat bananas.

Meeting "Little Red" the turtle

You're just too good to be true...

...can't take my eyes off of you!

If you are looking for something to do in the cold winter months, take a trip to Animal Embassy at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Stamford to see the Animal Ambassadors like Chris, Keith and Robin and all of their animal friends that live there.

Complete photo albums are available in Eileen’s Photos.

Introducing toddlers to field hockey...

Plenty of room in the net for some conversation...

The preschoolers already had a grasp of the game so focused on the actual rules of the game although with some variation, of course.  Hebrought a back board that vibrates and had the children lie on it and sing so that their voices shook along with their bodies — much to everyone’s delight!

Let the games begin...

Another way to protect the goal...

The class ended with some time swinging on the ropes.

Jumping from the ropes with a hand from our Coach...

More photos in Eileen’s photos.

Hello KD!

“Animal Chris” arrived on Wednesday, November 9 with a parrot named “Sydney”, a painted turtle named “Rainbow”, a katydid named “KD” and a Ferret named “Wyo”.   Chris gives the children the option to touch, hold or just look, depending on the animal.   The children are introduced to each animal and most react with curiousity, some with trepidation and others with uncontained excitement.

The older children typically exhibit more scientific curiousity — observing very carefully and asking a lot of questions.  Of course, when the animals do something they think is funny, their delight explodes.  Chris told them that different animals have to do different things to get ready for the winter.  Some go to sleep (hibernate), some fly away (migrate) and some stay awake.  They also talked about camouflage showing how the Katydid looks like a leaf.

With Halloween still fresh in their minds, on of the preschoolers contributed to the conversation about why small turtles will stay underground in their nest in the winter by explaining “Small turtles don’t like witches.” followed by the conclusion of another child, “But they do like Batman.”

Watching the turtle swim

Wyo meeting some new friends

One of the preschoolers observed that the parrot’s nose looked like candycorn, but without the white part.

Sydney the Parrot with the candycorn nose

Chis gives this important message frequently:  animals home is in nature and they should be free to remain there.  However, many of the more exotic animals that live at Animal Embassy and visit so many schools in this area cannot live in nature because they have been people’s pets and did not learn how to live in nature.  Animal Embassy rescues animals and takes care of them but Chris tells the children, “I wish that they could live in nature”.

Chris showed the preschoolers a photo of him with a Flamingo from the Monday, November 7th issue of the New York Post.  He told them that he was out in his canoe last weekend taking pictures of migratory birds when he spotted something unusual — a flamingo!  He knew that it could not survive in the cold weather and rescued it.  He kept it in his bathtub until someone could come and get it.

On Thursday, Chris returned for the preschool groups.  He took them on a virtural tour of the animals he had seen on his trip to Brazil — they saw a coatimundi, a huge catfish, a jaguar, many different birds, including a toucan, snoonbill, wood storks, heron macaw, giant otters and cayman lizards.  He had a very large phython snake from Brazil to show them.  He also introduced “Tuck” a monk parakeet who was found in CT and brought to Animal Embassy.  One of the boys in the Preschool 3′s Class asked “Is it a boy or a girl?” and after Chris responded, “boy” and the child responded with an enthusiastic “Yes!”.   Chris directed the bird to “step up” and Monk obeyed.  Monk then flew off above them to the top of the easels.  Chris asked them why he wished that Tuck could live in nature and — and in case we ever wonder if children are getting the message — one of the children in the group declares: “Because he has to fly in more room!”

Tuck takes off...

The complete photo album can be viewed in Eileen’s Photos

Arielle the mermaid arrives from "Under the Sea"

Despite the historic October snow storm and all the havoc it brought to our area, Halloween day came and went at CCDC with its usual fanfare.  Children arrived in their costumes with many and varied degrees of awareness/acceptance/enthusiasm and brought delight with them every step of the way.  There were individual classroom celebrations — including witches brews in each of the preschool rooms –

Batman and Robin reunite in the Common Space

and a gathering of all to sing our favorite Halloween songs in the Common Space.

It's Halloween, it's Halloween...

Visit Eileen’s Photos to view the full album.

An orange pumpkin growing on my pumpkin vine...

We shake them high!

Visit Eileen’s Photos to view the complete album.

Some of the favorites are Roll That Pumpkin Down to Town, Five Little Pumpkins, Pass the Witches Broom and Lynn’s adaptation of Danse Macabre that the children refer to as “The Witches Party”

The witches dance...

The monsters arrive at the witches' party!

Last week, he showed off his new witches hands to go along with his sparkly wig and led the 3′s and 4′s in his patented “Monster Mash”.

He also played his “Builders and Bulldozers” game.  He splits the group — usally into boys and girls — and they are intructed to be either a bulldozer and knock down the cones he has set up or builders and put them back up.  They always seem to listen intently to his instructions. He purposely changes their roles several

times to be sure they are listening to his instructions.  The next task was to keep one foot shuffling in front of the other by calling out “me first” and when they got to a cone they jumped over.  The last task was starting to learn to skip “hop, step, hop, step…”  Skipping is an emerging skill for most preschoolers but with Coach John’s patient and fun-filled exercises, they were well on their way!

Complete photo albums are available in Eileen’s Photos.

There was a a tarantula…

a scorpian…

snakes….

and a bunny that was so soft and cute!

More photos in Eileen’s Photos

Here are just a few from the last few weeks to whet your appetite:

Spanish…

Animal Embassy with “Animal Keith”…
                                  

Coach John…

Yoga with Jeannie…

Music with Lynn…

This year, there were several children that were going to miss the ice cream truck visit so we arranged a “last day” party for everyone at the end of July and had the ice cream truck come just for them.

“Last Day Together” party on July 28 for CCDC Class of 2011

The official last day of summer at CCDC was Friday, August 12.  We had a sing-a-long with Lynn for our July and August birthdays and many families joined us to enjoy the visit from the ice cream truck and celebrate another great year at CCDC!

There are photos in “Eileen’s Photos” taken by the teachers on the last water play day, August 11.  There are also some random photos of our babies.

Nothing defines summer at CCDC more than water play with Coach John!  This summer, it was hot — sometimes very hot — and sunny and we took full advantage.  Coach John set up our favorite activities — sliding, slipping, running, dumping and squirting –and rarely missed a chance to get in on the fun. If you need to cool off on a hot day — forget air conditioning, just join the fun!  More photos in Eileen’s photos.