Monday, May 16, 2016

Under the Sea!

We spent the day....well actually two days under the sea this past week! Because we went on a field trip to the Beijing Aquarium with the preschoolers. It was truly a magical time to watch the kids seeing real life fishies. We had a few that freaked out at first but by the end they all loved it. The rip started with an almost 2 hour bus ride due to traffic to the aquarium and all the kids did great, which was a huge answer to prayer!







Annie was my buddy for group 1

and Ava Jo was my buddy for group 2

We made it to the aquarium but little did we know that while walking in we would find some elephants! The aquarium is located in the middle of the Beijing zoo so that was an added surprise and the kids were very excited to see a real live elephant.
The Beijing aquarium is very cool and has lots to see.... we started our journey in the rain forest area.

Then we headed to the deep shark caves....... the kids loved the big shark tank!



The aquarium had beluga whales which I was pretty excited about. I never knew how noisy beluga's are until this trip.



The highlight of the trip for everyone I believe was the animal show which had belugas, sea lions and dolphins in it. I now know what it feels like for anyone visiting the US and going to these shows and having no idea what they are saying. But all in all the show was great and the kids loved watching the animals jump out of the water and dancing along to the music.





No field trip is complete without a stop for lunch of chicken nuggets and french fries! The kids had mixed reviews on this lunch but I would say that french fries were the biggest hit of all.



We ended our time with a trip to the coral reef/ jellyfish room.





Group 1

Group 2


I was very thankful for all the extra hands that helped make these trips go so smoothly! We were able to take a 1:1 ratio so every child got every bit of attention they could imagine. The kids and adults were all worn out by the end of each day and majority of the kiddos and some of the adults fell asleep on the way back to Hope.



I would like to thank the Stewart family and then some of the additional funds that came in for helping make these trips become possible.

On our off day from the field trip fun we made these two super cute crafts!



~Stephanie


Friday, May 6, 2016

Rainbow Fish

Rainbow fish is such a fun book that I forgot how wonderful it is and we really worked on sharing like Rainbow fish. We will see how that translates over into playtime in the future but for now I have to remind myself that they are still toddlers and very much in the learning stages. We had a fun week of making so fish themed crafts that we will carry on into next week as well because there are just so many fun things to make and do! But here is a look at our week......


Goldfish color sorting
We made these cute little octopus's to work on counting.
I just love the little smile this one was given ( all smiles were given to them by the child that created them)




  watercolor sea with cupcake liner fish

This was my favorite craft of the week!

 The Seahorses were my favorite craft of the week!!! It was so easy and the kids had a lot of fun watching the magic unfold.
color mixing




They are almost ready!

I couldn't pic just one to take a pic of because each one was so different and special  just like God has created each of these precious kiddos! They are all special in his eyes!
 Since Friday is normally outside play we thought it was only fitting for us to have waterplay!!!! Majority of the kids had a blast we had a few that were unsure about the water and I don't think we were the nannies favorites today but oh well!



















Even John John got in on the fun!






Well that is a wrap but not without telling you exciting news about what it coming up next week....... We are going to be taking a trip "Under the Sea"!!!! 

~Stephanie