...and the kids at 2: Cool for School are no exception. This morning began as most morning s at Underhill's twos program do: with a toy exchange between Tommy and Jackson. True to habit, Jackson greeted Tommy and his dad at the door this morning to hand over his toy steam roller in exchange for Tommy's offering: a tiny toy train car. These boys are so good at sharing, and thrifty too! What better way to make the most on one's toy collection without a trip to the store?
The goods had to be put aside soon after the boys' transaction was made, however, since Amy had plans for a trip to the library at Grand Army Plaza. Lena, Jackson, Tommy, Thelonius and Keira sang their morning songs and the bundled up for the walk. There was a chill in the air, and Amy was just about to second-guess the outing when Yamileth showed everyone a shortcut leading right to the children's section at the back of the library. Each tyke chose a book to read, and the whole crew gathered 'round a table to hear today's selections: The Puddle by, David McPhail; Another Monster at the End of this Book by, Jon Stone; Anansi the Spider by, Gerald McDermott; My Truck is Stuck! by, Kevin Lewis and Daniel Kirk; All for Pie Pie for All by, David Martin; and The Little Fire Engine by, Lois Lenski. Amy was delighted to find Another Monster at the End of this Book, a follow-up to one of her childhood favorites starring Sesame Street's Grover! The library in general was filled with all things Sesame Street, as they help the beloved children's show ring in its fortieth year!
After the stories had been read, the crew headed to the back of the library and climbed the stairs to Mount Prospect Park. After a snack of golden raisins and organic chocolate chip cookies (Thelonius loved the magical-sounding name of the golden raisins) the kids enjoyed playing on the slide, jungle gym and swings before heading out of the cold back toward the play space. The walk was lovely, even though Thelonius had be shielded from two over-friendly dogs and Tommy tried to escape the group to walk across the street himself. Luckily for the adorable Tommy, Amy was one step ahead of him, and scooped him up before he could make his getaway. Even after explaining to Tommy that it's dangerous to cross the street without an adult, Tommy insisted that he is an adult, and that he didn't need to hold hands like a baby! As it's impossible to be upset with such a cutie pie, Amy just carried him the rest of the way back to prevent any more close calls.
Once everyone was safely back at Underhill, the y gathered 'round the reading nook to hear On the Moon by, Anna Melbourne and Benji Davies in anticipation of Friday's rocket-building craft. The group plans to launch the baking soda-fueled rockets in the backyard on Friday morning, and they can't wait! Thelonius has spoken of little else for days!
The next few sessions of 2: Cool for School are being highly anticipated in general, with a trip to the Union Square Green Market planned for Monday morning followed by the group's first German language exposure class! The kid's at Schermerhorn's Explorers Club program began their new session of German lessons last week, along with sessions of Spanish and their regular Tuesday afternoon Mandarin classes. Mandarin is taught by Lango, and has been such a success that even Tessa, one of our youngest Explorers has been using her new words at home! We all know that the early years of language development are the best ones for teaching secondary languages as well, and Tessa's immediate embrace of Mandarin is just one more example of that. We a re so proud of our Explorers!
The staff of New York City Explorers works hard seven days a week to ensure that our dynamic programming is constantly improving and evolving to meet the needs of our Explorers and the families of Explorers, and there's no way we could do that without a team of people who are friends as well as colleagues. In that spirit, we look forward to celebrating an early Thanksgiving together on Saturday afternoon. Our Underhill location will close at 4:00 PM on Saturday so that Kisha, Keyanna and their staff can enjoy a potluck gathering. We can't wait to share our holidays with each other, and we hope that your holiday plans are just as wonderful!
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