Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

My friend Sue, the Great Start Regional Resource Center, 4c of the UP Community Childcare Specialist for Menominee, Schoolcraft, and Delta Counties gave me a wonderful bag of treasures the other day!  A big bag of wide cardboard tubes! I was going to add them to the tinkering station, but the children had other ideas! (Don't they always?) They thought that they would be perfect in the block area. They had a lot of fun building pyramids, castles with holes/windows, and fences for their critters! I thought for sure that the tubes would turn into tunnels... but not today..... instead, they were: GIANT MUSCLES! NEW EARS! (Fantastic for listening, might I add!) GREAT CUFFS OR BRACELETS! AN ELEPHANT NOSE! Hours and hours of FREE fun! Thanks Sue! Do you have a great idea for re-using, re-purposing, and/or upcycling "trash"? I'd love to have you share it in a guest post!  Starting in September, I will be featuring great "What Would You Do With It?" Wedne...

The chicks are growing! In fact they are so big that we now have a "Chick-a-Saurus Rex."  Some of the feathers, especially those around the wings and tail are starting to change.  A couple of them tried to escape today. Mr Allan found them on top of  the brooder box. (We placed a make-shift cover over it to try to stop them from escaping. However, I think the cover actually assisted them in their escape.)  We have decided to keep them until Friday, then they will go back to the farm. Although, I think a few of the "chickens" might stick around! It has been hilarious to watch the children imitate the baby chicks. In the first few days, one of the major observations they made was that the chicks would fall asleep standing up and almost fall over in the process. So, of course, when they pretend to be baby chickens, that is their favorite thing to do! We have also worked in some great music from Mary Jo Huff having to do with chickens- you can get a preview of some o...