What are you doing in March?

Specifically, March 27-28, 2009? I know what I will be doing. I will be presenting at the CAEYC conference in Sacramento.

I just got my approval notice (okay, I got it on Thursday, but had to make sure the dates were still available for me) and will be presenting on Parent Involvement.

Will you be there?

Wind toys

An update on our wind chimes. When we first talked about them, I had ordered a wind kit from a catalog; then we went to the dollar store and purchased two more. Well, the dollar store one's didn't last more than two weeks; I really didn't expect much out of them. However, they are still on the playground. They do make some great decorations that the children do enjoy to look at and touch and explore.

The chimes have long broken off, but the flying birds and stars are still hanging from them and they are a place of interest to the children.

We have also included many other windsocks and mobiles to hand from the trees. The children do take great interest in them and we find them touching them, spinning them, blowing on them, and talking about them throughout the day.

Because of this great interest, one of the classrooms is doing projects with the children to make their own wind toys and explore with different materials that will work.

Update on winchimes

Here is an update on my windkit: The windsock is long gone. The pinwheel has recently been retired because the front clip which kept the wheels on was accidentally broken when a wayward ball hit it; it was still in pretty good shape. The colors were faded, but the material was in good condition and it probably would have lasted a lot longer. Well, accidents happen.

Last to go just this week (7 months after it was put up) we took down the windchime. This had been put back together too many times to count. The middle rod is now being used as just a wind decoration because it was easily transformed by a long piece of string hung over a tree branch. However, the string that was holding all the parts on was worn and frayed. The tubes that make the music had to keep being tied back on, the middle rod kept falling off, and the string holding it all to the anchoring hook was frayed and sun worn. Is this a result of being in a preschool playground? I'm not sure. The children treated this item with respect and really didn't pull on it. I'm thinking it was more sun damage than child damage.

So, what have I done? I have gone to the dollar store where I bought two windsocks, two wind chimes, and two twirly things that spin in the wind. One windsock has since been torn, the other is in good shape. The children are fascinated by the windchimes as these have little plastic replicas of birds and stars. I'm curious to see how long these last.