International Mud Day 2012, Clubhouse Style

We did have big outdoor plans to celebrate International Mud Day today. We had a nice big space cleared, ready to make some mud in. A mudslide, a mud kitchen and even a mud river were on the agenda. That was until we woke up this morning and it was 90 degrees before it was even 8:00am. With an expected high of 113, there really was no way we were going to pull it off. Yes, it's a dry heat... and that is exactly what our mud would have been too, dry.

Plan B was simple, still involved mud, and we got to incorporate one of our favorite books.

Readathon 2012: Arthur Does Yoga

For week 2 of the Memetales Readathon 2012 we read the book Arthur. Arthur is a brown dog in a pet store who is tired of watching all of the other animals get adopted before him, so he decides to attempt to be the other animals and see if that works. As soon as we read this book, I knew how to incorporate it at the Clubhouse.

Readathon2012: Clubhouse Ducklings

This week Memetales Readathon2012 is all about animals! There were a few books on the app to choose from, and after reading them all my Son chose "The Five Little Ducklings" and said,

"Let's do duck stuff."

So duck stuff it was.

Clubhouse Spiderwebs

"She was very busy spinning her web..."

"The Very Busy Spider" spins her web to catch the fly.

"At my house we use the fly swatter to catch flies..."

Hmmmm...

Another Clubhouse Kid comment that inspires an activity...

Clubhouse Worm Diary, Day 5

"Today is May One Ms. Liz, just like in the book!!"

Well look at that, they really do pay attention in the morning when we change out our calendar days. 

Conversation easily led into discussing good manners (comments recorded into their own Clubhouse Diaries, of course).

"That's when you say please, thank you, and no way!"

"When you fart you say excuse me..."

Real Gentlemen we have here at the Clubhouse ;)

On to today's sensory adventure. 

I can hear you now... finally they get to touch worms!!

Clubhouse Worm Diary, Day 4

Tired of Diary of a Worm yet? The Clubhouse Kids sure aren't!

Although we have yet to discover an actual worm, they are still excited to be going along with the pages in the book and making their own fun as we go.

Today's Clubhouse Kid idea...

"Worms live under the grass, under the dirt, inside their tunnels. Let's dig holes!"


Sure we could do a little digging of our own, and see what we come up with.

Another feeble attempt at worm hunting in the desert which I knew would turn up dry. Pun intended. The desert is definitely DRY right now. Kids like to dig though, right?

Plus we are going to start our new garden this week, so that's a perfect place to start the hole digging.

We have Clubhouse Kid sized shovels, rakes and gardening gloves, so they got right to work digging...

Clubhouse Worm Diary, Day 3

This morning just as we were about to head to our playground, the clouds closed in on us and the rain started pouring! In that very instant my Son looks at me and says,

"This is great! It means we're going to get a Rainbow!!"

If only we all thought that way as soon as the rain started to fall ;)

Then came the comment that changed our plans for the day,

"Worm comes out after it rains, right?!" 

I simply couldn't bring myself to tell him that I have never, in my 6 years in Arizona, seen a worm. Instead I made the impromptu decision that looking for worms would be our adventure that morning. Definitely more fun than explaining to excited little faces that the Sun is too hot, the dirt is too dry, and that little bit of rain really wasn't enough.

So off we went on a walk to look for worms.
They looked, and looked, and looked.
This is the closest we came to finding one:

"Oh mannnn, it's just a stick!"

About this time I decided it was time to step up this adventure. 

Clubhouse Worm Diary, Day 2

Working our way through "Diary of a Worm", it was time to talk tunneling.

Where to begin?

Dirt Paint.

It was simple.

1 cup Flour.
1 cup Salt.
1 cup Water.
A few tablespoons of Black tempera paint.

They mixed it all up, and were pleased.

"We made dirt!"





I had another ingredient on hold,
but first it was time to start making our "worm village".

Clubhouse Worm Diary, Day 1

When we read in the classroom, I always let the Clubhouse Kids pick the books that are read. Sometimes this means I am reading certain books every day for weeks. I love when that happens. It means it's the perfect time to expand upon the book, and bring pages to life. The most recent book that has become a Clubhouse favorite:

It's an adorable book, written by a worm.

Well, not really, but you know what I mean.

He talks about his life, his family, his best friend (a spider), what he likes and dislikes about being a worm, and more.

They love it. Every page.

So today when it was chosen for reading again, as I knew it would be, it was easy to lead into our first "Diary of a Worm" activity... which, lucky for me, didn't involve touching an actual worm at all.

Page 1: 

"Mom says there are three things I should always remember: 

1. The Earth gives us everything we need."

Perfect place to start, especially considering all of the fun we recently had with Earth Day activities. We did everything but make an Earth, which I was saving for today.