University of California Irvine
Extended Day Center
We have had another wonderful year in our Nature Explore classroom! We had a great winter garden harvest and shared lots of lettuce, spinach, and kale with our families. We also had a big lemon harvest from our tree, and the children set up a lemonade station in the yard, squeezing lemons and mixing them with sugar and water to make their own lemonade.
Children discovered that they could make dye with flower petals, and spent many weeks collecting brightly colored plant materials that they used to dye fabric. The mud area was very popular in the spring, and many children spent much of their afternoon digging holes, filling them with water to create small lakes, and making mud figures and structures. Our dry creek bed continues to be a place full of engagement, and “rock crushing” is a popular activity, with children grinding rocks into a fine powder that they then collect and mix with chalk to make colored powder to paint with. Our parents really appreciate how much time their children spend outside, and it is the reason why many families choose our program, and why we are always full with a long waiting list.
