It has been a busy and exciting time with our Turtles! We continue to follow their interests and build on what they already know, allowing everyday play to grow into meaningful new learning experiences. This month, curiosity has taken us through nature exploration, sensory play, baking, creative experiences, and lots of movement.

Nature exploration and collecting materials have been a big interest during our foraging adventures. Leaves, woodchips, and other loose parts have made their way back into the environment and inspired new creative experiences.

Using these natural treasures with air-dry clay gave us opportunities to press, add, take apart, rearrange, and create in our own unique ways. We later continued this exploration with playdough, allowing creativity and imagination to take the lead.

With fall arriving, we have also been bringing the season indoors through sensory experiences featuring yellow leaves, cedar sprigs, cinnamon bark, and apples. These invitations provide opportunities to explore the sights, smells, textures, and tastes that come with the changing season.

An interest in scooping and mixing has naturally grown into some wonderful baking experiences. Together, we made birthday treats such as berry crisps and apple crumble, giving everyone a chance to participate in the process from beginning to end.

Scooping, pouring, and mixing help develop coordination while following simple steps supports sequencing and independence. Along the way, new textures and smells encouraged curiosity, and tasting the finished creations provided opportunities to become more comfortable exploring new foods.

Our foraging adventures have also become opportunities to create special gifts for friends. It has been wonderful to watch natural materials become meaningful creations through the imagination and creativity of our Turtles.

These experiences are not only about making something beautiful, they also provide opportunities to think about friendship, generosity, and the joy of giving something to someone else.

Ball play and gross motor activities continue to be a big interest for our growing Turtles, so we extended this curiosity into a fun tunnel activity.

There were many ways to explore! Balls could be thrown or rolled through the openings, while crawling through, going underneath, or simply hiding inside offered even more possibilities. This open-ended experience encouraged movement, coordination, spatial awareness, and problem-solving while allowing everyone to participate in their own way.