October Co-op

Our local co-op met on October 26.
The children were divided into 3 groups by age and each group had 2-3 stations to rotate through.  Mike was able to spend the day with us (YAY) so he took pictures for me and made rounds to check on our kids.

Ameliya and Zayden were in the preschool class.  They began their morning with PE games.

After they had spent some of their energy, they came back to Chelsie and I for activities all centered around BATS.  I borrowed an inflatable bat cave from a public school teacher and we did some bat art activities and read bat books.
Our first activity was an easy collage project.  We gave the children bat cut-outs and had them rip and tear colored paper and glue the paper all over their bats.  We completed them with googly eyes, of course, because googly eyes are the best.

After we read a book we got in the bat cave with our glow sticks and skimmed through another book with a flashlight.

Bat caves make hard picture opportunities.  Ha.  The children were very excited to get in the cave!

After we exited, we did a silhouette painting project.  This was a harder concept for the kiddos to grasp.  We gave them a black paper and two white bat cut-outs.  They were supposed to paint all around the white bats so when we lifted them off they'd have the silhouette against the black sky.  We gave them several different "paintbrush" options - clothespins with poms on them, feathers, tinfoil, etc.

Ameliya's

Natalee and Xavier were in the middle group of students.
They began with some microscope science.

After that, they did a fall canvas painting.

Natalee's

 Xavier's

The middle group of students finished their paintings a little sooner than expected, so they went over and did some PE games, too.

After we were all done with the fun and learning, we switched over to fun and eating!  The oldest group had made a huge batch of chicken soup and some of the moms put together sandwiches so we all shared lunch together.  We usually carry in lunch for our families and eat as a group, but this was a fun change, and the oldest group got some kitchen time in!

(Zayden, pouting because we didn't let him have the oreos with dye in them.)

This was a lot of fun.  It was a bit more work than the September co-op (just in regards to my projects/set-up), but rarely is anything that's worthwhile no work at all. (wink)  I'm thankful for the team of parents who come together to carry the load, and who bring their kids to participate.  We had 40 participants + at least a half dozen babies in the nursery!