September Happenings

Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a wonderful summer. It's time for playgroup to start back up again. I'm so excited for this time of year. Here's a list of some fun things coming up this month that you won't want to miss.

September
11th- Taste of Falls Church Festival http://www.fallschurchva.gov/Content/Government/Departments/CommunityServices/RecsParks/FallFestTOFC.aspx?cnlid=2590
12th- Adams Morgan Day Festival
http://www.adamsmorgandayfestival.com/
15th- Doodlehopper: Fold and play airplanes 4pm *Sign-up required Ages 4+
15th- Tyson's Corner Kids Club 11-11:45 FREE
http://www.shoptysons.com/events.asp?id=28560&start=9/15/2010
17th- Sunset Cinema: The Frog and the Princess
http://www.fallschurchva.gov/Content/Docs/SunsetCinema2010.pdf
18th- Kaydee Puppets are coming to Doodlehopper 10:30am FREE, no sign-up required. Performance will be "Back to School: Down on the Farm"
21st- Fun with Yoga at Doodlehopper 4pm No sign-up required (Ages 4+)
Book reading, game and yoga poses
22nd- Doodlehopper: Thumb Art 4pm *Sign-up required (Ages 4+)
22nd- Tyson's Corner Kids Club 11-11:45
http://www.shoptysons.com/events.asp?id=28560&start=9/22/2010
24th- Sunset Cinema: Where the Wild Things Are
http://www.fallschurchva.gov/Content/Docs/SunsetCinema2010.pdf
25th- Harvest Happenings at the Mclean Communtiy Center $5 per child (includes popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, face painting, arts and crafts, tot games, and inflatable amusements)
http://www.mcleancenter.org/kids-teens/childrens-events.asp
29th- Doodlehopper: Paper Bag Puppets 4pm *Sign-up required

Fun at Clemyjontri

If any of your little ones have taken Music Together classes at the community center with Maddy O'neil you'll know how fun this sounds. Maddy will be at the Clemyjontri park this Friday (the 15th) from 10am-noon with her guitar.

Doodlehoppers Activites for the Month

June 10th: Paper Bag Puppets
June 17th: Rock-a-doodle
June 24th: Thumb Art

All Free. Just call to register in advance. 703-241-2262

Free Family Film Festival

Just a reminder that the Free Family Film Festival will be starting at the end of June. We went several times last year and it was a lot of fun---and FREE!!

Fiest Asia Street Fair

This Saturday is the Fiesta Asia Street Fair from 10am-7pm on Pennsylvannia Ave NW between 3rd St and 6th St. Food, dance, music, crafts, culture, martial arts, games, and Bollywood flash mob. Everything but that last one sounds like a lot of fun. Check out the link for more info.
FREE ADMISSION!

Butterfly Craft

Thanks for coming to playgroup today everyone! We had a lot of fun reading about butterflies and making these little treat bags. I've attached the link so that those of you who couldn't make it today can make it at home. Another fun idea- put a magnet on the back to hold artwork on the fridge.

Upcoming Events

Hello eveyone. Here are just a few events coming up that I have come across recently. Let me know if you know of any others and we can add them to the list.

Doddlehopper has lots of fun things going on this month.
Sat. May 1st: 11 am Kaydee puppets puppet show (Free!- no registration required)
Thurs. May 6th: 4 pm Making I love Mom keychains
Thurs. May 13th: 4 pm Collage Art
Sat. May 15th: 2 pm Fabulous Fancy Nancy Spring Fling. They will have Fancy Spring crafts and storytime
Thurs. May 20th: 4 pm Foam Bead Necklace
Thurs. May 27th: 4 pm Sand Art
Sat. May 29th: 2 pm Painting wooden Thomas trains and reading a Thomas story

All of the Doodlehopper events are FREE! We go every Thursday and have loved all of the little projects that they have done. You DO have to register for Saturday events (except for the puppet show this Sat). They like it when you call ahead to sign up for the Thursday crafts as well just so they know how many crafts they will need.

I was at Micheals this morning and saw that they are having events from May2-8 for Mother's Day.For several of these you DO have to purchase the item for the craft.
May 2nd: 1-3pm Mother's Day Mug Make-it Take-it (must purchase a mug)
May 3rd: 6-8pm Mother's Day Corsage Make-it Take-it (must purchase a flower)
May 4th: 6-8pm Mother's Day Free Spa Clay Pot Event (no purchase necessary for this one)
May 6th: 6-8pm Mother's Day T-shirt Event (with purchase of T-shirt)
May 7th: 6-8pm Mother's Day Frame Make-it Take-it Event (with purchase of a frame)
May 8th: 10am-noon Free Mother's Day Card Event (no purchase necessary)
May 8th: Noon- 1pm Free Mother's Day Wilton Cookie Demo

Library Events

I was just looking around at other libraries in the area and thought I would post their upcoming storytimes.

Thomas Jefferson Library: Next Wednesday, April 7th, they will be having a special storytime at 10:30am called "Let's Dig." The program will consist of stories, songs, fingerplays, and a craft. You must call to register for this class. Ages 1-5 welcome with parent.
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/tj/

Tyson Pimmit Regional Library: A couple of times a month they do a children's storytime. The next one will be on April 13th. It's called "Celebrate Library Week." There will be stories, fingerplays, and songs. You must call to register. All ages welcome.
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/TY/

Mary Riley Styles Library: Then of course Mary Riley Styles has open storytime every Tues and Thurs at 10:30am for preschoolers. No registration required. They also have a drop in craft on the third Saturday of every month from 11am-2pm. This month it is on April 17th. It's free.
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=stewart%40falls-church.lib.va.us&ctz=America%2FNew_York&gsessionid=rYMoIk9teoNwdXKe9iXhtA


If anyone has information about another library or activity in the area please let us know!

Falls Church Community Easter Egg Hunt

This Saturday is the Falls Church Community Easter Egg Hunt. It will be at Cherry Hill Park at 10am and it's FREE! Sounds like a lot of fun so check out the flyer.

Also, don't forget that playgroup is having their very own egg hunt this Friday at 10:30 at the church. Bring 5 filled eggs and your own lunch. I'll have a craft to do inside first and then we'll run outside for the egg hunt.

Also, just found out that you no longer have to register for the 4pm craft at Doodlehopper on Thursdays. Just show up for a free FUN craft. Last week we made bug jars and they were super cute.

Consignment Sale

Check out the flier. This sounds like a pretty big consignment sale. Happy shopping everyone, and thanks Zoe for the tip!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Everyone loved the cupcakes that Ryan made for playgroup this morning. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

Upcoming Activities

Here's a list of a few things going on this week that might be fun to check out.

Wed. March 24th: Mr. Knick Knack comes every Wed at 11am to the play area on level 3 at Tyson's Corner Mall. I've been before and loved it!
http://www.shoptysons.com/events.asp?id=28560&start=3/24/2010

Thurs. March 25th: Story hour at Mary Riley Styles library in Falls Church at 10:30am
http://www.falls-church.lib.va.us/

Also, at 4pm every Thursday DoodleHopper4kids has a free craft. You must call to register though and reserve your space. http://www.doodlehopper.com/

Fri. March 26th: Tot Time at the Falls Church Community Center Gym from 10-noon. This used to be a free service but they now charge $1 per child. Still, I've heard it's a lot of fun. They provide the tunnels and trikes to play with.

Sat. March 27th: National Kite Festival from 10-4pm. http://www.kitefestival.org/

Projects and Creative Ideas for Kids

Hello everyone!

I thought it would be fun to post links to kids project blogs that you follow. I've just posted my favorite one - This Little Project. I am always looking for new creative ideas to do things with my kiddos and this one usually has some pretty cute ideas. If you have any blogs you would like to link to our playgroup blog just send me the info and I'll set it up! Just look under "Projects and Creative Ideas for Kids" on the blog.

Thanks!

Feathery Fun!

Thanks so much for coming today everyone! We had a great turnout. I'm posting the activity here for those of you who were not able to make it. I had planned to do a bird themed playgroup last month since it was national bird month but we had to cancel for the snow.

Book: Are You My Mother? by PD Eastman

Craft#1: Print this picture and color or decorate with feathers- http://www.animal-coloring-pages.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/bird-coloring-pages.gif

Craft #2: Pinecone bird feeder- http://crafts.kaboose.com/pine-cone-bird-feeder.html
If you can't find any pinecones you could string up a bagel or a piece of toast and I bet that would work just fine.

Fun bird themed snack ideas:
http://www.childfun.com/index.php/activity-themes/animals/93-bird-activity-theme.html?start=3
Unfortunately I didn't make these little nest in time for playgroup but it sounds cute and healthy. We had chickadees (which are on sale at Target right now for about a buck).

See you in a couple of weeks!

Playgroup Activity

Hello everyone. We had fun at playgroup this week. I thought I would post the activity that we did for those of you who couldn't make it.I know I'm always looking for things to do since we can't do much outside these days. Our theme was BEARS! We talked specifically about the brown bear and hibernation. I feel like hibernating on these cold winter days.

For info on brown bears go here: www.kidzone.ws/lw/bears/facts-brownbear.htm Check it out ladies- brown bears don't even wake up to give birth! Don't we wish...

For a cute bear fingerplay go here: www.suzyred.com/mbirdbearcave.html

We read "Bear Snores On" but there are lots of other books that work too. Then we did a simple craft- a bear hibernating in a cave. For the craft all you need are a few simple things.

-a brown lunch bag
-Cotton balls
-glue
-this picture: www.si.umich.edu/chico/RainbowCrow/coloring/hibernate.gif

Cut your bag in half or more, open it up and lay it on its side. Color and cut out the picture. Fold the bottom inch under and glue it inside the bag near the opening. Glue cotton balls in front to look like snow. Easy as pie. Below are a couple of pictures for a visual.

Here's a link for more fun poems, fingerplays, songs and crafts about hibernating: www.stepbystepcc.com/hibernation.html