Spirit Week 2024!

 The children of HDC have been enjoying a literacy themed spirit week!!!

Monday - Hats off to reading!

Crazy hat or hair day.

Tuesday - Books bring out our wild side!

Wear something with animal print or an animal on it.

Wednesday - Books bring us together!

Each classroom was assigned a color to wear. 

Thursday - Books boost our imaginations!

Story book character costume parade and book swap.

Friday - Reading is better with a buddy!

Bring a stuffed animal and your coziest pajamas!

Such a fun spirit week!

Our hope is to instill a lifelong love of reading and learning in all of our students. 

Fall in the Mud Kitchen

 Fall in the mud kitchen!!!

The children have been loving the mud kitchen!!!

We decided to incorporate in some natural materials to let the children explore. Today we added mini pumpkins, acorns and brightly colored leaves. 

We also added in some nature wands to let their creativity run wild! 

Thank you to Learning and Exploring through Play for the inspiration.

There has been so much learning happening in here!

The benefits of a mud kitchen are amazing!

• It is great for mental health, freedom to be children, exploring the outdoors and PLAYING freely!
• It's good for physical health- recent studies have shown we absolutely NEED to have dirt in our systems in order to develop a healthy immune system. Indeed, the lack of interaction with mud is causing deficiencies and weaker immune systems in kids worldwide.
• It allows curiosity, exploration and experimentation in an open-ended way.
• Mathematical opportunities for measuring, filling and emptying and exploring capacity.
• Endless imaginative and role play possibilities starting with a blank play space structure which isn’t too prescribed in its usage and allows kids to create in any way that suits their play.
• Language development through descriptive words, scientific questioning and exploration, and storytelling through imaginative role play.
• Rich and genuine messy, sensory experiences through combination of natural materials.
• Scientific investigation as materials are combined, mixed, transferred and changed.
• Fine motor skills development through use of real tools in play situations.

Thank you to The Imagination Tree for this great list of learning outcomes for the mud kitchen. 

Thank you to Steve and Patrice Davis & Stu and Julie Davis for their donation of this lovely mud kitchen for HDC! We appreciate it so much!

Art Show Homework

Summer Art Homework 2023!

 We asked our students to pick a bag, each one is filled with various art materials to create a masterpiece!!!

We will display them at the art show on the last day of Summer Program!

Here are the masterpieces!

So creative!!! Great job!!!

Curious Creatures!

 Curious Creatures 

came to HDC today!!!

We learned all sorts of interesting facts about the animals and the children were fascinated to see them so close!

Thank you, Curious Creatures!!!

Kind Kids Music

 Kind Kids Music!!!

Click here to check out their website and to see where they will be performing next!

They had the most amazing puppets!

The kids loved dancing and singing with Amanda Panda and Rob! They even made recycled maracas (rice & glitter in a small water bottle) for each child to make some music with and to bring home after!

Such an amazing concert with a beautiful message of kindness! A great way to help close out a wonderful school year! 

Thank you, Kind Kids Music!!!

Foamy Bubbles

 Foamy Bubbles came to HDC!!!

Foam party with music to dance to and so many bubbles!!! 

The kids had an absolute blast!!!!

Lots of Summer fun happening at HDC!!!

SSC

 Adrianna from Seacoast Science Center came to HDC today!!! 

She taught the children all about the ocean zones and where different sea creatures live and can be found. 

The children all got a chance to touch and see the animals up close!

They were also able to try their hand at banding a lobster! 

Thank you so much to the Seacoast Science Center!!! 

Seacoast Science Center: NH's Marine Science Center

The children had such a great time!!!