Friday, March 30, 2012

friday's letters

haven't blogged for a few days and i saw this cute little link up
so i thought i would sum up our week through

dear girls, i love that you let me play beauty shop with you, and that you spray my hair with water till my shirt is soaked, i also love that you want me to do your hair as well
my beautiful little princesses

dear boys, i also love that you feel left out when the girls play beauty shop and you also need a turn, so the beauty shop closes and turns into a barber shop.  where you have to get mohawks!



dear scrambled eggs squished all over my kitchen floor, i dislike you ALOT!

dear weather, you have been WONDERFUL we have enjoyed you a lot and that is why there have not been a lot of projects happening.

dear little seeds planted in dirt, PLEASE GROW, a lot of kids are expecting to see something on monday!

dear free style, you are missed dearly by your friends! we understand that you are wanted at home to be a helpful big brother, but come back soon!
this is the daycare super hero, we call him free style
his mom just had a baby and has been home a lot
the kids miss him!

Love, crazy daycare lady jill


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

sat on her tuffet

i actually had to look up the word tuffet today
for years i thought tuffet was a word for 
butt, bum, bottom...ya know what i am talking about
i was wrong
its a piece of furniture
a low stool 
usually wooden
learn something new everyday!
and in case you are from NYC 
there is a cheese/meat/bar
called TUFFET

back to little miss muffet
sitting on her tuffet
i hope you all know how this goes

well we decided miss muffet needed our help catching all those spiders
so she would not be freighted.
so we "caught" them and put them in a jar!
You can find the jar HERE
we just dipped our thumbs in black paint and then added 8 legs
easy, fun, and the kids thought it was sooo funny!
after we caught all those spiders in the jar
we found more spiders hiding in the "rocks"
the "rocks" is a mixture of mixed beans that 
i got at our local grocery store
the kids found 15 more spiders!
GROOOOSSSSSS!!!!
besides the spiders all you daycare providers and moms
NEED to go out and buy some mixed bean soup 
pour them in a tub of some kind
give them spoons, lids, measuring cups
whatever
 
BUSY for 35mins!
and in my mind
anything that last for more than 5 mins is worth trying!!
yes it made a mess!
and some kids might try a bean or two, or possibly a hand full.
but don't worry if you have a child that likes to clean 
give them a dust pan and that becomes 
more fun than the actual beans!
thankfully i got a kiddo that enjoys cleaning!

after naptime we then made a GIANT spider to frighten  
our moms and dads with...

we didn't but the kids thought it would be a great idea 
When I was gathering the materials for our spiders
i said "lets make big giant spiders on these paper plates."
notice the giant spider on the paper plate!
smart girl!!
although we learned a lesson 
a spider has 8 legs TOTAL
not 8 legs on each side!
and then she realized oh no one else is making an actual spider on their plate
so she painted the whole thing black!
silly girl!  I loved her big spider!!

now the lesson to be learned here friends is:
a tuffet is a wooden stool
beans make kids happy
teach children to clean
spiders have 8 legs
frighten means to be scared
(these are things i learned and kids learned!)

Monday, March 26, 2012

Humpty Dumpty

the kids have been into nursery rhymes
these past few weeks

so today we did a little project on
humpty dumpty

the kids find this little rhyme 
to just be to funny

I found a nice little printable from HERE
it is a color by number
something the kids have never done before at daycare
so we went over the numbers 
and the colors
 and made a little cheat sheet
then the kids got busy!
this was another great activity that the older ones followed the directions
and the younger ones could color as they wanted!
I love finding activities where each child can work at their own comfort level!
and since we were talking about eggs being cracked
and numbers
I quickly whipped up a little puzzle for the kids to do
i made two different sets so that way the kids couldn't just much the color
they had to actually look at the numbers, color, and the way the egg was cut apart!
as they found matches as I asked them to tell me what number was on the egg.
some kids were quick to answer while others had to count the dots!
It was a GREAT activity for my 3, 4, and 5 year olds. 
I felt as though it meet all their needs!
they cheered when they were finished saying 
"we put all the humptys back together again!!"

tomorrow we will be doing another nursery rhyme activity!
i honestly haven't decided which one it will be yet :)





Friday, March 23, 2012

you are my sunshine

some days the kids are like rain clouds
its nice to have them but then you are ready for them to leave
but
most days they are my little sun shines
they make me smile, 
they make me thankful that doing daycare is my calling
they make me happy!

Today I grabbed my camera before heading out the door
(im horrible about taking photos) 
and snapped a few pics!

How could these faces not make you smile!

its a beautiful sunshine day!
ENJOY IT!!

9 kids 1 hour later...

9 kids and 1 hour later...
that my friends was exhausting!
I have done LOTS of hand/foot print projects
but this one took a lot out of me
the kids were beyond excited to do this project, 
and we did the project in the laundry room 
which made it way more fun...crazy kids
but they look so cute!
(the pictures and the kids)
confession-i had 9 kids but only 8 did the project
the 9th child flipped when i began to paint his hand so we decided it wasn't worth it!
A big THANK-YOU to this mamarazzi for the idea!

we then used leftover paint and these cardboard flower things that at one time had ribbon on them


it was a great day for celebrating SPRING!!
(even though we were a few days off!)












Thursday, March 22, 2012

go fly a kite...

sometimes my post title comes to me and then i think
i should come up with a new on, and nothing comes to mind
so i keep it...
soooo
go fly a kite!
or you could just make one
that is exactly what we did today
i cut up some kite shapes
got out the finger paints
(because that is our very favorite)
and let the kids go crazy with finger paint
while we were painting the kids were thinking
"hey lets head outdoors and fly these kites!"
but mean daycare lady had to crush their spirits
and announce "its raining kids."
insert LOTS of sad faces and moans!
but don't you worry my friends
smart daycare lady had a plan
because a painted belly is cuter than a painted kite!
we did a little science experiment
on putting things in front of the fan to see what would happen
so we took a kite that we didn't paint and "flew" it in front of the fan!
fun was had by all!
its always great to see kids little minds thinking and what would work and what wouldn't work
of course the little kids were chucking blocks at the fan
(don't worry i was right there to protect them)
only to be disappointed the block didn't fly in the wind
(they really should have been thankful because a block in the head is no fun, yes working with children does mean you get a block to the head)
the older, wiser children knew to find a superman cape, or a doll blanket, or a little pink scarf
because those super intelligent children knew that the lite weight item would fly
and those little block throwing kiddos would cheer for them!
because this makes me laugh
--i got this great experiment from my child's preschool teacher, so thank-you Miss Shelly--

tomorrow is friday
which makes me happy!


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Up Up and AWAY!

today we started about things in the sky
birds, airplanes, helicopters, kites, hot air balloons, 
and my kiddos even said
garbage on a windy day 
that made us sad!

because we have been talking about things in the sky
I whipped up a hot air balloon for the kiddos to design
i cut out a balloon, some people, and a basket
we used tissue paper to decorate the balloon, and crayons to decorate our people!

I told the kids that it was my dream to fly in a hot air balloon!
The kids thought it was a good a idea if we ALL did it!
I told them flying in a hot air balloon would cost a lot of money!
"like going to disney world?" asked a child
I replied not as much as going to Disney World but that I would have to save my money 
to take all the kids on a hot air balloon ride!
"i have some dollars at my house you can have!" SOOOOO SWEEETTTTT!!!!!!
 i told him that was very sweet but to save his own money for something special!
the same child then said
"good thing we are making hot air balloons because that doesn't cost lots of money and we can just pretend to go for a ride!"
Seriously I LOVE these kids and how their little minds work!!!
the babies colored their hot air balloons, and then destroyed them by ripping, and eating them
seriously babies when will you learn art project tools are not for eating! 
here are some of the finished products ready for a fabulous journey above our daycare!

I have seen other hot air balloons where a picture of the kiddo was cut out and in the basket!
but I went with a more simple method of just letting the kids make themselves or however they wanted!

Question:
because of my freshly painted walls I fear hanging stuff up with tape
so how do you do you display your child's art work?
please leave a comment with your simple solutions!
Thanks!