Puppets

We had a puppet making day! 

I don't have much to say about it other than giving kids free range of lots of materials is one of their favorite things ever!

My favorite thing about projects like this is the language I get to hear!

They are so busy and talking about what they are doing and what they need and the colors and shapes, ect! 

I LOVE free art!!!

Balloon Craziness

Balloons are some of the cheapiest things that will bring hours of entertainment!  Just blowing up a balloon with get a child's attention!  Realeasing the air out of a balloon with bring cheers and yippies and maybe a few tears if you catch them off gaurd :)  Then when you add music, rules, and candy it becomes even that much more fun!  And this time we made paddles and the kids had a blast with the paddles!

Here are a few pics of our balloon fun!!

 paddles = paper plates with a plastic silverware tapped to the back!

 personalizing the paddles! 

finished paddles!

 don't let the balloon touch the ground!!

 lots of smiles and laughter with this acitivty

keep the balloons in the air!

We did everything from don't let the balloon touch the ground for a whole song

can only touch the balloon with your finger

bounce balloon on your head, elbow, arm, knee

use the paddles to pass the balloon back and forth between friends,

don't let Jill get your balloon! :)

We had a blast and used up lots of endergy since it was to cold to go outside! 

What do you do when its to cold to go outside?

Felt Friday

Here is a little Halloween Felt Story!

5 little Pumpkins

Five little Pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said "My, it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don’t care."
The forth one said, "We’ll run and run and run."
The fifth one said, "It's just Halloween fun."
"Whooooo" went the wind.
And out went the light.
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of site.

© Copyright http://www.preschoolprintables.com/

Here are my little felt pumpkins and fence!

you could add more pieces like a witch, or a moon, but this is what i got!

Hope you enjoyed it!

I also made these felt pumpkins so that the kids could create the faces that they want!

So far its been a hit!

What are some of your favorite felt stories?

Linking up with teach preschool

happy friday!

leaves

Today I had a couple schoolagers for the day since there is no school here!  The oldest LOVES playing school and she rounds the kids up and does different little things with them!  So I let her take over today and I sat back and enjoyed the break!  (again i wish i would have grabbed my camera)  she had them singing, counting, do dance moves, following in a line, ect!!  It was so much fun to see!  So after nap I decided that I should give her a break and do some work myself!
I sent the older kids outside in search of "good leaves".  They came back with a nice selection!  Together we found something heavy to put the leaves under so that they could flatten a little bit!
When snack was over it was time to share what we were going to do with the leaves!
The first two steps were already explained:  gather and flatten "good leaves"
3rd step:  explain to children the front and back of a leaf and talk about how they are different
4th step:  have children paint the back of the leaf
5th step:  flip leaf over and press onto paper!
6th step:  oh and ah over how cool it looks when you take the leaf off!!!

Here are some pics for those visual learners :)

 painting the back of the leaf

Another little man painting the back of his leaf yellow!

 using ice cube tray and q-tips for painting!

 great fine motor skill of having to hold the leaf and paint at the same time!

 getting ready for the flip!

 a good firm press!

and here we have a BEAUTIFUL leaf print!

I loved this activity!  I thought forsure the younger kids were not going to enjoy themselves or understand but they kept right up with the older kids!  Way to prove me wrong kiddos!!!

Do your kiddos ever prove you wrong?  

playing IS learning

This may be a boring blog...sorry!  :)  don't you just want to keep reading!
I am having one of those weeks where I am just not in mood to get out all the paint, painting things, paper ect.  Have the kids create a giant mess and run off to go "play" while I am left with the clean up!  Today I started feeling guilty that it was Wednesday and we really hadnt done a whole lot this week!  I pulled out my camera and started thinking...NO we have been VERY busy...busy learning!!

I use this website alot when I make my plans for the day or update the blog. I am a firm believer in the importance of play!  Being told to sit still and memorize is fun for no one!  Being told to play is fun for everyone.  I am also a HUGE fan of her!  She is amazing and someday if it weren't for a fear of large crowds I would love to be like her!  Sharing all my ideas and beliefs of children with other people that care for children on a daily basis! (maybe someday) 

Like I said this week has been a blah week!  I know I am NOT out of ideas just not feeling it this week but then i say these pics and realized the kids have been plenty busy "playing" and I should NOT feel guilty for slacking off!
Here are a few photos of the kids playing and not even realizing they are learning!

these girls kept busy for almost an hour with dry earse boards!  Writing letters, and drawing people!

here are the kids busy playing playdough!  Again this activity ended after an hour of playing!  SO much learning going on here!  The conversations, the fine motor skills!  Its sooo fun to watch! 

I decided I need to be better about taking the kids during "play" time!  When the kids are building, racing cars, playing doctor, restaurant, or hair salon, pretending to be animals at the vet, or superheros, ect!  There is NEVER a dull moment here (well maybe naptime) but its there is so much going on each day!  Trust me, we have our days where yes there is a whole lot going on but its not very productive but I do my best to turn it around! 

do you ever have those days/weeks where you feel unproductive with your kids?

Just remember as long as they are busy playing they are doing something important!

Even when they are busy getting into trouble they are probally learning!  :)

Halloween Crafts

First off I have to say that I honestly don't care that much for Halloween, but I do try to do a few crafts with the kiddos that are Halloweenish...  I always try to keep things simple but yet fun for the kiddos!  Hope you enjoy and are able to take a few of the ideas and use them with your children!

This first one isn't really "Halloween" but the kids thought it was because of the colors we used.

Pretty easy to do...black paper, white and orange paint and a couple balls and let the kids have fun!  I usually use an old pizza box but didn't have any so I did have to supervise a little more because I didn't want flying balls!

The next one is simple and the kids loved it because they are hanging from ribbions dangling above our heads..ewwwwwww!! :)

Trace the kids hands and cut it out including the thumb.  Glue one hand over the other and add some eyes!  The kids loved picking our their own eyes!  We have a whole house full of different colored eyes!

Our spiders hanging from their webs!  The babies love these!  espeically when they move (aka when I blow on them)

Finally we did this little number today! It was a favorite of the kids and they did turn out pretty cute!

I wish I had someone here to take photos of the babies when i did this because it was priceless!  oh well someday I will be able to hire a photographer to follow the daycare kids around and take pics :)

What are some things you do during this time of the year??

Sensory Overload!

linking up with teach preschool
Everyday Sensory Play
Today was one of those days that I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do some sensory tubs! 

Sensory is very important for children in their development.

Here are a few things children learn from playing in the sensory "area" (we have sensory time)

- to use their imagination

- how to use tools

- to solve problems

- to play socially with others

- math- learning size, shape, and volume

- to see changes

There were 6 kids so I decided to do 4 tubs of sensory things!

SENSORY TUB 1

flour and baby oil

I had about half a bottle of baby oil and then I added flour in by the spoonful until I liked the consistancy I had!  Its a very slimy feel, if you add more flour you will get a cookie dough feel.  So do what you like or what your kids will like!  Add a few spoons and bowls for the kiddos to explore with!

SENSORY TUB 2

 cornstarch and water

very simple!  add equal parts water and cornstarch...you may need to add more water or cornstarch to get the right consistency! I threw in a few items from our kitchen area!  What you are looking for is looks wet but feels hard!  If you have never done this its awesome!   

SENSORY TUB 3

 flour, salt, sugar

I wanted a sandy feel so i just added flour salt and sugar I didn't measure just dumped!  It turned out great!  I threw in some seashells, spoons and a few other items from our kitchen area!

SENSORY TUB 4

rice and sequnce

you can find how I made thw colored rice and see what I did with it all here
I again just threw in a few things from the kitchen area and let the kids go at it!

I gave the kida about 5 mins at each tub and then after they tried out each tub let them go where they wanted.  Everyone had their favorites and spent a LOT of time at their favorites!  I was personally surprised at everyones favorite but it was a good surprise!

Here are some pics (sorry if its picture overload) and a few captions of the comments and observations I heard and saw!

here are a couple girls playing in the sand!  They liked digging for the shells!

 this little guy was pouring the rice back and forth between 2 cups!
I didnt get a pic of another little guy that spent his entire time here!  He didn't enjoy the wet sensory and the "sand" but the rice was the perfect texture for him!

 playing with the oobleck!  cornstartch and water
they werent a huge fan of it since it can be hard to work with!  The kids thought it was hilarious that the stuf was "stuck" in the oobleck!  they also found the name was funny!

 this little guy got his own senosry tray of water and soap!  He LOVED it!!!

 the little guy over here LOVED this stuff!  He would pour it into his fingers over and over.  He sat here for 48 mins!!  His words over and over were "Jill, FUN!!"

 here he is watching the oobleck drip between his fingers!

 this is the only little one the LOVED the flour and baby oil mixture!  She was covered in this stuff!  she loved the way it felt the way it smelled and the way it moved.  she commented that she could "write on it!"

 then we have the sand tub that was a favorite of these 2 ladies!  The girl in the pink (my daughter)   kept putting her face in it!  and then she asked can I put my toes in?  Why not!!  When the girl in the blue heard this her socks were off so fast and her feet were in!!  they thought it was the greatest thing ever!

Then all the girls ended up in the sand writing letters and dumping it on the floor :)

What are some of your favorite sensory tub ideas??
Please share always looking for more!

Handprint pumpkins

A friend of mine that also does daycare does a handprint or footprint once a month!  I don't think she has missed a single month and I always thought how awesome that those parents will see their babies hands and grow because of what my friend does.  I on the other hand have been doing daycare for a little over 3 years and always had good intentions of doing this but failed over and over!  So I finally decided I need to be better about this and have stuck to it for the last 3 months and sometimes we do more than one handprint!  Thanks to my dear friend for the motivation! - I hope she knows who she is!

So this month we did pumpkin handprints to go with the season! 

Here are the children hard at work...

 showing me their orange hands!  The kids love painting with anything and everything but actually getting to paint with their hands is a real treat!

 he dove in with 2 hands!

 even the babies got a turn!

-they aren't babies anymore but pretty sure I will call them my babies until the next "round" of babies come!  They grow up way to fast!

 he pretty much did everything BUT paint the paper plate!

 this little dude kept his hand in the same spot and stared at me!  His big brother came over and helped him move his hand side to side but he didn't change expression and once his brother stopped he left his hand in that same spot :)

the final product! 

do you make your child's handprint often as a memory? 

colors and shells!

Not a very exciting title but its a quick way of summing up what we did!

I was blessed enough to take a week vacation to the beach!  Each morning while I was there I would walk the beach and collect seashells! I knew the kids would just love that I brought these shells home for them to explore! 

After everyone had gotten a turn to explore all the different shells we talked about Big, medium, and small. I took out 3 cups and wrote Big, Medium, and Small on each cup and had the kids sort the different sized shells.  The older kids had no problem with this activity, but the younger kids struggled with the "medium" cup. 

Here are a few photos of the kdis sorting the shells:

 thinking hard!

 the 3 cups, I wrote the words in the size they are so that way the children could "read" them with little to no help!  I loved how quickly all the kids picked up on this activity!

This little lady could have sat here all day doing this!  She LOVED sorting!

WHEN I SORT THINGS, I AM LEARNING...to notice details and likenesses and differences in objects and form categories, essential concepts for reading and mathematics

concepts of color, size, and shape

numerical concepts of more and less

logical reasoning

http://www.seedlingslearningcenter.com/ourcurriculum.php

We also did a very simple but yet fun activity I call crayon bundles!

I just grouped crayons and wrapped them in a rubber band! It adds a whole new twist to coloring!  The kids really enjoyed this project but I found out the majority of my kids prefer to just color with 1 crayon at a time!  I think they felt like they had more control and could add more details!

 I love the way they are working so hard!

Well thats all for today!