The stick just wasn't so sticky!

One of my new year resolutions was to plan my daycare projects in advance!

I have not missed a single day!

Everything has been ready and prepped for when the time came!

well last night I look at my calendar

and do a check in my head to make sure I have all the materials

well nope I do not because of the the flood!

I don't have all my yarn, not much tissue paper, no felt

BUT contact paper YES! 

It was on a top shelf!

So I gather all the supplies that made it and have them ready for today!

a BIG piece of contact paper pom poms, a small amount of tissue paper, buttons, sequence, a few pieces of yarn and string and some other small light weight odds and ends!

the kids go to work!!

hang the contact paper on the wall!

set out supplies and let the kids start the decorating process

hmmm where should I put this?

The finished product!

Also not sure if it was because the contact paper has been sitting in a super moist basement or if it was bad contact paper but the items had a hard time staying stuck!!  I am assuming it was because it sat in the basement but who knows! so all day I have been picking up the pieces that are slowing falling off to the ground!!

here one of the kiddos made a face

you can see the eyes, the button ears, the sequence mouth and the yarn for hair!

Too cute!!!

This was a HUGE hit and the kids were busy with this activity for over 30 minutes!  I love when we can get up and moving with our project time!!

I highly recommend this activity with energetic kids! Because there was lots of walking to be done if you stick the supplies on one side of the room and the contact paper on the other! 

I leave you with this picture

I was finsihing lunch clean up and walked into our "new" daycare space and found this little dude sitting at the table reading a book (upside down) just smiling away like he was the biggest kid at daycare today!  It just struck me as super funny and I had to get a picture of it! 

Happy Monday!!

Here are a few more pics of my daycare space as of today

this is a pic of the back bedroom

and this is a pic of the main daycare area that I use!

The carpet is offically dry and waiting a little longer on the wood!

so we are almost ready to start repairing everything!

ME! ME! ME!

Is that not how kids think?

ME! ME! ME!

and lots of adults...

Well to go along with our

I wanted the  kids to do a little lesson about themselves.

First we did a self portrait

you can get the blank face HERE

I had the kids go into the bathroom and look into the mirror and tell me what they saw

and then we came back and drew what we saw onto our blank face 

Then I made a little booklet for the kids to fill in

(just did it on power point, super easy, nothing to exciting!)

The book had:

My Favorite Food:

this would be corn dogs with a GIANT bowl of ketchup!

My Favorite Color:

a rainbow of purples and pinks!

My Family:

she was so into drawing herself, she only had room for her little brother

her comment was "my family is so big I don't know if I can fit them all!"

she got them all in!!

My Name:

Had the kiddos work on writing their names!

Our books are complete! 

I think I am going to keep the books and add more pages when I think of it!

I would also like each child to do one and not everyone was here!  

So this may be a work in progress!!

I was also given a list of questions from another childcare provider and I would love to include the answers to that in the book as well!!

What are some pages I could add to the kids books "About Me!"

Linking this Post up with Thrifty Thursday #7

Together we make a box of crayons

I LOVE MY LITTLE DAYCARE!!

(some days I think a desk job would be nice)

anyways...I do LOVE it most days!

I tell people often it is not just a daycare I run, 

It is an extended family!

and not even the children, but their parents!

We all get along, kids, and parents!

It is wonderful!

So today I wanted to do something about MLK

but something that my kids could relate to!

So I googled books...lots of MLK books,

which is great but my I didn't think my kiddos would fully understand!

Then I came across 

The Crayon Box that Talked!

a great poem about how the colors didn't get along but the things that they could do together was BEAUTIFUL

So I made my own little crayon box

and had the children color a printable crayon

While the kids colored we talked about how we are different and no 2 people are alike, 

some are 

tall, short, long hair short hair, boys, girls, blue eyes, green eyes,

some people like

to dance, play sports, listen to music, watch movies, ect...

but together we make a crayon box full of awesome kids!

What melted my heart was the fact the kids called me the crayon box, 

and I hold them all and take care of them...tear!!!

We then filled our crayon box with each individual crayon to make our box complete

(its not fully complete because not all the kids were here!)

they are my little box of crayons!  Each one different and unique in their own special ways!!

Linking this little post to Show and Tell #84

Also linking up with A Story + Art = A Great Start

On Top of Spaghetti!!

WHAT A MESS!!!

- that should be the name of my blog! -

today we painted with spaghetti, and

I had never heard so much laughter and giggling 

from an activity before!

The kiddos couldn't get enough of it!

WHAT A MESS!!!

-First off I have to say "wasting" food is something I struggle with-

I worked at a preschool where some of the children's only meals

were at school!  And that was hard to see!

So I hated "wasting" food!

So we never did a whole lot with food items!

Then I went to a training!

AAAAMAZING!

(google the ooey gooey lady if you don't know who it is!!)

I love her training and i follow her on twitter, and facebook!

SHE ROCKS!

anyways she brought up the whole food issue

-if the kids only meals are while they are in your care, 

then that also means the only time they get to experience life positivly is in your care!-

so to sum up what she said was, these kids need you to 

feed them, clean them, hold them, love them, and EDUCATE THEM!  

and if that means using a few spaghetti noodles to do so than do it!

SO TODAY WE DID IT!!

They LOVED it!

It was like the best painting experience ever!

The pictures are just smeared, nothing exciting was created

but the language, and the laughter

was worth 

THE MESS!!

Here are some pics!

(i didn't get very many because I was covered in red paint and didn't dare touch the camera after that)

i boiled about 20 noodles!  So you really aren't "wasting" a whole lot!

dip them in globs of paint!

I was going for primary colors so the kids would mix the colors to make new colors!

for some reason we just got a whole lot of red and a little purple!!!

But when purple was discovered the crew went NUTS!!!

Here this guy is swinging his noodles to make streaks across his paper

this little dude just laid on the noodles on his paper, picked them back up and did it again!

more swinging action!  and some dragging action!

ahhh and then the "babies"  They LOVED this!  and they were covered in paint when it was over!

I laughed so hard! -and stepped in a pile of spaghetti!- 

his paper was ripped and destroyed he was so into rubbing the paint all over!

-his noodles were the ones I stepped in-

this little man took a little longer to get into it!

but don't worry your friend will help you out!

look at that face of disgust because his buddy was helping him out!!

back off dude this MESS is MINE!

concentrating so hard!!

-and then i got red paint on my hands so the pictures stopped!

But so much fun was had by all!

Now go out buy some spaghetti for supper and use a few noodles for painting!!

Linking this messy post up with Show and Tell #83

Linking up with Sunday Showcase

Yarn Blocks

I am going to go off on small tangent

I went to school for 4 years, and complained for 4 years

about the fact that we could never do fun projects with the kids!

By "fun" I meant the cute ones that the teachers do most of the work!

fun??

well college was over and started my first preschool teaching job

(a place I will NEVER forgot and learned soooo much!)

20 kids, NO TIME for "fun" projects!

and then my college education kicked in saying 

kids aren't having fun when you do all the work!

Kids are having fun when they do all the work!

Then comes starting my own daycare!

we did a few things here and there but nothing much!

Then this summer it hit me!

I NEED to do more!  

I NEED to teach these kids!!

and that is when the blog started! and we have been super busy!!

having FUN!  and learning!!

Where am I going with this (i don't really know)

but,

During the months of November and December 

we were doing a LOT of  

"teacher made projects"

I do all the work, I cut the pieces, 

I glue things together

ME, ME, ME

it was cute! the parents loved it, but it wasn't as much fun

Don't get me wrong the kids love doing anything!

But it was becoming

"Hey come here I need to trace your hand!"

PROJECT OVER!

WHAT?!?

I was forgetting to let the kids do what they wanted

not because I found this cute idea on pinterest!

don't get me wrong we will still continue to do these cute projects every now and then

but I need to get back to letting the kids do the work, 

NOT ME!!!

all week I have just given the kids the materials and they got busy!

I love their little creations!

Sometimes I cringe and think...ahhhh that is NOT what I wanted you to do!!!

but that is what THEY  wanted to do!!

and its THEIR project so they get to control it!

Today was that day!

I took a few minutes to wrap blocks in yarn

In my mind the kids were going to stamp with the yarn blocks

and make pretty patterns!

YA RIGHT!

They smeared and mixed colors one paper after another

I even heard, 

"YOU ARE MAKING BROWN!!!!"

There was soooo much mixing and smearing going on brown was being created!!!

and then I took a step back sat on a chair and thought

this isn't what I had in mind but they are

happy, laughing, mixing, creating, counting (how many stamps before they needed more paint) smearing the paint in different directions, it was a mess!  but it wasn't about me it was about them!

Don't get me wrong!  I still love doing the cute crafts and plan on doing one tomorrow!

but remember to think of what the child wants!  Not what we want!

Linking up with Mingle with Us and TGIF Linky Party #11 and Toys in the Dryer

Also linking up with Sharing Saturday!

CREATIVE!

I wish I was creative enough to come up with a lot of the stuff I do!

But mostly I steal ideas!

I have a lot up my sleeves, 

but I go to education classes, 

buy children craft books, 

and am addicted to pinterest 

for a reason!

But it is a very GOOD reason!

my kiddos are

learning

and of course

having FUN!!!

I discovered a fun way to paint on pinterest!

and just had to try it! 

Well since I pin about 5 new things a night 

this idea got shoved off and forgotten about

But my new years resolution is to plan each month,

so I went through my pins and Rediscovered this!

Condensed milk and food coloring = 

BEAUTIFUL SHINNY PAINT!

i had 2 cans in my pantry and thought for sure I would NEED both cans!  WRONG!  i used 1/4 a can and 11 kids did the project! a little goes a LONG ways! I wish i had a recipe to use the other part of the can so it doesn't go to waste!!

yes its sticky! 

but drys smooth and shiny!!!

Its very similar to corn syrup and food coloring but isn't as sticky, its easier to move around with a brush, drys quicker (MUCH MUCH quicker) and it is not as heavy!

The toddlers and preschoolers LOVED this!!!

so of course I bring you pictures!!

poor pics but I had all the blinds open for sunlight because i was worried these were going to take days to dry!  but its not even 2 in the afternoon and pretty much all dry!!

its funny how when one kid makes a rainbow they ALL have to make a rainbow!!

Off subject but I just want to remember today:

Its January 4th, 2012 and today we went for a walk around the block, and played outside for over an hour!

you see normally I would spend over 45mins dressing kids shoving boots on hats gloves, and then you have the one kid that needs to use the bathroom so you start all over agian on getting him undressed and redressed!  Then you throw the kids in a snow bank, point and laugh and then go get the kid that fell in the middle of the yard and cant get back up because the snow is to deep and he is crying because his boogers are frozen to his face and snow got inside all those clothes we spent 45 mins getting on!

But NOT today!  Today we put coats on (some had fall jackets) and we just went outside and played!

This pic was taken in January of 2011

This picture taken January 2012

This is CRAZY!!!!

Linking up with THRIFTY THURSDAY!!!

Linking up with Toys in the Dryer!

Doodle Paint!

The New Year is Here!

and I actually have the entire month of January projects picked out
planned and organized!!!

I am very proud of it!

and we will be keeping very busy over here at

babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, OH MY!!

today we did a messy little activity called 

DOODLE PAINT!

not sure where the name came from but that is what I am calling it!

To make Doodle Paint

you will need:

Equal Parts:

flour salt and water

and then add food coloring!

mix all together with your choice of colors and give the bottle a good shake!!

I got my bottles that I used at Micheal's

(a craft store) I need about 50 more!!

Because I only had four but wanted more than four colors

I thought I would use empty glue bottles -- FAIL!

Soooo...I decided to strengthen our fine motor skills 

we would use syringes,

and the kiddos LOVED this!!

I also used a cardstock for our paper because I had a feeling if I used anything else it would soak through and ripe the paper!  Its very heavy stuff!!

Here are some pics of the kiddos hard at work!

The kids thought that the red and yellow were ketchup and mustard and asked if that was what we were painting with!  GOOD IDEA!! for another day!

TEAM WORK for those little hands!

CREATIVITY!! 

I LOVE the way it looks as it drys!  and of course it drys raised so it has a fun texture to it!

To check out another project we did with texture click HERE!