Testing

Just got a new iPod touch and testing out some blogging programs.. Real posts coming soon!

Christmas time!

After a busy summer im back to blogging! We had a great summer filled with lots of outside exploring, attempting to grow a garden, cooking with fresh veggies, and most importantly, just having fun being kids! We have also gone through our transition time of our big friends all heading off to school and have settled nicely into our new schedules and groups. Now, time to get everything ready for christmas! All my little ones are just so excited to see the big jolly man coming soon and i'm doing everything I can to make that excitement even bigger :)

This month we are guiding our activities towards winter and christmas things.. Here is the start of our new shelf activities.........

Pouring silver balls.. For an added challenge I gave them just one cup but more beads then will fit into the cup so they need to learn when to stop pouring so as not to make a mess

Here I cut up cinnamon sticks into small enough pieces that they can fit into the snowman on the ice cube tray.... The kids then practice using the tweezers to pick up the pieces and put them in.. and of course theres always the added fun of smelling each piece which seems to be their favorite part  :)

Because my kids all seem to be super big into tweezers and things I set up a second game using them this month. In this game there are red and green bells and they need to be separated into two little metal containers

Dollar store find! Everyone always loves tic tac toe :)

I took old easter egg halves and attached bells inside of them using pipe cleaners which also make the handles. Half of the bells I took out the piece inside that makes them jingle so the kids need to separate them between jingly bells and silent bells.

The other day we also did a great activity to make snow flakes. I cut out the snow flakes from paper first and then we taped them onto a white piece of paper together. I then gave them a sponge and black paint so they could sponge overtop of all of the snowflakes so that when we took them off we ended up with white snowflakes in a night sky :)

I love these little books.I picked them up recently second hand and the kids look forward to this every day. there is a book for each day before christmas and as an added bonus, each one is also an ornament for the tree. It has become part of our circle time every day to get our new book and read it before putting it on the tree.

This is all juts the start of our christmas fun.. Hopefully I will have more activities to post soon!

Back!

We've had a busy busy summer but hopefully I will be back on here soon to get things updated and show some of the great things we have been doing!

Oceans!

For the month of May we are focusing our first two weeks on oceans and the last two weeks on forests.. We started out of course by making our monthly calendar...

The idea and the poem for this came from http://funhandprintart.blogspot.com/search/label/handprint%20and%20footprint%20calendar%202 -- I love doing these calendars every month to see how much they have all grown.. it amazes me each time!

This has been my favorite craft we have done for oceans so far... All I did was cut some ovals of felt ahead of time and 8 pieces of ribbon. Then, with my help, the kids used a hot glue gun to glue the ribbon legs all around the oval and then we wrapped the oval around their finger and secured it with a rubber band.. After that all that was left was giant googly eyes *after all GIANT googly eyes make every craft more awesome as my son puts its*. The kids wouldnt put these down at all for the rest of the day, they were excited that they had made themselves a toy.

And of course one of our felt octopuses had to end up in our new sensory bin.. The kids are loving this bin, I recycled an old rock band box into their bin so it is a lot bigger and more kids can play at the same time. In this bin I put a mixture of beans, rice, lentils, and pasta dyed in different shades of pinks, blues and greens. Then I took salt dough and made the small blue balls which so far have represented everything from bubbles and eggs to raindrops. Throw in some green easter grass for seaweed, a few ocean animals and a boat and a scoop and youve got hours of entertainment! And of course a bit of mess everywhere ;)

For open art times I managed to find this cute set of ocean stamps and 2 multicolored ink pads at my local dollar store. Then in the next aisle these great ocean stickers!

This activity has been the most widely used since I have put it out and its being used by all the age groups too. All I did to create this was wrap duct tape around a small box and poke holes into one side.. In the bowl are some party favour picks of ocean animals. This way the kids can design their own ocean. I love it because it really works their fine motor control and well nothing is cuter then seeing a 2 year old trying to fit these into the little holes. It takes such concentration!

Also, although its not related to oceans, we have been doing a lot of yoga lately. Ive been using the first 3 Yoga kids http://yogakids.com/ videos to help me teach the kids. They are getting to be quite awesome at a lot of the poses now!

I will be linking this to One Hook Wonder's Montessori Monday. To see what other kids have been up to this week check out the links at http://onehookwonder.blogspot.com/

Jack and the Beanstalk - The Giants story

For a book study in our plants unit Idecided to use Jack and the Beanstalk. Its a story all the kids are familar with and I love that depending ont he version you read, it leaves an open story ending which is perfect for kids to make their own stories. These stories are all titled, 'The Giant's story After he Fell From the Beanstalk'

I love how even though they were all given the same set up each story ended up completely different. This is something I will definetly be doing with them more often now :)

Living and non living

Part of our studies this month involve learning about the difference between living things and non living things. To help us do this we made little books..

Front cover

Inside pages. Each book had 3 pages like this. It was so cute seeing the things they came up with, one of the most common ones being a living dog and a not living car :)

We then went on to talk about plant cycles and explain how plants are living. This is a nice introduction to starting our garden up again as very soon we will be starting some of our seeds inside so we can hopefully grow some giant pumpkins!

Clouds

During April we are learning about spring so I thought it would be a good idea to do a mini unit on clouds.

We started by looking at 4 basic cloud types with these 3 part cards I made. It was so cute seeing the kids looking through them and staring out the window, tryin to figure out what kind of clouds we were seeing.

Then we made clouds and tried to decide what they looked like. We did this by using an eyedropper and dropping bits of white paint into the center and then folding the paper and squishing it all around. I love doing things like this where I get to realy see their imaginations at work trying to decide what things are.

Next we looked at the water cycle. First we colored these pictures which explained everything to us and then we played a game where we were waterdrops. They would start in a cloud and then the cloud would fill up and they would fall to the ground. Then they would decide if they were travellin to the ocean or into plants and then evaporate up and start all over again. We also use this little song to remember the cycle..

Puddle Puddle, Puddle Puddle,

On the ground, On the ground,

Evaporating up, evaporating up,

to the clouds, to the clouds,

Oh no! Oh no!

The cloud is full! The cloud is full!

We're falling to the ground, We're falling to the ground,

Rain drops fall, rain drops fall

And of course, hands on learning always works best! We brought out cotton balls and I let the kids hold them before putting water on them to see how heavy they were. Then we slowly started added more and more water to see how much it would take for the cloud to start raining. Then, the kids had fun making their own storms! They would put the cotton balls into water and pull them up and watch the rain fall. Some of them were happy to just let the rain fall back into the container where as others realized that just like clouds, their cotton ball could move a bit before it would run out of rain and they could use it to fill different containers.

I dont have a picture of our other experiment but we also made rain in our kitchen. First I boiled a pot of water and then put a lid on it. As the droplets caught on the lid it looked like rain.

Now if only we could find a way to get rid of all the clouds outside to make way for sunshine!

Back!

Ok back to being able to blog more, now to just catch up! We've done a lot in April starting with.....

April fools day! We decided to celebrate France style this year by making and taping paper fish to each others backs.. The kids loved it and it kept them from wanting to try to play actual tricks on each other!

Making snowmen. Luckly the snow almost completely melted right after this snowman though I am hearing we are getting snow again soon! Least it shouldnt stay for long this time

Making Calendars.. This time we used our footprints and turned them into rabbits. Then I just looked arond on the internet for a spring poem to go with it. I find since we have started doing these every month the kids are so much more inerested in what month it is.

Making domino towers. Such concentration went into making this

Making sentences. I have a word wall up for them with the primary dolch words on it and a group of them thought it would be fun to write out different things they could make with those words.

An awesome dollar store find.. A mini version of perfection. There is a start/stop button so the kids can just use it to practice putting the shapes in though they do love to set the timer and watch the pieces jump up at them!

A mini pop up pirate game, also from the dollar store! You put the swords into the slots in the barrel and if you hit the wrong spot, the pirate jumps up out of the barrel. Great for my pirate loving boys here. Soon, I'm going to get a little treasure chest to store the swords in as well

All in all, we have been having an awesome April :)

Sorry about the silence!

What a crazy couple of weeks its been... my son is turning 6 on Sunday and so I've been making him a version of monopoly junior all super mario style.. i'll put some pics up of it as soon as i finish which has to be tonight - lol. Then tomorrow is a sleep over party with his best friends.. should be a busy time! Will try to post soon and get things up to date again

April

The kids and I are excited that spring is finally here and the snow is melting so we're going to celebrate by spending the next month studying spring and spring things :) I'm looking forward to this as ive slightly changed the way i made the curriculum this month and I think its going to fit better for the group I have.. Because I am doing a new style this month I'm going to try and post every day so that I can look back and really see how its working and what parts arent working.. Heres a rough skeleton outline of our month...

Now to just hope this good weather continues for us and the rest of the snow goes away fast!

A childs plea

I've heard this poem many times over the years and I find it still just as useful today... So many times I see people asking whats in your bag? and the kids don't know what to say because some days we just get so busy its hard to find time to make a tangible item to take home.. Every parent should read this poem and ask instead, How was your day? what did you do? instead of whats in your bag? what did you make

A Childs Plea

Today I did my math and science.
I toasted bread, I halved and quartered, counted, measured, and used my eyes, ears and hands.
I added and subtracted on the way.
I used magnets, blocks and memory tray.
I learned about a rainbow and how to weigh.
So please don't say -

'ANYTHING IN YOUR BAG TODAY?'

You see. I'm sharing as I play, to learn to listen and speak clearly when I talk
to wait my turn and when inside to walk.
To put my words into a phrase, to find my name and write it down.
To do it with a smile and not a frown,
to put my pasting brush away. So please, don't say -

WHAT NOTHING IN YOUR BAG TODAY?'

I learned about a snail and a worm.
Remembered how to take my turn.
Helped a friend when he was stuck.
Learned that water runs off a duck.
Looked at words from left to right.
Agreed to differ, not to fight.
So please don't say -

'DID YOU ONLY PLAY TODAY?'

Yes, I played the whole day through.
I played to learn the things I do.
I speak a problem, find a clue
and work out for myself just what to do.
My teacher's set the scene, and stay near-by to help me when I really try.
They are there to pose the problems, and to help me think.
I hope they will keep me floating and never let me sink.
All of this is in my head and not in my bag. It makes me sad to hear you say -

'HAVEN'T YOU DONE ANYTHING TODAY?'

When you attend your meeting today and do your work I will remember not to say to you -

'WHAT NOTHING IN YOUR BAG? WHAT DID YOU DO?'

~Author Unknown

Easter activities Part 1

So I started putting out the easter activities over the weekend. Theres still lots more to come but heres the start of all of our fun :)

The start of our sensory bin.. I'm going to continue to add to this over the month *and maybe give it a bigger container... the paper grass ended up popping up bigger then it looked like it would in the bag and of course they dont want me to get rid of any of it now :)* So far its jut the grass and eggs and the kids find random things to hide in the eggs to play hide and seek.. Later on in April I'm going to put some little animal pictures and figurines when we learn about egg babies and live born babies.. I cant wait to get this set up a bit better :)

Another awesome dollar store find - Tic tac toe egg style!

Scooping work.. the kids take the scoop and pick an egg up out of the 'nest' and pour it into the egg carton until the carton is full

More to come soon!

St Patricks day!

Still missing my phone for writing posts so this is a few days late!

Putting Shamrock picks into the holes of a strainer.. This activity actually surprised me, I put it out for my older kids to help with eye hand coordination and the one who loved it the most was actually one of my youngest! Hes just turning two soon and just sat there with such intense concentration trying to get these into the holes.. By the end of the day you could see improvement already!

Of course we also had to make some decorations. This was a great opportuinity to teach about the color spectrum. To help I used the song by They Might be Giants off of my new favorite cd of theirs, 'Here comes science', called Roy G Biv.. The kids thought it was hilarious that there was a guy whos name spelled the color spectrum :)

No party is complete without party hats as one of the little girls told me the day before the party.. Luckly when I went to the dollar store they had these awesome shiny little hats for the kids!

Pin the shamrock on the leprachaun! I just printed off a picture of Lucky and used foam shamrock stickers

Every party also needs some cool plates and tasty snacks....

Green pasta, Fish sticks, and rainbow vegetables for lunch (we also pretended the corn was gold)

Turnovers with green icing one of my clients brought in

And last but not least, green milk to go with it all!

The kids all had a great time at the party... now to start getting ready for our easter party!

Lost

So the posts may be fewer and farther in between for the next little bit.. it appears my phone which i did all my blogging from is either lost or stolen.. ive been searching everywhere since i noticed it gone saturday morning but still have come up with nothing :(

I will try to get my camera up and running again though so I can continue with this.. hopefully ill have things up and working for tomorrow when we have our St Patricks Day Pajama Party!

Bananas!

To start off our banana day we talked about the colors yellow and white, inside and outside as well as crescent shapes. We then looked around the daycare to find examples of things, though the only thing they could think of that was crescent shaped other then bananas was the moon!

After that we HAD to do the banana song, this song is always a huge hit with kids
(motion like your picking) Pick banana, pick pick banana,
pick banana, pick pick banana,

(motion like your peeling) peel banana, peel peel banana,
peel banana, peel peel banana,

(motion like your cutting) cut banana, cut cut banana,
cut banana, cut cut banana,

(motion like your eatting) eat banana, eat eat banana,
eat banana, eat eat banana

(go crazy!) go bananas, go go bananas,
go bananas, go go bananas


Then of course I couldnt lose out on this chance to talk about the letter B. I find a lot of kids have problems with b's, p's and d's since they all sound and look similar when they are lower case. To do this we made a banana, cut it in half and added paper to the inside to write on. For the littlest ones I made tracer letters but my big kids did this all by themselves!


Last but not least, we made banana 'ice cream'. I love this recipe, you just cut up bananas (or convince the kids to do it.. great for saving time and for them to practice their knife cutting skills!) and freeze them. Once they are all frozen stick into a blender (i love my magic bullet for this) and blend until it makes an ice cream like substance. Add some chocolate syrup and its delicious!

Apples!

Today we studied apples.. We looked at their life cycle, tried red and green apples to taste the difference(red won their taste test), painted with apples and made apple trees!