We went on a walk today and made a stop off at the park. The children love digging in the sand. We past an old plow while out walking so we had an impromptu lesson on old fashion farming. The children could not believe horses used to do all that work. Klayden wasn't too sure about wearing rain boots this morning but warmed up to them and adjusted his walking quickly. Adelyn was a rolling crazy baby today! Here she is mid-roll. We played kitchen this morning and Klayden loved being the chef, sharing his yummy dishes with everyone. He was so smiley. The children were so generous and helpful today. Leightyn and Owen worked hard to fix our house and later in the day they built a protective walls around Adelyn to save her from dragons. Princess Ella (or should I say Elsa) enjoyed singing the soundtracks to Frozen and using her wand to freeze items around the daycare. The rain we've been having this week has really set the tone for our study on weather but it has put a damper on our outside time. We read books on and discussed tornadoes today. This afternoon we continued our color mixing from yesterday. It's a fun activity that we will have to do again some time.
Jackson and Owen played an ice cream math game this morning that they really enjoyed. We have been putting a great deal of emphasis on number identification. During free play they both spent time playing knights with the castle. I observed a lot of pretend play today as well. The whole group took turns being doctors and saving people. This afternoon the children studied colors. We started a fun project that we will finish tomorrow in which we mix our secondary colors using shaving cream, paint and ziplock bags.
Klayden enjoyed checking out the bead roller coaster from the floor today. At times he would start laughing. What a cutie! Adelyn is getting so big. Today was her first day in the exersaucer. She loved being upright and able to see the entire daycare. The new selection of toys were also very intriguing. Owen liked helping me make french toast for breakfast today. They were delicious, as always. It was rainy out all day, leaving us unable to get outside. To work off some energy, the children enjoyed racing the big cars and trucks around the daycare until they were completely exhausted. Although today was our statewide Tornado drill, we will be discussing and practicing ours tomorrow. Next week we will be studying the weather more in depth.
The children love baking so today we voted and agreed on blackberry heart and dinosaur muffins. We ate them for snack and they were delicious. We had both our fire drill and tornado drill today and everyone did well. The children were excited to see that some of their beans that we had planted in baggies sprouted leaves. They were also impressed to see the size of the root systems. We checked on our avocado trees but there are no roots or sprouts yet. We read a few books this afternoon about worms and their importance to the earth. We finished the week with a book called Save the Earth which was written and illustrated by elementary students. The children were very interested in the fact that the book was published by children not very much older than them. I'm thinking this would be a great future activity for us!
This morning we read a book called One Child, One Planet: Inspiration for the Young Conservationist by Bridget McGovern Llewellyn. It has some beautiful photography and sends a nice message to children as to the importance of caring for our environment. This morning we played outside and following lunch the children made some neat paintings using pine cones. This afternoon, we spoke about how fortunate we are to have wonderful, clean, faucet water here in the US. The children were very interested in both the water cycle and the process it takes to become actual drinkable water. The book we read displayed pictures of other countries and discussed their poor water conditions. This came as a very big surprise to the children.
What better day to get out and enjoy nature than Earth Day! We went on a stroller walk and stopped off at the park on the way home. The children were excited to hear the voices of all the frogs at the pond in the park. We also met some Canadian Geese but they were not very friendly (They must have been French Canadian! Just kidding). During circle time, one of the books we read was The Lorax By Dr. Suess. There were no tears this time around and the children were very in tune with the message the book was sending. A discussion on what smog is stemmed from the book and we brainstormed ways that we can take care of our Earth and help our air quality. We made some Earth art using recycled materials and a Jackson Pollock style of painting. They turned out beautifully and will be on display in the daycare for a little while before going home.
The children were very excited to see each other after the exciting weekend. They enjoyed sharing where that sneaky Easter Bunny hid their baskets and all the goodies found inside. Ella brought her Frozen CD to share with us and we had what looked to be an American Idol audition. Tomorrow is Earth Day so this week will be spent studying ways to conserve. We discussed how materials such as paper, plastic, aluminum and glass are created today as well as the importance and process of recycling. Klayden, Jackson and Owen worked on a Earth puzzle in the picture below. Klayden liked investigating the Vtech Learning Tree House today. Adelyn and Mr. Snail had some words this morning. I'm not sure what was said, but it was intense. I wasn't able to capture it on photo before my camera battery died but Leightyn, Owen and Ella spent some time this afternoon playing Little Mermaid, where they all repeatedly saved Ariel and fought off Ursula, the evil sea witch.
We had a wonderful day today! Thanks to Ella and her mom, we had yummy Dunkin' Donuts this morning! YUM! Easter bunny Ella read as her friends intently listened so I had to catch a photo. The children made toilet paper tube Easter bunnies today which turned out cute. During our time outside this morning I allowed the children to take a quick peak at our newly born baby bunnies. They were born on Monday and the children have really wanted to get a closer look. Everyone was very excited to have Easter Jigglers with lunch today. Thank you to Leightyn and her family. We finished the day off with a little more sugar and had Rice Krispy treat nests for snack.
One of Klayden's favorite things to play with at daycare has been our magnetic letters. Today he fit the entire bucket of them onto the board. It reminded me of the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom By Bill Martin Jr. so I read it to him after he was finished squeezing the last few on. He liked the books so much that he wanted me to read it 3 times. During math this morning, the children and I worked on counting up to 10 with one-to-one correspondence as well as identifying and representing the number 2. Ella also worked on counting and identifying numbers up to 100. Well, you can not tell from this picture, but Adelyn is a very happy girl here as she proudly rolled several times this morning and even scooted backward a little. This afternoon she pulled off both of her socks, investigating her newly found little piggies. Addie wasn't the only one moving around on the floor today...Jackson, Ella and Owen were army crawling and hiding from the evil lawnmower this morning! No, that is not a typo...evil lawnmower! It is so enjoyable to be a part of such creative and energetic play. I sadly was wondering at what age I lost mine? They also were outside in the backyard searching for clues on how they would save the stolen baby bunnies from pirates. I really think I need to start writing these ideas down in case I decide to author some books.
We had a busy day today. This morning some of the children worked hard matching dozens of Easter eggs in our sensory bin while others made some beautiful paintings. Klayden found a liking for the car ramps today. It was so neat to see his gears turning as he figured out what ramp lead where. Adelyn is still working hard to be upright with the big kids. Although I think she would prefer to be in this position all day long, she's still building those tummy muscles and tires after a while. Big brother Owen slowed down to entertain her a bit. We have a ton of new Easter books pulled out so Ella really enjoyed reading to all of her buddies today. We observed changes in our avocado seeds so some time was spent after lunch documenting the finds in our journals. The children were very excited to see that unlike our slow growing avocados, our bean sprouts in baggies have changed rapidly and have some wonderful roots to show us.
The children reviewed color, size, and shapes while making egg art today. They turned out egg-celent! Klayden really enjoyed the Little People farm, chicken coupe and ranch. We worked on animal identification and sounds. He especially liked the chickens. That tooth that Adelyn's been working on finally came in and she was a much happier girl today.
Everyone was super comfy in their favorite PJs today. We went for a walk this morning and collected items from nature that will be using in an upcoming art project. The children were very observant to how the flowers and trees have changed just over the past few days. In studying how seeds grow, we planted our own beans in baggies which we will observe over the next several days.
I have to tellWe read the Lorax today, which is one of my favorite books. I have not recently read it to Owen so today was probably his first day truly taking in and understanding the story line of the book. Well... the poor guy became extremely upset about the trees being cut down, started crying and demanded I not read it. I was weirdly pleased to see this side of my son, the conservationist, passionate about saving the trees however no mom likes to see their child so sad. We did in fact finish, barely. I will probably re-read this wonderful book again on Earth Day in a few weeks (with major foreshadowing for Mr. Owen). We'll see how it goes! Ella is cruising through learning her beginning sight words and she's now started reading non-familiar books. Jackson and Owen are making nice gains in their letter identification and sounds as well as spelling and writing of their names. What smarties! So I have to share this picture of Klayden from lunch yesterday. I had made rotisserie chicken, tomato and cheese quesadillas for lunch. He must not have been a big fan. The silly little guy ripped his into very tiny pieces and then had it "rain" on his plate. It reminded me of the classic book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Adelyn is now holding her head straight up and wants part in the "big kid" action. She's also showing a very large interest in watching the children eat. I think a taste of rice cereal is in her near future! This morning we enjoyed the weather outside and while I prepared lunch, the children drew pictures of plants, bushes and trees with roots. The swing was a big hit with Leightyn and Owen today. Ella worked hard on learning those difficult vowel sounds after snack today. We read a few books this morning about roots and then examined some various grasses and plants around the yard. The children really enjoyed looking at split pictures depicting plants and trees above ground level and their roots below. They couldn't believe that tree roots were so large. We spent time outside this morning planting many of our seeds that will later be transplanted. There was some surprise in learning just how small some seeds are. This afternoon we worked on counting with one-to-one correspondence and number recognition.
This morning Leightyn and Owen where bakers and made some wonderful mixed berry mini muffins. YUM! We went out on a walk searching for new signs of spring before playing at the park. The children are keeping weekly journals of our avocado trees (there are 4 now) and were very excited to find that the outer shell on some of them are beginning to split off.
This morning the boys put their imaginations to work on some Play Doh. After it was done raining, we started planting some of our seeds for our garden. The children were very excited to have their own gloves and tools. We spent the morning and afternoon outside enjoying the beautiful weather. Finally no coats! Some of us even got a little sun on our cheeks. Klayden really liked the idea of the sandbox but is getting used to the uncomfortable feeling of having it on his hands. Adelyn loved the warm sun and relaxing swing so much that she dozed off... what a hard life!
Jackson and Owen had fun swinging together this morning. Adelyn has happily figured out that she can roll to her side to get toys when playing. The children spent part of this morning finishing up their sponge firetrucks and stamped names. Klayden was very interested in drawing details around his name in crayon.
Jackson and Owen found that the sandbox is now thawed enough for some digging fun. Leightyn rode the roller coaster about 20 times today and had an adorably cute smile every time she went down. Owen was proud to be on the "big boy" swing and asked me to take a picture to show Daddy. This afternoon we read a book about strangers and what to do if approached. It was really nice to see a lot of pretend play this morning based around the community helpers we have been learning about. We were able to get outside for a little bit between the drizzly rain showers where the children enjoyed playing firemen and putting out fires around the yard. Our mail carrier came by while we were in the driveway so we stopped to say hello and later discussed the community role they play. We took some time today to split red potatoes and prepared them for planting in late spring. We also made a list of the various veggies and fruits they wish to plant and eat. They are getting so excited already and we haven't even gotten to play in the dirt yet!
We went out and enjoyed the sunshine this morning. Everyone is so happy that the snow is gone! This afternoon we learned about our friends, the police. We also discussed what to do if we ever get lost at a store. Some of the children where really excited to dress up as officers and they all looked so adorable. I snapped a photo of Owen and Klayden sending donuts to their grandmas this morning and another of Leightyn who told me she was taking care of baby just like her Mommy does at work...what cuties!
We finished our piggy masks from last week! The children had fun with them today and they will be sent home tonight. Adelyn is still working on that first tooth! This week we are studying community helpers and will have several lessons relating to safety both at home and in the community. Today we learned about firefighters. The children and I discussed fire prevention and what to do in the event of a fire. We have had this discussion twice before as I must conduct monthly fire and tornado drills. We will review this topic again later this week. I encourage all of my families to have a drill with alarms sounding at home sometime this week. Exposure to the sound during drills can help prevent the sense of fear and desire to hide.
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