Blog | Blue-Sky-Daycare | Skokie

Jul 3, 2015
2 min

Fishing, Growing, Fireflies, and Mud Kitchen...

We had so much fun this morning! After our morning routine, we pulled out our pretend fishing set and caught lots and lots of colorful fish. Using the fishing poles requires great gross muscle control and patience, but it's so exciting to "catch" a fish that it's completely worth the effort for the children. After everyone had taken several turns fishing, we headed outside and began caring for the garden. We checked the vegetable garden and found two zucchini to pick (we g

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A Gorgeous Nature Walk With an Interesting Twist...

Melanie Patric

Jun 26, 2015
2 min

A Gorgeous Nature Walk With an Interesting Twist...

Our day started somewhat gloomy, but after our morning routine was finished, the sun had begun to peep out from between the clouds and we headed out for a nature walk. We had barely left the neighborhood when we spotted a rabbit munching away at some grass. The children crept as close as they could before the rabbit darted into the underbrush. It was so interesting to watch the rabbit's nose wiggle as it chewed stalks of grass! Next the children pointed out some beautiful o

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Melanie Patric

Jun 15, 2015
3 min

Flag Day Celebration!

We had so much fun celebrating Flag Day today! After calendar, weather, and circle time, the children and I looked at a picture of the United States flag. We talked a little about its features- its red, white, and blue color and the shapes of its stars and stripes. I set out a set of felt cut outs so that the children could build a replica of the flag. At first, we worked on it together. We talked about which way the stripes should go, where the blue rectangle should go,

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Melanie Patric

Jun 4, 2015
1 min

Water, Water Everywhere...

Glorious June- your weather makes all our water play dreams come true! Once we were done our morning routine, we spent the majority of our morning outdoors exploring all the ways water makes things slippery on the slip-n-slide. Of course, we had to get the ball rolling by trying out our own bodies. Some of the big kids helped the littles walk carefully until everyone was comfortable and familiar with the slippery surface. We alternated periods of high pressure and low press

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Melanie Patric

Jun 2, 2015
2 min

Discovering Uncharted Territory...

During one of our recent trips to the park, another adult told me about a larger park that was just a little further away, and today we set off for uncharted territory to look for the new park. After changing our calendar over to June and doing our calendar and weather routine, we packed up our snack, lots of water, and some surprises and set off on an an adventure! We spotted so many interesting things on our way to the new park- big, showy iris flowers, a colorful birdhous

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Water Fun, An Obstacle Course, and Lots of Books...

Melanie Patric

May 30, 2015
2 min

Water Fun, An Obstacle Course, and Lots of Books...

Today we had a great time taking advantage of the outdoors in between (and partly during) rain showers. We began our day the usual way with calendar, weather, and our fingerplays. Since the weather looked uncertain, we decided to suit up and put on sunscreen so we could have as much fun as possible enjoying water play outdoors. I pulled out the water slide and the children had fun learning about water and developing their gross motor skills. The big kids worked on their sens

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Dying Silks, Al Fresco Dining, and Mud Kitchen

Melanie Patric

May 29, 2015
2 min

Dying Silks, Al Fresco Dining, and Mud Kitchen

The children and I have been enjoying our morning routine quite a bit this month. We've been focusing on nursery rhymes, and at this point have quite a repetoire under our belts. Together we've learned "Jack and Jill," "Baa-Baa Black Sheep," "Sing a Song of Sixpence," "Hush Little Baby," "Old King Cole," "Mary, Mary Quite Contrary," "and several more! After our morning routine of calendar, weather, and fingerplays, we got ready to dye some of our faded playsilks. The silks

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Melanie Patric

May 26, 2015
1 min

Memory, Flower Anatomy, and Rainbows!

This morning we began our day with several rounds of homemade memory games. The games featured animals, colors, and one set had favorite cartoon characters. The children did a fantastic job matching and saying the name of their matches! This is a great game for strengthening recall and focus as well as honing fine motor skills. A bit later, we worked on learning about the parts of flowers as we "built" a flower from its parts. By the time we finished, each child was able

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Melanie Patric

May 20, 2015
1 min

Block Play, Worms, and Water Play...

Today began with block play after our usual morning routine. We used a combination of rocks and handmade nature blocks, and the children used their imaginations to make "bridges," "a hiding spot," and "a tower." Some dolls were moved in and the children played with them happily for quite some time. Once the block play faded away, we moved on to some gross motor play. I brought out a large tent with a tunnel, and the children and I had lots of fun pretending through the poe

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Restaurant, Bread Making, and Follow the Leader

Melanie Patric

May 19, 2015
2 min

Restaurant, Bread Making, and Follow the Leader

This morning the children were full of imagination, so after our morning routine, we played out several pretend restaurant scenarios. I'm usually the diner who orders, but I don't mind playing this role becuase the big kids are so eager to whip up things like "orange-mango-watermelon-cucumber tea" and "tomato and tuna fish" sandwiches. Even the littles delight in bringing empty plates to me and pretending to feed me. It's simply amazing how much the littles' imaginations h

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Melanie Patric

May 5, 2015
2 min

Cinco de Mayo Parts I and II

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo was tons of fun, and I'm pretty sure the kids liked the activities I planned. We ended up spreading the activities over two days since we ran out of time the first day. After our morning routine, the big kids and I worked together on scissors skills and cut construction paper triangles to turn into a colorful banner. We talked about the proper way to hold the scissors (thumb in the little hole, fingers in the big hole) and practiced the open-close-o

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Pretend Play, Music, and a Trip to the Park...

Melanie Patric

Apr 30, 2015
2 min

Pretend Play, Music, and a Trip to the Park...

April has been shaping up nicely and now that it's nearing its end, the sunny days have been just wonderful for us to take full advantage of our time outdoors! After breakfast, we enjoyed a short pretend play session with the farm animals. The littles are getter better and better at identifying each animal and its noise, and I love to see the progress they are making in their language development. Next, the children and I enjoyed music time. We focused on "I'm a Little Tea

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Melanie Patric

Apr 25, 2015
2 min

Music, Trains, and Coloring...

At last! Today I was able to capture a few moments of our music time without too much of a fanfare! It's always a challenge to video the children without them becoming more interested in the recording device than in singing along, and you'll see from the angle of the video that I had to do a sneaky rush job... but hopefully you'll see how happy and engaged the children are as well! We sang lots of classic children's songs, but focused most on "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowe

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Melanie Patric

Apr 23, 2015
2 min

Earth Day Celebration #1

The weather didn't turn out the way we had hoped, so today's Earth Day celebration was somewhat more subdued than planned, but as usual, I had a backup plan ready to go just in case! I changed things up and began the day with some block play that focused on patterning. The big kids made towers of blocks with patterns while the littles occupied themselves with building their own towers, taking apart the big kids' old ones, or putting the blocks into the block bin. The big k

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Melanie Patric

Apr 22, 2015
3 min

Fingerpainting, Music, and Life Cycles

With another cold and rainy day on our hands, we knew that the best way to beat the blahs was to get creative with an art project, move our bodies to some music, and try to work in some fun learning, too. We began our day with our regular calendar and weather time. We had lots of fun doing our circle time rhyme about rainy days that goes like this: Pitter patter raindrops Falling from the sky, Here's my umbrella, Hold it up high! When the rain is over, The sun begins to glow

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Melanie Patric

Apr 21, 2015
2 min

A Watery Day for Watercolor Painting...

More April showers today meant a day dedicated to working with watercolor painting. We began our day the usual way with calendar, weather, and circle time. It was particularly fun for the littles when they realized their beloved "Tim" needed a full wardrobe change from sweatshirt and shoes to rain gear. After circle time, we moved toward our big project for the day- watercolor painting to investigate color mixing. Each child had the opportunity to enjoy uninterrupted time

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Storytelling, Coffee Filter Art, and Backyard Fun...

Melanie

Apr 20, 2015
3 min

Storytelling, Coffee Filter Art, and Backyard Fun...

Today was ripe with opportunities for storytelling. After our morning routine, the gray weather caused us to hunker down. At first, we thought reading stories would be a good idea, but then I suggested that we try to tell a story together, and the children loved the idea. We started out by recasting each child as a character in the story and we ended up with two dogs and their owner. Then we decided the story should happen outside and be about Easter. In the end, our sto

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Melanie Patric

Apr 16, 2015
2 min

A Day Outdoors in the Garden...

Today was the perfect day to head out into the garden and plant the seeds we started in March. Many of our seedlings were more than three inches tall and since they've been spending lengthening time outdoors, they're all hardened off and ready to go to their permanent home. This year, our square foot garden boxes are taking a break from vegetables and hosting a wide array of flowers. We are planting the gladiolus bulbs that we forced (along with several more glads we're jus

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Recycling, Outdoor Play and Seed "Bombs..."

Melanie Patric

Apr 14, 2015
2 min

Recycling, Outdoor Play and Seed "Bombs..."

The morning dawned bright and clear and the sunny weather made the perfect day for lots of outdoor play and messy sensory play. We began our day in the usual way with calendar and weather followed by circle time. Today's circle time was fun- we pretended to pick up trash while singing the following to the tune of "Paw Paw Patch:" Pick up the trash And put it in the trash bag, Pick up the trash And put it in the trash bag, Pick up the trash And put it in the trash bag, And M

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Melanie Patric

Apr 14, 2015
2 min

Legos, Grocery Store, and Planting Flowers...

While we had a nice time doing our morning routine, the fun really began when we started bringing out the lego-type blocks! First we started with the biggest blocks for the littles. I had the big kids build towers with the large legos while the littles and I worked on learning to seat the blocks properly and hold down the base of their towers so they could build higher. After a little while they got the hang of it and enjoyed playing on their own. Soon after, I brought out

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