We had so much fun in February that the month zoomed right by! We finished up a hibernation theme that we had started in January with a fun activity. I cut entrance holes in several large boxes (which were kindly supplied by one of the daycare families). We reviewed some books about hibernating animals, then the children decided which kind of hibernating animal they wanted to be. We had a bears, woodchucks, and chipmunks! The children had a wonderful time picking out their

November started with some beautiful sunny weather that was perfect for planting some flower bulbs. The children loved the idea of "putting the bulbs to sleep" and covering the bulbs with a "blanket of soil" to tuck them in. Even though we will have to wait a long time to see the flowers, it's nice to know a surprise awaits us in the spring. November's weather was also quite conducive to nature walks, and the spectacle of falling leaves prompted the children to bring along

The Blue Sky Daycare children enjoy tons of fun indoors and out, visit a pumpkin patch, learn about autumn, and celebrate Halloween.

Our 6th annual tie-dye day was a great success although we had to postpone it until the first days of August to ensure that all the children could participate. The children did a fantastic job creating their tie-dyed masterpieces and helped with nearly all the steps involved. They picked out their favorite design, helped moisten the shirts with a spray bottle, named and selected the colors they wanted to use, and carefully squirted the dye onto their shirts. The end products

July is often a month families enjoy beach visits, so this month we chose to learn about beaches, underwater creatures and the ocean. There were plenty of opportunities to learn both inside and outdoors. Our circle time activities for the month centered on starfish, turtles, and fish. The children's favorite was a fingerplay about starfish because they got to take turns picking up my hand at the end and pretend it was a starfish. The fingerplay went like this: Five little

February may be a short month, but it does not lack for holidays, and we celebrated! Groundhog Day: We started our day reviewing what we learned about hibernating animals in January. We came to realize that groundhogs hibernate, too, and if they come out early, it's likely that the cause is warmer weather (among other factors), and warmer weather means an early spring. The next thing we did was make a graphic organizer to show how many of us thought that the famous groundhog

The children and I are really beginning to notice signs of fall all around us. The bees are slow and less numerous, the brightly colored leaves are beginning to fall, and the calls of migrating geese can be heard throughout the day. Our circle time aims to capture the flavor of the season, so we've included several Halloween-themed fingerplays in the morning mix. One of them is "Ghost of John." Sung in a minor key, it is particularly spooky sounding and goes like this: Hav

Our circle time has shifted from apples to the sights and sounds of Halloween and of animals getting ready for the winter. One of our circle time activities involves moving like animals- "flying" like geese, gathering and hiding like squirrels, raiding corn stalks like raccoons, and bounding like deer. Another is borrowed from a fun and spooky collection of poems in It's Halloween by Jack Prelutsky and goes like this as we count down on our fingers: There are ten ghosts in

September is well underway, and we are focusing on apples right now. We have a lovely variety of circle time movement rhymes and fingerplays that have to do with apples and apple trees. Here is the one that we begin with: Way up high in the apple tree Two little apples smiled at me. I shook that tree as hard as I could, Down fell the apples. Mmmm- they were good! After our morning routine the children and I talked about how tall apple trees were and named all the colors of

Today we had so much fun learning about bubbles! We began the day by making more homemade bubble solution. Our recipe included 6 c water, 1/2 c Dawn dish detergent, 1 tbsp of cornstarch, 1 tbsp of glycerin, and 1 tsp of baking powder. As you can see, the children were quite focused on getting every last bit of each ingredient into the bowl. Stirring was lots of fun, too. The mix became quite foamy before we let it rest. While the bubble solution settled, we did our morning

The children and I have been having so much fun with our sunflower theme so far! We love the beautiful coffee filter sunflowers hanging high in the window, we love our circle time fingerplays about sunflowers, and most of all, we love the story I've been telling about why sunflowers hang their heads. I adapted the story from Madge A Bingham's Overheard in Fairyland. You can find her telling here. The big kids and I have enjoyed working on our counting through one of our fi

As the children trickled in after breakfast, we started our day working on a large jigsaw puzzle. We worked on sorting the pieces into groups by color and texture or by what small pictures they had. Some pieces had tiny purple flowers; those pieces all went in one pile. Another group had the chestnut color of the horses pictured. Those went in another pile. Sorting and figuring out where puzzle pieces go is a wonderful early math activity. It helps children develop their

We're so happy to be taking full advantage of June and all the wonderful things it holds! We made another foray to the jewel of a park we found yesterday and saw many interesting things along the way. We began our day with calendar and weather, then we moved on to some new clapping games and our new June circle time rhymes. One of them goes like this: A caterpillar crawled to the top of a tree, "I think I'll take a nap," said he. Under a leaf he began to creep, To spin his

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

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

April showers officially arrived as rolls of thunder and flashes of lightning proclaimed to us this morning. The children all seemed a bit apprehensive of the loud thunder as they arrived, so we turned our attention to playing with bouncy balloons. Soon everyone was relaxed, the thunderstorm subsided, and we settled into our usual morning routine of calendar, weather, and circle time. Today's circle time fingerplay was about a bunny and went like this: Here is a bunny with

Another chilly day kept us inside, but we had so much fun it didn't matter one bit. We had a wonderful time working on our circle time activities which have two themes for March- wind and classic movement games. We started by adding movements to the classic poem Who Has Seen The Wind by Christina Rosetti, did two more wind-themed movement rhymes, and then played several rounds of "Ring Around the Rosy." We have learned two versions and here they are: Version 1 Ring around t

Sometimes I feel that the daycare's wintertime motto should be "if life sends you snow, play in it!" and today was no exception. With a few inches of fresh powder under our boots, we had even more fun when we went out into the white wilderness of the back yard! We began our day with our new February circle time rhymes. One of them is an all-time favorite of mine because the children learn it quickly and it is just so sweet when the children burst out with it. I may be dati

Today was lots of fun! We started the day on a quieter note playing peek-a-boo with the babies. They absolutely love to use the play silks to pull up over their heads... sometimes they like to pull them off, and sometimes they like to wait until I or one of the other children pulls it off. Either way, the surprise is sweet! The littles have been truly enjoying trying to imitate the bigger children during circle time. They smile with sparkling eyes as they clap along! We h

Today was a quiet day with about half the normal crew, but we still had a fun and interesting day. We took some extra time during our calendar and weather routine to have the littles point to "Tim's" articles of clothing when I named them. We reviewed what we had done for MLK day and talked a little bit about the message of love and acceptance Martin Luther King Jr. shared with the nation. During circle time, we worked hard on our movement rhymes. Today we focused on Jan