August and September were filled with fun and interesting activities for the Blue Sky Daycare children!

June is a great month to get out and enjoy the beautiful sunny days, and we did so as often and as long as possible. The children enjoyed many outdoor activities, and their favorite was playing in the water. Whether the children were running under the sprinkler, splashing at the water table, or filling and pouring water from pails and watering cans, it was all wonderful for the children's gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and social skills. It's also a great opportunit

The Blue Sky Daycare children had a wonderful time learning about flowers through a variety of activities, celebrating Cinco de Mayo and Mot

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

The weather outside was frightful, but we dressed up to make sure we stayed warm and dry all through January. The rainy weather wasn't as much fun as being able to build snowmen, make snow angels, and throw snowballs, but we made the best of it. We looked for signs of animal activity and wondered what animals could be hiding under soggy leaves and rocks. On the days that were too cold to go outside, we had plenty of activities to keep everyone busy inside. One of the childr

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

This month, the children and I focused on the delights of spring, specifically on the life cycle of plants and rainy weather. We engaged in projects that reflected the changes we were seeing outside. The green flush of new grass and leaves and the emergence of lovely spring flowers were the subjects of our artwork, and we played matching and sequencing games that used flowers and plants to teach colors and the plant life cycle. Our April circle time revolved around the chang

March arrived in grand style with lovely warm breezes and a promise of spring. We made it outside as much as possible, especially celebrating the opening of the sandbox and mud kitchen. All the children learned about using the sand respectfully so everyone has a good time, and before long, the children were making cupcakes, pies, soup, and all sorts of other goodies in the kitchen and making mountains, ditches, hills, and roads in the sandbox. Outdoor time also focused on pl

January's focus was on all things chilly-snow, ice, icicles, snowflakes, and more. The children and I had lots of fun learning about winter weather, states of matter, and how to dress properly for cold weather. We learned a little about how some animals handle the cold weather by hibernating or migrating, and we made a wonderful bear cave to practice hibernating in ourselves! With the winter weather keeping us indoors so much, we stayed active through a variety of games. O

I'm pretty certain that our enthusiastic celebration of the new year could've rivaled the revelers in Times Square! The children got lots of wonderful gross motor movement as they learned how to twirl can-style noisemakers. It was a little challenging to master the circular motion needed to make the noisemakers work, but once we figured it out, it was extra noisy fun! Taking big breaths and blowing hard were two skills the children worked on as we celebrated with roll-out pa

The waning light of November brought the children and I to a more introspective place, and through the month we worked on cultivating the little "lights" inside our heart as we practiced good manners, kind words, and gentle hands. We started our month with some fine motor skill activities, most notably playing with Tinkertoys. The children created their own structures with the sticks, wheels, tubes, and a variety of parts, then we worked together to make cars and a variety o

Today we celebrated Blue Sky Daycare's 5th annual Halloween party! The children and I had so much fun engaging in a range of fun and spooky activities! Once our usual morning routine was finished, we began our party with classic sensory game- the children took turns feeling some Halloween-themed items in a covered bowl. They felt "bat ears" (fresh sage leaves), "jellyfish pieces" (well-oiled noodles), "dragon eyeballs" (peeled grapes), and "monster slime" (pistachio pudding

The daycare kids were so excited when they learned that today was applesauce day! Our visit to the Homestead Orchard was simply magical- we had perfect weather and loads of beautiful apples within reach of even the smallest child. Apples always need a good washing, so we began our day by scrubbing our apples well in soapy water with a touch of vinegar. The children practiced using a scrub brush and enjoyed the sensation of the warm water and foamy bubbles. Once all the appl

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

There was a slight chill in the air this morning, so we focused on some big-body movement games to warm us up today. After our morning routine, the children and I had lots of fun setting up a pretend grocery store. There was so much wonderful cooperation from the children involved in this- the children worked together to clean up all the toys and put them in the proper baskets, then to move the baskets to an area away from where we'd be playing grocery store, and most impor

It's fascinating how occasionally the children's play witll take a leap ahead developmentally. Today felt like one of those days because I noticed several instances where the children combined play materials of different sorts in novel ways with no input from me. It all began after our morning routine when one of the children used a playsilk to enhance a block structure he was building. Soon after, the other children imitated him and soon we had a room full of peek-a-boo bl

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

Today was a fun day! During our calendar and weather routine we noted that it was going to be a hot, hot, HOT day and we all agreed it would be lots of fun to do some water play. After circle time we set up a pretend play area with a lake/ocean, a river, and a meadow. It was fun to pretend with sharks and whales in the water and to use our imaginations to reenact scenes from Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe. Before the sun was too intense, we slathered on sunblock, put

Since we knew the day was going to be hot, the children and I made an effort to start our morning routine a little earlier than normal so we could go to the park. The children were attentive and we had lots of fun doing our calendar and weather songs, dressing "Tim," and doing our circle time activity about starfish and turtles. Soon we were on the road headed to the park. It was a long walk, but made more fun by one of the daycare parents and big sisters making the long tr

We had a very special celebration today- a birthday! It's so much fun to make a special day filled with favorite activities for the birthday child and it is a lovely time to reflect on the child's journey so far at Blue Sky Daycare. During calendar and weather time, we took time to talk to the birthday child about what it was like when she first came to the daycare as a tiny baby, then how she grew and had milestone moments through her time here. We talked about some fun ac