October started with beautiful, sparking sunny days and cool, crisp weather. This was just the right weather for lots of nature walks, and the children loved searching for colorful leaves as we rambled around the neighborhood and over familiar paths. The red leaves were the most popular, but the children collected a variety to wave around, watch blow in the wind, or to show to parents. Our nature walks include a stretch of flat tarmac, and the children love to run races and

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

April began with plenty of showers, so hopefully our flowers will be extra beautiful in May. Rainy days can still be fun, though. Some of our rainy days we spent clipping flower pictures from a seed catalog and creating lovely flower collages. This activity provided some opportunities to talk about shapes and colors while honing fine motor skills as the kids cut and glued the images. Another rainy day gave us time to make fingerprint flowers. The children practiced drawing

After the winter months have passed us by, the warmer temperatures and the warmth of the sun are most welcome! The children and I had a wonderful time this month exploring the changes that begin to appear around us as winter's snows are melted away by spring's bright sunshine. Since the snow melted, the children had a great time playing outside. Rain gear helped us all keep dry as we looked for the first green leaves. Our first discovery were the shoots of the hardy chive

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

June brings the beautiful summer flowers, and with them... the BUGS! The children and I learned about several different types of common bugs this month through a variety of sources including books, matching games, pretend play, and real-life interactions with bugs. Searching for bugs around the yard was a favorite activity in the beginning of the month. The children and I brainstormed areas we should look for the bugs. Through our search, we learned that many bugs live on

May's flowers arrived as promised, and we used them to make fabulous flower crowns to celebrate May Day. The children loved searching all over the yard to find cheerful yellow dandelions and got lots of exercise running back and forth with handfuls of flowers to give me. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to celebrate high spring. Our outdoor explorations have gone beyond picking flowers. We have also enjoyed planting seeds in our flower garden and preparing t

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

This morning we had a wonderful time after our morning routine. The children and I worked together to make clothing matches as we played dress-up with a set of magnetic dolls. We made up stories all about where the dolls were going to go and why they were dressed the way they were. Our favorite story was about a doll that liked to go out in the rain and stomp in puddles. She also liked to feed the ducks bread and talk to her friend the frog. Once the dolls were all dresse

Our day dawned bright, sunny, and perfect for a picnic! During our morning routine, I shared the story of the origin of one of the most universal and comforting soft toys children enjoy. Just in case you've never heard the story behind teddy bears, here's a short (and true) story about how teddy bears came to be so popular. In 1902, president Theodore Roosevelt went on a hunting trip. Near the end of the trip, a black bear was captured. Roosevelt would not shoot it. Late

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

Today dawned in a rather strange way- the sun appeared to be a reddish-orange color that looked like a harvest moon more than a sun. The children all noticed that the sun looked unusual, and we discovered that the sun's appearance was due to smoke from Canadian wildfires blowing on the wind all the way to our area. After our morning routine we set out on a nature walk. We had barely stepped foot out the door when we noticed a caterpillar crawling across the sidewalk. One o

We've been working hard on our frog, caterpillar, and bee fingerplays in the morning, and the children's favorite appears to be the caterpillar rhyme. Their favorite part is going to sleep as a caterpillar, being covered by a playsilk, and then awakening as a butterfly complete with colored "wings" as they stand up and wave the playsilk behind them like wings. After our morning routine, we set out for the wonderful new park. Along the way we saw many wild and interesting th

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

Today was all about wind power! After our usual morning routine, we revisited a wind power experiment and expanded upon it. At first, we had making hollow paper "rockets" fly off the ends of our straws, but we quickly moved on to a game of wind-powered keep away using a cotton ball. It was fun to try to keep the cotton ball away from our side of the table! The littles definitely got the idea of blowing through their straws, but the sensory enjoyment of feeling soft, fluffy

The long stretch of days spent indoors finally came to an end, and we were very, very happy about it! We headed outdoors right after calendar and weather and took a sled trip around the neighborhood. We greeted a few of the residents who were outside shoveleing snow, and everyone agreed it was a lovely, sunshiny day to be out and about. Once we completed our rounds in the neighborhood, we played for a bit in the back yard. It was nice to have a fluffy new layer of snow to

Today the children and I had an amazing time playing in the aftermath of the biggest snowstorm of the season! It was a truly memorable day. We began just like normal with our calendar and weather routines. We changed the calendar over to February and talked about the holidays we'd be celebrating. We talked about Groundhog Day, but since we had so few daycare kids (because of the weather and some scheduled days off), we decided to postpone our Groundhog Day celebration. We

Some days just turn out to be all about nature, and today was one of them. Right from the start, we spotted a pretty red-dipped bird while we were doing our weather routine. We brought the bird book out and looked for a bird that matched. We decided it was a House Sparrow. We were also entranced by the big flock of Dark-Eyed Juncos that flew tantalizingly close to the house- right into the bushes by the big front windows. After our morning routines, we decided that today