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Melanie Patric
- Oct 31, 2017
- 3 min
October is for little monsters!
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
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Melanie Patric
- Oct 23, 2017
- 4 min
Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!
August and September were filled with fun and interesting activities for the Blue Sky Daycare children!
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Melanie Patric
- Oct 23, 2017
- 2 min
July
July arrived with its usual dose of heat, and to keep the cool off, the children and I decided to use some refreshing lemons. We chose several lemon recipes to make, and then did a taste test. First, we made lemon-poppyseed muffins. This duo did a great job taking turns as they poured, dumped, stirred, and put muffin papers into the pan. These activities were a great way to introduce measurement, counting, and to refine small motor coordination. Other children helped to ma
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Melanie Patric
- May 15, 2017
- 4 min
April Showers...
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
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Melanie Patric
- Apr 3, 2017
- 5 min
Spring Marches In!
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
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Melanie Patric
- Mar 3, 2017
- 4 min
Lots to Love in February
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
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Melanie Patric
- Dec 30, 2016
- 4 min
December Kindness
The children and I kicked off December with a daily "Random Act of Kindness." For the fifteen days before our holiday break, the children and I committed to doing something kind for a range of unsuspecting people and animals. I decided on these specific actions with the developmental range of the children in mind in hopes that the children would be able to see a direct correlation between their kind actions and the effect they had on others. We began the month by simply gi
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Melanie Patric
- Nov 30, 2016
- 4 min
November Turkeys!
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
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Melanie Patric
- Jun 2, 2016
- 5 min
The Merry Month of May
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
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Melanie Patric
- Jan 28, 2016
- 3 min
January
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
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Melanie Patric
- Jan 19, 2016
- 1 min
Welcome 2016!
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
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Melanie Patric
- Oct 30, 2015
- 2 min
Halloween Party Time!
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
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Melanie Patric
- Oct 15, 2015
- 2 min
Creepy October Bugs...
The children and I had the chance to get in a spooky mood and use our senses to explore some creepy bugs, some real and some pretend. First, the children got to handle a range of rubbery, stretchy, sticky pretend worms, some big black pretend spiders, and some wiggly pretend centipedes. The worms were definitely the most interesting to the children. We talked about how the worms felt in our hands and practiced using the words "squishy," "stretchy," and "wiggly" to describe t
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Melanie Patric
- Sep 25, 2015
- 2 min
Applesauce Day!
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
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Melanie Patric
- Sep 18, 2015
- 2 min
Tiny The Butterfly is Released, Apple Stars, and an Apple Taste Test!
Last night I took a picture of Tiny the Monarch in his chrysalis (yes, he is a boy!). You can clearly see that the chrysalis had darkened and his wing pattern was clearly visible through the outer layer. Usually this is a sign that the butterfly will emerge within 48 hours, and Tiny did us proud. He emerged at the crack of dawn and though we did not see him come out, we caught sight of him while his wings were still small and crinkled. The children and I watched as Tiny wi
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Melanie Patric
- Aug 21, 2015
- 2 min
Combining Play Materials, Caterpillars, and the Slip-n-Slide...
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
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Melanie Patric
- Aug 15, 2015
- 2 min
Muffins, A Bird Rescue, and Outdoor Fun...
This morning was lots of fun. After our calendar, weather, and monthly circle time routine, the children requested some extra circle time activities including several rounds of "Ring Around the Rosy" and singing "Do You Know the Muffin Man." This set the stage perfectly for making muffins! We began by measuring out butter and sugar, adding an egg, and then mixing them all together. It was fascinating to watch the beaters twirl around in the bowl. Next, the children helped
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Melanie Patric
- Jul 29, 2015
- 2 min
Pretend Play, Water Play, and Garden Excitement...
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
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