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

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

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

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

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 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

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

Today was chock-filled with fun activities for all the children! Once we finished our morning routine, we talked about making water flavored with fruit to refresh us during snack time. The children and I agreed it would be a perfect way to refresh our bodies after some outdoor play in the heat. We decided to add strawberries and some mint leaves. This was a perfect opportunity for the little in attendance to "cook," so we let her add all the strawberries... ...and most of

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

Today was a day to be thankful for the sunshine here; there were tornadoes that swept through the southern part of our state, and we took a few minutes to talk about how important it is to keep doing our monthly fire and tornado drills and to send some kind thoughts to those who were affected by the tornadoes. We began our day with our morning routine, then we headed outside to pick some mulberries. There is a mulberry tree in the back yard, and this year it is covered in be

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

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

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

Today was all about the mud kitchen! We sailed through our morning routine and even shortened our music time a little (even though we still fit in several animal sound songs!) just so that we could play in the new mud kitchen. Over the weekend, I visited our local Goodwill and picked up several kitchen items to enhance the "cooking" experience for the children. It's so much fun to work with real pots, pans, and utensils, especially when you're making dandelion soup... ...

May Day lived up to its reputation and then some- we had a gorgeous, sunny day to celebrate the stirrings of spring and the coming of summer. During calendar, we talked about how nice the weather is getting- green grass and flowers are everywhere and baby leaves are peeping out. We talked about how we could have a special tea party to celebrate the coming of summer, and how we would have to use nice manners at the tea party. After our morning routine, we washed our hands an

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

We were all thrilled to have a gorgeous and golden spring day to romp outside, so we did our morning routine quickly and efficiently. We all dressed in our light jackets and shoes and out the door we went! The children first enjoyed playing in the sandbox. There's so much digging to do and so many interesting sensory things about sand for the littles to explore- it can be cool or warm, grainy or powdery, wet or dry all depending on the weather and the temperature. It's also

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

We had a lovely time performing our April fingerplays. This month we're focusing on April showers during circle time, and the children's favorite so far is this one: Two little clouds one April day Went sailing across the sky. They went so fast they bumped their heads, And they began to cry. The big round sun came out and said "Oh nevermind my dears, I'll send my golden sunbeams down To dry your fallen tears." When circle time was over we got ready to make a few batches of h