Search
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
8 views0 comments
Melanie Patric
- Jan 26, 2015
- 4 min
Freezer Fun, Storm Monsters, and Rabbit Tracks...
Part of why I love being a daycare provider is watching children learn naturally with just the tiniest hint of guidance from me. Today there were several situations in which just a wee bit bit of setting the stage from me resulted in hours of engaged play and learning. To kick off our day, we set up our last state of matter experiment. I put out a set of underwater creatures and we observed them. I asked the children to compare some of the creatures. We observed which on
4 views0 comments
Melanie Patric
- Jan 15, 2015
- 3 min
Ice is Nice!
The cold really sets in by this time in January, so to explore one aspect of winter, we had a super-fun day filled with ice-related activities today. We began in our usual way with calendar, weather, circle, and sharing. We sang our song about snowflakes and talked about how snow is just really tiny bits of ice. After music time, we moved onto our first ice experiment. I blew up a balloon and we talked about what was inside... we weren't quite sure. Whatever it was, we co
3 views0 comments
Melanie Patric
- Jan 13, 2015
- 2 min
Lots of science, a bit of outdoor play, and a sprinkling of love...
one of the most profound things I witness as a daycare provider is the natural urge in every child to care for other human beings, especially infants. Every child who I've worked with so far has enjoyed cuddling and pretending with baby dolls. This sort of instinct spills over into interactions between children. I often witness the children comforting each other or spontaneously showing affection toward each other with a gentle pat or such. You can look up the physiologica
7 views0 comments
Melanie Patric
- Jan 9, 2015
- 3 min
A circle time rhyme, pretend play, and sensory fun...
Fridays are a day of give and take with the 0-4 age set. On the one hand, the children have have existed in the safety and structure of routine all week and so they are hungry for the break in routine that the weekend brings, but on the other hand they are tired from the week's activities and need to fit some restful play and extra reading into their day. With this thought in mind, today we did our morning routine and incorportated some gentle pretend play and some sensory f
14 views0 comments
{"items":["5e1f7c333052a000177b7760","5e1f7c3344f2b9001729563e","5e1f7c37722bc00017dcd4c3","5e1f7c376106f60017923050","5e1f7c374aa3d60017e8afa3","5e1f7c377ac9cc00171de9e7"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Columns","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"fill","cubeRatio":1.3333333333333333,"isVertical":true,"gallerySize":30,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":32,"galleryMargin":0,"scatter":0,"rotatingScatter":"","chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":true,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":false,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":1,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":50,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCropRatios":"","columnWidths":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":1,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":1,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":true,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":false,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":4,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":"SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","galleryTextAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"nothing","fullscreen":true,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","slideAnimation":"SCROLL","scrollDirection":0,"scrollDuration":400,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":23,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":200,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imagePlacementAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":0,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":50,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":1,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"jsonStyleParams":"","gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":940,"allowTitle":true,"allowContextMenu":true,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"itemBorderColor":{"value":"#ECF0F1"},"showVideoPlayButton":true,"galleryLayout":2,"targetItemSize":940,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|fill|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":false,"externalInfoHeight":0,"externalInfoWidth":0.5},"container":{"width":940,"galleryWidth":972,"galleryHeight":0,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}