Summer Break

It's mid July and that means it's time to start thinking about going back to school for my kiddos. That also means start dusting off lesson plans for the year. This year, I will be participating in Texas Rising Star Quality program and I just finished and receiving my CDA credential (Child Development Associate) any day. I am pretty excited about that.  I have been doing a lot of different learning programs this summer and trying to add items to tweek our program it make it better.

Moral of the story: Enjoy the rest of summer break because school is right around the corner. :)

Toodles,
Heather

Easter Time

 The Littles explored for PEEPS and marshmallows. We tried to build STRUCTURES using the marshmallows and toothpicks.

A little math was taking place here. Jellybean sorting. We sorted them, counted them and of course, eat them.

What once was OUT now is IN

A cold snap hit us a little quicker than we had anticipated. The LITTLES were getting restless with out being able to spend enough time outside. They love playing in the playhouse while outside so I decided to bring it in. They were pretty excited to see it in the room. For now even the young LITTLES get to play in the playhouse. 

 

Enjoying the cool weather, thanks for stopping by,

Heather

Pumpkins Pumpkins

Today we finally carved our pumpkin. We recited a short Pumpkin Prayer as we went along. The girl Littles dug right in, while the boys just watched. Neither of them where interested in getting his hands slimed from the seeds.  We proudly wore our pumpkin shirts during the activity. 

Happy Halloween and keep your fingers slimed.  

Heather

The Fancy Feet of Letter Ff.

Left foot Right foot

Feet feet feet 

How many, many feet we meet. ~Dr. Suess

We counted feet, sorted them into colors, and arranged from biggest to smallest!

Halloween Sensory Bin

I have been wanting to do this bin for awhile but just resisted paying the money for the corn. It was on sale or the cheapest I have seen it in a couple years, so I grabbed a bag at Walmart. I then grabbed one Halloween goody bag items. It had a nice assortment of spiders, skeletons and snakes for $5.00. I didn't think it was going to be enough objects in the bin but when I added the mini pumpkins and scoops and bowls, the bin was nice and full. I scooped out a smaller portion for the young Littles to at the table. I will let them play with the big bin when we take it outside later today. We played with the bin this morning for 45 minutes before deciding to play something else. 

Playing with Orange

Today we continued exploring the color orange. We ripped, snipped and scrunched up orange paper. I also brought my stash of ribbon scraps. The older Littles found it a little more difficult to cut the ribbon. 

We then moved on to scooping and pouring beans. They always love doing this activity. 

What a great start to the week. 

Keep your little hands busy!!!

Thanks, 

Heather

Dirt under the nails.

This afternoon we wanted to go outside to play. OH my GOODness, the weather has been beautiful. It was getting close for the Littles to be picked up and head home. So, we reviewed about not digging in the dirt or playing in the mud. I asked them, "Are we going to play in the dirt or the mud?" shaking my head no as they ever so sweetly replied,

"No, Ms. Heather, we will not play in the dirt or the mud." So, we went outside.   They played and played and then they went to the playhouse and was "cooking" dinner. I saw them pick up dried grass and put in the playhouse and then they dug a little deeper into the dried grass, which was of course, DIRT.... They dug up the dirt for "dinner". I watched them to make sure there was no throwing of the dirt or grass. The Littles decided then, that the dirt "dinner" was much more fun to play with going down the little slide. Anyways, no we did not stay out of the dirt but the dirt provided a lot of fun and dirty hands and a little dirt under the nails.

Have a great weekend and keep those little hands dirty.

Heather

Funnel vision

Here is my take of the funnel system that was posted by Sand and Water Table blog. The kids already had fun swishing water thru it and the the tubes.

Tunnel Time

Sand and Water Table blog has given me much inspiration in the last few weeks. I love all of his hands on activities for the children and the use of 'recycled " materials.  I love all of his pictures and videos that he posts. So, that is where my inspiration has come from for the last few projects that I have created here.

I hang my clothes out on the line, and often the little ones like to hold my clothes and pull the clothes off the line for me so I am sure they will have fun hanging there own clothes up, too.

The tunnel is not all the way finished, but the kids liked playing with what I already got put together. They rolled marbles down the boxes and watched them come out the other end.

TA DA!!! Sand Table!!!!

Creative Works had this sand table and the instructions and it looked by far the easiest and sturdiest tables to make. Since I already had a 10 foot pvc pipe that was 1 1/4th I used that and got joints to fit it. I purchased all of my stuff from Lowe's. I, however, could not find the buckle straps that Creative Works used so I used a bungee cord, umm, the label is Carabiner Style Bungee Cord at 48". I think this will work to add support to the bottom. We will see. If I do come across the correct straps, I will replace them.

Ones and Twos Finger Painting

Okay, so here is what happened when we did our first activity from MaryAnn Kohl's First Art, Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos.  OMGoodness... It was soo cute. It was pretty messy and over a little quicker than I thought. I may move the two's into thier own little spot so they can spend more time and not be interrupted by the ones. Live and Learn.  Little D decided that he should pour the paint onto his paper than then paint, not just one color but all three. I tried to be a YES class but all I could think was "oh no, that's all the paint on his paper and the paper is not going to with stand all that wetness."  But it worked out in the end because the other two little ones decided to use his paint from his paper. LOL.

4th of July craft

Here we made a statue of  liberty picture. I inserted their faces after they colored the printout and then displayed it in our room.

Bubbles

You're never too old to play with bubbles, right? Look at her face, who can not but to be delighted with her? Not me. We cut a soda bottle in half and rubber banded a wet washcloth,that had dish soap on it,too. They blew out the front of the bottle which made cascading bubbles, or bubble worms, hehehe. I did have to watch the little ones closely because they wanted to suck in the bottle.. eww... but they were pretty fascinated by the bubbles coming out of the other bottles.

Mud Pies

Who doesn't like making mudpies? I love to get my hands dirty and I know that the kids loving doing it, too.

Tracing and Drawing in Salt



We are tracing and drawing in salt. It is a little different texture than sand and totally different than shaving cream. They we were very surprised when I said salt because salt is for the food. :)

Past Activities

I have been doing family home daycare for a couple of years now and I just wanted to show a few of the other activities we have done.

I encourage tearing and glueing even when we are so little that we have to sit in booster seats :)

What We Did Over the Summer

I usually have all ages of kiddos during the summer so I try to offer weekly "camps" They have come to LOVE and look forward to ooey gooey week. We did many activities that involved paint and water and bubbles. I loved the little painted feet prints across my outside patio. Here are a few pictures of the activities that we did.

Back to School

pillowcases we made for the ones heading off to Preschool

I am a home daycare provider who is aloways looking for crafty, fun, and messy ways to teach your children. I look forward to sharing our projects and ideas with you. I constantly browse the blogs for everyones ideas and hope to share thier ideas with your children. I love LOVE hands on activities and MESSIER the better. Well, that's my opinion.