Holiday Gifts

Simple retro toys may be the best holiday gifts advise developmental psychologists
http://www.temple.edu/newsroom/2007_2008/11/stories/christmastoys.htm

A great site to find out about the led in our childrens lives
http://nontoxickids.blogspot.com/

T is for Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! We made a little feast. The kids helped with the turkey...a little. They got to see the giblets and feel the turkey inside and out. We stuffed it and put it in the oven. The kids were in charge of checking the little red timer stuck in the turkey. They were soooooo excited when it had popped up! We also made fresh beans, fresh cranberry sauce, and had canned mandarine oranges. We ran out of time for the potatos. They didn't notice.
The cranberry sauce was their favorite!......oh, I mean the sparkeling cider. We did cheers!

I am so thankful for all the beautiful children I get to spend time with during the day. I have the best group of children and their families.
Thank you so much! I hope you all had a Yummy and Thankful Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday Connor!!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Connor!
Happy Birthday to you!!!
Mom brought in cool cupcakes
and everyone had fun.

Forest of Trees

We taped some of the leaves that we collected on our walk, to toilet paper rolls and then painted them. The final result was odd...but the kids loved this project! They taped all by themselves and painted.
Remember, most (not all, but most) of our projects are the "project vs product" approach. Meaning...your children are learning during the 'doing' of the project. And, you can tell I am not the one doing the project. The end product might not be so cute and fantastic to our eyes...but the children love them and are very proud of what they have been working on. When they say don't you love it???....you can say, "wow, you used many different kinds of leaves, can you tell me more about them?"
After all our tree's were together, we had a forest!

Indian corn rolling pins

Ella: I was rolling the corn in the playdough.
Ashley: I'm rolling the corn on the playdough to make it hide. To make the corn hide. When I always do that Ella and me are nice together.

C is for Corn

This wee we are talking a little about corn. Today we talked about how corn grows. It grows in the ground in a field. Corn stalks are tall. They are like so tall. They are taller than Paul and taller than my dad and my mom. Ears of corn hide....until you peel them. They taste sweet. Corn has to dry and then you can put it in oil on the stove and then it POPS! And then it is Popcorn.
We painted with Indian corn and rolled our playdough with it.

Leaf Hunt

We went out on a leaf hunt today. We found lot's....all different sizes and colors. We put our leaves into baskets. When we got home we seperated them into groups of shape. Then we dumped them all into the sensory bin. We kept our favorite ones to glue onto a paper.

Face Painting

Kamil looks a little unsure in this picture but he actually was quite pleased with himself. While I was helping someone in the other room, he decided to paint his face. "It's tickley" he said with a little smile. We looked in the mirror and he really enjoyed the image looking back. Amazingly he had no paint anywhere else (except a few drips here and there). He was focused on his face. Unluckily....the paint at the easel is the 'washable' paint....The purple does not wash. Luckily.... Kamils mum supports his curiosity!
Too Cute!

Our Hands Can

We made a book called 'Our Hands Can'. We brainstormed ideas of what hands could do and then I took pictures of them doing those things. I am hoping this link will take you to the book. I created it using Shutterfly....very cool site by the way.
Here is the link....share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AZMXDFo3bsXLw
If this link doesn't work I will be back to fix it.
The kids love seeing themselves in the book. You can purchase it, or just enjoy it at our daycare.