MDA presentation

Jessica, from the Muscular Dystrophy Association (www.mda.org), came today and gave a short presentation about kids/people who's muscles don't work and they need to use a wheelchair to get around. She talked about different muscles and what activities you use them for. She also talked about the use of a wheelchair and what activities you can do if you are in a wheelchair....Almost anything you can do if you are not in a wheelchair. She also talked about not being afraid if they meet someone who does use a wheelchair to get around. The kids got to check out the chair and ride around a little.

Easter Egg Hunt

Drew hid the eggs for all the kids. After a few times....he handed the job over to Ashley, then Jesse, then Olivia. They had so much fun hiding and finding eggs. We carried on the egg hunt inside...much warmer in there!

Egg Cracking

It is that time of year again for the cracking of the eggs. I started this activity to teach my boys about eggs...and how to crack them. The children have so much fun cracking. Kids always want to crack the egg while baking....and I don't always want them to....so this is an activity where they can crack away! It is a good learning experience for them. How hard/soft to hit the egg, how does it feel, what is the yellow part, why is the shell so pokey, etc...This way, they learn the egg, inside and out. And don't worry, we follow strict 'no putting hands in mouth' and handwashing procedures. Ask your children to tell you all about it.

Eggsensory

This is toward the end of the egg cracking!

Now it is more of a sensory experience. A few of them have drifted off, but these four are in for the duration....I am pretty sure to see who can get the eggiest.

Easter Week 'Messy Room' activities

Our room has a split...the non messy part and the messy part. The messy area is where we do all the painting, gluing, sensory tub, playdough, crafts, and...well....messy stuff.
I have set out bunnies, plastic grass, Easter shaped pasta, paper, and glue. They can create whatever they want.
The light table has the clear plastic sheets, pastel paint, and Q-tips. They also asked for paper to makes prints.
These are the 2 easles....Each easle has 3 colors so they have to cooperate to get the colors they want. Working hard at the playdough table. There are a variety of easter shaped cookie cutters....on the other side of the wall is their 'fort'. A table with a slide connected to it.
The sensory bin is filled with colored pasta and plastic eggs.

Rainbow snack

This is what we made and ate at snack time. Good o'l fruit loops!
Scarey.......
It's a good thing shaving cream is sooo easy to clean up!

Happy St.Patricks Day!

Today we had green milk and green butter on the toast. One wouldn't drink the milk, but amazingly ate everything else (you know who you are) and a few said the milk tasted especially good today! It is funny what happens when you color things....The milk does look quite yummy....but it just tastes like plain o'l milk. Here is one of the activities we did today. We added blue and yellow paint to make......GREEN!

Daycare Date Night

Fun, Fun, Fun! They made this fort....it has stringed holiday lights on top, and scarves hanging down. This was a terrific activity until.....the pizza man came. Everybody changed into their pajamas. The changing into pajamas was a very exciting event. They were jumping and laughing and...um.....really loud. They ate, and ate, and ate pizza! I ordered 2 large and these very small little people, only six of them, ate through both of the pizzas, with 3 pieces left over. My goodness...where does it go? Then they played some games (I'm working on adding a video...ooooh, so techy of me) while I made cupcakes. We ate the cupcakes, no frosting, but with vanilla ice cream. Yummy. Then off to the 'very off limits' upstairs. They were so excited to go up there. This is where the 'movie theatre' is. We watched Peter Pan. Then, as the movie was ending, mom's, dads, and aunts, started climbing the stairs. Actually....the night went very quickly. The kids had a great time....and yes, I had a great time also. Thank you!
Oh....by the way....Kamil is hiding behind the draping scarves. Goodnight!

Rainbows

This week is Rainbows/St.Patricks Day. Some are learning how to put a rainbow together, how rainbows are made (the sun reflecting off the rain drops), and color mixing, and some are learning their colors and the shape of a rainbow.
Jesse makes his own rainbow.... Mixing colors....they start out with red, blue, and yellow. The primary colors. They are doing it on the light table so the colors glow.

Gluing green macaroni

A group gluing project. For some...a mess....for me.....Building.
Building muscles for writing (the squeezing of the glue) Building manners (sharing) Building relationships, Building conversation, Building spacial awareness (from friends, glue, macaroni) and...building their creations. Can you think of any others?
Dotting......
Squeezing and placing...... Dotting, squeezing, and placing....
All of the above plus sooo much more. She ended up with a 2" macaroni mound!

Bubbles and Boomer

Just because I like this photo....she was being very careful to carry her soap filled wand up the stairs....she slowly turned around and raaaan down the stairs with a trail of bubbles following. He was so proud of this bubble.....he stood looking at it for about 3 minutes until POP!
Competing for the bubble mixture.....

Kamil decided to hang low on his cruuuzer. He would go around the tree or around us, turn and yell....HI ANNIE!.... then giggle....and away he went with 'Kamil satisfaction'.
Look close and you will see the blur of Boomer. I am pretty sure he thinks he is a kid on a bike, racing with the rest. They yell, 'GO' and Boomer starts running with them....he usually wins (but only he knows it) and then he turns around with the others and starts pushing up the hill. He waits at the top....like the others...then 'GO'...and he is off again.

Outside

: "Look Annie.....Look up there....Can you see it? It's a plane....Look at it's tail."....ahhhh, the beauty of being young and able to see minutely things up in the sky. I took a picture, but even the camera did not pick it up.
Look closely...Boomer is sticking his toungue out......If it were at Olivia, I would swear he was doing it on purpose. (only because she sticks her toungue out at him....only because he is being naughty)

Bubbles........

Outside

Dino (not to be confused with the chicken dino's) families....

YeeeeHaaaaa!
Weeeeeeeee........
BIG squeeeeeeze!