Sunday, April 27, 2008

Theme for Next Week~

Next week's theme will continue to be Caterpillar's to Butterflies. I didn't sent the children home last Friday with Friday Folder's because all they're artwork that they did last week is hanging up. We have some very pretty butterflys flying around the playroom.... From the ceiling in the kitchen, on the door into the playroom.....

All items will go home on Thursday of this week, because I'm off on Friday. I'm looking forward to another fun, filled week....

BTW... Our 5 caterpillars are getting ready to make their cocoon's. They're all hanging from the top of the cup. (Check out the picture).

Saturday's Mail~

I was surprised when going through Saturday's mail that I had 3 thank you cards. All were from our visitors on Thursday. Below are what I received. :)

The McKnight Foundation - Kate Wolford, President

Dear Jean,
Thanks so much for welcoming our group into your home and child cre center. It was great to hear about your experience with PEK and to see the impact you are having in the lives of the children under your care. Thanks & best wishes. Kate Wolford

Jean,
Thank you so much for letting the McKnight people come out to visit. The amount of preparation and thought you put into the visit was truly amazing. It's so important for our funders to see PEK in action at a family child care. It demonstrates what a unique project this is, how HARD you've worked, how successful you are, and how ready the kids are for kindergarten! Your enthusiasm and skills as an educator really got to have the spot light that you deserve! Thank You Becky

Dear Jean,
FANTASTIC! The McKnight Foundation folks thoroughly enjoyed their visit to your child care home. Your enthusiasm and clear evidence of PEK in operation were wonderful to see. Thank youso much for allowing us to come and for the extra work it took to prepare for us. Sincerely Ann

Needless to say I was very happy receiving this thank you's and it shows me that what I do is so very important... Remember... Your children are the "Treasures" of your heart and I have so much fun every day playing and working with them. :)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Our Visitors Today

This morning we had our visitors from the McKnight Foundation visit. We had 4 visitors plus my PEK Coach Allison. They spend 30 minutes getting a tour of my child care, meeting the children, watching small group and asking questions about how the PEK Program has changed my child care.

The kids were FANTASTIC. I did small group with Devin, Morgan, Kayla and Cleo. We read our small book "Life Cycle of a Butterfly". We also had small life cycle pieces of a butterfly, and we matched the pieces with the words. The children then picked a word to write in their book.

I have to say that I think the visitors were impressed with our child care and the children that have benefited from the PEK Program. I know that this program has made many changes in my child care, with the start of working towards my CDA. May marks the last meeting I will have with the PEK Program, but I will be keeping what I have learned in use though my child care. My Next step is going to start this coming Sat., when I attend an orientation on MN Quality Ratng Sytem. This is a new progam sponsored by Resources for Child Caring that will rate family child care homes. I am striving for a 4 star rating. :)
I'll of course keep you informed of how things are going for this.
Also a special thanks to the parents that gave me some feed back for the PEK Program. I printed it up and gave a copy to each visitor today. They were happy to see the comments.
Thanks again.... It was a good day. :)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Say Hello to My Little Friends. :)

As you can see Devin is taking a peek at our caterpillar friends this morning. They are starting to get big. I honestly thought I killed them this morning, when I left them sitting on the freezer out in the back entrance. I wanted all the parents to see our new friends, and the top of the freezer was cold, and I think the caterpillars got cold. I moved them back into the playroom, and I have seen movement after a while, so I think they are ok.

Today at Circle Time we read Katy Caterpillar and the Counting book. (Katie loves to count!) We also did a sun catcher butterfly, and those will go home at the end of a butterfly theme next week. We have them currently hanging in the daycare kitchen. Very colorful.

Kids are having an "EXCELLENT" day, and they are hoping that our new cars arrive today. We will be going outside in the afternoon after naptime.

Just a quick reminder that with the nicer weather, please dress the children in clothes you don't mind getting dirty.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Last Week... :)

Last week we had a busy week. We got to make worms in dirt and eat them, we spent alot of time both in the morning and afternoon playing outside. and we got our new caterpillars in the mail on Thursday. Yes, real caterpillars. 5 of them. They looked so small when we got them, but boy are they really growing. Once they make cocoons we'll move them into their new home and wait for them to become butterflies. Once that happens we'll let them loose outside. This week our theme is Caterpillar to Butterfly, so they came at a perfect time.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Really??? Eating Worms in Dirt????

Our theme this week has been seeds, and today as promised after circle time, we made "worms in dirt". The kids thought I was talking about real worms and dirt. Do they not know me by now? I won't touch anything that wiggles or crawls unless it's a baby! They had a fun time smashing their oreo cookies (top soil), and I know I caught a couple of them trying to taste them. Evan was very upset when he was handed a baggie to work on. How could he eat that cookie if it was in a zip locked baggie? Kids are currently napping after spending the morning outside after our "project", and they will get their yummy treat for snack this afternoon. :)

Monday, April 14, 2008

Monday - April 14th

Today was a very busy morning. Children were full of energy but they settled down with the promise of going outside during naptime and snack. They need to burn off some energy, and after a long winter, who can blame them. (Knock on wood for no more snow). :)

Today we read The Little Seed by Eric Carle. We learned how a seed can go many places that the wind blows it, and that it needs soil to grow. We talked about what a plant needs to grow, and I let the kids in on a little secret.... We're going to eat worms in dirt on Thursday. You'll have to ask the kids about that. We discussed that before nap when I read a couple stories to them. Yummy......

During small group this morning we read A Sprouting Bean and we got a bucket of water with several items to see what would float and what would sink. That was fun. We're going to try it again tomorrow with other objects, so I'll try and get some pictures.

Right now it is all quiet at "Treasures" because the children are sleeping, but when they wake up, it will be snack and outside.It's a beautiful day!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Week in Review - April 11

April 11, 2008

Dear Parents,

This week our theme was Water and Spring time. We read the book Mouse's First Spring and we learned what things come around in the spring time. New flowers, baby birds, etc. We learned this week that even though it is Spring Time, it doesn't always look like Spring outside. We got to play outside all afternoon on Wednesday and on Thursday we had a rainy, snowy day. That's weather here in Minnesota.

Our theme next week will be Seeds. This should be a fun theme, and hopefully we will get to play in the dirt one day next week. I think everyone can agree we are ready for real Spring.

During circle time on Friday , Cleo read the book - Mouse's First Spring" to the children. Each day at circle time we read one book, and stick to that book all week. I am going to start having a child read the book to the children each Friday. It was fun to hear Cleo's interpretation of the story, and the children enjoyed having her read the story to them.

Friday we had Mrs. Jean join us for music time. The children had a blast, and everyone sat nice and participated.

Jean