Friday - Dec. 26

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. I'm currently loading pictures from our Christmas party from Monday onto Photobucket and I will send a link once thery are loaded. The kids had a great time. They sang Christmas songs as they were waiting for Santa to arrive. They then got to open presents from the gift exchange and from myself.
I got a bunch of pictures before my camera went dead. I have to learn to keep that charged up. :)

I have my observation today for Parent Aware. I'm still working on receiving a 4 star rating. Normally I would have been closed today but this was a great day to do the observation since we wanted it done by the end of the year. This month was very hectic and busy with my vacation, and we had such a great time on vacation that we have already scheduled it again for next December.

Jean :)

Parent Aware~

During the month of December, I'll be focusing my free time on Parent Aware again. I received a 3 star rating in September, but I feel I'm a 4 star program. Instead of waiting until September 09 to go through the rating process again, I'm jumping full fledged into it again so I can hopefully get that elusive 4 star rating. :)

During the 2008 year - I have attended 70 hours of training. Pretty good I think, considering that during the year - licensing requires me to get 3 hours.

Over the next couple years my training will get more in-dept as I work toward college credits. In order to re-new my CDA in 3 years, I will need to have college credits.

I enjoy my job and I enjoy it even more when I can do training to better my program and is beneficial to your children that you have entrusted into my care.

I will start adding a section to future newsletters to let you know of any training I have taken in the past month.

December

December is a busy month and my favorite month with Christmas. All this month, the preschool theme we will be following is Christmas - All Month Long. I will be gone for part of December on vacation but when I get back, we will fall back into this theme.

On Dec. 5, we have Mrs. Jean coming to do music with the children. I also have a mock observation to get me ready for another "real" observation for Parent Aware. I am striving to receive a 4 star rating. I decided not to wait until August 09 to re-qualify. I have my new observation scheduled on December 26th.

Our bulletin board inside the playroom area has been decorated with a Christmas tree and the words "The Gift of Reading". Each day when we read a book before naptime, I will write the title of the book and author on a "gift" and have one of the children color the gift and we'll add it under the Christmas tree. So far we have 3 "gifts" under the tree.

~Manners~

This week's theme was manners. We work on manners all year long, but I felt this was a great theme to work on the week before Thanksgiving. We read the Book How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food by Jane Yolen and we discussed - is this how we act when we eat our lunch? No..... was the answer. We dont throw our food around or tip on chairs and goof around.

Speaking of lunch, I wanted to mention that for those that have forgotten or new families didn't know, we do lunch and snack family style. The food is placed into bowls or plates and the children help themselves to what they want and then pass the bowl to the next child. The older ones even pour their own milk. The older ones are also a big help in helping the little ones if they want more. This is such a great time for the children to use their manners. When asking one of the other children to pass something please...

Next week out theme is Thanksgiving. Remember that child care is closed on Thursday and Friday. Also I took some pictures of the children from our Teddy Bear Party and the children serving themselves during lunch time. I thought a great way to share these pictures would be to set up a separate account on Photobucket. I will be e-mailing you the sign in information. This will give you access to all pictures for child care and you will be able to print or order copies. When I add new pictures, I'll send an e-mail to everyone letting them know new pictures have been added.
Enjoy a couple pictures today of Micah serving himself at lunch and Anthony's sheet "Cover your sneeze Please... :)

Friday - November 14

Today was our Teddy Bear party. We made some bears, did songs with our teddy bear friends, made some chocolate chip cookies, (Very easy this time - we just picked them out of the package and dropped them on the cookie sheet), and we read books to our bear friends. Cookies we're going to have at afternoon snack.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm having my child care on a home tour and it will be toured by 3 groups of providers and some of the projects we did this week and last week I'm keeping so that they can see some of the activities we do at Treasures.

Reminder that child care is closed next Friday so I can attend an all day training. Please reflect this in your tuition next week. This day off is non-paid.

Last week and this week. :)

Last week we had a great time getting back into the routine after getting back from a week of vacation. We had a great time at our Halloween party. I sent pictures to you from our Halloween party Tuesday - late evening. If you didn't receive them, please let me know. All kids went home with a bucket, treats and a book. Unfortunately one book accidently got sent home with someone. A book for my grandson Dominic. Could you please check the back of the book. I put labels on the books and see if you have one for Dominic from Grandma Jean. :)

This week and next week our theme is Bears Everywhere. We're learning about bears and we'll be voting for our favorite bear. Being Election Tuesday - we had an election at child care. The kids got to vote for their favorite candidate. The fun thing is when I showed the ballots to the kids they knew who they were. Our winner was Obama.
It will be another busy week.
Jean

Christmas in October?????

Today was part of my Christmas in October. I received 1/2 my order from Parent Aware. Toys and items for my child care and I have to say it was like Christmas opening all the boxes out in the garage and seeing all the new items for my child care and the kids.
One of my favorite items is a Art Center. It's fantastic. The kids are going to have such easier access to paper, paint, stickers, play doh and more.

I am waiting on my last part of my order from Lakeshore. I have been very fortunate to participate in these different pilot programs here in St. Paul. PEK and Parent Aware. It has done wonders for my child care, myself and the kids that attend.

Everything I received from Kaplans is sitting in the child care entrance area so you can view what has been purchased before I start putting the items away.
We got music instruments, blocks and more for outside..... I am so excited. :)

Fall and Pumpkins

This is my favorite time of year. I love all the leaves changing color and floating to the ground. The crispness in the air and the crunch of leaves under foot. Now Loren would have a different idea of fall. All those leaves to rake. :)
The tree house in the playroom has also over night changed from green to orange - red and gold. The kids noticed right away the changes.
The last 2 weeks our theme was fall and we'll be going right into Pumpkins this week. I always love this theme. The children enjoy this right before halloween. We'll learn the growing cycle of pumpkins and make a pumpkin book.
Reminder that I'm off next week.

Busy shopping. :)

Yesterday afternoon my Parent Aware Coach stopped by. (While children were sleeping). We discussed my 3 star rating and how of course I want to work to get the rating to a 4 star. The good news she brought with her was that I get improvement dollars to help me purchase items that the Parent Aware Program felt I "needed" to get the 4 star rating.

I spent last night with 3 catalogs supplied from Parent Aware and went through their suggestions and started purchasing. Alot of the items will deal with fine motor, math/number, art, music and movement, blocks, dramatic play, diapers and safety practices.

In the area of diapering, I just purchased the changing table recently and their concern was that there wasn't a 6 inch ledge on one side that could prevent falling. Instead of spending over $600.00 with that ledge, I'm purchasing a changing pad with a 6 in ledge. They would also like me to have a hands free diaper pail. That is on my order form. :)

Alot of the items I'm requesting will be for the outside play area. I have a music, reading, several dramatic centers in the 2 different playrooms and an art center, but I have none of these items outside for the children to play with if they desire. I am requesting a 3 person outdoor easel and paint supplies. (Paint, containers, aprons), a weather center. I was making one like my bug center, but I saw the new one they have available in the Lakeshore catalog that I just had to have for the children.

New items both inside and outside will consist of a science center, new art center storage, blocks, Lookout Tree House for the toddlers, observation mirrors, music instruments, workshop with tools. Too much to list, but I know I am very excited to add these items to my preschool and the children will be equally as excited. (OK, I think I'm more excited...)

I want to get the order placed right away so that I can receive the items and get re-rated. It will be a busy month getting the items placed where they need to go.... But it will be fun!

Jean

Apple Tree

This week our theme is Apple Tree, Apple Tree. Out book we are reading during circle time is Autumn is for Apples. Today we cut an apple in half and we got to see the star on either side of the apple. It look like the blossom from the apple tree. We also took guesses to see how many seeds were in an apple.

The children guessed - Mason -10, Henry -3, Abby -1, Julian -2, Micah -4 and I not wanting to say, but I guessed 20.... :) The total nuber of seeds in the apple were 6. The kids wanted to plant the seeds, so tonight I will run to get a pot for them, and we will plan a couple of the seeds tomorrow, water it during the winter and see if it grows.

Monday Sept. 15

We had a busy morning. I decided since this week will be a short week, (Only 3 days for most of you), that I would spend these 3 days testing the children. Find out where they are at. The last time I tested the children was in May. This will give me a better understanding of what we need to work on in small group.

I also received my rating in the mail on Friday through Parent Aware. I received a 3 out of 4 stars. One of the items I scored low on was not using a pre-approved curriculum. I personally like the curriculum we are using. (1 - 2 - 3 Learn Curriculum), and I was told going into this program if I desired, the Parent Aware Program would help me to get my curriculum approved. I'm waiting to start going through the process of getting it approved so that I can gain points in that area.

I received

Family Partnership 4 out of 4 stars
Teaching Materials and Strategies 3 out of 4 stars
Tracking Learning 3 out of 4 stars
Teacher Training and Education 3 out of 4 stars

I got some great ideas from the Parent Aware Program that I will be incorporating into my outside play area. There will be some new changes. I'm striving for the 4 star rating. :)

Thanks
Jean

First week back to preschool. :)

We had a wonderful 1st week back doing our preschool program. For circle time our letter of the week was T. We came up with t words like tango, (that was a fun picture to draw on my dry eraser board), train, truck, turtle, and twins. Our book for the week was David Goes to School by David Shannon. Before naptime we always pick out a book to read from the reading center, and I was happy that the children picked out new books added for our school theme.
We read a book at small group "Getting Ready for School". It was fun watching the children read the book with me. We started at the cover, read the title and who it was by. We then turned the page, and using our fingers touched on each word as we read them. Everyone down to Abby was pointing and reading the book. What fun.
Find a time with them this week end to sit and read this book with them. Next week in the children's Friday Folders I will send home a list of ideas to help create a more enriched literacy enviroment for them at home. It is so important for the children to develop a love reading.

Our Library check our has been a great success. We started this back in May and the children love being able to check out "new" books. Children have access to books from all around the playrooms, and I'm glad they are making this so successful. This is something that we will continue. :)

Coco Bear will be heading out to a new child care to visit, and I wanted to share a picture we took with Coco and the children on Friday. We packed him up and got him ready to go. Coco will visit 5 child care's and will return back to Treasures of the Heart Preschool in December. We'll be able to keep an eye on his visits to the different child care's via the internet. How awesome is that?
To visit Coco Bear's page at home here is the website http://stepbystepcc.com/tbe/coco.html

Teddy Bear Express, or TBE for short, originated as an idea on the Provider's Playground email list in early August of 2004. Teddy bears are sent around the United States and Canada amongst family child care homes, preschools, daycare centers, and elementary schools to visit the children as a fun geography lesson.

Back to Preschool :)

I can't believe that summer is over.... It's now September and it's back to our preschool program. The next 2 week's will be School Daze. Letters S & T, Numbers 1 & 2, Color Yellow and Shape Rectangle.

Monday we started back with Circle Time. The book we're reading for this week is David Goes to School. During small group we read a book I made up for the children. Getting Ready for School. We will be reading that during the week at Small Group andit will go home with the children on Friday in their Friday Folders. It's great to be back into our preschool routine.

Traveling Bear~

We're starting a new project in September called "Teddy Bear Express" This is a project though a child care list. There will be 3 bear keepers and hosts for the bears to visit. Our child care is one of the bear keepers and so I went out last night and bought a new bear.

The middle of September, we will mail our bear out with a photo album and journal, and a few other items to another child care. This child care will keep the bear for the week and mail it off to the next provider's home, and so on until December when the bear will come back to our child care. We will map the bear's trip on a map, and through this blog.

I will do up permission slips for your child to participate, and have their picture send along with our new bear.... What name did we come up for our bear????
Ok.... Here's where our originality comes in. :)

Coco Bear....
He is a boy bear and he had a great time today playing with the kids. I also included a recent picture of Coco Bear.... :)
I'm looking forward to this project and so are the kids.

New Bug Center :)

Everyone knows how I hate bugs, so this center was hard for me to do. :)
The kids have so much fun looking for bugs outside that I had to do a bug center. I had it up and running on Monday and I have to say.... the kids LOVE it.

Cleo caught the 1st insect. A moth on Monday and we put it into a bug house so we could view it up close. She let the moth go in the same spot she caught it so that the moth could go home to mommy.

We have a dry eraser board that in the bug center so that when children see a bug, they can sign their name. So far we have seen butterflies, ants, bees, spiders and flies. We also have in our bug center a couple of nets to catch the bugs, bug houses, magnify glasses, a bug vacuum, and a laminated book hanging on the fence with bug facts. Did you know there are 35,000 types of ants in the world. I know... I was surprised also. :)

The next outside center I will be putting together is a weather one. We sure are having fun playing (learning) outside... Learning is child's play.

Jean

Monday - July 21, 2008

WOW... it has been over a month since my last entry. Honestly I have been so busy with working on with this new Parent Aware Program, that a blog has been the furthest thing from my mind.

I took the test on Sat. for my CDA, and I will find out the results by the end of September.
I know I have told you that I had been working towards my CDA, and if you don't know what a CDA is, I thought an explanation would be in order... :)

This description is from the CDA web site:

Definition of the Child Development Associate (CDA)

A Child Development Associate (CDA) is an individual who has successfully completed the CDA assessment process and has been awarded the CDA Credential. CDAs are able to meet the specific needs of children and work with parents and other adults to nurture children's physical, social, emotional, and intellectual growth in a child development framework.

A CDA performs according to the CDA Competency Goals in center-based, home visitor or family child care programs. To date, there are more than 200,000 CDAs in all 50 United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands.
Earning the CDA Credential has many advantages, including motivating caregivers toward continuing education and providing a platform for professional and career opportunities. Many view the CDA Credential as an instrument for career advancement in the early childhood care and education profession. The Council works to ensure that it is a credible and valid credential, recognized by the profession as a vital part of a coordinated system of professional development.
As a result of an increase in demand from many public and private employers for qualified trained staff, the number of child care providers applying for the CDA Credential has grown to nearly 15,000 annually. Furthermore, 49 states plus the District of Columbia incorporate the CDA Credential into their childcare center licensing regulations.

With this new program I am currently working with - Parent Aware - I will be turnin gin all my paper work on Wednesday, and all my classes will be done as of tomorrow evening. You will notice a few new things with this Parent Aware program. I will be using Creative Curriculum observation tools to start a more formal observation of the children and keeping track of their development. This will help me to plan on what we will be working on with the children.

I will also be taing steps to get my preschool curriculum that I develop accrediated. I will also start the process of accrediation. :)
I leave all that information for a future post...

I just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten this blog. I can't believe the summer is almost over. I still want to have a summer BBQ, and we'll do that in Audust. I'll check my calendar and pick some dates.

Thanks

Jean

Monday - June 16

It's a new week... No children are here yet this morning so I thought I would type a quick blog. I sure hope everyone had a fantastic Father's Day. The weather was perfect. Sunday I bought a few more items for the playyard. Water table, another umbrella for shade, a frog figure for over by the hosta's I just planned, and I also have a new park bench. Just adding a few more fun items to the playyard.

This week we will hopefully be spending alot of time outside. No rain please..... If we get stuck inside we'll be doing a summer theme. On Tuesday I will have a visit from someone from the Parent Aware Program. They will be looking at my childcare and giving me any pointers on anything that should be changed to make my environment better for the children. This is a couple month program, and when all is said and done they will rate my child care on 1 - 4 stars. Of course, I'm working to receive 4 stars. :)

I'm looking forward to a great week.

Monday June 10. :)

This week is our My dad theme. We will be reading about dads, talking about how wonderful our dad's our and making a special treat for dad.

We had a great week last week with a gardening theme. We planted some seeds in pots for the children to bring home. Remember to water them! We also planted some seeds at child care. This morning Devin and I noticed the 1st seed popping through the soil. We can also see another seed in the dirt getting ready to burst through. (We planted the dirt in a see-through container - this way we can also see the roots.)

This morning we played with cornstarch and water outside in a bowl. Talk about FUN! The kids were rolling balls and then trying to hand them to someone else and they would turn into liquid. I had Kayla, Morgan and Cleo place their hands in the bowl and I hit the mixture with my fist and it turned hard for a second. The kids had a blast. I want to try this again sometime with a water table. Can you imagine how fun this would be????

I would also like to play a Saturday BBQ for everyone. (Parents and kids) at my house. I thought this would be a fun way to get together and have everyone get to know the other parents instead of just saying hi and by to each other as your dropping off and picking up. Before I start to try and plan something, could you please let me know if you are interested in something like this, and what Sat., would work good for you. Thanks
Jean!

Is it Thursday already?

Wow... these 4 day week-ends really go fast. I can't believe it's already Thursday.

Our theme this week was Camping Fun, but we ended up playing outside the last couple of days and I'm also doing some review with some of the children. Seeing what letters, colors, etc., they know so that I can keep on top of everything. This is being done with the younger children right now. Once I get this all done I'll share my findings with you. Let you know how well your child is doing.

During the summer months we'll have Mrs. Jean come 2 days a month instead of just 1. (Music Lady) The children really enjoy her, and since she has the open space we thought we would take advantage of it. We'll probably move outside to give the children more room to move a few times.

June Newsletters will go out this Friday along with a new book for the children. The House that Mack Built. They have been asking me when they get a new book, and the end of the month is here. :)

The book library has been a big hit. The kids love being able to check out books. Remember they can check out a new one as soon as they bring back their other book. I'm keeping the limit to one book per check out to make it easier on parents to not have to keep track of numerous books. I have them use their library card and the older children sign their name in our library check out binder. How fun!

It's Still Creepy Around Here!

This week will continue our theme on "Creepy Crawlers". We had fun last week looking for bugs out in the yard. Mason found the first spider, and Cleo also caught a bug. (How gross!) The kids had a blast looking for bugs, but all they really found were ants.

We had Joe from Plunkett come out and show us a book on different bugs, and several mouse traps. He even showed us a trap he forgot to clean, and when he opened it, the trap had a rubber mouse.... Again how gross.
We also had Mrs. Jean visit us on Friday and the kids had a blast. (Our music lady). We decided during the summer that we would like her to visit us twice, so she will now be coming 2 days a month.

Other notes:
* Book orders will go out today

* Reminder that Child Care is closed this coming Friday and next Monday for Memorial Day week-end.


Thanks Jean

New Week

This is the start of a new week..... I hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day! Our theme for this week and next week is "Creepy Crawlers". One of my favorite themes.... (NOT)
The kids love it though, so we do it. Today we read about different bugs, and talked about what was everyone's favorite bug. I like the butterfly. Speaking of butterflies, all of our 5 cocoons have become butterflies. We'll be letting them loose today in the afternoon. They are so pretty and they have been flying around their little house this morning so the children were able to see them. I'll try and get pictures this afternoon when we let them go. I was thinking it might be fun to try tadpoles next.

I also received surveys back from 4 of the families. Thank you. I got some good feedback, and that is always helpful when looking to improve my child care.

Thanks Jean

Busy Tuesday....

We had a very busy Tuesday morning. We worked on a couple of projects for this week's theme, and I got new music instruments and we had to check those out of course. Talk about a very NOISY morning.

Carpet and floor is of course now in and the main playroom looks fantastic. If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you take a peek inside. Please just remember to remove your shoes.
New shelfing has gone up to accomodiate our new music instruments, and a couple new bulletin boards. We are finishing up on our up-dates, and of course I'm sure we'll be adding something new in the future.

The children had a nice surprise today.... Abby and Riley's mommy brought the kids lunch from Wendy's. They loved the surprise and all ate so good, and they had wonderful manners when thanking Abby and Riley's mommy for lunch. They didn't get down for nap until after 1:00, and they were tired, but it was worth it.
Thank you Melissa. :)

Week in Review for April 28 - May 1

This week we continued the theme Caterpillar to Butterflies. Our caterpillars have been in their Cocoons since Sunday. Another week and they should be emerging as beautiful butterflies. Our book at Community Circle was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. I explained to the children that just like when they wake up from a night of sleeping, and are hungry, the caterpillars emerge from their cocoons very hungry. We thought this particular caterpillar was very hungry, and he sure grew big. We also read the story during small group with an interactive book that I did up. The children had fun looking for the pieces that the caterpillar was eating. I tried to do small group with just Micah and Mason so we could work on their Alphabets, but we had everyone sitting at the table enjoying the story, and Riley standing at the head of the table with me watching. Becky my PEK Coach took a picture and I seen it at our last PEK meeting tonight. I need to get a copy and post it to the blog. It was so cute. :)

In the children's Friday Folders, I send home a newsletter for the month of May. I am going to get back into doing a monthly newsletter. I also send home a survey. please fill out, and return in the envelope I supplied. Dont sign your names. This is for my records to see if there is anything I need or should improve on in my child care. There is also a couple Scholastic book order forms. If your child is interested in ordering a book, let me know. You can order on line. I'll have to find out how my child care gets credit for your order, or we can order as a group. We can discuss your options if you decide to order any books.

Next week our theme is My Mommy. Celebrating our Mothers for Mothers Day. This is one of the children's favorite themes. We all love our mommys so much and we love to celebrate them every day!

Reminder that child care is closed tomorrow May 2, and child care will be closed next Friday May 9th for Provider's Appreciation Day.

Everyone have a fantastic week-end and we will see everyone back Monday in our new playroom with new carpeting and floor.

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. :)

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. :)

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.

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.

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 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!

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