~Reading Center~

I've been having problems with the throw pillows I had in the reading center. Kids have been removing them, so I ordered a little couch for the reading center, and I got it yesterday.

Here's Riley and Abby checking out the new addition to the reading center.

Of course the kids loved it. :)

Riley and Athena checking out the wood center.

Riley and Evan

Our Block Center

Our new block center and future wood center..... Mason, Evan and Ashley checked out the blocks and people.

This is where the wood center will also be. We might check that out this afternoon. I have to dig out some scrap wood from the wood pile to put in there so the kids don't use my new blocks. :)

The kids had a very busy morning.... The new kitchen and block center.

The Kids are Cooking....

Our New Kitchen!

Our new kitchen is up and running.... The kids were very excited to use the new kitchen and they were pretty good about keeping everything on the rug area. (My new rule so I'm not searching for play food all around the play yard).

In the corner is a reading center for the kids to relax and read book when they want. It's used on a daily basis. :)

Tuesday ~

Yesterday was beautiful outside. Some of the kids didn't want to go out. They thought it would be too cold, but it was just perfect. We didn't have to worry about over-heating. I got the new kitchen play set put together yesterday and I'll put the stickers on today when we go outside. I'll have to remember to bring the camera so that I can take pictures.

Side note: Travel Tos will be coming on June 3rd and June 17. Please remember to add the fees to next week's check, or you can pay in cash. Whatever is easier. :)

I will be done with monthly newsletters for the summer and I will start up again in September. I will continue of course though with the blog... :)

Our Giant Caterpillar

This week we are finishing our Caterpillar to Butterfly theme. Last Thursday we started a caterpillar project and we put it together today. The kids had fun watching our caterpillar grow and grow. I included a couple pictures. The 1st one is of the children with their part of the GIANT caterpillar... The 2nd picture is our finished caterpillar - hanging up in the dc kitchen...

I think it turned out awesome!

Our Caterpillars are now Cocoons

It is amazing..... but our 5 caterpillars have changed into a chrysalid. (cocoon). I can't believe how fast they work. In the morning 3 were still caterpillars and after naptime we checked to see how they were doing and they were all transformed. We have to be very careful with the jar now. We don't want to move it because we want to make sure they don't fall from the top. Today we're going to discuss when we think they're going to turn into butterflies. The butterflies we have are Painted Lady Butterflies. This is a wonderful project. I enjoy it as much as the children. :)

Our Caterpillars

Our caterpillars are getting soooo BIG!
They're starting to get ready to make their cocoon's. 2 of them are now hanging from the top of the cup and I'm thinking any day now all 5 will be ready....
It's so much fun to watch and I can't wait until they turn into butterflies. The kids love this part.:)

Kitchen????

Ok... I set up our new kitchen on Friday, and it took me an hour. I need to remember next time I put something together like this, to use my drill. :)
I got it put together and the children got to play with it for about an hour before they went home. They LOVED it, I hated it....

I decided I wanted the bigger Step 2 play kitchen (see picture)..... I sold the new one on Sunday and ordered the one I wanted. I'm so excited because I know the children are going to get so much use out of this. Bad thing, it won't fit in my shed at night, (I like to keep it out of the rain because of all the decals, and it gets so dirty otherwise), but the good news is, I'll just cover it at night with a tarp. I'm thinking I should receive the new kitchen sometime this week, and because of the holiday, I should get it together some time next week. I just have to remember... The drill. :)

New Play Kitchen

I ordered a new play kitchen the beginning of the week, and it arrived today during naptime. I gave away my old one yesterday, and I will hopefully set up the new one today after nap.
This is for outside in the play yard. I also picked up a big outdoor rug for the kitchen area. Rule is no bikes or cars on the rug. This will help the children with a visual reminder. This morning with the old kitchen set gone, we pulled out the blocks and the kids played with those and the little people. They had a blast. I think I'll end up pickingupanother rug when they want to do blocks. They were really good about keeping the blocks on the rug. I don't want to have to pick them all up all over the play yard. :)
It looks like it might rain, and I sure hope it doesn't. We want to get back outside after nap. :)

Our New Weather Center

We got outside this morning by 8:45..... We had alot of energy to burn off, so I figured that the butterfly sheet we were working on yesterday, we'll finish it next week. While outside I decided to put together the new Weather Center I purchased last year. Micah was our 1st weather man. The weather center will give us the opportunity to check the wind, if it is sunny, cloudy, windy, etc., check if it rained over night and the temperature.
Today Micah said it was sunny and windy. He circled the weather symbols and then we are going to graph the next 10 days in child care to see what the weather has been.
Saturday morning I get to go to Home Depot and pick up 5 aprons that they are going to donate to our wood center. I'm hoping to have it set up some time next week. I want to stain the "table" and a couple other things. How fun!

~Mother's Day~

I hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day. The children had fun the past 2 weeks getting "gifts" ready for their mom's. I always enjoy this theme because there is always so much to do. I did want to make a cook bookwith Mother's recipes, but I only got 3 recipes back out of the 10, so that idea was scrapped. Maybe another time. The next couple of weeks we're going to do doing caterpillar to Butterfly. We received our caterpillars today in the mail. The kids named them, Batman, Spiderman, Baby Wyatt, (The smallest caterpillar), Capt. Jack Sparrow and Lisa... (I have no idea where Lisa came from). I'll post a picture of our new friends sometime this week. Another fun theme... :) It will be fun to watch them turn into butterflies.

Some New Centers. :)

Over the next few weeks, I will be setting up some new "centers" outside. The bug center I did up last year was a big hit, and still is. The children LOVE looking for bugs.... and I'm cool with that... as long as they don't show me what they have captured. :)
Some new centers we will have are weather, art, block and wood centers. The wood center I am really looking forward to getting set up. I purchased hammers, safety glasses, a box of nails, and tape measurer. Loren is going to build a table from an old door. (Cut it down in size) and get me a recycle bin filled with scrap wood. I also am going to check out Home Depot and see if I can purchase those orange children aprons for the kids that they can wear while they are busy building.
Art center will include playdoh, and I purchased a 3 person art easel set last fall. Weather station will include a weather vane so we can tell which way the wind is blowing, a weather station I purchased last fall from Lakeshore and other items.
We do have a reading center outside now with a bench and a plastic bin of books. The children can also read bug books from the bug center. We're bringing some of the fun centers from inside - outside. This is going to be alot of fun.... I know the children will enjoy the new centers. :)