Review

Today is the last day of November, so we are reviewing. Your child will bring home some large letters F and G. On these, you will find several common things beginning with those letters in the shape of a triangle, which has three sides. Included in these pictures, you will find some things we put focus on, such as: fox, goose, farm, and grandparents. We will make one letter yellow and one brown. As you can see, this one project wraps up several points of our monthly cirriculum and is a good discussion item for you are your child at home! 


We are excited for December and Christmas! We will be working on several projects that might not come home right away (wink).

THANK YOU

I give thanks for the children. Both my own and my daycare children. I thank them for keeping my inner child alive with love, curiosity, wonder, and playfulness. I thank them for teaching ME everyday. They teach me patience, determination, friendship, loving God, and manners, among so many other things. Thank you parents, for allowing me to be a part of your life. Thank you, Children for snuggles on cold days, and encouraging me to run through the sprinkler on hot days. Thank you for making me play in the snow when I wouldn't normally go out there; it makes winter so much fun! Thank you for letting me read you books and not minding when I get teary over a really good one. Thank you for everything! I thank god for a wonderful job, amazing clients, and beautiful children to care for!

Gardens

Today we are talking about gardens. Gardeners can have a career as a gardener, but many people are gardeners for fun. We can have vegetable gardens, flower gardens, herb gardens, or all kinds of gardens! We plant seeds in the garden which grow.


Here are some cute Sesame Street links:
Jennie Garth: Garden
Michelle Obama: Garden


We also read these wonderful stories: 


Grandma's garden by Elaine Moore
I go to the Garden: Learning the hard G sound by Kevin Sarkisian
On Grandpa's Farm by Vivian Sathre
Blackberry Stew by Isabell Monk


Additionally we colored some garden pictures and talked about what we would grow in our own gardens. Braden said "carrots!" and Branden said, "flowers". We will also begin an indoor herb garden for the winter season.

Last Week

Last week was Thanksgiving week. I didn't post, but we were busy! We read several stories about giving thanks, turkeys, grandparents and families. We made a turkey with our handprints out of a toilet paper roll with a scroll listing the things we are thankful for. Your child thought of those people and things! I asked what they were thankful for, what they thanked God for, what they loved, who they loved, and so forth. I hope you enjoyed them :) I also hope everyone had a really wonderful, love-filled Thanksgiving.

Geese

Today we are learning about geese, mainly the Canada Goose. We have an abundance of geese around Michigan, so we will be looking and listening for these animals. They fly south in the fall, and if we listen and look we can see their V formations in the sky right now. They fly back north in the spring. A goose starts with the letter G. They have a family; the male and female mate for life and protect each other. A Canada goose has  a black neck and head and a brown body. As you can see, we are not only learning science about a common animal in the area, but I specifically chose this animal to incorporate other subjects we are learning about or have learned recently. We went outside and made a goose nest, substituting leaves for feathers. The children decided to add a few rocks for goose eggs. They have been holding up their hands to make a bill and say "honk, honk! honk-hee-honk!" like a goose :)


Here are some useful links for you at home and what we watched about geese today: 
National Geographic Kids w/ pics, video, and sound
Nat. Geographic video
Geese-from "Winged Migration"


Books we read: 
Honk, Honk, Goose! Canada Geese Start a Family by April Pulley Sayre
Honk! Honk! A Story of Migration by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
Here are some pictures!

  making a "brown" bag

our goose nest we made (with leaves instead of feathers)

enjoying a tractor ride

Branden's grace today:
"Grace, grace, grace, grace.... Thank you for grace, and chicken nuggets, and Kelli, and corn, and Brad, and chicken nuggets, and..... grace-Amen."

God

God is good. This is a Christian daycare, but since the children are so young, I focus on very simple and basic ideas that portray God in a very positive light. God made us, made every living thing, loves us very much, forgives us, and wants us to love Him. We also thank Him a lot, including when we say grace at lunch time. 


Books: 
The Berenstain Bears and the Big Question (about God)
                      and
The Berenstain Bears Down on the Farm  by Stan and Jan Berenstain
The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger
 

Publish Post

Yesterday we took our brown bags and collected brown things outside. We then went on the brown deck and glued some of our collected to the bag for a craft.


Here are links for a good youtube on both yellow and brown:


Yellow
Brown


Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Brown

Today we are investigating the color brown! Lots and lots of things are brown. We were all wearing at least some brown and that was very fun to see! We saw that many things in our houses are made of wood and wood is brown. Many animals are brown, like squirrels, birds, chipmunks, monkeys, horses, cats, dogs, geese, ducks, and bears. 

Today we read: 


Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. 
Caillou: A Day at the Farm 
The Berenstain Bear's Family Reunion by Stan & Jan Berenstain and Mike Berenstain
A Day in the Life of a Farmer by Heather Adamson
Thank You Bear by Greg Foley

A couple of these books are about topics from the last couple weeks, but were on hold at the library. We like to review though and we looked at each page to find brown things and letters F and G. 


One of MY favorite brown things.... CHOCOLATE! So we made home-made brownies! Each child helped and loved it, but I'm sure they will love eating them even more! 


Outdoors we are continuing our brown investigation by pointing out all the brown things we see: houses, squirrels, cars, vans, leaves, trees, decks, fences, dogs, dirt, and many more. We are also collecting brown things and making a brown nature collage. 

Love and Logic

The book that every professional working with children, and many parents as well, recommends to me is this one: Parenting With Love and Logic

I have read it and continue to refresh on it. There is also a companion website available. I highly suggest all parents read this because when you ask for advice, people will lead you to this book. Counselors, doctors, Family Studies master's degree holders, teachers, and many parents have all suggested this book! 

How do I use it? If my child refuses to put their coat on, I have some choices in my reaction. I can argue, demand, not let them play outside, or let them play outside without a coat. Chances are that if it truly is cold enough for a coat (or hat, gloves, etc.) , he'll decide on his own that he wants one after getting cold. I calmly say something like, "Ok. Its your choice not to wear a coat, but it is cold, so I think you should." then if they decide to wear one after getting cold, "burrrr. It really is cold isn't it?". If I'm leaving someplace, I'll usually bring the coat along with me and he will often change his mind later, or sometimes a coat really isn't needed that badly.

I will often say, "You have 2 (or 3, or whatever) choices." for example... (if a child is complaining about a meal)"you can eat lunch or you can go to your room and whine while the rest of us enjoy our meal." After realizing one time that truly not eating lunch means you get really hungry, that same statement will have much impact.  It also means that if they choose to complain, it means time away from the family. However, you must use tough love. It doesn't mean put the child in a timeout and then give him/her lunch, or a large and early snack. It means let them skip lunch and suffer a little so they learn to make their own good choices. 

I've also used it many times when one of my sons leaves something out instead of taking care of it. They know we have a daycare here and the kids will notice anything new and want to play with it. For example, my son got a toy for Christmas and left it out, after I repeatedly told him to put it away. It broke. He demanded that I buy him a replacement since my daycare broke it. I responded with, "I really am sorry it broke. I know it was special and I liked it too. But it's your responsibility to take care of things. If you want a new one, you'll have to spend your own money." 

Wear Brown on Tuesday

Tuesday we are investigating the color brown in more depth, so if you have brown your child can wear, that would be great! If you don't have something with a lot of brown, just a little brown will do :) 
Thanks!

Letter G

Today we learn about the letter G! Goody-goody gumdrops, we love G!

Books we're reading:

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann

I Go to the Garden: Learning the Hard G Sound by Kevin Sarkisian

Grumpy Gloria by Anna Dewdney

Gifts for Gus: The Sound of G by Peg Ballard

We often repeat these books and read other stories throughout the week, but I like to put a few titles up here to  give an idea of what we're reading and how it correlates to the cirriculum. The kids like to repeat stories, often a few times in a row. Children learn a lot this way. The same holds true for the videos. The children often want to watch it a few times in a row, so it's great if you can watch it at home too!

I'm going to be incorporating sports/hobbies into the cirriculum. For November it's football and gardening. Like careers, it just educates children to the big, wide world and all of the opportunities available, as well as insight to other people. Look for the December calendar as well!

Links to 'G' videos: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpcwAjh9JmY 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-28urppv4l8 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS8GQIlNS_E&feature=related 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTcArkhyivA&feature=related 
Grover and the Growing G 
 

More pics from this month

 

Making Triangles

Nature Stations

Pictures from our visit to the library

 

Thursday

Today we talked about families. We colored a picture of a farm family and discussed how families are different. Some families have only a mom or only a dad. Some families have lots of brothers and sisters, just a couple, only one, or no brothers and sisters. Grandmas and Grandpas, aunts and uncles, and cousins are all parts of our family. Some family lives in our house and some live in other places. We usually see our families at holidays, like Thanksgiving. We also discussed how we are all a part of God's family.


We read these books today:
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves and Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms by Julia Rawlinson
A Farmer Boy Birthday
The Three Pigs

Wednesday

Today we visited the Portage Library. The children had a blast! We talked about the job of being a farmer and how important farmers are because they take care of the animals and crops to bring us food. We talked about how farmers can also grow cotton for our clothes. We read "A Farmer's Birthday" along with some other great books during story time.

We also got to eat outside today. How amazing is that for November? We are enjoying the beautiful weather for sure!

Happy Tuesday!

Today is triangle day! The triangle is the perfect shape to learn about this month, because we get to count to three while we're learning about it! A triangle has 3 points and 3 sides. We watched some Sesame St. clips on triangles and got the inspiration to make a triangle crown. We used our colors of the month, brown and yellow. The children are very proud of their crowns! The coolest thing that happened is that when we sat down at the table to do our craft, the sun was making a perfect triangle shape on the table. The children and I all thought that was very neat! We counted the sides and points. We are also going outside to make triangles out of sticks, logs, and whatever else suits our fancies. We will make a large triangle out of our path logs. By the way, what  a beautiful day!!! 

On the calendar, you can see our focus lesson of the day, but as you notice, I reinforce the lessons throughout each day. We incorporate our number and colors and nature experience with the triangle. We will have triangle pizza slices today. We point out that foxes have triangle ears. This is an ongoing process and we do not only concentrate on one thing per day, but we do put more emphasis on learning one specific lesson, while reinforcing previously learned material. 


What can you do at home, in the car, at the store, or where ever you may be? Point out triangles, letters, shapes, colors, etc. Look at the calendar and what the children are bringing home. "See that sign? It's a triangle! It's also red!" 

We also began decorating some of the pine cones we found on our nature walks with glitter to make a pretty Christmas wreath and decorations. We did this outside to enjoy the fresh air for longer today.

Braden's prayer today: "Thank you God for food, and animals, and trees, and houses, and windows! Amen. "

Triangle by James Blunt on Sesame Street 
My Triange Home- Sesame St.  
Marching Band Forms a Triangle - Sesam St. 
Our inspiration for the triangle crown- Sesame ST. clip 

Today is such a nice, sunny, warm day. We took logs and made a path and took turns following the leader. We will change the path's course occasionally, the children helping with this. 

We talked about forgiveness. We practiced this in circle time, then again throughout the day at appropriate times. When someone takes a toy, breaks a toy, or hurts us in any way, we always practice saying "I'm sorry." Now we're practicing having the other person say, "I forgive you." We told the story of Joseph and how his brothers were jealous of him so they threw him in a pit. Many years later, even though the brothers had been very mean to Joseph, he forgave them and gave them food. The only way Joseph could forgive like this is because God put love in his heart. We also said that we should forgive, because God forgives us all the time. 

Thursday and Friday

We learned about the number 3. We counted to three many times in both English and Spanish. We watched some sesame street clips to help recognize the number 3 and count to 3. We also colored some pictures, for example 3 fish (starts with f) and we colored them yellow (one of our colors). While outdoors, we collected items in threes. 3 rocks, 3 twigs, 3 walnuts, 3 pine cones, etc. and took turns counting them. In addition to this we read the three little pigs. We are having a lot of fun with the number 3. Branden is our only 3 year old, so this has been special for him. We ask, "Is anybody here 3 years old?" And he gets very excited to be 3, and shows us his 3 fingers.

Deeken's Prayer (with a little help): "Thank you God for food, and family, and friends. Amen." 
Branden's prayer: "Thank you God for food, annnnnnnd food, annnnnnd FOOD!"

Wednesday

Today, we investigated the fox a little more. We learned that foxes are furry, which means they are a mammal. They can jump really high to catch their food. We watched some good videos and saw many pictures of foxes. We learned that some are white and live by the snow, so they hide with their fur. They eat mice, rabbits, worms, bugs, garbage, fish, fruits and vegetables, or whatever they need to eat to survive. We learned that a fox can live in the forest, the dessert, the prairie, the mountains, or in the arctic. We think foxes are really cool! Then we colored 3 fluffy, furry foxes and put them in a forest. (the number 3 and the letter f in addition to our animal). We named them Frannie, Freddie, and Frankie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP15zlyra3c


http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/fennec-foxes/

Publish Post

Tuesday

Tuesday we made Freddy the furry fox. He can wag his fluffy tail! We also played outside and visited the nature stations. Since it was voting day, we took votes on some items. We voted on pine cones or walnuts, walnut or rock, this pine cone or this one, and this walnut or this one, and so forth. I told the children to to pick up the items and get to know them better before they took the vote.

Also at the nature stations, I ask the children open ended questions (as I try to do often in every area). An open ended question does not have a yes or no answer. It instills wonder and curiosity in children and often leads to a special appreciation. Learning about our own backyards leads to curiosity. I model this for the children, so that as they grow older, they will initiate their own investigations. It is important for children to learn about the environment just beyond our own front or back doors in order to save the planet, vs. concentrating on rain forest pictures from a far off place.

Today we introduced the letter F and the /f/ sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU4MZZfZBZ8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6LePzhGLNI&feature=related

A song we like to sing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otckPK7cnuY&feature=related

We watched this several times; the kids really like it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCxIIJr7-Co&feature=related

We are also coloring the F  and the fish yellow, the F and football on another page brown  to begin getting to know our colors of the month.

November

November! Where does the time go? Here's the cirriculum planned for this month (we may add a few things as we go along too).


Letters: F, G
Number: 3
Colors: yellow, brown
Opposites: empty, full
Career: Farmer, Gardener
Animals: fox, goose
Food:  turkey (brown) and Fruit group
Holiday: Thanksgiving
Christian message: Forgive, family, God, Give Thanks
Outdoor: Nature stations and nature exploring
Shape: triangle

Friday

Happy Almost Halloween! Today we played for a long time outside. We played in the leaves and at the nature stations in addition to the regular outdoor toys. All the running and fresh air is so good for the children. The nature stations are a great way for the children to explore different things while keeping in our safe area. We do like to go on some walks when we have time and are able.

We got a special treat today; McDonalds! Braden, Branden, and Deeken went with me to the mall and we got McDonalds in a special Halloween bucket (which I later filled with goodies- some for parents and siblings too!) and sat by the carousel and had some great conversations about the animals. It was a great day and I hope it's a great weekend!