Puddles and Mud: January 2012

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Some February pink and red activities!

Placing Hearts

Mini Hearts Seek 'n' Find

Colourful Heart Snail (Patterning)

Pink or Not-Pink?

White, Pink, and Red Heart Sorting

February Sensory Tub

Small Pompoms and Tweezers activity

Hello children and parents! Well, we've got lots planned for February! And it's Leap Year so we have an extra day to add even MORE activities and crafts too!! To but name a few things, we'll be making Superhero capes, Knuffle Bunny fluffy tails for *Mo Willems week, Dancing Hearts for Valentines Day, handprint snowflakes, froggies for Leap Year, and we'll even celebrate "International Polar Bear Day" on the 27th!! So much creativity!!!!

*Mo Willems is the author of the beloved "Pigeon" series, as well as both the "Gerald and Piggie" and "Knuffle Bunny" series also! His stories are a staple in the centre - the children and I absolutely love them! They're great for the kids and they're fun for adults to read (and trust me, when you have to read them 10 times in a row, you want them to be fun!). I found out that Mo's birthday is on Feb 11th, and thus "MO WILLEMS WEEK" was born! An entire week of Pigeon!!!! I believe it's another fine example of the "unusual" holidays we can celebrate with the kids! Goes right along with "Talk Like a Pirate Day" (Sept 19th) and "Star Wars Day" (May 4th)! I may have to send Mo some pictures!

various crafts, activitites and sundry done in January!

Riley (along with Bacon) try the stencils

Toss the duck but don't step on the floor!

Sadie loves to dance!

Sadie also loves to hide in Hot Bean!

Asher experiments with the coloured ice cubes and warm water

Painting with paint-cubes!

Ashlyn decorates with Imagination Paints

Aubrey colours the train tracks!

TADA! Voila our fabulous meal!!!

Ashlyn shows us how she can knit

Chinese New Year Dancing Dragons

Red and Gold Dragon Kites

The cars are still a huge hit with everyone!

Asher and Nate check out the sensory bottles

I met Tamara, whom I believe started "Spark Your Imagination" here in Kamloops, at a workshop I attended this month and she was nice enough to give me a pack of the "Spark Story Starters" cards! These are absolutely wonderful, the kids LOVE them, and I would recommend them to anyone! Thank you so much, Tamara!

Sadie and Aubrey enjoy some fun in the snow!

Nate and his Goo-Goo Glasses (Naters, did I get the name right?)


Brenna rocks the Hipster glasses!

*a side note to Aubrey: I'm sorry it took me so long to get new pictures up on my "blob"!

Monday, 16 January 2012

more new activities and crafts!

Building with Marshmallows

The Garage is back!

"Can you make one that looks like me?" robot copying activity

Colourful Modern Sculpture Blocks

Our Martin Luther King Day Peace Signs (my thanks to Valerie at FFFB for the idea)

Friday, 13 January 2012

Nate, our little photographer!

NEAR!!

FAR!!

Smile!!

some fun new activities

Domino Parking Counting

Mitten Matching

Snowman Puzzle

Lines and Dots and Colours

Cloth Folding (the girls specifically requested this activity again!)

Matching Shapes

Roll the Dice Activity

Friday, 6 January 2012

....the kids thought this was hysterical....

Riley's toe

New Daycare Tradition: The Birthday Crown

This year, we're starting a new Birthday tradition at Puddles and Mud Childcare, the "Birthday Crown"! Birthdays are obviously exciting for children, it's their very own super I'm Special day, and I wanted to make them feel just that much more special! The birthday child gets to wear the *one-of-a-kind Birthday Crown as we all sing Happy Birthday to them! Then, if they like, they can tell us all about the wonderful things they can do now that they're 3, or 4, or ? age (Sadie, for example, says that now that she's four, she can clean up her play area without being told all by herself, are you listening Mom and Dad?)! And of course we have to get a special picture of the birthday child wearing the Birthday Crown!