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Capital District Family Day Care Association
Blog
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Wed, 25 Feb 2009
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 Idea Exchange
Ah HA! This is the place for you to "spill it".
A place for you to share your "ah ha moment" with
all of us. Major corporations spend billions
(and in recent times I wonder if they chose to
spend that wisely) on "think tanks". That's just
a fancy way to say brain storming group. So
share an idea or two! Or if you're stumped on
something, post that as well! There might be
someone out here who's faced that problem and
found a great solution. I can't wait to see what
you have to share!
Posted 20:03
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8 comments
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One Potato
Jen Westervelt gave me a great idea!
Cut "large" potato shapes out of paper and
number them 1- whatever number you like
(laminate if you want for more stability). Then
you can do the "1 potato 2 potato" rhyme. When
she told me, I set them up like a hopscotch
board inside to help release the "wiggles"!
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"Time for Spring"
I did this last year with my crew. I made a
construction paper clockface for each child.
Then they glued crumpled tissue paper squares
around the edge of the clock. When done, I
posted them up under a banner that said, "TIME
FOR SPRING!" The children and the parents all
loved it.
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Table for the kids
Hi,
I bought a folding "camping" table from walmart.
It was $40.00,for the children in my program to
use during daycare hours. It cleans up easily,
height is adjustable and best of all, Fridays I
fold it and put it away.
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Fine Motor Activity
I took some pictures of simple shapes and taped
them to a low window (if you have sliding glass
doors, it would GREAT there). Then the children
could hold a piece of paper over the picture of
the shape and trace the picture underneath it.
You could even make this into a "group" activity
by making them into teams and having one child
hold the paper for the other.
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5 Little Leprechauns
This poem can be used in many ways - finger
plays first to come to mind, but it quickly
expands to things like colors and large motor
things as they act it out. Enjoy!
Five little leprechauns playing in the sun.
The first one said, "Oh, my! We're having fun!"
The second one said, "We need to spread some
joy!"
The third one said, "Let's find some girls and
boys."
The fourth one said, "There's gold to be found!"
The fifth one said, "Let's look all around!"
Then out came a rainbow, shining bright and bold.
So, five little leprechauns ran to find some
gold!
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I love you toast
I Love You Toast
The children really loved making this for snack,
but you could also do it for breakfast or part
of lunch. The great part was that they loved
making it, it was EASY, clean up was EASY and
they got to brag to their parents that they made
their own snacks! I let some of the dad's know
and they're going to be having their children
make "I love you toast" for the mommies!
4 pieces of bread (100% whole wheat or Iron Kids
Bread)
1/4 cup light cream cheese
About 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup light strawberry or raspberry jam
Toast bread slices to desired doneness. (Young
kids will need a grown-up to watch the toaster.)
The child spreads about 1 tablespoon of light
cream cheese over the entire top of each piece
of toast using a plastic knife. Make a heart in
the center of the toast, using about 1/8 cup of
fresh or frozen blueberries for the outside of
the heart (For little ones the adult can make a
heart in the cream cheese first), on each piece
of toast. Spoon jam into the middle of the
heart (about 1 tablespoon per toast).
Makes 4 servings
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April Ideas
Ok, I'm going to start to think I'm alone if
other people don't post SOMETHING, but here goes!
A Cute Little Bunny
Ask youngsters to hop on over to circle time to
learn this fingerplay.
I looked in the garden, (Shade eyes with hand.)
And what did I see? (Hold out hands and shrug
shoulders.)
A cute little bunny (Make rabbit ears with
hands.)peeking at me!
I bent down to pat him. (Pretend to pat bunny.)
Then he hopped away. (Hop two fingers away.)
I hope he comes back (Clasp hands in front of
chest.) to see me someday! (Use thumb to point
to self.)
Math
Raindrops Keep Falling
Cut out ten construction-paper cloud shapes and
ten blue paper raindrops. Tape the clouds to a
file folder. Label each cloud with a number
from 1 to 10 (and laminate to help make it
last!) To use a child selects a cloud, then
puts the corresponding number of raindrops below
it so that it appears to be raining. Again
laminate the raindrops to help it last.
Laminating, coloring or even creating this is
something you can ask a parent to do for you!
You'd be surprised how many of them would help
with this!
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Low cost ideas
I have done some low cost to no cost activities
and the children love them.
Ask the parents to bring in all types, sizes of
plastic containers. margarine, cool whip,
cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, etc.. Now set up
a box with the tops off and tell the children
that they are for a "matching tops" game. They
learn spatial recognition, use fine motor skills
and when they are in a group they get some
social skills as well!
I had my husband get me some heavy duty paper
rolls from carpet etc. I cut them to size and
attached them to the side of my train table. The
children spend hours putting cars down one side
and watching them come out the other. You can
attach it to a book shelf also.
Through parents, garage sales, flea markets I
gathered shoes ( larger sizes to accomodate
everyone) that tie, zip, buckle, velcro and I
nailed them to a board and put them on the lower
part of one of my walls. It serves to help them
learn to tie, etc but it is great entertainment
to see them try to get their feet into the shoes
and keep them in there since the board is
somewhat elevated.
I set up a "listening center" for the children
but wanted to have something besides a tape
recorder where they could hear themselves. I
bought a semicircle and two ends of PVC pipe
from home depot and made what looks like a phone
handle. They talk in one end and listen in the
other and can hear what they sound like. We also
got a long piece of PVC and some ends and set up
a Talking tube inside and outside so they can
talk to eachother. They love it and so do I
except when one of them decides to scream in the
end of the tube!
Toilet tisses rolls make great binoculers for
bird watching or bear hunting.
Ketchup or syrup bottles - take the tops off,
place one half of a plastic egg ( the kind you
use for easter egg hunts) over the top and tell
the child to squeeze, the egg will go flying off
the top.
Enjoy!!!
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