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Keeping eye wide open for family fun in KC!

2/27/2013

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This looks like GREAT fun for us and our children here in KC!  Click on the pix and it will take you directly to the groupon link for Wonderscope Children's Museum.  This Groupon will give you deep discounts to a fun and interactive time for your family!  See you there!!!  Use this link and help our little school raise funs with no cost to you! http://www.groupon.com//raf/UserReferral_rp/121015/10r1act/lk/uu48522504
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V is for Valentine!  What else??!!

2/13/2013

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During the week leading up to Valentine's Day we have been talking about how we love, who we love and who loves us.  This, of course, brings alot of discussion about grandparents.

These two books have been class favorites of MINE since I purchased them a couple years ago.  They are sweet stories about how Grandmother and Grandfather spend extra time with us and how that time is an expression of L.O.V.E.! 

Even at such young ages our little preschooler's understand this.  These two books are memorized at a very young age.  They have a great pattern and meter.  I would absolutely recommend adding them to your home library.  Your children would LOVE it!!!


"A person's a person, no matter how small."Dr. Suess
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This is such a precious quote...  It reminds us that even our sweet little ones have feelings, desires, demands, curiousities that should be listened to and explored.  To allow for the opportunity for ALL our little ones to participate in an activity, sometimes we have to think "outside of the box." 

Normally a chalkboard would be attached to a wall.  This really only allows for a couple of children at a time to utilize.  This is also a very difficult skill for a one year old to master when trying to hold a piece a chalk AND color. 

Think, think, think...we solved this issue by keeping our chalkboards and dry-erase boards "mobile."  They simply sit out and when the children want to color, we place them on the floor.  This allows for ALL our children, no matter their age or skill, to participate in chalk play.  Yes, they get it ALL over their clothes, but they don't seem to mind and neither do we!  After all...play IS learning! 

We used these most recently to draw our letter V and L, write our names, and practice shapes, colors, patterns and coloring inside and outside of an object.  Since it is Valentine's Day holiday time, we have been drawing LOTS of hearts, big hearts, little hearts, blue and green and red hearts! 

Just take a look at the sweet pictures of our little ones at play on the boards...

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Math, language arts, fine motor skills, and more!

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We used a few of our old playing cards to make this fun file folder game. The younger children use this for matching and number recognition. Our older children use it for addition and subtraction games.
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Our fantastic assistant teacher, Ms. Melissa, came up with making a LARGE playdough pizza with our sparkle pink Valentine playdough and then talking about everyone's favorite flavors, slicing the pizza and having everyone practice taking turns, using their manners to say, "Please," and "Thank you!" It was also a great way to observe cutting in halves, quarters and eigths!
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During the past week we made LOTS of hearts. We have used all mediums of art. Here we are preparing our hearts for reverse painting. We used painter's tape to make designs, then paint, and glitter glue. We then waited for everything to dry and pulled the tape off to reveal our designs under the paint.
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In the spirit of all things pretty and fancy we purchased several sizes of frilly paper hearts in various colors. We gave the children free reign each day leading up to Valentine's day to create special cards for loved ones. We used stickers, paint, glitter, and lots of hearts cut from all colors, weights and textures of paper. We discussed red, pink, silver, black, gold, white, sparkly, smooth, rough, fancy, and frilly. Art time is a perfect time to talk about shapes, colors and textures without the use of boring ol' flash cards!!
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Once she completed the entire, "plus one, plus two" game we were playing she was one PROUD girly!
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More fun with food... We try to make meals that they will LOVE to eat. This morning we used banana chunks for the eyes with a little chocolate chip on each "eye," a chocochip heart muffin for the nose and a turkey bacon smile! Delish!!
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The finished product! These turned out ADORABLE!! A special thanks for all the "heart-work" goes out to Ms. Melissa and Bella for all their sewing assistance!!! On the back we wrote, "You hold my heart!" complete with each child's name and year for rememberance!!!
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Instead of Valentine boxes this year we decided to make Valentine bags! We used manilla file folders that we glued and decorated. We then stapled a bright red ribbon for the handle and VIOALA! COMPLETE!!! These turned out great and were the PERFECT size for little arms and hands to handle.
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In all the "partying" I couldn't capture very many non-blurry pictures. They were SOOOOO excited to pass out their Valentine cards and were moving at the speed of light! We had a GREAT time and thank you Moms and Dads for sending all the wonderful treats!!!
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During our Valentine activites we have been "bedazzaling" EVERYTHING! One of our little 3 year olds decided that her letters needed a bit of bling! What a GREAT idea!! It's fun to watch, when children are allowed to have access to different mediums, the creative solutions they can come up with!
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We don't just eat our food...we think of all types of fun "games" to play with our food. After all...they just want to play anyway, right!? The children wanted to have a little morning snack of Fruit Loops. Thankfully, I had some on hand. While pouring the cereal onto napkins I asked the children to make piles, separating into colors each of the different colors they found in their cereal. One of our little ones also asked for a marker, she wanted to make "sections" for her colors. We then counted and counted everyone's fruit loop color catagories. After that we also added a bit of adding and subtracting!
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Adding the finishing touches to our reverse painting hearts...
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Making Valentine people is an annual event for us. We have been making this fun craft for years! The older children get to make the arms and legs and then help the younger children with "back and forth."
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We used old playing cards to make this fun file folder game. The younger children used it for matching while the older children used it for addition and subtraction...
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This was another one of our fun math games that included mostly subtraction! When giving young children cute heart shaped containers filled with heart candy, you can EXPECT to only be able to practice subtraction as they eat the candies one, by one, by one! SOOOOO FUN!!!
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Here we are at it again with Valentine arts and crafts. Our children LOVED making all sorts of Valentine's for their loved ones and this was NO exception! Here we used felt hearts and glued small ones atop of larger ones. We glued two larger ones together and stuffed them with some cotton, sewed them together for a bit more security and made soft, cuddley heart pillows for our Mommy/Daddy Valentine gifts. They were SOOOO excited to give their gifts at the end of the day!
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EVERYONE'S Valentine bags :)))
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LET THE PARTY BEGIN!!!
"Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate."
There is nothing I would rather teach children to imitate than love...  With love we are safe and able to fully express all of who we are and will become in the security of that love.  We can make mistakes.  We can be great.  We can fail.  We can grow.  We can give.  We can receive.  With love we can teach and be taught.  Love frees our hearts to be open and expressive because of it's forgiveness, because of it's strength.  Love can be hurt, but thank God it can also be healed...  We had a wonderful week of loving, giving, creating and expressing our love for others.  Happy Valentine's Day everyone...I hope you have loved...  -L
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Hugs, hearts, hats, hogs...and a dinosaur or two...

2/6/2013

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Why I do what I do...

This month (January rolling into February) has been FULL of challenges. We have had illness with just about everyone of our preschoolers, plus my own family (even as I write).  Family care is just that...FAMILY!  I love what I do because we do take care of, love, and learn from one another. 

Each day with these sweet babes brings me new lessons on faith, joy, hope, and of course PATIENCE :), but you know...mostly...about having the "eyes of a child."  This sweet picture just makes me smile.  These two girlies are the very best of friends.  They love to love and they love to fuss with one another, but they ALWAYS are the BEST of friends.  The eyes truly are "the window of the soul."  Never is that more apparent than in the eyes of a child.  Children, for the most part, are so easy to please.  They just want us...our love, our attention, our affection...  Sometimes, in the business of "trying to get it all done" that gets pushed to the backburner.    It's easy to let all the day's "responsibilities" muddle up the few precious moments of connection we have with our children each day. 

But, each day is new in it's own right.  Make today the day you see the world through your sweet babe's eyes.  Let today be the day they get US, fully, with intent and the purpose of showing them that we SEE them.  Read a book, sing a song, dance, play in the dirt...you will be glad you did :).

Now...on with the show!

Fun little hog...thanks for an early Spring (I hope!)!!

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As a preschool teacher and care provider I can not pass up an opportunity to celebrate a holiday.  Groundhog's Day is one (just one) of my favorites.  Its fun, silly, and hopefully produces some GRAND results for an early Spring! 

We dove right in and talked about shadows.  For these little ones to understand what that rascally rodent must do, they first need to grasp the basics...shadows...

This gave us an opportunity to gather the flashlights and stand in the dark, the light and to compare each other's shadows.  First, we had to process finding a shadow and the ingrediants needed to produce one...light, dark and an object to reflect. 

Of course, on the first sunny day we were all standing at the big picture window waving, jumping, noticing that my shadow is very tall and that Nora's shadow is very small.  We sang this little Groundhog Day song to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot.

I see a little groundhog furry and brown
He's popping up to look around.
If he sees his shadow, down he'll go.
Six more weeks of Winter - OH NO!!!

To this little tune we also made our groundhog puppets as seen in this picture.  They were fun to pop up and down and up and down.  We had to repair them several times since the younger children mostly loved ripping their little arms off :). 

Our puppets were Dixie cups inside of a brown bag, attached to a popsicle stick that was poked through the cup and the bag.  We explained that groundhog's live in burrows under the ground and the brown bag was just like his little hole in the ground.  We further discussed that when the groundhog popped his little head out of his hole he would look all around, but if he saw his shadow he would scurry back down into his burrow for another six weeks of cold winter. 

We talked about what we would do if he didn't see his shadow and we had an early Spring.  This led into a discussion about the clothes we wear in the cold and in the warm.  We also talked about the types of games and activities we like to do when it's warm or cold outside. 

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We also (again more Dixie cup crafts) made these little puppets once we saw just how fragile our previous guys were.  These held up much better. 

With this lesson we discussed the body parts of a groundhog.  We learned that his teeth were much larger than our own and that he needed large teeth to help him when he was eating and building his home.  We also learned that groundhogs are cousins with the mouse.  Since they are mammals they have live babies and do not lay eggs.  They eat bugs and worms and use their very large teeth like an ax to chop logs.  We practiced putting our little groundhogs in the light to see if they would "cast a shadow."  Sure enough they did!!

So, speaking of hearts, love and hugs... It's PARTY TIME!!

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We LOVE celebrating a birthday.  One of our sweet little ones was turning 2 so we HAD to make sure he knew we think he is EXTRA special!  We decorated the room, baked ice cream cone vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, set the places, stuffed the treat bags, placed Mickey Mouse all about, wrapped the gifts and WAITED!  Of course, this would be the day that he would sleep EXTRA long for nap so we waited...and waited...and waited...

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Wating for the birthday boy!
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Woohoo!!!  He finally woke up!!  Let the games begin! In preschool/todller land parties are over in a flash of sugar, giggles and squeals. 

Eat, unwrap, play...this pretty much sums up a party for ages 1-5.  They especially love the "play" part of the party.  We danced, we sang, we ate again.  We  blew up our punching balloons and wiggled and jiggled them.  We played our toy flutes and broke out the new chalk.

What a DELIGHT to be able to witness the PURE JOY of a toddler realizing that a party is JUST FOR HIM!  This was precious indeed.  I think I had just as much fun preparing the party and watching it unfold as the children did experiencing it. 

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    Life is made of moments...

    "There isn't anything more full of hope, joy and peace than a child's smile... It captures the mundane and makes it extraordinary." - LaDonna Woolsey

    I am a Mother Goose Time Blogger. I decided to become one after trying their products because I they are comprehensive and serve my mixed age group well.  I do receive products to review from Mother Goose Time and do so with my own honest and thorough opinions.  For more information, please contact me at Ladonna@woolseyacademy.com

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My husband and I both work full time and during the year 2011 we needed a child care provider for our five year old daughter and our 20 month old son. I am a Special Education Teacher for the Willard RII district in Missouri. I found LaDonna Woolsey on the internet while searching for a child care provider.  I had called numerous places and never felt comfortable with any of them to even make an appointment to meet them in person. I called LaDonna, and almost immediately after the conversation started, I felt a sense of relief and made an appointment to check out her daycare in person, the following day.  When I saw her facility I was absolutely amazed. LaDonna answered all of my nervous mom questions and watching her interact with the children made me realize I had found the perfect person to watch my children during the day. She started providing Child Care services for my children immediately... - Lisa Lassley - Special Education Teacher for the Willard RII 

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