We had a pretty laid back week at daycare with the highlight of the week being a long awaited Tea Party for Kids (read more on that here). It was a gorgeous week so we spent time outside every morning and afternoon. The kids have been working hard on using their words with their friends and being mindful of their bodies...both are quite difficult tasks for the four and under crowd!
Here's a quick look at our week:
We made a "house" area with the kid's favorite doll station and Fisher Price Laugh and Learn home. The kids really enjoyed the pretend play aspects of this set up and spent a lot of their indoor time playing "mom and dad/brother and sister." I loved listening to the stories they created.
All of the outside time has been great for all of us. The kids mostly ran around and played different variations of the game chase (this game pictures above was entitled "slasher" where they would chase each other and try to slash someone with the pool noodle. Whoever got slashed was "it"). We did have to sit down to have a talk about how slides are for going down only NOT climbing up, not running into each other on the swings, and taking turns with the Cozy Coupes.
We broke out the sandbox for the first time this season. The kids had a great time playing in Construction Land. Find out more here.
I loved these water color activities when I was a kid. Melissa and Doug makes several different water color painting sheets. It takes a bit for the kids to figure out how they work but always love to see how they turn out. A big bonus for the kids is that they dry very quickly.
Last year's pancake party (read more on that here) was such a hit that we did another one this year. The kids had strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, chocolate chip, and regular pancakes for lunch one day. They loved trying all of the varieties of pancakes and the accompanying syrups.
We practiced our shapes outside. I drew different shapes (and cut them out), the kids colored them with crayons, and then used foam shape stickers (found at Michael's) to place on the cut outs. Each child had a different shape cut out and we went over each shape that they stuck on too. We then ran around the backyard pointing out all of the shapes we saw. This was a great way to review the shapes and keep it entertaining.
We put to use all of the broken crayon pieces and made our own crayons. This got a little messy (fyi--always be sure to use microwave safe ice cube trays when attempting to melt the crayons. Otherwise it's SUPER messy and the house will smell like burnt plastic for days).
The kids have been obsessed with the book We're Going On A Bear Hunt. Harrison likes to play big man on campus when he's home from school on Friday's. This was his idea and he did a great job of leading the "bear hunt" around the living room. Their bear hunt featured our cat Doc as the bear and provided a recital of the book and lots of high pitched screaming when they saw "the bear."
We celebrated May 1st with surprise May Day baskets after naps to end our week. The kids were shocked I let them eat a cup of popcorn and candy for afternoon snacks.
The countdown to summer break is on this month! We're just a few short weeks away from school being out and crazy, fun summer days ahead! Next week the kids will be working hard on their Mother's Day gifts for their mom's.