Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Week In Review: November 28 - December 1

We had an unexpected short daycare week thanks to a mini getting sick (and I had to take the day off), yet we still got in a lot of playing, crafts, and even a theme day. We haven't been doing a lot of theme days this fall season because most of the kiddos could care less if there's a theme to our day, but I couldn't pass up the chance to do our annual Polar Express Day. We made that day a pajama day and even made a mini hot chocolate bar (find how to create your own here).

My favorite moment of the week happened while the kids were looking at books. We had read The Gingerbread Man a few times and one child was looking at it, brought it up to me, and pointed to the cookies on the page. I confirmed they were cookies, at which the child tried to pick them off of the page of the book.  When it didn't work, there was a pout and then a lot of talk about cookies. So much talk that we wound up making a batch of sugar cookies for a treat during the Polar Express movie.

Here's a look at our week: 


We attempted to make Christmas Tree Christmas Lists but no one quite understood what to do. When I asked each child what they wanted for Christmas, I got a lot of "mommy told me no" or "I go to time out all weekend" from the kids. So after the green paint dried on the trees, we broke out the glue and fuzzy balls and the kids got to decorate their trees. Not what I had in mind, but they turned out cute. If you're interested in making Christmas Tree Christmas Lists, here's how to make them.


I put window clings on the windows. I dislike window clings around the kiddos (too many risks of them falling off and a child picking it up and into their mouth(s)), but I couldn't pass these up from the Target Dollar Spot. Our rule with the clings is that they are for looking only. So far so good....and the kids really enjoy waving at them every morning!


One of the (many) joys of my job is watching kids discover new things. In this case it was discovering how to play with a toy differently. She was "fixing" the play screws she stuck on the hooks.


Getting in letter writing practice. I love that all of the kids were surrounding her and repeating each letter after she wrote it. No one would have paid attention if I did something like that, but when it comes from another kids, they'll surely pick it up!


The kids painted salt dough ornament trains on Polar Express Day.


We also built our own "Thomas Express railroad train" (as the kids called it).


The kids colored their tickets for the movie, we read the book a few times, had hot chocolate, apple slices, and cookies.

Thursday evening we took the minis to a very special musical to us in the Christmas spirit. We saw Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. This was the minis first long musical performance. I must say they did pretty darn well for the two hour event!

Unfortunately, right after, we had a very sick mini. So sick that I had to cancel daycare for the next day and spend half of my day at the pediatrician's office. I dislike calling off daycare unless it's absolutely necessary. I was even more bummed because Friday was gift day (where daycare receives it's new gift(s) for the week all holiday season). I bought several new Play Doh sets and I was looking forward to a quiet day of Play Doh playing from the kiddos. Alas, life had other plans for me and this Friday daycare will be getting double the amount of gifts!






It was a late performance!


The minis got chocolate bars after the musical. Someone only held onto hers and failed to tell us that it melted EVERYWHERE! I was shocked when I went to get her out of the car.


How Friday looked for me/us.

This week we're doing paintings for parents and quite a few sensory activities!