The Wonder of Wheels At a recent morning meeting the Rainbows discussed taking a neighborhood walk to look for wheels.“But what type of wheels?” the teachers asked. One Rainbow said “the wheels go round and round,” recalling a very, very popular song in our classroom. So the question was asked again...

written by Bumblebee Lead teacher Nicole Williams The Joy of Mud As a kid growing up, I was taught never to play in mud. It was described as being dirty, nasty, and messy. Needless to say that when I heard about International Mud Day, I was less than thrilled. I had an image of mud flying everywhere...

Looking Back, Looking Forward Now that the summer is upon us, the Dragontails are looking back on what we have done and learned in this highly formative year. As the excitement of the long-awaited vacation and anticipation for the new experience of becoming first graders sets in for the children in...

Stuttering in the Toddler Years The toddlers years are a time of language explosion! As part of this growth, each year in the Sunshine room, we usually have at least three or four children who begin stuttering. One day their language is stutter-free and the next day the stuttering starts. I always...

Learning in the Garden The Fireflies have been working diligently in the garden this month.We started by digging in the garden and enjoyed exploring all of the living creatures that come with turning the soil over. Everyday was a new adventure. As part of our garden investigation, we discussed our...

What a Beautiful World Nature is vital to children’s development. In some way or another, it can help support all of the developmental domains. Living in the city, our exposure to the natural environment is often times limited due to the lack of space and access to natural, organic materials. Here...

Recently, the Starfish investigated patterns. We defined patterns as “Something that happens over and over again.” We looked at three different types: visual or patterns that you can see, aural or patterns that you can hear and behavioral or patterns that you make with (by moving) your body. Then we...

The fairy tale spark came from teacher Jerri. Jerri loves to share a variety fairy tales with the children during morning meeting, transition times or even afternoon relaxation time. The favorite ones are when the characters in the story include some of our Leapfrogs! We stocked our reading corner...

One of the biggest sources of anxiety in parents of young children is preparing for kindergarten. It’s a time when you say goodbye to the familiar and dive into the somewhat unknown. In the eyes of adults, there seem to be more questions than answers. Will they be able to sit still? Will they make...

The Doodlebugs are delighted spring has arrived! Doodlebugs are spending more time exploring the neighborhood looking for tactile and visual signs of spring. On a recent walk we discovered flowers blooming on trees and decided to take a closer look. Some of the toddlers walked up to a tree and...