Weekly Favorites For September 11, 2011

I couldn't post my usual list today without saying anything about September 11th. I remember where I was when I heard the news back in 2001. We had just sat down at our desks for English class when our teacher told us that the two towers of the World Trade Center had been hit. As the morning went on, we heard about the Pentagon and the plane crash in Pennsylvania. I remember walking past the library at different parts of the day and it was unusually full with all the TV's on. I'm sorry for the families who have been affected by this tragedy and the innocent lives that were lost. It's unfortunate that people have so much hatred, but people here in our country really came together to help each other that day. I think that's what we should remember from that day is how people helped each other and stuck together.

Read September 11 tributes here and here.

1.
Apple Pie Play-dough
A fall themed play-dough activity.

2.
Bouncing Bubbles
How to make bubbles that don't pop.

3.
Bubble Mountains on Aluminum Foil
A neat science activity with bubbles.

4.
Stress Ball Balloons
A great way to discuss emotions.

5.
Discovery Bottles
Discovery bottles filled with some interesting objects.

6.
Pretend, Create & Learn with Play-dough
Links to many play-dough activities.

7.
Cinnamon autumn playdough: leaf prints

8.
How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World
A variety of apple activities.

9.
Water Bottle Collages
An extremely simple activity.

10.
5 Minute Fairy Wands

Assignment: Establishing Professional Contacts & Expanding Resources

To find professional contacts outside the US, I contacted a couple of the bloggers that I follow. My first contact is Kierna from Northern Ireland. She has been a nursery teacher for over ten years and has been involved with Comenius projects which has allowed her to visit schools in Poland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and France. She writes a blog called Learning for Life. Much of her blog focuses on the importance of exploring nature and outdoor play.
My second contacts are Sherry and Donna who have taught together in Melbourne Australia for many years. They have a blog/website called Irresistible Ideas for play based learning. they share many inspiring and creative ideas for classrooms and write about their visits to other area preschools. I have received E-mails from them both and now I’m trying to figure out what to ask them first. Does anyone have ideas for what kinds of questions to ask?

The website I chose for part two of the blog assignment is Early Childhood Australia. I looked at a few of the other resources and this one seemed the most interesting to me. I chose this website because it has a variety of links and information to explore. I also subscribed to their newsletters.

I’d like to thank my two contacts for being willing to help. I appreciate them taking the time out of their busy days to answer my questions. I’m looking forward to learning new information from my contacts and through the website.

Ten Activities to do with Infants

Here are ten activities that we regularly do with the infants.

1. Books:
Books are great for children of any age. Reading exposes infants to language, pictures in the books expose them to things they don’t normally see and having books around can spark an interest in reading. The infants enjoy looking at books themselves or when we read to them. Reading to babies has so many benefits, but to keep this post short, I won’t go into them all here.

2. Bubbles:
Bubbles are great for younger infants to track. Older infants can work on their fine and gross motor skills while popping or moving around trying to catch the bubbles.

3. Coloring:
We introduce our older infants to fat crayons. They will put them in their mouths, but we sit with them to show them what they are supposed to do with crayons. Some of them like making marks on the paper and others don’t care for it, but it’s apart of exposing them to creative arts.

4. Exercise ball:
Those of you who read the blog know I use the exercise ball a lot with the babies. I use it to rock them to sleep, bounce, play games etc. The ball can be comforting or a way to help older infants with gross motor skills depending on the activity.

5. Mirror exploration:
We have a variety of mirrors around the room accessible to our younger and older infants. Today, I sat in front of a mirror with Baby E and Little Guy; our two youngest infants. They’re too young to realize it’s their own image, but they were fascinated. I set up a mirror for Baby E on the floor and she liked watching herself move.

6. Music:
We’ll sing songs or put on music for them. Music exposes children to language and gets them to move around. Our oldest infant who has moved up to the toddler room loved to dance. I don’t usually do the singing, but I like to help the babies move to the music.

7. Sand box:
We have a sand box on the infant playground that the babies love. It’s filled with buckets, shovels, trucks and other sand toys. The babies usually just explore the toys, but some of them start dumping the sand in and out of buckets. They will eat some of the dirt, but that’s something we’ve all done as children. Most of our infants spend most of their outside time in the sand.

8. Shaving cream:
We allow the older infants to play with shaving cream. Sometimes we try to contain it by giving them a tray, but other times, it gets spread across the table. The babies enjoy squishing and spreading it around. Occasionally, we add paint for color or to make paintings. We do watch the infants closely so they won’t put too much in their mouths.

9. Walks:
We take the babies on walks as much as possible. Walks allow babies to get fresh air, hear and see different sights and sounds and learn new words as we describe what’s around us. Walks are also soothing for many babies.

10. Water play:
For water play, we put water in a small tub and let one or two babies play at a time. We’ve used water by itself for splashing and exploring. We’ve also added objects to the water such as fish or ducks. There are lots of possibilities for water play. If there’s a puddle on the playground, the older infants can explore it. The best thing about this activity is that it’s fun!

Weekly Favorites for September 4, 2011

Here are my favorites for the week. I've included a few posts from last week which I couldn't post last Sunday due to the storm. We lost power for most of the day. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the links. Have a great holiday tomorrow for those of you who have a long weekend!

1.
Clay Pockets
A history lesson combined with a neat craft.

2.
Easy to Make Instruments
A collection of links for how to make various instruments.

3.
Art and Sensory Recipes
A variety of recipes for art, sensory and general messy play.

4.
Goodnight Moon Sensory Bin
The story of Goodnight Moon put into a creative sensory tub.

5.
Painted Sea Shell Magnets oceans
A neat ocean themed craft.

6.
Beach Memories Kids Craft
A way to keep those beach memories.

7.
Making Story Stones in Preschool
A neat way to help kids tell stories.

8.
Homemade Moon Sand That Evil Stuff
A simple recipe for moon sand.

9.
Water Bead Sensory
Some great ideas using water beads.

10.
Glowy Nightlight
A glow in the dark craft.

11.
Celebrating the ABC's of Teaching Preschool and You
A post to celebrate the 20000 members who have joined Deborah Teachpreschool on Facebook. This post shares many great ideas from a variety of bloggers.

12.
Teaching Babies Language and Much Much More While they Play
An informative post on ways to teach babies language in an effective and age appropriate way.

13.
Baby Washing
A new spin on a common preschool activity.

14.
Crayon Melting
Creating art using crayons, wax paper and the sun.

New Friends

The new school year has started which means we have several new friends to get to know. The first is another Baby J, but since there’s already a Baby J who is older, I’ll refer to him as Little Guy. That’s kind of his nickname right now anyway because he’s so small. We aren’t supposed to call them by nicknames because of the NAEYC standards, but once in a while, we call some of the babies Buddy or other nicknames, but we mean no harm by it. Anyway, he started when he was six weeks old. Now he’s closer to nine weeks and he’s already grown since he started. He loves to lay on the floor on his blanket and look around. That seems to be his favorite place most of the time. At other times, he can be fussy, but he’s usually happy after he gets fed. Some people are bothered by the fact that he hates his pacifier and gets really mad when someone tries to put it in his mouth. If only we could read his mind! I know he must be wondering why anyone would try to shut him up with that. After I tried giving it to him a couple of times, I’ve stopped because he obviously has his preferences. I think we should respect that instead of trying to shove a pacifier in his mouth just because it works for other babies. He’s one of those babies who fights going to sleep, but he isn’t the only one.

There’s Baby E who just started last week. She is tiny and looks like a baby doll. That’s the first thing I said when I picked her up to feed her. She’s six weeks old and is another one who doesn’t seem to want to ever sleep. I rock her to sleep, but she wakes up as soon as I put her down. She enjoys being held and likes to sit facing out so she can look at everything. I always make sure to have her leaning against me for support since she’s nowhere near old enough to support herself while sitting. We have Baby S who I’ll meet next week. She started last Wednesday. She’s a year old and I don’t know anything else about her.

We have some new friends in the toddler room as well. I met M about two weeks ago. He’s pretty quiet most of the time, but likes to get involved in what the other kids are doing. I’ve seen M playing drums and pretend to water plants with D. He also likes to pretend to drive using a steering wheel that’s mounted to a wooden post on the playground. He likes to look at books. He kept pointing out different babies in a picture book we were looking at together. Then there’s F who I’ve only met once so far. She started this past week. She fit right in and even started climbing the shelves and tables. We had to tell her to get down, but she seems to love her new school. She spent most of her first morning with us on the climber going up and down the stairs and slide.

In the preschool room, there are at least eight new kids who I’ve never met. Most likely, I’ll be only interacting with them out on the playground since I don’t usually work in their classrooms. It’ll take me longer to get to know them. There is also a new teacher in the toddler room and she has brought many positive changes. She’s brought organization, fresh ideas and she has introduced new toys, books and activities. I think this will be great for the toddlers this year. I will share some of those activities in later posts. For now, I’m looking forward to getting to know our new friends.

A Picture

Over the past couple months, the preschoolers and toddlers have been playing on the playground at the same time. Before, they went out separately. Anyway, since last Thursday, a few of the preschoolers have started to like me. It started when Crawling Baby’s sister wanted me to help her up on the swinging bar on the swing set. We talked about Crawling Baby, preschool and other things. Then a girl who I’ll call T came over. I saw her before during one of my observations. There are a few issues going on with her. Most of which surround her bullying other kids. She also wanted a turn on the swinging bar and while she was up there, she started to be mean to Crawling Baby’s sister and ended up kicking her in the face. Later that day, she came back over to me because she wanted me to push her on the regular swings. I notice that T gets mad when I need to play with the toddlers or if I’m busy with another preschooler especially Crawling Baby’s sister. Those two always seem to argue. There is also a boy who I’ll call G who likes to talk to me when I push him on the swing. The other day he told me how he got past being in the baby room, the toddler room and how now he’s a preschooler. He tells me about his favorite books and the favorite books of his classmates. He talks about watching Sponge Bob and how he can’t pump on the swing yet, but he’s trying. I tried to listen to his stories the other day, but I kept getting interrupted by the girls arguing or one of the toddlers who needed my help.

I’ve been going in every day since last Thursday, so the preschool girls have started finding me every day on the playground. Two of them asked me why I always have to work with those toddlers and why don’t I work in their classroom? Today, I finally did for a little while, but T wasn’t there. I say that because she was the main one who kept asking me that. Since my bad experience at the previous preschool, I was hesitant to work with these preschoolers which is why I’ve mostly insisted on working with only infants and toddlers. I did miss working with them though and the conversations we used to have. It’s been fun working with the three different groups because they’re all good for different reasons. Here’s a picture that Crawling Baby’s sister drew for me today. She filled in the whole paper and there are some little designs in there. The important part is that she made it for me and worked on it for a while. While everyone else was arguing or going a little crazy, she was focused on coloring her entire paper.

Weekly Favorites for August 21, 2011

I have a short break from school so I'll try to post some things in the next couple of weeks. Here are my favorites for the week. Enjoy...
1.
Water Fun Round-Up: Ocean and Sea Creature Activities and Crafts
A round up of ocean themed activities.

2.
Bubblewrap Print Sea Scape.
A sea themed craft.

3.
DIY Rainbow Crayons
How to make rainbow crayons at home.

4.
Flowers and Fairies Sensory Tub
A creative idea for a sensory tub.

5.
Surprising Things that Babies Might do if Given the Chance.
An informative post written by Janet Lansbury about how much babies can do on their own if they have the opportunity.

6.
Making Hard Sand Castles
Sand castles you can actually decorate and keep.

7.
Eric Carle Inspired Birthday Cake
An Eric Carle inspired craft.

8.
Science Experiments
A list of basic science experiments for young children.

Weekly Favorites for August 14, 2011

I am now able to do my weekly favorites posts again. Here are some of my favorite posts I’ve found over the last month and a half. There are a lot so I’ve divided them up into categories. I hope you enjoy them.




Arts and Crafts
Hot Rocks
Seashell Snails
Glitter Jars
Soap and Toothpick Sculptures
Shell Crafts
Glow Art
Healthy Food Placemat
Seashell Crabs
3D Ice Cream Art

DIY
Busy Baby Blocks
DIY Fun Learning Toys
How to Make Sand Beads
Make Your Own Flannel Board

Foods
If You Give a Cat a Cupcake
Beach Ball Sugar Cookie Recipe
Fun With M&M's
Ice Cream Cone Cupcake Recipe
Painting on Ice Cream
Felt Hamburger Building Station
Edible Crayons
Strawberry Fun Games

Play-dough
It's Play Time: Play-dough
Glow In The Dark Silly Putty
Natural Herbal Play-dough
Ice Cream Play-dough
Blueberry Sparkle Play-dough
Science
Glow Sticks Thinking Outside the Box
Water Beads and Light
More Air Bubbles in the Ice

Sensory
Pond Sensory Tub
Squishy Bag - A tactile/multisensory approach to pre-writing and writing skills
Homemade Moon Sand
Bug Sensory Bin
Clean Clouds
Ocean Sensory Bin Shaving Cream and Shells
Sensory Ocean Beach Pictures
Advanced Squishy Bag
Cloud Dough
Bright and Colorful Sensory Bags for Preschool

Water and Nature Play
Around the Web Water Play
Ice Treasures
Marble Water Launcher.
Tools for Water Play
Ice Melting Bags
Ice Cube Bead Necklaces
Mud Bakery
Icy I-Spy
Preschool Science and Sensory with Balloons and Water
10 Reasons Why We Should Let Children Play in the Mud

Water Play

Since this week’s theme is the ocean, we did some sensory play with the babies. We were supposed to let them play in the mud today, but we decided just to start off with sand. It was in a low sensory table, but the babies were having trouble standing, holding on and trying to play with the sand. So we decided to take the tub out of the table and put it on the ground. This way they could sit in it. While most of the babies were napping this morning, Baby L and Baby K were the first ones to try it. Baby K freaked out and didn’t want anything to do with the sand so we put her in the swing. She loves the outside swing. Baby L loves the sand and he kept putting it into his mouth. He kept playing with a shovel and a turtle scoop. Eventually, we had to take him out because he was eating way too much sand. The sand turned out a little like mud since the tub was still wet from the water that was in it yesterday.

Then this afternoon, the classroom supervisor brought in some seaweed. Since seaweed dries out quickly, we added water to the tub, but we dumped the sand back into the sand box. This was also nap time for most of the babies. Babies J, K and L were awake. Baby K freaked out even worse this time so she went back into the swing. Baby L loved the water. He kept splashing and splashing. The water would get all over him and the ground which made him laugh. He tasted the seaweed and I wondered what he thought of it. It couldn’t have been that good. Baby J also tasted the seaweed, but he wasn’t as excited about the water. He splashed around a little bit though. I was disappointed that Baby C and Crawling Baby didn’t get to play with the water and seaweed. I would’ve liked to have seen their reactions.

Then when I was about to leave, they were setting up a painting project and tomorrow, they will get to color and play with the mud. The babies are having a busy week.

Assignment: My Daily Supports

To me, someone who supports you is someone who is there for you when you need them. It’s someone you can share your problems with. It’s someone you can depend on to be there emotionally or if you need some other form of support. An important part is to make sure that you return that support in whatever way you can.

My two biggest supporters are my mom and boyfriend. My mom is there when I need something. I can talk to her about things. She supported my decision to go back to school and encourages me. She occasionally helps with the bills when we can’t cover it all. I don’t drive so she takes time out of her day to bring me where I need to go. She occasionally makes food for us for no reason. There are a lot of things she does. She gives me advice even when I don’t want or need it, but I suppose that’s what mothers do. Without her, things would be very different.

I can talk to my boyfriend about anything. He gives me advice or support when I’m going through a rough time. He helps around the house with the chores and cares for our pets. Of course, he helps me with the bills too since we couldn’t afford our place on our own. He supports my decision to continue my education and I can talk about my classes with him. He’s also in school and understands what the work is like.

I try to support them as well by being there if they need to talk or helping them with whatever they might need.

I started volunteering and substituting at a different center in February. This was quite a change from what I was used to. I was meeting a whole new group of people and by my request; I started working with a new age group. Over these past few months, some of my new coworkers have been supportive. I was able to talk to one of them about a problem I was having with another of the substitutes. A couple of them support me by teaching me the things I need to learn to do the job instead of just doing them for me. Sometimes when new people come in, the people who have been there for a while sometimes take over instead of teaching the new person. I appreciate my coworkers that take the time to show me something or let me try something new.

A huge challenge would be if I had to move away and start over completely. I’d be away from my supports. I’d have to start work in a new place and go through the process of getting to know new people and learning the procedures at a new center. I’d have to find a different apartment and find another way of traveling from place to place. I’d have to build up new supports over time. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it’d definitely be a challenge.