Thursday, May 19, 2011

Make-it Topic: Ants

 Imaginative:
  • Set up a picnic with the ant, set out blanket with food and dishes and place out plastic ants or paper ants
  • Make an ant hill home from a cardboard box, have some antenna head bands
 Language:
  • Do the finger play “Little Ant”
o One little ant, two little ants, (point to a finger for each number) three little ants I see. Four little ants, five little ants, lively as can be. Six little ants’ seven little ants, eight in a bowl of glass. Nine little ants ten little ants Entertain our class
  • Read “ The ant and the grasshopper”
  • Read “ One hundred hungry ants” 
  • Read “Hey little ant”
 Art:
  • Place out several washable black and red ink and white paper, encourage the children to place their fingers in the ink and make ants on the paper
  • Make egg carton ants and paint the desired color
  • Draw an ant hill on brown construction paper tear small pieces of black paper allow the children to glue the ants on
  • Place out shoe prints with paper ants to glue on
  • Use contact paper in the shape of an ant and tissue paper to make tissue ants
 Water/Sand:
  • Place out plastic ants and jars with spoons
  • Have an ant washing station sponges and plastic ants
  • Place golf balls in the sand table for eggs
  • Place turkey baster out in the water and candle jelly
 Gross Motor:
  • Cut out large ant hills out of brown paper, place a shape on each one, in a bowl make circles with the shapes on them, draw a shape from the bowl and have the children move like an ant to that shape
  • Do an ant march using fun different music
 Science/Curiosity:
  • Make an ant farm
  • Have an ant under a magnifies glass 
  • Place out pictures of ants
  • Place out different pieces of fruit and food outside and watch the ants to see what food they like
 Conceptual/Tabletop/Fine Motor:
  • Ant sorting
  • Ant lacing cards
  • Ant hill counting; place ant hills out with a number on it and encourage the children to place that amount of ants on the hill
  • Ant match ups
  • Have the game ants in your pants
  • Have a shoe matching game
 Music:
  • Sing “The ants go marching” while marching
 Quiet:
  • Place out the ant and the grasshopper flannel board story
 Cooking:
  • Make ants on a log
o   Celery, peanut butter, and raisins
§  Spread the peanut butter on the celery place on the raisins
  • Make ant hill coleslaw
o   3 carrots, 3/4 cup raisins soaked, 1/2 – 3/4cup cottage cheese, juice from ½ lemon, salt, and pepper
§  In a mixing bowl combine the ingredients mix and chill and serve

Field Trips:
  • Take a walk looking for ants and their hills 
  • Go to the Helen Schuler Center do their bug wall

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Tips for an easier transition

Here are some tips to help make the child care transition easier:
  • Encourage a bond. Parents are a matchmaker between their children and the caregiver. Talk about the caregiver and have pictures at home. Treat the caregiver as having a similar status as a good friend or family member. Help your child see that this is someone you trust.
  • Get to know the day home. Arrange orientation with your baby at the day home. Be positive, comfortable and excited about the day home.
  • Send reminders of home. Consider sending a favorite blanket, a scarf that smells like you, family pictures, pictures of pets.
  • Establish a morning routine. Find something that you will do differently on the days that your child will be going to the day home. For example, getting dressed before breakfast during the week is a good queue.
  • Maximize your time together. Be sure to spend quality time with your child at the end of a busy day apart. Play instead of doing the dishes or go for a walk.

From Todays Parent | January 2011

Monday, May 9, 2011

Germ Patrol

Let's face it: Toddlers are germ magnets. They're drippy and drooly and, as gross as it may seem to you, they happily put almost everything in their mouth. Fortunately, experts agree that most germs are harmless - and may even be helpful. "Humans actually need exposure to good germs early in life to prime our immune system so it develops properly," says Elizabeth Scott, Ph. D., co-director of the Simmons Center for Hygiene and Health in Home and Community at Simmons College, in Boston. Still, to help your kid (and the rest of the family) stay healthy, it's important to keep your toddler's world relatively free from those germs that can be dangerous. Not sure what you need to scrub and what can be swept under the rug? We've got the dirt on all things dirty right here.


At Mealtime
Pop quiz: Which room is the germiest in most houses? If you said the kitchen, you're absolutely right! Young children are particularly susceptible to food-born illnesses like salmonella, E. coli, and campylobacter, because their immune system is not yet fully developed - and they can become dehydrated more easily than adults if they get sick. For that reason, it's especially important to take extra care with food preparation and cleanup.


While you're fixing a meal for your little one, make sure you keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood away from other foods, and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water after touching any of these ingredients. Also keep in mind that the absolute germiest place in your kitchen is the sink, according to Charles Gerba, Ph. D., a microbiologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. With all the raw food products that tend to land there, it's a veritable party of pathogens, so never give your child anything that's fallen in - even a stray berry from the bunch that you're rinsing.


After every meal, use a paper towel (not a sponge) to wipe down the high chair's food tray with cleaning spray (be sure to look for one that says "disinfectant" rather than "antibacterial" and has an Environmental Protection Agency registration number - which insures that it actually does disinfect).


In the Bathroom
Bath toys are bull's-eye for bacteria and mold, since water often gets trapped inside them, creating the perfect breeding ground. Squeeze out your kid's duckies, tile appliqués, and other water playthings after each use, and then place the toys on a drying rack or in a mesh bag, suggests Parents advisory Harley A. Rotbart, M.D., authoer of Germ Proof Your Kids. Once a moth, give the toys a throough bleach bath, he adds. (To do so, fill the sink with water and a quarter cup of bleach, then let the toys soak for about 50 minutes before rinsing and air-drying.)


Once you start potty training, teach your child to wash his hands after doing his business - use liquid soap and warm water, and scrub for as long as it takes to sing the "Happy Birthday" song before drying. Also teach him to shut the lid before flushing. Studies have shown that the first flush after a bowel movement vaporizes up to 3,000 bacteria and viruses per cubig meter of air space, notes Dr. Rotbart, so it's also important to keep your toddler's toothbrush far away from the toilet in case he forgets to close the toilet lid.


During Playtime
Though a well-loved toy may start to smell a little funky, there's no need to worry about germs - unless your child is sick or has been sharing it with a playmate. "Influenza viruses can survive up to three days on plastic, and ones that cause diarrhea can survive for up to a month," warns Dr. Gerba. So after a friend comes to visit (or your sick child is done playing), give plastic toys a once0over with a disinfectant, and toss stuffed animals that can be cleaned into the washing machine (others should be placed on a top shelf for a few days, suggests Dr. Robart).


During a Change
Because handling a diaper is an inherently germy activity,  keep a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer nearby so you won't spread bacteria throughout the rest of the house after you're done. When you're changing a poopy diaper, be sure to place a diaper pad or a paper towel under your toddler's bottom - and then toss it into the laundry or trash (wash pads in hot water with bleach, separate from any kitchen stuff to avoid possible cross contamination). Finally, keep disinfectant wipes handy to quickly clean off the changing area after each use.


At Bedtime
Rotavirus and norovirus - both of which are present in poop and can cause gastrointestinal illnesses - can often be found in lurking in your toddler's bedroom and his bed, especially if he's still in diapers. Although kids become immune to viruses that they've already been infected with, you don't want to transfer terms back and forth among family members. To be on the safe side, change your little one's linens once a week (even more if he is sick). Same goes for his pajamas - as long as they're not soiled, it's perfectly fine for him to wear them for up to a week at a time, according to Dr. Rotbart.


Parents | March 2011 Issue

The Outdoor Classroom: Contest Information

Hemel House created a contest to encourage providers to transition their yard into an outdoor classroom, providing more natural materials and areas to help stimulate various types of play and more child centered learning. Because of this contest we hope that our day homes' play spaces are undergoing some major changes. We want to be inspired by the creativity of our day home providers.


This contest was inspired by a blog post on Child Central Station about creating an outdoor classroom. This information, as well as her slide show, was presented at our Hemel House training meeting in May for ideas and motivation.


See the slide show


The Checklist
The following checklist will be used to evaluation the outdoor play settings for young children in our day homes.



The Environment Is Safe
  • Free of toxins, free of allergenic, poisonous, and spiky varieties of plants
  • Fall-absorbing surfaces in all equipment settings
  • Free of steep slopes and sudden drop offs
  • Well-maintained equipment
  • Well-supervised
  • Hard surface paths separated from other play areas
  • Play area securely separated from traffic
  • Provides hand rails and non-skid surfaces where needed
  • Properly drained clearly-defined boundaries between play settings
  • No visual barriers for supervision
  • Adequate space around swings and climbing equipment
___/11 points

The Environment Is Comfortable
  • Provides shade
  • Features sunny areas
  • Protects from cold wind
  • Features places to sit (for children and adults)
  • Provides access to fresh drinking water
  • Includes small spaces for quiet play (by 1 to 5 children)
  • Includes a variety of well-defined zones to accommodate different groupings of children and different activities
  • Features transition areas between buildings and outdoors (e.g., terraces, decks, patios, etc.)
___/8 points

The Environment Is Interesting and Inviting
  • Features attractive plants includes a variety of surfaces and terrains
  • Attracts wildlife
  • Offers a variety of social spaces (for different size groups & different types of activities)
___/3 points

The Environment Is Stimulating
  • Features different colors, scents, and sounds
  • Provides for a variety of activities
  • Offers high places from which to view the area
  • Offers different-sized spaces to crawl in, under, over, or through
  • Invites interaction with the natural environment
___/5 points

The Environment Is Flexible
  • Includes “loose parts” which can be moved about
  • Includes access to elements which can be changed or moved about (sand, dirt, vegetation, water)
  • Includes undefined spaces and objects which children can use for creative &fantasy play
___/3 points
The Environment Is Accessible
  • Includes child-sized tables and benches
  • Offers several skill levels or levels of difficulty (e.g., high, higher, highest)
  • Includes wheelchair accessible entrances, ramps, paths, tables, playground equipment
___/3 points

The Environment Is Challenging
  • Provides opportunities for healthy risk taking for children with varying abilities
___/1 point

Outdoor Learning Centers
  • Imaginative/Dramatic Play
  • Molding Activities
  • Art
  • Reading and writing (language)
  • Blocks
  • Wet/Dry
  • Science
  • Gross motor
  • Quiet area
  • Conceptual/table top/fine motor
  • Music
___/11 points

OUTDOOR PLAY ZONES
  • Nature Zone (Natural elements: trees, water, boulders, plants, mounds of earth for climbing, bushes to create smaller protected spaces)
  • Adventure Zone (Active play: construction, building blocks and lumber, child shovels, sand, stones)
  • Active Play Zone (balls, wheeled toys, parking area, rough and tumble play grassy area)
  • Quiet Learning Zone (table, easles, places to sit, protected area from weather, tent)
  • Quiet Play Zone (place to rest, observe, reflect or dream – child sized bench, etc.)
___/5 points

We look forward to see all entrants into the contest and the amazing ideas that will be included!