Songs, Circles, Number 2 and Fine Motor!

I always start the All My Friends song that is included on the Fireflies 2014-2015 song when we are starting circle time. Usually they are all singing along as they come running, but they knew I was recording them today, so they were camera shy! 

Another song they love to do with shakers... "shake hello, to ____, _____, ______. shake hello to ____,, shake hello! 

Today, in our September box from Funshine, we made circle puzzles.... it was a neat project that the kids could all do. We had a large circle and then they each got two tissue paper circles and as many circle dots as they wanted. They glued them to their large circle and then cut them into a puzzle. 

We also finished up our Number 2 journal from Funshine 

Working on a little bit of fine motor/pre-writing skills with tweezers and various fall shaped koosh balls and leaf shaped buttons. 

As suggested in the September Fireflies, we took applesauce into a ziplock and sealed the edge. Then we squished it and used it to write things with. Of course, I forgot to snap a picture, but they really enjoyed this activity!

Letter A, backpack

We added a bunch of red things to the sensory table, apple cinnamon scented red rice, curly ribbon, red buckets, small red bowls, red pasta, misc red foam stickers, etc... 

We played a Funshine game, Back to School. It was great for counting!

We talked about what goes inside a backpack and what doesn't

Time to work on our backpacks! I will admit, the kids loved this Funshine project!

the front view

the back view with the straps like a real backpack

We added astronaut and ambulance to our word wall (cards from Funshine), I want to add the kids names yet to under the letter their name starts with

Our word wall 

Pretzels make letter A!

Our journal page for letter A from Funshine

A is for acorn

A is on the floor! 

We went on a A hunt and we actually found quite a few around! 

Working on writing our names. I like to write in a highlighter and have them trace it in red. Red is supposed to be great for memory. 

The kids has fun acting out various directions as directed in the Fireflies curriculum... We stood on our tiptoes, stood up, waved our arms, reached for the sky, touched the ground, gave ourselves a hug.

For Social/Emotional we worked our our team work skills by putting together a puzzle.

Scarecrows, circles, name game

Can't feel like fall weather outside without these cute scarecrows I purchased on TPT

We went on a circle hunt! 

Here was our 3 circles we choose to put into order from smallest to biggest

Talked about our morning routines and what we do before coming to daycare

It was suggested for the Fireflies curriculum to play a movers and shakers name hunt. We did it a little bit differently as a memory game instead, but they sure had a blast making their own name cards and the excitement on their face when they found a pair was so cute to see... I loved it! Next week, we will play again probably both ways.

Overall, our first week back has been great, still working out getting into our routine and trying to find the time to accomplish all that I would like to get done with still having the much needed outside time before we start to get cold weather!  Fireflies-  I really like all the suggested activities for different categories such as daily basics, discuss/do, songs and rhymes, movers and shakers, creative arts, math, social/emotional, dramatic play, etc... Some of the ideas work for my setting and some don't. I also have to remember that my kiddos are age 3 and under, so I think this would work awesome for a preschool teacher with a whole class of a certain age, but I've been making it work for my group! The only thing so far that I'm not impressed with is the art projects... they are a little cheesy for my liking so we have been skipping them and doing more of "Nicci's style" projects!

One more week of Back to School and then on to Apples Everywhere the following week!

A New School Year... New Beginnings!

 I'm back to the blogging world and excited for the new school year to start! I've decided to use Funshine Express for my daycare curriculum this year, I've used them in the past and have had good luck, so hoping for the same again this year!

We were excited for the "new" year to start! New calendar, new charts for the weather, number/color/shape and I'm not going to lie... I love the farm theme Funshine choose this year since my daycare is on a farm:)

Here's a peak:

weather chart with the season 

something new since I've last purchased is the character posters, each month we receive two posters to focus on positive traits. We've been "smart" this week! 

a space for the color and shape, although this tractor being red has brought quite the discussion with the littles that it's not green! 

number

I choose not to use their traditional calendar, instead I love the number line way better. I think kids understand it easier and it makes it easier to count down to special/fun days. The month is at the beginning and next month's calendar title is at the end of the number line. So they realize that we have to go all these spots until we get to October and then we have to start all over again! 

Here's our little reading area/morning meeting area with the music/listening center/flannel board/books 

Can't have a Off to School theme without the bus tent! 

School books fill the bookshelf

 We went on a "red" hunt! We found red items all day long, everything red one of the older kids found they would yell, "Hey, Nicci, here's something red"

You can't talk about red without finger painting with red paint! 

 Time to work on our Grandparents Day bookmarks... the first day with their new coloring "cans"... so coloring, gluing and using a scissors is always extra fun when it's new! We talked about who has grandmas and grandpas and what their names are, where they live, what kind of stuff we do with them, etc... and we also read the book, "Hooray for Grandparents Day" by Nancy Carlson.

For snack, we made these cute little school buses from cheese its, mini oreos, graham crackers and yellow frosting.

Number 1!

Number 1 page in our journals, we glued a popcorn kernel to the dot for number 1 

America the Beautiful

We had a short week this week and didn't get to everything that I had planned! So it went back in the box for next year!

Annual handprint flags for the little kids

2014 shirts

Treats to go home

firework paintings