Flitter, Flutter Little Butterfly

We have scoured my yard for a caterpillar this year, but to no avail.  We think maybe we missed them due to the warm weather this Spring.  So, we decided to become caterpillar's ourselves...

Here is our Egg...

The Caterpillar's are missing in this sequence due to some technical difficulties we had while squirming on the ground ;)

But we managed to capture our Caterpillars "Spinning" their cocoon

Here are those cute little caterpillars resting in their cocoons

Oh My... Look they are emerging like beautiful butterflies!!!

We had flittering, fluttering butterflies all over the playroom... can't get better than that!!!

After we finished being butterflies we decided to make some coffee filter butterflies.  I love process art, and we do some sort of process art everyday, but because it is more process over product it either doesn't make it into the blog post, or even go home for that matter.  I  may just have the project out to help with a certain goal or fine motor skill I am working on with the kids.  When I was going through some past activities about the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly I came across this craft.  I love it because it has the element of process art, but with just a little help from Shell, we get a beautiful butterfly at the end.  The kids were able to help with the gluing all I did was the folding and pulling the wings apart at the end.  I think our butterflies came out gorgeous!!!

Working Hard

"You want me to show you how it's done?"

Sprout was waiting her turn, and you could tell Lil Bit wasn't about to give up her seat ;)

Roo made sure her whole coffee filter,um butterfly, was covered in beautiful colors...
"Just like a real butterfly Michelle"

See, I told you, gorgeous!!!

Paint, Glue and Cotton Balls

It's a start to the new week, and the start of the Christmas Season.  I love the month of December... not only do we get to learn about the birth of Jesus, the music is great, and I am never without some sort of project to do, art or otherwise.

Today I just set up the easel, with pink paint (I ran out of red and green).  The kids love the easel and as long as I'm nearby it goes pretty smoothly when the littlest people use it.   

"What, I'm painting... just not the paper!"  ;)

"I'm just showing her there are OTHER ways to paint."

Mixing our glue with water colors, then gluing cotton balls onto small stars we found in the drawer.

Little Man carried those sneakers around with him most of the morning.  He only put them down if he wanted to paint, glue or put them on :)

Concentrating on not getting the glue on her fingertips.

Pulling apart the cotton was fun enough for Scamp, but...

She did want to try her hand at the glue.  As you can tell, I had to put the camera down for this part.  I didn't want glue on my nice new camera :)

The cotton, glue and stars were a spur of the moment craft that the girls pulled together as I was going through a drawer for something else.  They found the stars, they found the cotton and asked what they could do with them... so after asking a few questions, they thought some colored glue would work out just right.  

It was an added bonus that they got so many tactile experiences.  The cotton was easily stuck to their fingertips if they got the least bit of glue on them.  Then it became very webby on their fingers and even if they tried to pick it off, the cotton would just tear and spread.  It was fun to watch.  Scamp, however, found just tearing the cotton apart was fun.  She would tear it apart, then drop it in the glue.  When she did her star, she didn't quite understand that the cotton ball was to stay on the star and we would get another one, she didn't want to let hers go.  So she kinda "glue painted" on her star.  My mantra this year... Process over product here for this age, process over product :)

A Wonderful World of Paint

Painting is such a wonderful medium for the kids to work with. It can be done with fine motor skills in mind or with gross motor skills in mind. Below the kids are using small brushes to create on small paper that I cut. They really explored the paint with the little brush, actually discussing how "tiny" the bristles (they used the word "top" for the bristles) were. They noticed that L's brush top was a little fatter than Roo's and that his marks came out bigger than hers. Little Miss M noticed that her brush was more like L's than Roo's. It was an interesting conversation for two early 3 yr olds to have, but one they were very comfortable having.

In the next photo you'll see Roo using her whole body to paint on the plexi glass easel. She was huffing and puffing as she reached for the top most corner of the easel. When she decided it was time to clean the paint off, she was very happy that the spray bottle's spray reached those corners, but she still had to reach with the squeegee to remove some of the paint. The amount of energy exerted was amazing... she needed a rest (in the reading tent) and a glass of water when she was finished. She felt very proud of herself, she accomplished what she set out to do, paint and clean the ENTIRE easel :)

Then we have Little Man here experiencing the paint with both his fine motor skills and gross motor skills. He starts out tentative and moves onto to a more robust way of manipulating the paint. He thoroughly enjoyed himself on that day, working with the paint for almost 20 minutes (which I deem almost a life time for a 1 yr old :)). I think the only thing better than the paint, was the cleaning up in the sink when he was finished.



Paint is a gift to any Child Care Provider/Early Child Teacher. It provides the children with rich experiences, that can be explored through utensils, brushes, hands, feet, elbows and spray bottles. You can paint on something smooth, rough, multi-dimensional, or yourself. We can paint above our heads, on the floor, or right at eye level. You see, there is no wrong way to use paint. Paint proves to be one of those early childhood tools that is never ending and multi- faceted, something that all children from infant to preschool and older (I love paint days!!) should have access to. Look around your providers home, or your child's preschool classroom... are there paints out, splatters on the floor or wall, creations on the wall?? I hope so.

It's Friday!!!

Our first week back and oh what a week its been :) We have had such a wonderful time playing, getting wet, singing, dancing, painting, and just having fun that I can't believe the week went by so quickly!! With the weather so beautiful today we put those bathing suites back on today and went out to the yard to have some more fun!!

I took a little time this morning to set up the Princess Tent with a little floor (sheet), chairs and books in the shaded area of the yard, it was a nice relaxing place for the kids to go for a little quiet time. I also set up the outdoor easel, and the sprinkler again for the kids to enjoy.

These girls seem to be having fun!!

I have found that the kids really enjoy painting outside, especially on the plexi-glass easel. It is easy to rinse off, start over and basically make a "process" type of art, rather than a "product" type of art. All the kids took a turn and created something, even if it was just the joy of blending colors, using the squirt bottle or squeegee to play with, they all seem to enjoy their time there.

What was left at the end of the morning :)

It has been an awesome week and I look forward to the new school year. I have lots of great ideas from the NAFCC conference to implement, lots of places I would like to take field trips to, and lots of love to give... I am truly Blessed to be able to do this job.

3-D Art

It has been a quiet day today. The humidity has stayed away, but the breeze is gone. So, it wasn't as hot as it could have been, but not as cool either. We created some process oriented 3-D art today. We talked about the colors of the pipe cleaners we used, trying to get Sprout and Big Guy to repeat our words. Sprout could name almost all of them, and Big Guy here tried his best, and giggled a lot. I think he thought we either sounded or looked pretty funny saying "Yellow" over and over again... I never really thought what they must think when they see us over exaggerate words, it must be a sight. I must look in the mirror, but I have a feeling I won't do it like I would for the kids because I look so silly, even to myself :)

After we created, we painted. Paint is always fun. I bought these painting screens from Discount School Supply and thought splatter painting over our 3-D Creations would be fun, but the screens didn't do to well. It just blobbed the paint out and the kids ended up just painting on the Styrofoam with the brush.

I had let a friend borrow our pop-it beads a while ago and she returned them to us recently and the girls had a lot of fun making jewelry for each other. They kept telling me they were Ariel and Tiana... I kept telling them they were Princess Gorgeous and Princess Beautiful!! Lots of giggling ensued :)

Today is Sprouts last day for the school year. Her mom is a teacher and she will spend her summer home with mom. I will miss her. She is such a character and really brings so much joy to my home!! I will miss her smile every morning and her cry each afternoon :) It is a catch 22, parents love that they are happy to be here and don't want to leave, but sometimes I think they would like to just be able to pick up a happy toddler and go home without to much fuss. Sorry :)

How this little one has grown!! I will see you in August!!!!

Exploring & Finger Paints

Today we did some review of our colors. We read Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. We love the book and talked a lot about the mice getting into the pots of paint and dripping it all around. We talked about how they mixed and stirred to make new colors. The discussion led us to toss around ideas of how we could mix paint like the mice did. We came up with using paint brushes on paper, finger paints on paper or the table, and mixing the colors on our plexi-glass easel outside (that way we could just spray away the mess when we were done). The kids (ok Princess and Ry) decided that finger paint on our trays was best. "That way no one can touch my colors and mess them up." Let the Fun Begin!!!

(Hmmmm... not so sure about this)

(They are LETTING me make this mess)

(What could be better than this... make a mess, then play in the water)

Finger painting was a huge hit and took up a good part of our morning, but after we cleaned up and set the room back we got out our Explorer Magnifiers and went on a nature walk. It was a hot, but breezy day, perfect for looking for birds, bugs and creepy crawlies.

(What's that??)

(A Creepy Crawler, I think)

This little guy loved looking through his magnifier... even stumbling a few times because he didn't want to put it down to watch in front of himself.

Now that Ry is out of school, he and the other kids picked up right where they left off. We miss our other preschool friends, but we had lots of fun discussions about Kindergarten and how a rising 1st grader is very knowledgeable about things.

We got home to find another of my sons waiting for us. The kids had him sit right down for a quick little tea party. Big Guy here decided that he needed a little help with is tea. My sons are always good sports with the kids in my child care... now their own brothers, that's a different story.

What a wonderful morning!!

Friday

Friday is my favorite day... I know you all think it is because the weekend stretches before me, and the first time I said, "Friday is my favorite day" that was the reason why. Now, though, it is because the kids know it is my favorite day, and they count the days until we get there, they know the word pretty much where ever it is printed, and the joy they get from reminding me that "Today IS Friday" with a fit of giggles, laughter and much rolling and jumping!!! THAT is the real reason I love Friday!!!

I love this photo. It shows the need for that little spot of solitude kids need from time to time. It never seems to be for long, and they don't want to be to far from the action, but they still need it. My friend here spent quite sometime just rolling that rolling pin back and forth and seeing the designs it made in the sand. She didn't even notice me standing there at all.

Learning through play... need I say more??

Ok, a story behind this photo. The easel is pushed up on the side of the room, near our Art Center and I leave the paint out most of the day... Little Miss M LOVES the easel!! She also will USUALLY ask for her smock. Today, her and her little friend N, decided that it would be a lot of fun to paint without a smock!! I sooooo wish I could have gotten my camera before they moved, but just like a Toddler, they never stay still very long. This is the picture that they created together. They were so proud of themselves, when I called their names, they turned to me, and at first they weren't sure how I would react... but needless to say, Miss Michelle is usually a push over for any creative, messy projects. Soon a huge grin broke out on their faces and they turned and finished their painting... together. They were a little messy, a little sticky, but, Oh did they have fun. Another example of Process over Product!! They could care less about the outcome or the picture that I hung up... they just immersed themselves into the paint, brushes and the feeling of paint on paper (and themselves :) )

After Little Miss M got all cleaned up, she promptly walked back into the room and started another painting... Oh No, I think I've created an Artist. Sorry about the paint Mom!! I just couldn't disturb her, she was sooooo content and focused.

We have been working on the letter Ee this week... I had this Elephant game from a long time ago. There is a fan in the elephant and she (the fan) blows all sorts of colored butterfly's from her trunk. The kids each have a colored net to catch "their" color butterfly. In theory it is a great game!! A lot of action and movement, BUT... the fan is sooo not strong enough to get all those butterfly's out the long trunk. Now, I have had this toy for over 2 years and today was the first day (after much waiting and frustration on the kids part) I thought about cutting the trunk down a little. WELL... let me tell you, what a difference!!! Those butterfly's were flying everywhere!!!! Why didn't I think of this 2 years ago??


Have a Great Friday!!!