Bugs and Butterflies

I've decided to introduce themes into my daycare program. I'm starting slowly with it, allowing two weeks for each theme. This way I can get my feet wet and get a feel for curriculum planning without overwhelming myself. The first two weeks is Bugs and Butterflies. I must say that we're having fun with it. I actually really enjoyed the curriculum planning part of this. I was a little bit suprised by that. It's nice to have a plan that's a bit more specific than our regular routine. However, I am not rigid with the theme either. We still go on our nature walk every morning and we still do outdoor play after snack.

We've never done a "circle time" per se. However, we have done everything that most providers do in a circle time. We do finger plays, books, poems, songs, etc...Well, with the start of themes I decided to try out circle time. I must say that I really like it. We do our circle time at 9:00am everyday. So basically the children have 1/2 hour of free play after breakfast before our circle time. It's a nice way to start the day and it makes me feel a bit centered and together. My oldest seems to get circle time the most. And even my own little one seems to enjoy the concept. Our newest member is not sold on it, but she is younger and she is still adjusting also! After circle time we do art before going outside. I'm making a conscious effort to add more art into my program. Honestly the art has been getting the short end of the stick as we're usually rushing to get outside. However, I would like to do art projects/crafts on a more consistent basis. I prefer open ended art to crafts as I feel they're more appropriate for young ages. We will do some crafts also though as I know parents like it when their children bring home a finished "product" and children like to show off their work! We will also do group activities that are based on the theme. So after circle time we will either do art, craft, or group activity. Then we will head outside as usual.

Today was really fun outside. I have a couple of children's sized garden shovels. The children and I had fun digging for bugs. I have a huge pile of dirt/sod left over from creating the garden. I don't have a wheelbarrow, so we are slowly removing the sod by hand! Anyways, there's quite a bit still there and it was a great opportunity to look for bugs. We saw an ants, flies, earwigs, and some tiny green bug that I'm struggling to identify. It was fun to see the kiddos get excited about identifying bugs.

Our walk was pretty eventful today as the squirrels were out in large number. They were chasing each other all over the place. One of my daycare kiddos told a squirrel "Get back here!" as the squirrel was running away! :)

Our next theme is flowers and gardening. I'm going to plant flowers by the side of the garage. Yes, in June. I realize I'm a little late on this one. Oh well! I'm going to let the kiddos help me put the plants in the ground. The only thing that's kind of a bummer is that the area is all weeded and sodded over right now. So I'll have to get my shovel back out and do more digging. Ugh - I just finished digging our big garden area. I'll be so glad when all of the digging is overwith for the year. We don't own a tiller - we're gardening on an eensy budget this year!

Anyways, I'm looking forward to continuing with the themes. I'm really having a great time with it so far!