The Gift of Giving

The art of gift giving - to each and every child have a merry Christmas!!

Christmas Crafting

From ornaments to wreaths to Christmas trees to reindeer and everything in between the children have kept busy (and warm!) doing cute crafts.

O Christmas Wreath

Our craft today sure was an intense one!  Children got to mix mediums (crayons and tissue paper) to create wonderful Christmas wreaths.  They cut, coloured then rolled tissue paper and glued it to the "frame".  They sure focused well and did a fantastic job!

Angels

Angels we have heard .... at Susan's?? If so, they sure a boisterous bunch. ;)  Check out our adorable paper plate angels.

Run, Run, Reindeer

Using our hands and feet (literally), we made the cutest little reindeer today.  There were 7 reindeer made so we're 2 short of a complete set (must be Rudolph and Dasher off causing havoc somewhere).  Hopefully Santa will still be able to get his sleigh pulled to deliver toys to all the good little girls and boys.

Elves

A bunch of Santa's little helpers were created the other day.  There was a real elf invasion at Susan's. It's always great to see the individually children bring to their daily creations.  Watch out for those pesky little elves!  They've been known to cause a bit of trouble. ;)

Stockings

The stockings were hung by the chimney, or the mantle if at Susan's, with care....leaving behind a trail of glitter for Santa to follow.

Candy Cane Beading

Christmas will soon be here and the spirit of the holidays has enveloped Susan's place.  The children are heavy into the Christmas season with crafts, games, movies and more!   One of the activities was candy cane beading which worked on the children's fine motor and math patterning skills.

Pirate Week

Pirate week begins at Susan's!! The week started with the children making pirate masks.  With a "yo-ho-ho" and a mighty "ARGH!!" there were some pretty fierce pirates around today.

Winter Play

Although the snow is here to stay, we still love to go out and play!!  The fresh Saskatchewan winter air sure does our little bodies good and we always have many things to do outside.

Snowmen Drawings

This past week was "snowman" themed week.  As there were many crafts centered around these creatures, a couple children took to drawing their own snowmen as well.  The creativity the children show is wonderful (please note the legs that were added so they could dance and the terrific hair-dos).

Sharing

The other day we went on a little excursion to one of the new places in town - Bulk Barn.  While here, the children each were allowed to choose one little treat since they behaved so well and were very patient while out and about.  Upon returning to Susan's, one child arrived just prior to lunch but had missed out on the day's adventure.  However, each of the children decided to share one of their treats with this child so that he'd have something too.  Awwww!! Glad to know that sharing at Susan's has taken on so well.  Way to go boys and girls!! :)

Fruits

The children have been learning about fruits and vegetables at Susan's.  The other day they each made a "Fruits" booklet and some were even reading it by the end of the day, learning the words "I" and "like".

Happy Halloween

The children had a blast at our Halloween party this afternoon.  We were super busy with many different activities and games (all of which are posted below).  Here are some descriptions of the events that kept us going, giggling and smiling all afternoon long.

Crafting Creatures - children made Halloween creature puppets on popsicle sticks

Spider Web Walk - on a spider web created out of Halloween tape, children had to walk along the web and pick up a spider; if they "fell off" the web, they would then become a spider snack

Witches Brew - using a straw, children had to suck up and drop pumpkins, cats and bats into the cauldron for the witches brew (those witches were hungry!!)

Pumpkin Walk - this game is similar to musical chairs except they had to touch/sit on a pumpkin when the music stopped

Boo Bowling - using a pumpkin (who did not like ghosts) children had to bowl over the stack of ghosts

What Time Is It Ms. Ghost? - similar to What Time Is It Mr Wolf only adapted for Halloween; boy, monkeys sure do run fast!!!

Jack-O-Lantern Toss - children had to try and feed the hungry jack-o-lantern some eyeballs

We at Susan's hope everyone had a happy, safe Halloween.

Crafting Creatures

Spider Web Walk

Witches Brew

Pumpkin Walk

Boo Bowling

What Time Is It Ms Ghost?

Jack-O-Lantern Toss

Pumpkin Carving

Susan bought 3 pumpkins this weekend and today the children helped get them ready for carving.  This meant pulling out all the "pumpkin guts". Ewwww... did they feel squishy and funny between our fingers.  We did a very good job though of getting all the seeds and pulling out the guts.  Tomorrow we'll post pictures of what they look like with lights inside them.

Spooky Spiders

We made THE CUTEST (albeit supposed to be scary but just too darn cute for scary) spider hats yesterday to transform ourselves into creepy, crawly critters.  We learned many things about spiders too! (Did you know they have 8 legs and spin webs? They only drink the blood of their "meals".)

(For some reason the music won't play while viewing the slideshow on the blog so please click on the slideshow - anywhere other than the play button - and it'll take you to the slideshow via Photopeach and you can hear the music there.)

Haunted Houses

Spookiness has entered in to Susan's this week!  The children made creepy, haunted houses and behind every door and window a scary creature can be found.

Create your own slideshow

Snow

Well we had a bit of a snow fall the other day.  You couldn't really tell today but yesterday there was enough for us to make SNOW PEOPLE!! We had so much fun rolling up the snow into balls and creating our new play friends.  We have to remember to dress warm which means winter jackets, ski pants, toques, mitts and boots now. Brrrr!!  We definitely want to stay warm so we don't get sick.

Woooooooo

We are getting quite into the Halloween spirit at Susan's now.  Not only does she have the house decorated but the children are doing various activities around the theme.  Check out our scary ghosts!  Don't worry - they're just pretend. ;)

Scary Witches

With Thanksgiving behind us, we are right smack dab into our Halloween themed activities.  Although Halloween is not for another couple of weeks, there are so many cool activities to do that we thought we'd get started right away.

This week, children made paper bag witches. SCARY!!  Actually many of them turned out pretty cute ;)  It's amazing to see how well our fine motor skills with cutting and colouring have improved.  Also, Susan always has us counting and learning letters while we're working (children have to count to 10 or 20 when they are holding their glued items onto their craft).  During our conversations at the table, the children build on their schema with all the information, facts and stories they share.

(For some reason the music won't play while viewing the slideshow on the blog so please click on the slideshow - anywhere other than the play button - and it'll take you to the slideshow via Photopeach and you can hear the music there.)

Happy Thanksgiving

We here at Susan's wish all our children and their families a safe, happy long weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

(Check out our wonderful fine motor skills with our fabulously coloured pictures).

Turkey Time

It's turkey time!! The children at Susan's made the cutest hats today to disguise themselves as turkeys.  They cut out feathers and glued them to a band which fit around their heads.  Not only did they dress as turkeys but they also learned some turkey moves to "gobble it up" on the dance floor.

Outdoor Fun

Even though the weather is starting to cool off, we still enjoy getting our fresh air and running about in Susan's backyard.  There are so many things for us to do back there!  We can swing, play on the play structure (that has two slides, a rock wall, a tunnel, and more), make sand creations, enjoy the kitchen, write/draw on the boardwalk and much more!  Check out all we like to do outside:

Under The Sea

During the "Under the Sea" week, children made many crafts related to sea animals.  Along with making the cute activities, the children also learned many facts about each of the sea animals. For instance, sea turtles lay their eggs in the sand.  Jellyfish bites sting.  Male seahorses are the ones who have the babies.  Not only are children getting fine motor practice with colouring and cutting but they are building their schema (prior knowledge) to aid in reading comprehension.

Structures

One of the cool things children get to do at Susan's is explore structures.  She has MANY different building tools (Lego, Kinex, blocks, etc.) that children get to use to create various structures using their imaginations. It's great to see all the things they conjure up to make! :)

Platypuses

The last few weeks at Susan's have been animal themed weeks.  The children are learning that certain animals are indigenous to specific continents.  So far children have learned about African and Australian animals.  Today,  a craft centered around platypuses was created then, the children used their puppets to sing-along to a platypus song : The Platypus Song by Steve Axtell.

We LOVE to read!

One of the children's favourite activities at Susan's is reading. There is a fabulous library with books about almost everything from which children can choose from.  Everyday the children have the opportunity to delve into imaginary worlds and be a part of literary fun.

We LOVE to read on PhotoPeach

ROAR!!

Children have been learning about African animals for the past couple of weeks.  They have created crafts related to rhinoceros', giraffes, elephants and zebras.  Here are today's lion craft.  Hope we don't scare you! ROAR!

Dining Alfresco

The children at Susan's had a chance to dine alfresco today.  Mike made 2 beautiful, miniature picnic tables for the daycare which we used for our snack time today.  Thanks Mike!!  We look forward to enjoying many more snacks alresco. :)

R's Library

During the summer, the children get to participate in R's Library.  Here we sing, dance, do math, read stories, do crafts and have a whole lot of fun.

Beach Day

We loaded up the vehicles with sand toys, towels, umbrellas, coolers full of food and juice, blankets and smiling children and headed to Good Spirit for the day.  We had a blast burying each other in the sand, making castles with moats and dams, and playing in the lake.  There are quite a few water bugs at Susan's!! Once we went in, we rarely came out of the water.  It was a terrific day!! :)

Beach Day on PhotoPeach

Beach Day 2 on PhotoPeach

The Fair

Yesterday was Kiddies Day at the Yorkton Exhibition so we at Susan's decided to head over there to see what we could see.  While there we had a blast!!!  We got our faces painted, rode the merry-go-round and ducks or airplanes, watched The Flying Fools dive from unreal heights into a pool of water, saw chuckwagon races, petted various animals, said hello to a lion, a tiger and wolves, and of course ate a good helping of mini-donuts and cotton candy.  We had a great, albeit tiring, day!

The Fair on PhotoPeach

Recorder Performance

It was an exciting day at Susan's today!  The children had the opportunity to visit a classroom in our city and listen to a recorder performance.  It was very cool to hear these students play an instrument, see their finger movements and learn that they had to read music.  Wow!!  We look forward to playing instruments when we're in school. :)

Outdoor Play

The weather has FINALLY been nice (no more rain hopefully for awhile as the worm hunting has been easy since all it's done for a couple of weeks is rain).  The children spent a majority of the day outside in the fresh air, soaking up vitamin D.  This is a wonderfully creative bunch of children who make exciting games out of dirt, water, sand and old sheets.