While it has been a short week, it has definitely been a week full of fun and discovery! This week's theme is "Friends" and that has been emphasized throughout the week - from group projects. to safe hands, to puppets and books, this week has been all about interactions with others in the room. They practiced stacking rings on a post, made music with upside coffee cans, dropped pom poms into juice bottles, and crawled across music mats. Art times had them practicing up and down motions with stamps and scribbling with crayons. The smaller babies have been looking for "hidden" toys under a cloth to help with object permanence and watching Old MacDonald puppets sings songs and tell stories. Our books have been centered around friends and family, while all of them have been enjoying the textured, cloth ones out for them to explore on their own. It has been a fun week of discovering each other and next week we move onto colors and shapes!

This week in the infant classroom the theme is rainforest! The group has enjoyed quite a bit but here are our crowd favorites from the week. The infants enjoyed practicing animal noises with friends and teachers. It was interesting to watch the reactions from the infants when teachers would make the noises verses when we would play them on the Ipad. We also pointed to and practiced waving to the jungle animal toys as we listened to their noises. The group also enjoyed practicing dropping pop sticks into the slits of empty coffee containers. We also explored simple puzzles and telling stories using jungle animal puppets! This has been a wonderful week in the infant room but we look forward to a new theme next week! Until next time!

This week in the infant classroom the theme is All about me! We have done quite a bit but here are our favorites from the week! The older infants loved counting fingers and toes and singing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes as we faced the play yard mirror! It was so much fun to see the infant's reactions while we practiced familiar body parts! We also practiced rocking and feeding baby dolls while we sang our favorite songs such as Twinkle Twinkle or Rock a Bye Baby! The infants also enjoyed moving jumbo pom poms from one empty basket to another using scoops and measuring cups! We also read black and white books about animals to our little ones and talking about their reactions out loud to them! It has been a great week in the infant classroom, but we look forward to a new theme on Monday! Until next time!

This week in the infant classroom the theme is back to school! We’ve explored a lot this week but here are our favorite activities! The entire class loved exploring and reaching for floating balls and toys in a shallow bin of water! It was great to see the infants watch one another, and individually trty to retrieve the balls. The older infants enjoyed taking masking tape on and off the walls, reading our new books from the book fair and singing different songs like Head Shoulders Knees and Toes while we pointed to familiar body parts. The older infants also loved practicing our clean up time and finding specific toys to drop in our laundry basket! It has been a wonderful week in the infant classroom but we look forward to a new theme next week! Until then!

It is Lego week and the babies have been busy practicing stacking and knocking down block towers (which is hilarious by the way). They are learning how to push down on them for the blocks to stay together and they loved watching how high we could go. We also showed them how they could stack their nesting cups, rather than just fit them inside one another. Art activities had them trying their hands at stamping and scribbling with crayons, bubbles were a big hit, some tried to catch them as they blew by, and all of them enjoyed the oil and water baggie taped to the floor. Our older children were shown how to roll a ball back and forth between them and a teacher while we sang songs about themselves and their friends. All of this while development took center stage with sitting, rolling, and walking being the main stages that are occurring in the room right now. Books for them to explore on their own and us reading to them are always a favorite and we have done that frequently this week as well. It has been a busy week but it has been full of lots of learning and laughter.

This week in the infant classroom the theme is Christmas in July! Here are a few of our favorites from the week. The infants all enjoyed making snow man sensory baggies with whip cream inside! We pointed to eyes nose and arms on the snowmen as well as our own bodies. We also made jumbo ice cubes with pop sticks from inside them and practiced pushing them around on red and green colored paper! The group also loved using cotton balls to stamp on sticky paper with to make a snowy scene! We also used mini jingle bells as we sang familiar songs together. The group also enjoyed matching containers and lids, rolling balls to one another and stacking nesting cups with teachers! It has been a great week, but we look forward to our swim day tomorrow and a new theme on Monday. Until next time!

This week in the infant classroom the theme is Sports! Here are a few of our favorite activities from the week. The entire group enjoyed using empty juice bottle lids, and sliding them across the tile floor as we “played air hockey” together! The older infants tried pushing the pucks with jumbo pop sticks. The group also enjoyed practicing dribbling with colorful balloons and teacher help! It was fun to encourage and see the infants try and “dunk” the balloons in our laundry basket we used as a hoop! The infants also enjoyed making marks on paper with stamps and jumbo crayons and rolling balls back and forth to each other to practice taking turns! We sang Take me out to the ball game together, and talked/looked at different pictures of sports balls and equipment too. It has been a wonderful week but we look forward to a new theme on Monday! Until next time.

This week in the infant classroom the theme is Construction! We have explored quite a bit so far this week. Here are our class favorites. The entire group loved exploring jumbo construction vehicles together. We sang the wheels on the bus together as we pushed the jumbo vehicles and pointed to and spun their wheels! The group also enjoyed standing and making marks with colored pencils on paper with a group, and exploring transportation stamps at the same time! It was fun to encourage the infants to make marks with either tool all the way across the paper. The group also practice simple body parts as we explored colorful bean bags and placed them on our heads, knees etc. We also sang Head shoulders knees and toes as part of the activity! We enjoyed bubbles, pounding benches and stacking rings as well. We look forward to our swim day and a last day of construction to end the week before a new theme on Monday. Until next time!

This week in the infant classroom the theme is Farm! It has been a great week but here are a few of our favorite activities. We counted and talked about plastic fruits and veggies as a group and with teachers. We talked about how we can grow fresh food on farm land! The group loved singing 5 Little Ducks together and making “quack” sounds together. Teachers sang other different songs including, Old MacDonald using farm animal puppets. We practiced all different types of animal noises and clapping for one another after the song was over! The group also enjoyed sensory books, sensory bottles and putting jumbo pop sticks in and out of empty coffee cans! It has been a wonderful week but we look forward to our swim time tomorrow and a new theme next week! Until then.

This week in the infant classroom the theme is Summer! We have explored quite a bit but here are a few of our favorite activities from the week. The group enjoyed singing different types of songs but it was fun to sing “Oh Mr. Sun” as a group as we looked outside at the sunshine, light and shadows on our infant patio! The group explored mini rings and practiced letting go of the rings inside drop boxes. The group also explored yellow jumbo crayons on paper and we talked about the sun and other yellow objects and animals like bananas or ducks! We also loved reaching for and popping bubbles together in small groups. It has been a wonderful week but we look forward to ending our week with swimming on Friday, and a new theme on Monday. Until next time.