What Do You Think Of These Ideas?

[Liz90]

I recently posted a thread seeking advice for a 12-18 month group. Here are some activities I've come up with.

Fingerprinting
Play dough (either purchased or homemade, opinions?)
Outdoor play (when weather allows)
Story time
Music time (listening to music, playing instruments, etc)
Prayer time (likely before lunch)
Coloring
Age appropriate puzzles
Kitchen and food (I will have to see if the daycare would provide this or find one myself)
Sensory bottles (any ideas for items to put in them?)

And I think that's it, some of the other ideas were things they already have/do.

Let me know if there's anything you think shouldn't be included.

Here's some ideas I had for incorporating into the classroom.

Weekly newsletter
A sheet attached to the newsletter that asks if there's a favorite activity their child is currently enjoying, something they'd like to see their child doing at daycare, and I don't know what else (these would maybe be bi-weekly or monthly)
A baby sign language of the week/bi-week or month (thoughts??)
Maybe a color and or letter of the week/bi-week or month
Personalized letters/reports once a month

Also, how would you handle communicating with parents who don't speak yenta English? Specifically regarding written communication?

Please let me know your thoughts, if there's anything I should add or get rid of. And when I say activities I mean they won't be required to participate. Also, their feeding, nap and diaper change schedule will all remain the same. Looking forward to everyone's thoughts! Please be honest!

[Lavender]

Fingerprinting - Do you mean fingerpainting? I do all kinds of art with my babies. They fingerpaint with washable tempera, but I often provide some sort of tool as well. Brushes, blocks, balls, string. Anything that they can use to manipulate the paint. We also "fingerpaint" with yogurt, cornstarch and water, and anything else safe I can think of.
Play dough (either purchased or homemade, opinions?) - I haven't done it yet, but I'm planning on homemade playdoh for my class. You could also use things like jello. There are a lot of other sensory experiences you could introduce. Oats, grits, cereal, water ... pretty much anything that would not be harmful if they put it in their mouth. I use a sensory table and a sensory bin. I also have a small pool for indoor ball pits and outdoor sensory.
Outdoor play (when weather allows) Yes!
Story time - Reading daily is great and also allowing them to look through the books themselves as well. I usually do ours right before lunch as that has always been a harder time for them as they are getting hungry and starting to feel tired.
Music time (listening to music, playing instruments, etc) Yes!
Prayer time (likely before lunch)
Coloring - My kids love color wonder and do-a-dot
Age appropriate puzzles
Kitchen and food (I will have to see if the daycare would provide this or find one myself)
Sensory bottles (any ideas for items to put in them?) - I have colored rice, many different types of beans (different types make different noises when shaken), baby oil and colored water, water and glitter ect. I used the aquapod bottles as their size and shape were easier for the little ones to manipulate.

[Unregistered]

Sounds great so far!

For sensory bottles I have:

pompoms
feathers
oil/water with different colours
gel with glitter and sequins
sink/float bottle
stactic bottle
tiny jingle bells
dish saop & water for bubbles
sand and tiny sea shells
coloured rice

If you do a search in pinterest or blogs I'm sure there are many ideas out there. I too use the small bottles that are great for little hands.

[Lyss]

I recently posted a thread seeking advice for a 12-18 month group. Here are some activities I've come up with.

Fingerprinting- Fingerpainting? Huge hit with my group, I change it up and add flour, sand, salt, or cornstarch sometimes for different textures. Really any painting activities becomes fingerpainting. ::
Play dough (either purchased or homemade, opinions?)- Homemade lasts longer and is better IMO http://www.playathomemomllc.com/2011...playdough.html
Outdoor play (when weather allows)- happyface
Story time
Music time (listening to music, playing instruments, etc)- Dance time!
Prayer time (likely before lunch)
Coloring- I cut paper sheets of paper into fours and leave it out with crayons (which at first always ended up in the mouth :. I hate coloring sheets
Age appropriate puzzles-
Kitchen and food (I will have to see if the daycare would provide this or find one myself)- Maybe another classroom has one they can trade out?
Sensory bottles (any ideas for items to put in them?) http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=discovery+bottles

http://familylicious.com/category/science-bottles/

http://www.teachpreschool.org/abcs-o...overy-bottles/

Here's some ideas I had for incorporating into the classroom.

Weekly newsletter- I prefer monthly, one less thing for me to deal with each week :: If you have assistants it may give you more time but its just me here so time is limited for things like this

A sheet attached to the newsletter that asks if there's a favorite activity their child is currently enjoying, something they'd like to see their child doing at daycare, and I don't know what else (these would maybe be bi-weekly or monthly)- but I'd stick to what the child enjoys at home, the "what you'd like to see" section is good in theory but my parent's don't have realistic expectations of what can be done in a group setting and may be annoyed if they don't see their "suggestions" in action

A baby sign language of the week/bi-week or month (thoughts??)- We use it everyday, adding more when they pick up the newest on. Some signs are easy (a few days) and others are harder for them to catch on, I just give parents a handout of signs the will learn and touch base with each as the DCK picks it up.
Maybe a color and or letter of the week/bi-week or month

Personalized letters/reports once a month- Depending on how many kids you have it could be a time drain or something you'd be doing in your off time. My non-potty trained kids get a daily report (diapers, how much they ate, nap and a quick "I enjoyed..." comment) everything else goes on a white board by the door.

Also, how would you handle communicating with parents who don't speak yenta English? Specifically regarding written communication? -Google translator? Then run it by someone that actually speaks/reads the language as Google's not always spot on. I've had to do this when I worked in apartment management but now all my DCPs read/write English even if its not their 1st language

Please let me know your thoughts, if there's anything I should add or get rid of. And when I say activities I mean they won't be required to participate. Also, their feeding, nap and diaper change schedule will all remain the same. Looking forward to everyone's thoughts! Please be honest!

Answered in bold above happyface sounds like you have some great ideas.

My kids love blocks, sorting (large buttons, cotton balls, pom poms, rocks, gems) into buckets/ice trays, sensory (water, ice, goop, playdough, dirt/sand, corn, birdseed, shaving cream), bubbles, cars, animals...

Good luck.

[melilley]

These are great ideas! My kids love to do fingerprinting! You can buy washable stamp pads and use their fingers or stamps. Beware though, even though it is washable, some won't come off without lots of scrubbing, especially the red.
Homemade play doh is the best! It's cheap to make and kids that age like to put it in their mouths so it gets thrown away lots of times.
Dancing is another big hit!
Play food is great!
I agree with other pp's, I would do monthly newsletters instead of daily and I used to do day sheets at the center I worked at and to be honest I think that only 1/2 of the parents would even read them. They took a lot of time to do too.