Activities in Daycare?

[lee60657]

Hi. My DD is just about 15 mths and has a nanny. I am curious as to what (if any) activities children in daycare (and around the same age) do with their daycare providers. For example, coloring or other arts n' crafts. I would like to hear some ideas as I plan to ask the nanny to begin to do more "organized" activities during the day as opposed to just "playing". I hope that makes sense. The reason I am looking to those with children in daycare as I read in the Mother's Day gift thread that some children made cards at daycare for their moms. I think that is great and would love to try to incorporate some of those types of fun (and age appropriate) activities into my DD's day. Also if anyone has a nanny that does this type of thing, please post too. TIA!

[Ericka_Jarett]

I was a nanny and the boys I took care of (4 of them) always did something craftty every day. It broke up the routine of just playing all the time. The parents loved it and the kids got pretty creative. Sometimes it could be as simple as using sidewalk chalk outside on the driveway, or painting with fingerpaints. Your daughter can draw pictures of things she sees outside maybe after going for a walk. There are many things she can do at 15 months. In our daycare (use to work there for 2 yrs before nanny work) the kids always did a little craft project. Sometimes was with glue and macaroni, crayons, fingerpaint, possiblities are endless really.

The youngest boy loved to use his dad's old laptop computer to type things on all the time. He also was more advanced when he got into Kindergarten because once his brothers were in school and had homework, he wanted to copy them and would work on writing letters and doing math problems.

[ajlanden]

Good question! My DD does so much in daycare. They do a lot of arts and crafts type activities. But they also do lot of stuff with textures. They have water play once a week, play with things like rice, sand and feathers, finger paint with shaving or whip cream...I wish I could think of more. Another thing that I love is that they do little "units". The last one was jobs, so all their activities/songs/crafts had to do with different jobs. This included dress up times where they had hats and costumes for all the kids.

HTH!!

[lee60657]

Thanks Erika: those are great ideas :)

[lee60657]

aj: I think we cross posted! I love those ideas too...esp the dress up one and the textures. This is giving me alot of great ideas...no I just have to get organized :) and get the supplies, etc. so the nanny can do them.

[jki]

I take DS to a mommy and me 'preschool' for kids 18 months and up.

Every week, there is one art project - a handprint and poem for Mother's Day, a kite, a caterpillar out of an egg carton, planting seeds, etc. Every week, there is also something with textures - playing in cornstarch and water, toys in giant tubs of rice, dirt, etc. There's open play and outside play. Open play always has toys, books, painting, play kitchen, dolls, play doh, puzzles, magnets, etc. the toys are rotated in and out. Outside play has trikes, scooters, a sandbox, a playstructure, a water ship thing, etc. Then there's circle time where we read books and sing. Afterwards, there is a teacher led activity - bubbles, musical instruments, etc.

We also have a nanny and I just have her take DS to story time at the library, to the park, they read a LOT, they go on walks, play in the backyard, etc. Every week, I tell her what to focus on - numbers, letters, colors, shapes, whatever. It's all through play - like put all the red trains together, count the trains, count the Little People, what are the Little People wearing, etc. My nanny started incorporating numbers/colors/etc since DS was 12 months old - I just started telling her what we were focusing on so that DS could have more reinforcement.

Have you considered having your nanny take DD to a class? It's messy and gets expensive to purchase all the supplies. There are a lot of studios around here, even Gymboree, that offer art classes. Our local children's museum has painting, art projects, clay, etc.

Good luck!

[twinnyme]

I agree with what everyone else has said - great suggestions! Both my sisters have nannies, who have taken their sons to various classes - at museums, music classes, gymboree type classes, etc., so I think that's a great idea. My DD is in daycare and often does a lot of paper-based projects that she brings home. At this stage (16 months) she probably doesn't really do them (her teachers do 99% of it, I'm sure) but she's starting to get into it. They also do a lot of sensory/water things.

One thing I didn't see suggested was that there are tons of websites that give ideas/activities to print. Maybe each week you could decide on what you want your nanny to focus on, then print out instructions for each activity (1 per day?) and give her those with the materials. It's a lot of prep but it sounds like it would be worth it to you.

I googled "activities in daycare," and found a bunch of sites, including:

http://www.abcteach.com/directory/babysitting/

http://www.kinderart.com/littles/litles.html

http://www.first-school.ws/

I also googled "sample daily schedule for daycare," and got some ideas that way, too. Just some ideas - hope they help!

[lee60657]

Thank you so much! All of these suggestions are just what I was looking for...I love the links too Twinnyme. This gives me alot to work with. :) Keep the ideas coming!

[Ohana]

When DD was that age, she and the other kids at the daycare did a lot with textures. They have a "sensory tub", which basically looks like a small table with a big tub built into it. The teacher put something in it every day for the kids to play with. The item varied and included scarves, water with dishsoap (to make bubbles), oatmeal, dried beans, cotton balls, you name it.

The teacher also did a series on food textures, where the kids tried foods like mashed potatoes and she talked about the texture of the item.

The kids also did art projects every day, using different mediums. Chalk on black construction paper, markers on regular paper, using Q-tips and feathers to paint, drawing outside with chalk, and even using regular old pens on scratch paper.

And of course, dress up, dance time, playing in the toy kitchen, and playing with water (outside) were always big hits. And since the weather is getting nicer, you can have the nanny take your DD outside with a big bowl of water, some ladles and spoons and smaller bowls, and have her try to transfer the water from the larger container to the smaller ones.

[Winter Biscuit]

My DD's daycare does many of the activities mentioned here (but the teachers don't do their paper-based projects at all - except maybe to cut a hat out of paper and staple/tape it in place).

One more idea (and this may be better for older toddlers - my DD is almost 2.5) is that our daycare will talk about sweet, sour and salty things. One week they will bring in sweet foods/fruits and let children try them, and then the next week they focus on things that are salty or sour (like lemons, limes, etc.). They talk about the way things taste and the kids get a kick out of watching their friends make funny faces when they taste salty or sour items. (It's a great photo op, too.) IMO, it's a good way to introduce kids to new foods that they may not have tried before. You can do all kinds of variations - smooth foods, lumpy foods, etc. Of course they should all be things that are age-appropriate and safe for the child to try.

In the summer when it's warm enough, they also have a weekly "water day" where the older todders bring in their bathing suits and go outside to run through sprinklers or toss water balloons (under careful supervision, of course - the broken balloons are a choking hazard), or go to town with a sand/water table.

Our daycare does a lot of nature walks where they take the kids outside to look for things that are various colors (green grass, green flower stems, green leaves, etc.) or shapes. They also look for birds or other wildlife.

Our daycare also talks alot about feelings and emotions. They might read books about being angry and will dress up and pretend to be angry, they will talk about what makes them angry and how to deal with it in age-appropriate ways and language. Again, this is probably better for older toddlers but our daycare have been talking about emotions since my DD was very young ("I know you are very frustrated that Gwen took your toy away..." etc.) so it seems like the natural next step was to take it to the next level and let the kids act out the emotions in play, read books about those emotions, etc.

[lee60657]

Thanks for the great ideas, Ohana and Winterbiscuit. I think the food ideas are great.....and easy to do. Keep the ideas coming!

[Renrel]

OUr daycare has been having fun with clear contact paper. The kids stick paper on to one sheet and then the teachers seal it with a second piece. They made placemats for them selves this way and some flat "globes" to hang from the ceiling for earth day. The kids can have fun tearing paper as well as pasting and ribbons or other flat stuff will work as well.

Very messy but they had the kids get naked down to diapers or underwear and let them roll around with paint on a big piece of brown paper off of a large roll.

Making their own playdough and then using it was fun. DS was very proud of this project.

Planting quick growing seeds in soil and watching them grown. Radish and grass worked for the toddlers and preschoolers. Put the grass in a cup that has been decorated with a face and watch it grow green "hair."

Glueing tissue paper or other paper to a something.

Stamper and ink always are a big hit.

Listening to tapes or CD with story book with head phones is a big hit. Even if you can hear without the headphones.

My mother is a teacher in a 4 yr class and does units on hospitals and groceries stores where they set up a doctor's office with all the stuff and play at being a doctor. I would gues you could make a pretend cast for a doll or other fun stuff while teaching about things doctors do to make us better. Grocery stores of course including shopping, identifying the purchases, rings up sales and payingd. You can use this kind of play to teach item identification, counting, money identification, addition and subtraction and manners (both clerks and customers should be nice, but nice in different ways.)