An Enchanted Childhood~ Daycare: January 17th-21st

We have been asked many times to write up our "lesson plans" so others could use them.  Honestly, we just spend a little time thinking about how we want the "school year" to look and go from there.  We wing-it a lot, doing impromptu things that add to our plans.  I am always amazed that anyone would think what we do is worthy of writing down for others to read, but here it goes!

This year, we are doing "Childhood Classics"--reading great children's books--you know, the kind every child should get to know, and then doing little activities to go with it.


We have continued enjoying books related to Goodnight Moon.  We re-read it and then read The Runaway Bunny, by the same author.  The children had so much fun picking out the similarities in the two books... in Goodnight Moon, there is a painting on the wall of a page from The Runaway Bunny.  The bunny from Goodnight Moon is the bunny in The Runaway Bunny when he dresses as a boy....  After reading The Runaway Bunny, we recited Hey Diddle, Diddle and I See the Moon, and then made handprint bunnies!

Mid-week, we looked at the "three little bears sitting in chairs" in Goodnight Moon and then read The Three Bears.  I was shocked by how the children sat totally still, captivated by this ageless classic.  After reading it, we painted bear masks.

Friday, we read another related book, My World, and then reread all our books (due to much begging on the children's part).  We spread the Margaret Wise Brown books out on the floor and the children compared the similar items--the bunny, the pictures on the walls... they were very excited to realize that all the books were related.