They marched with the bands, held their ears when the fire trucks blasted their sirens, waved to Ronald McDonald and whirled in delight at the sound of the bagpipes.
Having a front row seat for the Indianapolis St. Patrick’s Day parade is just one of the benefits of attending preschool downtown at the Day Nursery Federal Center. Give them a call and enroll your child now and we can guarantee you a great seat for next year’s parade! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Another Pre-K class has flown the coop. On Wednesday, we graduated 9 students from the Day Nursery Federal Center. Center Director Sarah Parks shared pictures and this report: The graduates each received a “Diploma”, as well as a special gift from Day Nursery–a picture frame to put their graduation pictures in to remember this special day. Each graduate also got to keep the 2012 tassel from their cap & gown ensemble as a momento. Afterwards all the guests enjoyed cupcakes and Ms. Sarah’s famous Graduation Punch. Congratulations Graduates! We wish you luck next year in Kindergarten!
In the shadow of the Indiana State Capitol building, Mr. Tim’s preschool class is learning valuable life lessons through lemonade. Students in this and our other 6 Day Nursery centers have been working on becoming entrepreneurs through the national Lemonade Day program. 
Although the Lemonade Day officially is Saturday, our teachers took advantage of the curriculum materials that come with the bright yellow Lemonade Day backpacks to bring the lessons into their classroom and make it a group learning experience. From learning new vocabulary words (can you say customer service?) t0 learning how to count change, Day Nursery students have been busy with preparations for their sale. Yesterday I had a chance to see Mr. Tim Tegarden’s class in action and taste their product (delicious!). Tim shared pictures of the process his class went through to launch their business and even included documentation boards behind his stand so the customers might appreciate the valuable lessons his students learned this week. Judging by the smiles on the faces of the students (and the amount of money they had stuffed in their bank), Lemonade Day was a success. And, for Mr. Tim, it was a great day for him too. “This is why I love to teach,” he said.
It’s “Feel Good Friday” so I’d like to share with you a nice thing that happened at one of our centers this week. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and Day Nursery parents planted 10 trees this week on the playgrounds of the Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center, 3522 N. Central. Day Nursery Lilly Center Director Shannon Garrity and Day Nursery Chief Operating Officer Marsha Lindsey coordinated the project on our end. They report the new plantings include 1 Burr Oak, 1 Sugar Maple, and 8 Serviceberry trees. Thanks to Jerome, Adam and Molly help from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. Thanks to our regular group of volunteers from PNC who have worked on a wide variety of projects at our center and a very special thank you to parents, Nicole Schuster, Theresa and Matt Brooks and James Mehrilich for their time.
Today’s post comes from Sarah Parks, Center Director at the Day Nursery Federal Center located in downtown Indianapolis in the Minton Capehart Federal Building, 575 N. Pennsylvania Street.
As many of you already know, Day Nursery is a United Way agency. Each year the United Way allocates funds to Day Nursery which are used in a variety of ways, one of which is to provide tuition assistance scholarships to those who might not otherwise be able to attend an accredited early learning facility. As a United Way Agency, we also participate in their annual campaign to help raise funds that the United Way will turn around and use in our community, wherever the need is greatest. In the past few years we have been trying to bring the concept of giving and sharing with those in need to the children in our centers as well. In years past we have read the book Benny’s Pennies and done different activities to raise money for the campaign such as bake sales and art sales. This year we are reading the books The Doorbell Rang and The Little Red Hen to promote sharing and giving. Our classrooms will also be doing additional activities around these themes and books. 
In my center, our Toddler 2 classroom is hosting an Art and Craft Fair today and our parents are invited to purchase child made arts and crafts in their classroom. All proceeds will go to the United Way of Central Indiana campaign. Ms. Jennifer and Miss Belinda have done a great job with this project.
We are also hosting a center-wide school dance next Thursday October 27 from 4 to 5. Parents may buy tickets to attend with the children, for any size donation to the United Way campaign. Join us for an hour of dancing, refreshments and games…all for a 
good cause! Children may bring fancy dress up or dance clothes to wear to the dance if you would like. Again, all proceeds will go to the United Way campaign.
Finally our classrooms have worked together to create a Giving Tree—paintings of children’s arms & hands serve as branches, and any “green” that anyone would like to add to the tree for leaves will also go to the United Way of Central Indiana.
At the Day Nursery Federal Center, we are proud to Live United.
Thanks for your support in helping teach our children about the importance of helping others, and sharing what we have.
Day Nursery students at the Indiana State Government Center made flags for the July 4th holiday.
The forecast for Friday is sunny (finally!) and 63 degrees. Sounds like a perfect day for a glass of lemonade. The 5 year old entrepreneurs at the Day Nursery Start Smart 4 Children would love to have you stop by their lemonade stand on Friday for an ice cold glass of lemonade. Here’s a picture of their sales force. How could you resist these smiling faces??
PS-It’s $1.00 a cup or $3.00 for a 32 oz jug.
Downtown at the Day Nursery Federal Center this week Ms. Diane Taylor‘s three-year-olds are studying bears. They did a story re-enactment of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and they also have been spending ALOT of time this week in their bear caves…hibernating!! With this new layer of snowfall on our city, that sounds like a great way to spend a cold winter day.
Have you heard the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears?
The porridge is too hot!
This bed is too hard (not to mention a bit too small! too)
Pretending to be a hibernating bear
This cave is nice and warm
Just got confirmation last night that we have officially renewed our friendly football wager with the Community Day Nursery in East Orange New Jersey for another year. Even though we share the same name, our centers are not affiliated. I found them through a search of NAEYC centers in New Jersey last year and we had so much with with it, I wanted to renew the connection. Last year, thanks to a Colts victory, we were the recipients of some awesome handmade multi-cultural puppets. This year, the staff and children in New Jersey are offering 7 copies (for our 7 locations) of a beautiful book called Martin’s Big Words. Executive Director Kathy Burke sent me a picture of some of their students with the potential prize. We are offering a box full of great race cars if we have to pay up. Let the best team win!
Our friends at Community Day Nursery in New Jersey!
Posted in Day Nursery News, Feel Good Friday
Tagged colts, Colts fans, Colts Jets wager, Community Day Nursery, Jets, Kathy Burke, Martin's Big Words, NAEYC
