Too Cute Tuesday: Day Nursery infants enjoy painting

Infants at the Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center and Indiana State Government Center enjoyed “body” painting this week.  Happy Too Cute Tuesday!

Ruth A. Lilly Center

Ruth A. Lilly Center

Indiana State Gov’t. Center

Indiana State Gov’t. Center

Toddler and preschool puzzle play aids spatial skills

Child Care Exchange recently shared a report that richer engagement with puzzle play at age two produced a stronger grasp of STEM-centric concepts at age 4 1/2. Specifically, the children who showed the most engagement with puzzle play at two stayed on their trajectory throughout the study period. Moreover, the strong puzzlers, when tested at age 4.5, performed well above their age peers in one of the gold standard tests for spatial skills — the ability to mentally rotate an object.

Day Nursery Ruth A Lilly Center

So what’s the link between puzzle and spatial? Mastering the placement of puzzle pieces inherently compels the mind — young or old — to recognize shapes and patterns in certain objects and then to imagine how they might fit into the larger whole. More often than not, the skilled players must rotate the piece in their minds to conceive of its place, and then must test their hypothesis by actually trying to place it where they believe it to belong.

Susan Levine, Ph.D., from the University of Chicago, offered these insights on spatial thinking in preschoolers on the LearnNow website.

Too Cute Tuesday: Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center

Too Cute Tuesday-Part II features infants from the Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center. Enjoy!

Friday Faces: Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center

Exploring the textures of paint and bubble wrap

Toddler Tuesday at Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center

Happy Toddler Tuesday! Shannon Garrity, Center Director at Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center, 3522 N. Central shared this fun picture from this morning with this note: This is a toddler who just finished playing with cool whip and food coloring.  

Day Nursery infants enjoy experience with art

Through their senses and actions, infants learn about objects, what they do, and what to expect. This little guy was painting on bubble wrap this morning in the new infant room at our Ruth A. Lilly Center. For infants and toddlers, art activities are sensory-motor experiences that build a foundation for appreciating and creating beauty.

Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center Preschool graduation

The Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center Preschool graduation was on June 5.  The children sang a few songs and several of the children acted out the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Teacher Marti Gough shared these photos.

Day Nursery preschoolers visit IPS kindergarten classroom

The PreK class of the Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center on 3522 N. Central Avenue had a blast going across the street yesterday to visit IPS School 48 to shadow their kindergarten class.  Day Nursery Center Director Shannon Garrity shared her observations about the visit…..”With graduation earlier in the week, our Pre K students are now ready for kindergarten. So, they got to experience what happens when you get to kindergarten. They made a chart before they left of all of their questions. When they got back to the room, they re-read all of their questions and had some great answers. One student asked if the “new friends in big school would be nice?” when she got back to her room, Ms. Caroline asked the child if the kindergarteners were nice to her and she responded a resounding “yes”. Upon pick up this afternoon, I could hear all of the Pre K class telling their parents how much fun it was today at the school across the street.”

Day Nursery PreK graduates leave IPS school 48 after their visit to shadow the school’s kindergarten class.

Day Nursery Friday Faces: Lemonade Day

Teachers and students at all 7 Day Nursery Centers said they really enjoyed the Lemonade Day experience from start to finish this year. At our Ruth A. Lilly Center on Central Avenue, Lemonade Day wasn’t over when the last cup was sold. The students in the preschool classrooms couldn’t wait to give back their proceeds to the Indianapolis community. I hope you can see in today’s Friday Faces  how Lemonade Day planted the seeds of philanthropy in our students.

Thanks to teacher Marti Gough at Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center for sharing this picture of her preschool students presenting a donation of $121.45 from their Lemonade Day Indianapolis earnings to the Mozel Sanders Foundation which feeds 40,000 on Thanksgiving each year.

Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center teacher Sara McHenry and one of her three-year old students made a presentation recently to Tracie from Project Home. The three’s class donated their $183.59 lemonade day proceeds to Project Home. This will buy the girls living at the home a dresser and a night stand.

Volunteers plant new trees on Day Nursery Lilly Center playground

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.