Day Nursery Federal Center two year olds celebrate Earth Day with special visitors

Day Nursery Federal Center teacher Nina Woodbury is known for going the extra mile to present a hands-on learning opportunity for the two-year olds in her classroom.  Today she didn’t have to travel any further than her driveway at home to find some special visitors for her class. On her way to work, Miss Nina scooped up a handful of earth worms to bring in to celebrate Earth Day today.  While our downtown Federal Center has a beautiful playground, it doesn’t have much dirt on it to explore so Nina imported the visitors. The chatter around the earthworm table has been punctuated with giggles this morning as the children have worked up the courage to touch the worms and marvel at their mobility.  Hope you and your little ones have a chance to dig into the dirt today.  Happy Earth Day!

Post update 11:15 am-Just got this photo emailed to me by Day Nursery Federal Center Director Sarah Parks.  She wanted to share this picture of the worms being released on the grass in front of the Federal Building.  She thought some grownups might be concerned about the worms spending the entire day with two year olds.  Rest assured, the worms have been safety returned back to the earth.

Day Nursery Federal Center children focus on food

Students in the 2 1/2-year-old class at the Day Nursery Federal Center have been talking about sharing during the last two weeks and have read and discussed the fable Stone Soup.  This story book is just one of several items in a learning kit they have borrowed titled You Are What You Eat.  In the fable some hungry travelers used whatever people would give them and put it in their soup.  The children made the story come alive earlier this week when they made their own stone soup with items they brought from home. Their teachers are Nina Woodbury and Brittany Walton.

The Pre-K class used the learning kit as a springboard to building a classroom restaurant. To start their project, they visited the cafe upstairs in the Federal Building and talked to the manager and the cook.  There were several props in the learning kit that came in handy in their restaurant including a cash register, cookbooks, pretend fruits and vegetables and a diagram of the food pyramid.  Shirley Williams is their teacher.

 Our Child Care Answers program has been making learning kits like this one available to child care providers in our city for several years through their Resource Library.  Membership in the library has recently been opened up to parents who would like to borrow materials.  The annual membership fee of $20 allows parents to check out materials for up to four weeks at a time.  For more info about the Child Care Answers Resource Library contact Lenore Friedly 317-926-3401 ext. 312