April Fool Song

I know a lot of songs that are fun to sing with young children but I have to admit I didn’t have a good April Fool song in my repertoire.  Now I do thanks to the folks at the website Early Childhood News.  Check this out today so you will be ready for tomorrow.

Circus Day was a blast!

It was great to see so many Day Nursery families and staff members at Circus Day Saturday at the Indiana History Center.  Here are a few pictures I snapped to share with you.

Friday Faces from Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center

The three-year-olds at the Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center have been busy making clown hats in celebration of Circus Day. Miss Sara and Miss Caroline have lots of fun Circus Day activities planned.

Feel Good Friday

It’s Friday, the sun is shining, Circus Day is tomorrow and I am feeling good!  What makes you feel good?  Here are a few pictures I spotted recently on the bulletin board at Day Nursery Clarian that put me in a good mood.

Day Nursery Circus Day Staff VIP winner

Debra Ballard, Director of Day Nursery at Ft. Harrison was selected in a random drawing to be our Circus Day staff VIP. Congratulations!

Day Nursery State Center parents take Circus Day home with them

I am excited to introduce Emily O’Dell, our first Day Nursery parent guest blogger.  Yesterday Emily, who is a parent at our Day Nursery Indiana State Government Center, was nice enough to share with me some photos of her family enjoying Circus Day activities at home.  With Emily’s permission, I would like to share her words and photos with you today so you can try this activity at home with your child.

Our daughter, Elliot, is in State Center’s twos room with Ms Terri and Ms Cora.  Ms Terri was getting on us about making a Circus week craft as she had requested.  It took us until Tuesday night to get to it, but it turned out very cute, thanks to Nana’s supply of paints, pipe cleaners and other random crafty supplies. Ellie had fun making it and even Daddy got in on the fun. Ellie beamed carrying it in this morning and Ms Terri was pleased to see. Thanks for ‘challenging’ us to participate in activities at school. We had so much fun making it with Ellie. Kudos for sure to Ms Terri for “urging” us along! And to be fair to the other kids/ projects, there are some great other inspirations works of art in the twos room.

Announcing our Day Nursery Circus Day VIP winners

Mia and her father were the Circus Day VIP winners at the Day Nursery in Hendricks County.

Circus Day returns to the Indiana History Center, 450 West Ohio Street downtown this Saturday from 10:00 am-5:00 pm and Day Nursery is proud to help sponsor the event this year.  Each of the 7 Day Nursery centers will be sending a family to the event, chosen in a random drawing.  I’ll be drawing a name of a staff Circus Day VIP later this morning and hope to post a picture this afternoon. It is now time (drum roll, please) to announce our winning families.  

The circus winner  at the Day Nursery Hendricks County center in Avon was 2-year-old Mia.  Center Director Joy McCall said her family is very excited to be the winner and her mother stopped by yesterday morning to thank them again for the prize.  Here’s a picture of Dad helping Mia pick up their prize pack. 

 Aaron Thomas who is a student in the 4/5 classroom was selected as the winner at the Day Nursery Ruth A. Lilly Center.  Nikki Owens and her preschoolers, Henry & Lucy, are the Circus Day VIPs from the Day Nursery Federal Center.  Their family couldn’t wait to try on the props in the prize pack when Ms. Sarah Parks asked to take their picture.

At the Day Nursery State Government Center, preschooler Taliyah Cuffee and her brother Jerimy Finch who is in Ms Patricia’s Infant/Toddler  classroom will be going to Circus Day.

At Ft. Harrison, Monica Hutton and her son Xander who is 2 years old are the winners.

Tiffany Downing parent of Amari Matthews in the Preschool 3 room at the Day Nursery Clarian Center will be going to Circus Day too.

  

Two-and-a-half-year old Shayla is the winner at the Day Nursery Northwest Center.  She looks excited to be chosen  in the picture sent by her center director Marla Segal. 

If you were not lucky enough to be selected and you would still like to attend, tickets will be on sale at the door.   The event celebrates Indiana’s circus history with clowns, carnival games, magic, juggling, the Key School Circus, Snakehead Ed and a real calliope. Come visit the new Indiana Experience exhibit and stop by the Day Nursery booth while you are there. Tickets are Adult $7, Senior (60 and over) $6.50, Child (5 through 17) $5, Child under 5, FREE. Ten free game tickets come with your admission to the History Center.

Two and a half year old Shayla is the Northwest Center VIP

The Owens family of the Day Nursery Federal Center shows their Circus Day spirit.

Happy Birthday Ms. Mumford

Today we salute Preschool Teacher Deborah Mumford on her birthday.  Ms. Mumford has been with Day Nursery for 29 years this fall.  Currently Ms. Mumford is a lead teacher at our Day Nursery Clarian Center at 21st and Senate where she teaches 4 and 5 year olds.  Many Day Nursery grads also know her from her days at our former Medical Center and East Street locations.  Rene Withers, Director of the Clarian Center says Ms. Mumford is a parent favorite.  She is known for her classroom cooking activities and her love of singing.   Ms. Mumford is mother to three children and grandmother several times over.  For all the years you have been singing to the children of Day Nursery Ms. Mumford, it is our turn today to sing “Happy Birthday….to You!”

Teaching good habits

Last month, our favorite UPS driver wheeled a big box of toothbrushes into the Day Nursery administrative office.  Was someone trying to tell us something? It turns out they were going to be distributed to the children in our seven centers so each location could illustrate the importance of regular dental hygiene.  Because we are NAEYC accredited centers, we follow standards that are best for young children. NAEYC has created 10 standards that measure the quality of early childhood programs. The standards were created by a blue-ribbon panel of early childhood experts and are based on the latest early childhood research. Patty Fisher, Day Nursery’s Director of Center of Administration explained to me that being a NAEYC accredited center means more than just having a great academic program.  Our centers meet high standards for providing a safe and healthy physical enviroment. NAEYC Standard 5 deals with health and says at least once daily in a program where children older than one year receive two or more meals, teaching staff provide an opportunity for tooth brushing and gum cleaning to remove food and plaque. Because many children under 6 have not mastered the art of brushing (and spitting!) the children do not use toothpaste when they brush at Day Nursery. Day Nursery Federal Center preschool teacher Diane Taylor said her students can’t wait to brush their teeth after lunch…they all want to go first. They all enjoy watching themselves in the mirror. Many classrooms brush teeth after lunch, but it is up to the individual classroom teacher to schedule it when it fits best into the classroom schedule. Thanks to Federal Center Director Sarah Parks for sharing this photo of D’Shon brushing his teeth in Ms. Taylor’s class.

Day Nursery Friday Faces

The Day Nursery staff is ready for Circus Day!

Day Nursery is proud to be a sponsor of the 9th Annual Circus Day at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center March 27 from 10:00 am-5:00 pm.   The event celebrates Indiana’s circus history with clowns, carnival games, magic, juggling, the Key School Circus, Snakehead Ed and a real calliope. Come visit the new Indiana Experience exhibit and stop by the Day Nursery booth while you are there. Tickets are Adult $7, Senior (60 and over) $6.50, Child (5 through 17) $5, Child under 5, FREE. Ten free game tickets come with your admission to the History Center.