Day Nursery Indianapolis Friday Faces

Here’s a great Friday Faces shot courtesy of  teacher Alex Groves of our Day Nursery Northwest Center in Pike Township. The infants in her room were having fun enjoying exploring the foam blocks together that Miss Alex set out for them.  While we don’t have any openings for infants at this time at Day Nursery Northwest, we are accepting names for the waiting list. We do, however, have openings for toddlers and preschoolers through age 6.  Call 291-8048 for more information.

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.

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

Day Nursery toddlers explore 5 senses through ketchup

The toddlers at the Day Nursery Hendricks County Early Care and Education Center are exploring the color red this week.  Here are a few pictures of them  “painting” with ketchup.  Activities like these are planned as links to the foundations of the Indiana Academic Standards for Young Children (Science-using 5 senses to learn about the environment and Visual Arts-delight in the touch and feel of materials rather than what is being produced).

Play helps toddler understand how the world works

Indiana’s Academic Standards for Young Children tell us that early geometry concepts involve position and movement of self and items. To a child, this is a step in understanding how the world works.    Benjamin went around his classroom at the Day Nursery IU Health Center recently gathering items to put into his plastic jar, pushed the baby doll repeatedly to get it to fit inside the jar, even attempting to put the lid on top when he felt the baby was inside enough. Benjamin spent about 20 minutes on this play process.

Day Nursery toddlers take to the stage

Any parent who has been through the toddler stage knows how little ones  have the urge to climb and jump.  Toddler teachers know that (times 10)! Ms. Syretta and Ms. Shelly at our Day Nursery IU Health Early Care and Education Center  have given their toddlers the control they want and need to “get their wiggles out.” The teachers created an “oh so low stage”  in their classroom which gives the children an area to safely climb up on top, stomp around, and jump down!  Thanks to Assistant Center Director Amy Cavin for passing along this picture.

Day Nursery Indianapolis students participate in earthquake ShakeOut drill

From the preschoolers down to the toddlers, over 50 students at the Day Nursery Federal Center in downtown Indianapolis participated today in the “Great Central US ShakeOut” earthquake drill.  Students learned to “Stop, Cover and Hold On.”  In the preschool classroom, teachers bounced balls on top of the tables to simulate the importance of finding shelter under a sturdy table to protect the children from falling objects.  Learn more about protecting your family in an earthquake by reading the Seven Steps to Earthquake Safety.

Students in the Toddler 2 classroom practice their “Drop, Cover and Hold On” earthquake drill.

Day Nursery Avon infants experience snow through pretend play

This week the Infant 1 classroom theme at the Day Nursery Avon Center in Hendricks County is snow. One of the sensory activities that they did yesterday was to experience pretend snow. The infants crinkled and waved wax paper pretending it was snow. They had a blast. This early learning foundation develops social emotional skills by demonstrating early pretending with objects.

Day Nursery Start Smart 4 Children Winter Wonderland

So far December has been a very busy month.  It is time to do a little catching up with all the fun things happening in the Day Nursery Centers.  Let’s start with the December 4th holiday program produced by the students and teachers of our Day Nursery Start Smart 4 Children Center at Ft. Harrison.  With over 200 guests expected,  Center Director Debra Ballard and Assistant Director Jessica Stewart decided that the program was too big for any classroom they had so they scheduled it for the auditorium at the DFAS Center next door.  Every age group had a part in the program from the infants to the preschoolers.  Here’s a recap of some of our favorite moments.  Additional pictures can be found on our Facebook page.  

Sweet fun for Day Nursery Federal Center infants

What do you do with all that left over whipped cream from Thanksgiving? Put it in the sensory table and let the babies have some fun! Ms. Shawntel Hyde and Ms. Sarah Carwile are the infant room teachers supervising this fun at our Federal Center.