Day Nursery Friday Faces: Making a fruit pizza

The students in Ms. Laura and Ms. Katrina’s preschool class at Day Nursery Northwest on W. 73rd Street in Pike Township, have been trying new fruits this week to see what they like. To wrap up the week, the class made a fruit pizza as a special treat. The bright colors in the fruit bowl reminded them of a rainbow. Eating a full rainbow of foods regularly helps give your body the nutrients it needs. In addition to fiber, vitamins and minerals, naturally colored foods contain powerful nutrients called phytochemicals. While the three-year-olds aren’t likely to remember that term, they will remember their favorite fruits and the beautiful colorful snack they helped make today.

Indy 500 Winner Scott Dixon visits Day Nursery Northwest

2008 Indianapolis 500 Winner Scott Dixon visited the Day Nursery Northwest Center yesterday thanks to our friends at PNC’s Grow Up Great program. Dixon read a story about counting with race cars followed by a question and answer session with the preschool and kindergarten classes. The students wanted to know how old Dixon is and why there was smoke coming from one of the race cars in the story. Dixon presented the center with a mini race car which the students will be able to take apart and learn more about how it works. The racing related activities are part of PNC’s initiative to bring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) activities to preschoolers across the country. The same group of students will get to tour the Target Chip Ganassi Racing facility on May 10.

Too Cute Tuesday: Planting seeds and watching them grow

The students in Ms. LeeAnn and Ms. Patricia’s preschool class at the Day Nursery IU Health Early Care and Education Center are thinking spring and hoping by planting their seeds it will bring some spring weather! What’s coming up in your garden?

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.

Day Nursery preschoolers sew a classroom quilt

Recently the students in the Preschool 3 classroom at the Day Nursery IU Health Early Care and Education Center made a masterpiece! Each child drew on a white square and then using a real sewing machine, with a little help from their teacher, Ms. Tomi Lessaris, sewed their square onto the other squares to create their classroom quilt. Thanks to Assistant Center Director Amy Cavin for sharing these pictures.

Day Nursery IU Health Center Preschool 3 teachers Jannel Holmquist (left) and   Tomi Lassaris (right) and their students.

Day Nursery IU Health students host successful MDA Hop A Thon

Thanks to Day Nursery IU Health Center parent volunteers as well as Day Nursery Auxiliary members for their help Friday with the MDA Hop A Thon.  All of the 3 to 5-year-old children participated and received a certificate made by Ms. Jannel for their participation and the number of hops that they completed.  It was a great lesson of accepting those with disabilities as well as doing something to help others.  The event collected $488.00 to donate to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  

Happy President’s Day

The Day Nursery downtown Federal Center and our Start Smart 4 Children center at Ft. Harrison will be closed Monday, February 18 in observance of President’s Day.  All other locations will be open.  If you have any questions, please call our administrative office at 317-636-9197.

Preschoolers from the Indiana State Government Center visited the Abraham Lincoln exhibit at the Indiana History Center on Friday morning.

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 IU Health Snow Bunny

Our 4 and 5 year olds at the Day Nursery IU Health Center had fun making a snow bunny out of yesterday’s remaining snow.

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.