Battery Park City Day Nursery

HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK TO OUR DEDICATED TEACHERS! Our staff have definitely been working hard, using their knowledge and talents to support the children and their families during this challenging time. We thank you

With the weather getting warmer and the need to get out of the house for some fresh air (while social distancing, of course) here's a fun nature activity. Take a little basket or bucket with you on a walk to collect a variety of leaves, flowers, pods, and any other similar natural objects you may come across. When you get home lay out a big piece of paper or tape several pieces of paper together to make sure your child has a large enough work space. Provide trays of paint in a variety of colors. (If you don't have paint go here to learn 3 ways you can make your own paint with ingredients you might have at home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDc5xwiM0fM) Simply press your leaf/flower/other into the paint, then press a print onto the paper.

Here's a perfect idea for a day like today, rain art. Sprinkle a heavy piece of paper with food coloring, or if you happen to have powdered tempera paint, set it outside and watch as the colors spread and change. Be sure it's a light rain or you'll just end up with a really wet, white piece of paper!

I didn't know what a seed bomb was until I came upon this Earth Day activity from Little Bins, Little Hands. Turns out they're really cool and fun to make! Even if you don't have a garden you can throw one right into a flower pot Click here for instructions: https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/make-seed-bombs-earth/

Today, April 22nd is Earth Day Click the link to hear the story Earth Day, Birthday! by Maureen Wright: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-obG2CAkQ

Play dough is a classic, and one of kids' favorites! If you do not have Play-Doh at home you can make your own: https://www.thebestideasforkids.com/playdough-recipe/ The most well known benefit of playing with play dough is to strengthen the fine motor skills we need to write, draw, grasp, grab, assemble things, basically anything that requires the use of the muscles in hands and fingers. However, there are also opportunities to strengthen language skills, creativity, and focus. You can use play dough to practice forming letters, making patterns and shapes, or become a scientist doing an activity like the one below. You can make prints in play dough with nearly anything: toy bugs, dinosaur feet, toy car tire tracks, Legos, and more!

Sorting is one of the first math skills that children learn. Sorting helps children learn to make matches, identify sets, classify by attributes, compare similarities and differences, and how rules apply to sets. All skills that will help later as children's math learning becomes more complicated. In a very simple form for toddlers, children can sort by color by doing the activity shown below. As children get older (3-4 years old) you can present more in depth objects to sort.... The possibilities are endless...sorting animals, those that can be found on a farm and those found in the wild; sorting by size, small, medium, and large; sorting by shape, square objects, circular objects, etc; sorting by texture, smooth, rough, soft, hard, etc. You can even sort macaroni if you have a variety of shapes! Sometimes you can specify the groups, other times give your child a group of objects and direct them to make groups of 2 or 3. Once your child has made their groups, ask them why they've chosen to put those objects together. You'll be amazed by their reasoning! Help your child acquire math skills by providing them opportunities to sort objects by similar attributes. See more

Next run to the store, grab a bag of gummy worms to try this cool science experiment!

Happy Monday Everyone This may be a perfect time to share this fun activity. You might already have a bunch of these plastic eggs laying around or you can likely get some right around the corner or online on an after Easter sale! For 3 and 4 year old children, create the cards by drawing an egg on each with one color top and a different color bottom. Be sure to use the colors that match the eggs you have. You can also create a letter or number activity. For letters, use a p...ermanent marker to write an upper case letter on one half and the lower case letter on the other and have your child match them up. For numbers, write a number on one half and draw the matching number of dots on the other for your child to match. For 1 and 2 year old children, use the eggs to have your child practice putting the two halves together. This is a great fine motor activity. The eggs can also be used to make noise makers by filling them with things like rice or beads, building towers by stacking halves on top of each other, counting, and color recognition. You can also do a cool sink and float science activity by filling the eggs with different objects to discover which are heavier than others. Remember to leave one egg empty to float. So many fun and educational things to do with these plastic eggs! See more

Join us this Thursday, October 3rd for our 33rd annual Hayride & Fall Family Fest! Face painting, crafts table, fall family photo ops, multi-prize raffle, and a good old fashioned horse-drawn hayride around the NEIGH-borhood (see what we did there!?) 4:30-6:30pm.

The countdown is on... Can't wait to see your little ones this later this week!

Thank you to everyone who supported the Spring Soiree!! It was a big success, and we couldn't have done it without you.Thank you to everyone who supported the Spring Soiree!! It was a big success, and we couldn't have done it without you.