Muddy Puddles Family Day Care Proserpine

28/08/2026

Friday 28th August 2026.

🍂🌿 Friday Morning at Muddy Puddles FDC 🌿🍂

Our Friday morning was all about slowing down, enjoying nature and discovering the simple joys right in our own backyard! 🌳💨

As the wind blew leaves from our neighbour’s tree into our yard, we watched them dance through the air before landing on the grass. We gathered the fallen leaves into piles, lifted them up and sprinkled them back down to the ground — just like the wind had done! 🍃

Some leaves were collected and placed into the trike trailer, ready to be transported to a new spot around the yard. 🚲🍂

We talked about the different colours and patterns we could see — brown, green, yellow, and beautiful combinations of brown and yellow or green and brown. 🎨

🍂 Sensory development: Feeling, touching, lifting and sprinkling the leaves provided opportunities to explore their different textures, shapes and sounds.

🎨 Colour recognition: We identified and compared the different colours and natural patterns found in the leaves.

🤲 Fine motor development: Picking up, holding, sorting and sprinkling individual leaves encouraged small hand and finger movements.

🏃 Gross motor development: Gathering piles, carrying leaves and riding the trike encouraged whole-body movement, coordination and strength.

🌱 Sometimes the best learning opportunities are the ones nature provides for us! 💚

25/08/2026

Tuesday 25th August 2026.

📚✨ BOOK WEEK AT MUDDY PUDDLES FDC! ✨📚

Today we headed to Proserpine Library to celebrate Book Week with a very special Paw Patrol and Wiggles adventure! 🐾📖

We dressed up as our favourite Paw Patrol characters, while the librarians joined in the fun by dressing up as The Wiggles! ❤️💙💛💜

Our story today was “Auslan Alphabet – Wiggles Version”, giving us the opportunity to enjoy a story while exploring the Auslan alphabet through signs. 🤟📚

The highlight was discovering the cardboard Wiggles Red Car at the library, which was definitely a favourite play toy! 🚗The children had lots of fun climbing in and out and enjoying some imaginative play.

What a wonderful Book Week experience filled with books, dress-ups, Auslan, The Wiggles and imaginative play! 🌟📚

22/08/2026

14/08/2026

Friday 14th August 2026.

🌿✨ A little beauty and creativity at Muddy Puddles FDC! ✨🌿

Following on from this months observations, today we enjoyed some special salon time—trying on rings, bangles, glasses, necklaces and scarves, having our hair brushed and combed, and choosing clips and headbands. We also looked at our reflections in the mirror and chatted about how we wash our hair at home. 💍🪮🪞

Outside, we found a shady spot under the tree and used Duplo blocks to stamp leaves onto paper. One child noticed the real leaves that had fallen onto the grass and added them to their paper tree—a lovely connection between our play and the natural environment. 🍃🎨

Along the way we enjoyed sensory experiences, creativity, developed fine motor skills and social interactions as well as extending our language development through hands-on play, conversations, sharing ideas and making choices.

12/08/2026

Wednesday 12th August 2026.
A Little Inspiration from The Makery 📦🩺

After rest time, we sat together to watch The Makery on ABC Kids. When the children saw a cardboard box being turned into an X-ray machine, they thought it looked really cool—and we decided to make our own!

We cut out spaces for the head and arms and the children painted the box black. I also drew a simple skeleton on paper, ready to glue on once our X-ray machine is dry.

This will be a fun addition to our doctors’ dramatic play, encouraging the children to use their imagination, explore ideas from the real world and extend their pretend play. 🩻👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️

Ps: Thursday- Delilah loved the doctors rubbing special ointment on her back and stomach, I on the other hand, had a lot of needles from the four doctors on duty, they also used the new X-ray machine to find multiple broken bones in my right foot.

11/08/2026

Tuesday 11th August 2026.

🌋🧪 VOLCANO SCIENCE AT MUDDY PUDDLES FDC! 🧪🌋

This afternoon we took our science experiment out to the dirt patch and created our very own erupting volcano!

We mixed red food colouring, warm water and bicarbonate soda, added a splash of dishwashing liquid into the volcano then slowly poured in the vinegar through a funnel. As soon as the funnel was removed… WHOOSH! 🌋❤️ Red, bubbly lava came pouring out and down the volcano!

The children sat back and watched with excitement, observing the eruption and seeing what happened when the ingredients were combined.

🔎 Learning through our experiment: Children explored cause and effect, observation, prediction and scientific thinking, while developing curiosity and wonder about how and why things happen.

A quick but exciting afternoon of science through play! 🌋✨

04/08/2026

Tuesday 4th August 2026.
🌊Whispering Waters at Muddy Puddles Family Day Care 🎨

Today we explored the beautiful “Whispering Waters” installation through a creative sensory painting experience. The children used paint on a sensory mat, discovering how circles can represent magical waterholes and wavy lines become rivers connecting them. As they painted, they enthusiastically made multiple prints from their artwork, noticing how each print was unique and telling its own story.

This open-ended experience encouraged the children to explore colour, pattern, texture, and movement while expressing their creativity. It also sparked conversations about the importance of water, nature, animals, and how everything in our environment is connected.

The children were delighted to watch their artwork transform with each print, strengthening their confidence, imagination, and problem-solving skills while developing fine motor control through painting, pressing, and lifting their creations.

🌱 EYLF Learning Outcomes
💙 Learning Outcome 2: Children become connected with and contribute to their world by exploring the importance of water and the natural environment.
🎨 Learning Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners as they experiment, investigate, and discover through creative play.
🖌️ Learning Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators by expressing their ideas, thoughts, and stories through art and symbolic representation.

At Muddy Puddles Family Day Care, we love providing meaningful experiences that inspire creativity, curiosity, and a lifelong appreciation for the world around us. 💚🌿

31/07/2026

Friday 31st July 2026.

Playing with blocks offers many developmental benefits for children:
* Develops fine motor skills: Picking up, stacking, and arranging blocks strengthens hand and finger muscles and improves hand-eye coordination.
* Enhances problem-solving skills: Children learn through trial and error as they figure out how to balance and connect blocks.
* Builds creativity and imagination: Blocks can become houses, castles, bridges, or anything a child imagines, encouraging creative thinking.
* Improves spatial awareness: Children understand concepts like size, shape, balance, symmetry, and position while building.
* Supports early math skills: Counting blocks, sorting by size or color, comparing heights, and recognizing patterns introduce mathematical concepts.
* Encourages language development: Talking about their creations, describing shapes, and cooperating with others expands vocabulary and communication skills.
* Promotes social skills: When children build together, they practice sharing, taking turns, cooperating, and resolving conflicts.
* Increases concentration and patience: Completing a structure requires focus, persistence, and planning.
* Boosts confidence: Successfully building something gives children a sense of achievement and encourages them to try more challenging tasks.
* Introduces basic science and engineering concepts: Children naturally explore gravity, stability, balance, and cause-and-effect as they build and rebuild.

Block play is suitable for children of all ages, with activities becoming more complex as they grow. It provides a fun, hands-on way to support physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.

29/07/2026

Wednesday 29th July 2026.

🎨🌈 A Colourful Day at Muddy Puddles Family Day Care 🌈🎨

Today, as requested by the children, we started our morning with a creative art experience using watercolours, stickers, letter stamps and oil pastels. We even had a chance to be creative together while listening to a fun music playlist all about colours. The children explored different mediums, experimented with colours and proudly shared their unique masterpieces.

Outside, the creativity continued as playdough creations came to life while listening to Barbie songs. The children then enjoyed wagon rides, took turns mowing the lawn, hung out washing and immersed themselves in imaginative role play as police officers and baddies.

During lunchtime, after enjoying our storybook reading of Little Red Riding Hood, the children eagerly asked for more stories. I orally retold The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, encouraging the children to join in by recalling familiar characters, repeated phrases and predicting what would happen next. This rich storytelling experience supported listening skills, memory, comprehension, vocabulary development and a love of traditional literature.

Throughout the day, the children demonstrated wonderful cooperative play, working together, sharing resources and negotiating roles during their games. They created their own rules for play, developing problem-solving and decision-making skills while learning to respect each other’s ideas. Running, chasing and active outdoor games supported their gross motor development, while using pegs to hang out laminated washing on the clothesline, painting, stamping, moulding playdough and drawing strengthened fine motor skills needed for future writing.

Role play and storytelling encouraged rich language development as the children communicated, negotiated, retold stories, expanded their vocabulary and expressed their ideas and emotions through imaginative play.

💚 Learning Outcomes (EYLF):

🌿 Learning Outcome 1: Children developed a strong sense of identity through imaginative and cooperative play.
🌿 Learning Outcome 2: Children connected with others as they collaborated, shared and created rules together.
🌿 Learning Outcome 3: Children developed wellbeing through active outdoor play, running and movement.
🌿 Learning Outcome 4: Children became confident and involved learners by exploring creativity, problem-solving, experimenting with different art materials and recalling familiar stories.
🌿 Learning Outcome 5: Children were effective communicators as they expanded their vocabulary, participated in storytelling, shared ideas and engaged in meaningful conversations throughout the day.

Another day filled with creativity, laughter, friendship and learning at Muddy Puddles. 💙🌈

28/07/2026

Tuesday 28th July 2026.

Our clothesline activity from yesterday has inspired a new learning experience at Muddy Puddles Family Day Care Proserpine! 👕 👗 🩳 👖 👚

To extend the children’s interest, I have created three girl and three boy laminated figurines, along with a variety of laminated clothing for the children to mix, match and dress.

This hands-on invitation encourages children to think about what people wear in different weather, seasons and everyday situations while giving them the freedom to create their own unique outfits. As they select, compare and change the clothing, children are developing fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, decision-making and early mathematical thinking through sorting, matching and categorising.

The experience also sparks wonderful conversations as children name clothing items, describe colours and patterns, explain their choices and share ideas with their friends. Best of all, it invites imaginative play, with each dressed figurine becoming a character ready for a new adventure.

It’s always exciting to see a simple idea grow into an engaging learning experience, guided by the children’s interests and curiosity.

🌼At Muddy Puddles Family Day Care Proserpine, we love following children’s ideas and extending their learning through meaningful, play-based experiences.