School Age and Kinder's - March Update

We cannot believe that March is done, that means only 3 more months of school left until summer holidays!

The children have been doing much of the same things in the morning as in the past couple of months; kinetic sand, creating buildings for their LOL dolls, Beyblades and we have been noticing some of the children bringing in books from home and having some quiet reading time. With the gardening club that Heather started we have been noticing the children taking on those responsibilities and ensuring their plants are being “fed” and taking turns watering them each day. We have been bringing in more recycled materials for the art shelf, encouraging the children to use the materials we have on the shelf, and to use both sides of their paper so we don’t waste as much. 

The kindergarten group has been really interested in building lately. The children have been mastering using cardboard to build houses, cars, TVs, and so many more things. Spring break gave us an opportunity to expand on building and make things such as, mat forts in the gym and a new Beyblade stadium. There has also been a lot of learning that stems from their interests in Beyblades such as learning how to score keep using a tally chart, using egg times and experimenting with other things that spin.

Spring break was a lot of fun. Although it was rather quiet we were able to spend some quality time with each of the children and they enjoyed helping to create fun things for the preschool children.
On Monday we had Ryan Price the magician come in and we were pleasantly surprised at how well the children did; they laughed, they raised their hands to ask questions and some participated as volunteers for the show. We believe this helped to keep the younger children engaged as well!
On Tuesday morning we had a few different activities for the children to do; we had a small baking club (the group of 8 children made sugar cookies for all of the children in the center), we had a come-and-go Easter egg decorating activity using hard boiled eggs (some the children ate their egg the next morning), and we had a hockey game going on in the gym. In the afternoon, we had our Easter egg search. They had to find 2 different types of eggs; one with chocolate and one had a paper that gave them a task to accomplish (a few examples were; read a book with an opera style voice, find someone who is going swimming over spring break, make up a new language and talk like that for 2 minutes, pick an activity for the children to do tomorrow) most of the children thought it was funny and willingly participated, we all had lots of laughs!
On Wednesday, we had PJ day where we had a very chill day; the children picked out a book for a staff to read and we read a few chapters at a time before meal times. We had the art area opened all day for whatever creation the children wanted to do. The school age children also set up an obstacle course that they invited preschool to come try out (Jana and Sheena came to test it out as well!) In the afternoon the children made their very own Beyblade stadium using the round table. The children decorated it before it was taped on and it looks great...come and check it out! J
On Thursday, we had an obstacle course bouncer come in and the children spent over an hour having races and had a great time. Heather and Devon really had them working all their muscles to climb up the big stairs to the slide. Devon was looking more exhausted then the children close to lunch time. HAHA J

Older Flooor - March Update

March has been a very busy month, and wow, did it ever fly by. We have been busy decorating our room with flowers and fun spring decor that the children have created. 

We really enjoyed the “Fill your bucket” theme.  It was nice to hear the children using such kind words to one another and looking out for each other by, sharing/offering toys and making sure everyone was included.  We often heard them say, “you are filling my bucket, I feel happy” or, “you made me sad, you did not fill my bucket”. When these were said some of the children were quick to ask, “How can I fill your bucket?” We had some families also tell us that the children were using these words at home as well, it’s wonderful to see them piece it all together.
We welcomed Brittany to OF during the middle of March and we were so pleased at how well the children have adapted to having a new staff (although most of them knew who she was). She brought us some fresh, new and exciting song/games that the children have been enjoying. We are so lucky to have her with us!

We have noticed the children have really been enjoying books so we have been changing out the library books every 2 weeks. In addition, Kerri has been stopping by the public library to get some fresh and exciting new books. The children are excited when the “blue library bag” comes out as they do not know which books will be in there. If you want an idea of books that your child has been interested in, please ask the staff in the room and we would be happy to tell you some of the current favourites!

During the school spring break we had so much fun!  On Monday, Ryan Price, a magician, came in and showed us all some pretty cool magic tricks.  He invited 2 children up on stage and Aubrey and Rylan were the lucky two chosen from OF to help out with a few tricks.  They both did a great job on stage!  For the remainder of the day, the kids all talked about his tricks and some kids even decided to put on their own "magic shows" in the drama center.  On Tuesday, we did all kinds of Easter activities, plus an egg hunt!  Wednesday was PJ day and the school age children set up an special obstacle course for us in the gym - it was fun to have a variety of ages in the gym encouraging and cheering each other on!  On Thursday, we got to free a lot of energy in the gym on a super cool bouncer!  It was so big and designed as a obstacle course with a huge slide.  The children needed a little help getting up the ladder to the slide, thankfully, between Devon, Haley and Brittany they were guided up and down the slide.  We took lots of photos so keep your eyes peeled as we will be posting very soon!

We're looking forward to April and hoping the weather warms up as we intend on getting outside a lot.  Please remember to send appropriate outdoor gear and extras if you have as we often go outside twice a day.

 

 

Younger Floor Little's - March Update

Well, March was another awesome month for younger floor!  We spent a lot of our first few weeks talking about what makes us feel happy, sad or mad. We then talked about how we can help a friend who feels mad or sad.  After a few days, we noticed more of the children trying to help each other or coming to tell us that a child was crying because he/she is sad.  Having the children label and see these emotions shows us that they are beginning to understand empathy towards others and that sometimes what we do can make them happy or sad.

Some of our favorite activities/events this month were:
-teddy bear tea party
-planting flowers, veggies & grass
- crazy daisy art
- PJ day
- watching the magician and all his cool tricks
- climbing, sliding and jumping on the bouncer

We have lots of fun things planned for April and hope to get outside as much as possible with the weather warming up soon!