School Age - April Update

The school age have been loving the outdoors.  We have been going outside almost every day after school.  The boys always enjoy a good game of hockey while the others play on the structure, or make believe play in the field. 

Fuse beads of been a hit in the mornings for everyone.  Thank you to Amelia and Naomi for bringing in more beads to help extend the creations!

The boys are still really into their beyblades and it is always interesting to see what they use to create an arena for their battles.  They can get very creative using tables, blocks, squigs, etc.

Sheena created a grocery store in the school age room and the kids have been LOVING it.  They have kept busy "pricing" all the items and pretending to be customers and cashiers.  If you have any empty food container (boxes, plastic bottles, containers, etc), please feel free to add them to the JA Cuddy Superstore!

With summer nearing, Heather has been getting some ideas from the children to help make our summer planning super fun and engaging for all the children.

Kinders - April Update

What an awesome, caring and creative group we have!  They were right into Earth Day and did several related activities including; a recycle challenge sorting game, window art, plating and caring for beans, and making some Earth day pledges/art that they displayed on our bulletin board.  They also have been quite interested in rocks after we found a book all about rocks.  We have talked about different types of rock and how they form.  Heather is hoping to find more resources so they can continue exploring this interest.

We had the opportunity to go on a field trip to MTYP to see Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon.  The children were very good role models for our younger children.  They engaged with the younger children afterwards and were asking them questions like "Did you like the show?" and "What was your favorite part?".  It was so nice to see them, taking the time to talk with the younger children. 

Sheryl from Playnote Studio, came and played some music with us, at the end of April.  The children really enjoyed her as she sang songs and danced around.  All the kids got up and participated!  We will be having Sheryl back again in June!

Older Floor - April Update

April truly did fly by, and what a month we had!  We have been enjoying more time outside as the weather has been warming up, which the children have been so excited about.

During the week of, "Taking Care of the Earth", the children went into the back yard and did a big clean up with the staff.  We cleaned up a lot of garbage that had blown in, we raked up some leaves, we opened up the sand box (the kids were thrilled about this!) and what a difference it made, the backyard looks awesome!

The children have really been enjoying the yoga that was recently introduced.  We found these awesome videos that walk us through each pose (great, for us who don't know how to do yoga!).  It is all geared towards children with a theme in mind.  The Butterfly group has been working really hard through the videos.  Below is the link if you'd like to try them out at home:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5uIZ2KOZZeQDQo_Gsi_qbQ

We also had the opportunity to head on a field trip to MTYP to see Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon.  Then children were so well behaved and seemed to really enjoy the shows.  The bus ride back was very quiet as most of the children fell asleep!

At the end of April, we had Sheryl from Playnote Studio come in to do a music class.  The children really enjoyed her!  She sang songs and had all the children up and moving around, they all said how much they fun they had.  We will have her come out again in June :)

We want to send out a HUGE thank you to all of the amazing families for brightening our day during ECE week.  All of the gifts and treats were much appreciated, so THANK YOU!

The Little's - April Update

What a busy month but oh, so much fun!  We started the month off by doing a gym riot with all of our preschool friends in the gym and afterwards enjoyed a pizza lunch.  We then had, crazy hair day and all got a chance to style Reba's hair for the day!

During Earth week, while learning about how to take care of the outdoors and what we can do to keep our play space clean, we all got out and cleaned up the yard.  The little's did an amazing job and really took pride in their work.  Way to go everyone!

We ended the month by going to Manitoba Theater for Young People.  We saw 2 plays - Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon.  Everyone did really well sitting and watching the play but most of them said that their favorite part of the day was the bus ride!!

All the staff would like to say a huge thank you to all the families that brought in treats for ECE week!

Toddle Bots - April Blog

This month went by incredibly fast! At the beginning of the month, we made a group painting on a canvas.  First we put on some tape, to create a design and then had each child has an opportunity to paint it. We rotated the canvas so everyone could paint with the 4 different colors. That same day, the children wanted to do magnet stories, but instead of the teachers singing the songs and moving the pieces, the children wanted to do it. The Littles and Toddle Bots both took part in this and all though some children were shy, they did amazingly well! It was so nice to see how much information they are taking in and the memory recognition and recall was interesting to observe.J

 

On April 6^th, we had our gym riot. The children seemed SO excited to do this and they kept talking about it and kept telling everyone about the pizza party we were having later on. In the morning, we put on colored war paint so that each child would be matching their team mates who were on the their team.  The first station was playing soccer, then it was a balance beam and then jumping on a big mat at the end of the beam. From there, we did some balancing, tossing and sorting of colored bean bags into hula hoops. Next, they ran across the length of the gym by imitating several different animals such as monkeys, tigers, fish, birds and much more! Lastly, all of the children were instructed to take off their shoes and put them in a laundry basket. The children stood with their backs against the wall as they watched a staff throw the shoes all over the gym. The children screeched and laughed with excitement and shock. They were then sent out to find their shoes and then return back to the circle. Each group went back to their rooms to enjoy a delicious pizza lunch and then a much-needed nap. The children went back to the gym to watch the school agers entrance performances. Sheena and Kerri then made a performance of their own and the children were laughing like crazy. We ended off the day by having a huge dance party with all of the age groups in the center.

 

The majority of the younger floor went on the field trip and as for the children who stayed back, we did a mini outdoor challenge. Feel free to look at the documentation panel about how our day went located on the wall beside the Toddle Bots lockers.

 

This month, we focused on the themes of gross motor, manners, taking care of the Earth and outdoor exploration. We are practicing our manners each and every day and I have noticed that they are more aware of them now than they were before. Yay! Also we did a HUGE clean up in the back yard and the children often followed us with children sized rakes and shovels. Last week, we found a centipede in the dirt and it seemed to have peaked an interest in a few children. We are looking forward to finding more insects this spring/ summer!

Infant Room - April Blog

April has come and gone so fast, it's unbelievable.  Thank goodness the weather has finally been cooperating and the children are enjoying lots of outdoor play.  We have noticed the children wanting to be close together and play in the more enclosed areas.  They love hanging around the back of bench in our play  yard.  Indoors, they love hanging around in the corner between the stairs and the change table.  They also, love the little circus tent we now have and had lots of fun with the enclosed reading area with pillows and blankets that was made!  We will continue to come up with fun ideas for them to play in these types of areas.