Caterpillar - September Update

Our month of September was full of fun!  We welcomed Meric, Alivia, Ivy, Lyla and Lily onto older floor and they sure have settled in quite well with all of us.  Our room has changed into a construction site for the kids to play in and they are loving it.  There are safety glasses, hard hats, reflective vests and gloves for the children to wear to keep them safe while at "work".  They are learning how to use measuring tapes and have been busy measuring the tables, walls and carpets.  The dump trucks and tractors are being pushed around the job site, filled with small blocks and hauled to the "gravel pits".  The children have also been found building towers and houses.  The children have been taking turns at the site managers desk and calling to each other using the 2 way radio.  The children are working so well together to get the "jobs" done and lots of fun is being had!  To expand on their interest, we also did some construction themed art projects like; gluing and cutting of cement trucks, creating HWY's with safety signs, and popsicle stick creations. 

We have been enjoying the fall weather and going for walks, jumping in the leaves and we even joined the school for their Terry Fox walk/run!
 
We are excited for October... especially Halloween!

 

Butterflies - September Update

It’s hard to believe that September has finished so quickly, where has the time gone?
We said Good bye to Mackenzie, Emily, Olivia, Abel, Owen, London and Aubrey who moved over to the school age room and each time we spend time with them they are enjoying “the BIG play structure” that is outside of the school! J

The Butterfly group has started their program with the kinders on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, in the school age room. We start around 9am with calendar time (do your children come home singing the “days of the week songs?” Haha) the children take turns putting on the number on the calendar.  After calendar time we offer snack or free play and get outside as soon as we can.  After lunch we have a few pre planned activities available for the children and we also have activities building off of the children’s interests. We are working on observing the children to see what interests them. This month they have been working hard at building different creations with the Lego, Gak/Slime has been a huge hit (they really enjoy when it is super stretchy!!) and practicing those fine motor movements with the fuse beads as well as the regular pony beads. The weather has been so great that we often take the children outside during this time as well. Outside some have been testing their strength and I have observed Rylan, Declan, Jacob and Jack pull themselves onto the monkey bars with huge smiles on their faces...”Hey Kerri, look, I can finally do it” a few of them said!! What a great accomplishment for them.
After lunch some of the children have been very interested in reading some of the longer chapter type books so we have found a few that are appropriate and a little longer and the children have been loving sitting on the big pillows and listening to them. 

Toward the end of September Austin and Austin started attending the “forest school” at the FortWhyte Centre and they have been excited to tell us some of their stories and the exciting things they do there.  This did provoke the children to start some conversations about being outside in nature. We decided to take a walk around the center we walked past the post office, down towards the monument, across to the rec center where we stopped to have discussions about what we saw, felt, and heard. As we walked I would document some of the conversations and things the children were noticing. They were very excited about some of the changes (falling leaves, swaying trees) and this took us into how things can change so quickly. We decided we were going to go for the same walk on Mondays and Fridays and see if there were changes and anything new. Before the end of September we found 2 buildings with pumpkins, the children kept trying to look for more. We will continue our nature walks and see what changes, note any new observations and if/when the children lose interest we will update you all. We cannot WAIT to see what changes will be noticed in October!!! J

We are all very excited about October, with Ashlea starting we cannot wait to show her all we have been busy with.

We have been writing on our white boards daily (on the accordion wall) so be sure to check it out. We will also be displaying art work on the wall. If you have any questions please let us know!  

 

Toddle Bot - September Update

This month was busy with everyone getting back into routine with school and our full-time children coming pretty regularly. The Toddle Bots have a “Weekly Focus” board up and we will be focusing on shapes, colors, letters and numbers on a weekly basis. We just started the last week of September and we started with Blue, Circle, A and 1. Every week they will change, and we will focus on a new set.

With Jordyn starting school, we are excited to see what kind of exciting ideas and activities that she will want to implement in the room (whether it be on the Littles or Toddle Bots side). She has already talked about how having pictures of their family to see on a daily basis is very important. It can give them a sense of belonging, promotes their self-image and confidence to see their family photos displayed. Not to mention we would like our room to feel like another home, not just a daycare. If you could bring us at least 1 photo of the family, it would be MUCH appreciated.

With the weather starting to get colder, we are asking parents to please send jackets, splash pants, mittens (x2 pairs), hats, boots AND shoes (when snow starts, winter jacket, snow pants, snow boots, mittens, hats). When we play outside in the morning, the playground area can be wet, even if it didn’t rain the night before and they always manage to find a toy that has a bit of water in it, therefore making their mittens soaking wet. We do not have the means to wash/ dry them all before heading out again in the afternoon so 2 pairs of mittens will be useful. Also, please label your children belongings. We try our best to memorize every child’s belongings but with 16+ children in the room it sometimes gets pretty overwhelming and you will be saving us time and stress by just adding their name to it. It will also help you in the long run so that if an item was left outside, and a staff see’s it’s labeled, it will go to that child’s locker rather than going to lost and found or getting lost.

De has been coming to sing to the younger floor children and they are LOVING it!! We have noticed the children knowing the words to songs and they are singing along with her. They help make up songs about themselves and they get really excited when they hear their name. The last week of September the children got to go into groups of 4 and tried the ukulele with a staff’s supervision. The children were instructed to hold the ukulele facing away from their face and they all did very well.