Older Floor - December 2018 Update

December was a busy month filled with fun Christmas activities!  We made reindeer, candy canes, Christmas trees, snowmen, snowflakes and played fun Christmas games.  We also sung lots of Christmas songs and had a dance party! 

We took many trips to the "mountains" beside the Rec Center.  The kids played 'King of the Castle', had competitions to see who could jump furthest and, practised climbing and sliding.  The kids (and adults) had so much fun!!

We did many science experiments from the traditional baking soda and vinegar, where we watch it explode and fizz all over the place to a brand new science experiment that taught the kids about water pressure!  In this experiment, we pushed 15 pencils through a large ziplock bag that was filled with water.  The kids were amazed each time another pencil went through the bag and no water seeped out.  The children are always so excited and engaged when we bring out both new and old science experiments!!   

Infant Room - December 2018 Update

December came and went in the blink of an eye!  We said good-bye to tow of our little friends; Max and Calix, and welcomed two new faces, Roxul and Walker.

The children love to spend time outside so we try to get outside everyday, sometimes twice a day - as long as the weather is nice enough!  They all love to get pulled around our yard in the toboggan.  They always have smiles on their faces from ear to ear.  We have also noticed the children love to use their hands to smash things.  Outside, they sit at the picnic tables and we make snow castles using our pails then they all race to smash them!  So, because we noticed they like smashing things we started to think of other activities we could do with them to build on their interest.  One day we offered the children play tools to smash cheerios and another day, we made a volcano and the children enjoyed touching the fizz that came out and breaking the volcano after. 

Later in December we started to do all kinds of Christmas activities.  We played with a felt snowman, decorated a felt Christmas tree, bells and candy canes using stickers.  We also made a beautiful white snowman using glue and paint.  One day, we even used chocolate pudding to color paper plates and made them into reindeer.  Afterwards, we read stories about reindeer and we even brought in a a reindeer antler for the children to look at an feel!

We will continue the watch what the children enjoy doing and think of different ways we can incorporate their interests into daily activities. 

We hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and wish you all the best in 2019!

Littles - October Blog

We had such a fun and busy October!  The Littles were in charge of making snack for everyone at the Centre earlier in the month.  We decided to make Apple Crisp and each child had the opportunity to help by using a plastic butter nap and chop the apples slices into chunks.  They all enjoyed this a did a great job helping out!   After seeing them use the knives to well, we decided to further this experience and allow them to cut play dough with them too!

Skye (from Paw Patrol) came to visit. She read some stories to the children, she taught them some dances with movements to follow along, and then afterwards we had a disco light dance party! Most of the children were really into it, while some others were content with just standing back and watching.

We ended the last week of October with lots of spooky activities and dress up days.  We had a huge Halloween party with all of preschool.  We had stations set up around that included:
- Pin the spider on the web

- Mystery Box (two different boxes/ stations)

- Witch hat toss

- Sticker table

- Pumpkin spiced play dough table

- Memory game

 Afterwards, we began our costume parade around the centre starting with the infants and ending with the school agers! Shortly after the parade, the children had lunch and then free play/ marble painting! We had a nap and got right back into the Halloween festivities! We had so many wonderful and healthy treats that were brought in for afternoon snack that was divided up and devoured by the children! J

 

Toddle Bots - October Update

This month flew by!! I’d like to start off by saying thank you to all of the families who brought in a family photo! We already have noticed the children looking up at them and showing each other their family! It’s definitely something special to see happening with the amount of pride they are exhibiting! J Next, we can’t wait to start putting pictures of YOUR children in the room! If anyone has any picture frames laying around not being used and would like to donate to us, we would love to take them off your hands!

 

The Toddle Bots and Littles were SO excited to see Sky (from Paw Patrol) when she came to visit. She read some stories to the children, she taught them some dances with movements to follow along, and then afterwards we had a disco light dance party! Most of the children were really into it, while some others were content with just standing back and watching.

 

The Toddle Bots have been interested in watching the birds in our yard lately. Almost every day, they ask where the birds are and if we have bird seed in the feeder they are swarming around!

 

De has been coming up with amazing songs for us and has been putting their names into the songs that she sings, and it lights up their faces every time they hear her sing their name. We are loving music with De!!

 

Halloween! This year Halloween was a big hit! I absolutely loved seeing the children get dressed up into their costumes! There were so many good ones!! The day started out with everyone getting dropped off into their rooms as usual and having free play. The children ate snack and then shortly after we played a game prepared by Jordyn. It was called Pumpkin patch. The children had to poke their fingers/ hands threw the orange tissue paper cover cup to reveal their surprise! This year we stuck stickers inside their surprise cups since we knew that they would be getting a lot of treats from Trick- Or- Treating! After that, ALL of preschool combined and we opened the doors to both rooms and we had the following stations set up;

 

·       Pin the spider on the web

·       Mystery Box (two different boxes/ stations)

·       Witch hat toss

·       Sticker table

·       Pumpkin spiced play dough table

·       Memory game

 

At 10:45, we began our costume parade around the centre starting with the infants and ending with the school agers! Shortly after the parade, the children had lunch and then free play/ marble painting! We had a nap and got right back into the Halloween festivities! We had so many wonderful and healthy treats that were brought in for afternoon snack that was divided up and devoured by the children! J

Older Floor - October Update

October was a busy month!  We went on lots of nature walks and talked about all the Halloween decorations that were up at everyone's houses.

We did lots of  Halloween activities!  We painted, carved and washed pumpkins, plus we even roasted pumpkin seeds (which we tasted and they were yummy!)

One day outside, we found "magic" rocks and we each brought one inside.  We listened to the story 'Stone Soup' and then we made our own "stone soup" with potatoes, carrots, onions, beans and corn.  Once it was made, we all ate our soup together and painted our "magic" rocks.

We had a busy spirit week from dressing up in our jammies to costumes and to sports day!  Our Halloween party turned out so well!  There was all kinds of games like, toss the rings on the witches hats, pin the spider on the web, a mystery box that had "eyeballs, brains, teeth and hair" for the kids to feel, and so much more!  After the party, we had a Halloween parade and each group went around to each room to show off their costumes.  De lead the groups, playing her ukulele and singing 'Monster Mash'!

We're looking forward to a fun November!

Infant Room - October Update

October has come and gone!  We have done a lot of nature play this month.  Outside has  been cool, but we dress warm to enjoy the outdoors.  We have been playing in the leaves; the children especially like jumping and laying in the big piles of leaves, throwing the leaves in the air and watching them fall to the ground.  We often hear the children laughing and saying "more, more!"  We even brought some leaves inside and made a tree out of them.

We have also brought in our herbs that we grew in our garden.  The children had a chance to feel, smell and taste them!  

School Age & Kinders - October Update

October was a busy month as we entered the holiday season. It was so much fun to see all of the children in their costumes and excited for Halloween this week!

You probably noticed our very spooky Jack-O-Lantern window, carefully designed and painted by Jordan and Addison along with the help of several other children. We also have lots of beautifully decorated pumpkins lining our window sills!

The kindergartens have done several Halloween crafts and activities, and had a blast joining preschool for a super fun party Halloween morning. They loved De’s new Halloween songs and dancing and howling to the “Monster Mash”. They were also proud to be the very first group to read two new Halloween books, Miss Fiona’s Pumpkin Pies and the very silly Room on the Broom. They even helped with sound effects the next day when I read it to the Kinderstart group!

Leading up to Halloween, we had the very entertaining Captain Jack Sparrow pop into the center. The children helped him find the Lost Treasure of the LaSalle River, supposedly plagued by invisible monsters. But don’t worry, he made sure each child was armed with a balloon sword to keep them safe. He was so grateful that they helped him find the treasure that the all got a gold coin and candy as a reward!

The children are still very excited about building and forts, and luckily the last fundraiser provided us with tons of cardboard to use! We saw muffin trays become lawn chairs, table hockey rinks, and bey-blade stadiums, and cookie boxes transformed into cars and houses!

There has also been a lot a beautiful and creative art made in the room, this is a very talented group of children! The art table fills up as soon as the children return from school and we try to add new and interesting materials as often as possible. They truly have a knack for using the materials in unique and unexpected ways! The biggest challenge is keeping enough paper in stock to meet their creative needs, so if anyone is looking to get rid of bland/scrap paper we will gladly accept it!