Infant Room - Febraury Update

First of all, I would like to mention that we said goodbye to our little friend Nolan as he turned 2 and moved up to the Toddlebot Program - we will miss you Nolan!  And , we welcomed Brantley to the Infant Room and look forward to getting to know him and his family! 

February has been an extremely cold month and we have had very little time to play outside so we have kept busy with many different activities indoors.  One day we brought snow in and filled our water table, then gave the children construction vehicles and spoons and they had so much fun!  Another day we did an activity finding letters in Oatmeal, which was a great way to promote 'I Love to Read' month.  We also enjoyed reading stories, doing felt stories, and having puppets read our stories to us! 

Valentines day we had a little party and gave our friends their cards!  We made crafts for our wall! 

We are hoping March will bring us more outside time!

The Little's - January Update

Welcome to 2019!  The Little's were excited to welcome the new year with a short spirit week.  We had PJ and story day and then a science day.  We  were going to do a talent show with the School Age program but our interest in science took over.  We did a lot of experiments but our favorite were the skittle rainbow, elephant toothpaste and exploding bags.

We also spent a lot of time playing in the deep deep snow while we could as you never know when the temps are going to drop.  The children love it outside!!

The children on younger floor showed a lot of interest in planes, trains and cars.  We planned some really cool activities and learned how a plane uses big het engines to fly while a hot air balloon uses fire.  We also tried making parachutes for toys but they did not work to well with our paper airplanes. 

On one the coldest days, we joined the babies in their room so we could watch Reba outside as she threw hot water in the air and it turned into snow!  We then went to play with a bucket of snow that Kaity brought in from outside.

The last week of January was the longest as we could not go outside at all.  We were lucky enough to spend time in the school gym so we could run around and play games!! 

It was our turn to make snack for all our friends at the daycare.  We made WOW butter monster cookies and they were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone!

If you want to see pictures of all our fun, check out the documentation panels in our room or go to our Instagram page!

Infant Room - January Blog

This month we welcomed Walker and Ryan to our Program.. and said good-bye to Owen and Calix, who move over to the Toddlebot Program.  We talked lots about Northern Canada.   We brought in stuffed animal seals, made an igloo out of a cardboard box, made an ice fishing activity, used flash lights to resemble the northern lights, had a tea party with bannock and we even brought the snow inside to play with.  We also flipped through the pages of many different books that were related to the Northern Canada life.

Toddlebots - January Update

January was gone in a flash! We started off the new year with a party! The children went to the gym with some glow sticks, they had a dance party and the had ICE CREAM!

This month we baked “Monster Cookie Oatmeal Bars” for the centre for centre baking week! Every month we will most likely be preparing some type of food (healthy and “treats”)! I value the importance of baking/ cooking with children and I remember baking as a child and I recall having so much fun! Next month we will be making chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting topped with a candy topper for our Valentine’s Day party! Stay tuned for a list of the fun activities we will have planned!

We have had a cold January (the ending at least) and we are looking forward to getting outside more in February!

Thank you so much to the Ogilvie’s for donating battery powered string lighting! We are just waiting for the next shopping day to get batteries J Also thank you for donating 2 oils for our diffuser! So far it’s going great and we really appreciate the donations. Thank you Kaity for bringing in some string lighting for us as well!!

Toddlebots - December Update

December was a busy month with plenty of Christmas crafts and activities. Santa generously asked if the Elf on the Shelf and The Moose on the loose could place many presents under our Christmas tree for him! The children were so excited to unwrap the presents and play with all of the new toys. We got new trucks, cars, books, babies, stacking cones, Magnetiles, plenty of special paints and much more!

 

There wasn’t a lot of days where we had to stay in which was awesome because we enjoy our play time outside. We made snow angels, slid down the snow hill, had pretend camp fires and we made snow balls to smear on the wall of the school! There was a lot of imaginative play where the “bears” would hide in their caves and the huntsmen had to catch them. We made our friendly birds some new bird feeders by spreading sun butter onto pine cones and rolled them into bird seed! I observed a lot of the children helping each other out when it comes time to undress/ dress to go outside and they are getting really good at handing their jackets and snow pnts onto their hooks by themselves (we’ve been working on that for a while!) They worked hard to pull each other on the sleds outside without the help from the staff as well! J

Kinder/School Age - December Update

Our kindergarten group had a lot of fun with music throughout the holidays! They love having music time with De, especially when they get to try the Ukuleles, and often ask to play with instruments or listen to music and dance. They were very eager to take part in our talent show over the holidays and seemed to enjoy being in the spotlight!

We are also working on understanding and developing empathy through stories and play tutoring (when a staff joins in play to demonstrate kind or appropriate behaviour).  We are hopeful that the children will benefit from this and build even stronger friendships both here at the centre and everywhere they go!

It was a blast having the school agers over winter break! This is when we really get the time to find out what they like so we can provide the best activities and material possible for them before and after school!

We weren’t surprised to see a lot of art happening, and with the holiday season there was plenty of inspiration! The art area needed to be stocked daily, sometimes even more often! What is extra special at this time of year is that many children were creating things for friends and family! Their minds are so creative and their hearts are so kind.

We also had a few days with beautiful weather to go to the rec-centre and enjoy the snow!

While indoors, we had the chance to bake a cake, make hot chocolate (and chocolate slushies!), and have a talent show where several children performed songs, dances, and even beyblade tricks for the preschool children.

We also had a special visit from the Manitoba Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and learned all about prairie raptors (hawks, falcons, owls, eagles). This was a very interactive presentation and we even got to meet a live barn owl and a falcon! The children were very interested in learning about these birds and asked very interesting questions about how they live. It was wonderful to see them so excited to learn about these birds and they spent a lot of time talking about them after the presentation was over.

As we get back into our regular routine we will be using our observations from the holidays to help provide and plan fun experiences in the program. Keep your eyes peeled for new documentation panels and photos around the room as we reflect on all the fun we had over the holidays!

 

Kinderstart/Butterfly Group - Decemeber Update

The kinderstarts/butterfly group has definitely been in the holiday spirit this month! It is so much fun hearing them sing their versions of the holiday classics (for example, “Up on the housetop reindeer CLAWS”)! They have also made many of the decorations around the schoolage room, decorated our little tree, and worked hard on some special gifts for their families!

We have continued to work on spelling and writing first names through songs, games, and activities! We will continue this over the next few months and branch out into more letters and words as the children feel ready. This group also loves being read to and we are always updating our library area to keep them interested. We are fortunate to have many winter and holiday themed books and they also really enjoy anything by Robert Munsch!

Some other interests we have observed over the past month are categorizing and matching, organized physical activity (like hockey or yoga), and dramatic play based around school (“reading” to each other, doing homework, etc.)