School Age - April update

The warmer weather has made afternoons at the schoolyard lots of fun! This is where school-aged children will be most days between 4pm and 5pm for the remainder of the school year. When we are at the school yard a notice will be posted on the front door of the daycare.

During our annual spring cleaning we found several boxes of Barbie dolls and action figures with all of their accessories in storage, and they have been a hit with the older children! They have dressed them up , acted out movies, and built homes and even towns for them!

We are beginning to make plans for summer in the school age room and look forward to many adventures!

Kinders - April update

Our kindergarten group has taken an interest in dramatic play that centers around a school theme. As they take turns being teachers, students, and principles we get an idea of how they interpret these roles! We provided backpacks, clipboards, and other school supplies to enhance their play.

We have noticed a change in their approach to art activities recently, too. They are choosing materials they are comfortable with (like markers and plain paper) less often, and beginning to ask for new and different materials on a regular bases ( various types of paint, recycled materials, and beads for example). They like to sit together but make independent projects, often each using completely different materials rather than all wanting to make the same “craft”. It has been wonderful to see their unique and creative ideas!

KinderStart/Butterfly group - April update

Two big things happening this month really seemed to capture this groups attention- NHL hockey play-offs and Earth day!

We have used both of these themes as starting points for many activities ranging from process art activities (like rolling marbles through paint to make Earth and designing our own hockey logos on paper pucks with pastels) to dramatic play, to basic math skills (like hockey logo matching games) to literature activities! When we find that the children are excited about something, it gives us opportunities to practice skills and explore concepts in fun new ways!

Infant Room - April Update

What an exciting Month we have had!  The weather has been beautiful and we have played outside lots.  We found all our toys and loose parts after the snow melted!  We've explored outside using our gross motor, fine motor and sensory skills by; picking up leaves, grass, branches, pushed toys around the yard, slid down slides and ran up out little hill.  We made instruments with tubes, tin cans and branches - what beautiful music it made!

Toddlebots - April Update

Well!  We thought that March flew by with all the transitions and new routines, but now April is done too now and I can’t even believe it!  The days seem to go by so fast as we are always so busy on the Toddle Bot side!  Here are a few of the things we did this month!

We started the month off with some cool science and sensory activities; the Toddle Bots woke up from nap to find a poster on the wall with colored paper towel roles glued to it, under each roll was a bowl of the same color filled with pom poms.  The Toddle Bots quickly began dropping the pom poms through the rolls, some would match and sort colors other just like to drop and pick up!  We put shaving cream into a zip lock bag and added a drop of food coloring to it, the bags were taped shut and the Toddle Bots squished and poked the bags to mix the color, did you know a drop of red and a drop of blue will make purple! The Toddle Bots were VERY excited to figure this out!  We explored corn starch magic and loved as the goo dripped through our fingers!  We also drew a picture of a town complete with a house for everyone in it, we drove toy cars all around the town, we were full of laughs and smiles when it “snowed” white paint onto the roads, cars had to drive through the car wash bucket when they got to snowy!

To celebrate spring we did some sponge painting, and we made rainbows, and flowers.  We used food coloring and medicine droppers to decorate coffee filters and turn them into butterflies, and we made a co-operative caterpillar to brighten up our wall.

For Easter we decorated paper eggs using bingo dabbers, this is a great was to practice our color recognition as well as sharing and taking turns as we use one color at a time and then pass it to a friend and receive a new color.  We also used paint with sparkles and texture to make eggs and we glued pom poms onto Easter bunnies.   We decorated real hard boiled eggs using a swirl or shaving cream and food coloring.  The toddle bots enjoyed rolling the eggs through the mixture but by far their favorite part was wearing rubber gloves!

Happy Spring Everyone!  I can’t wait to see what May has in store for us!

Caterpilars and Kinderstart - March Update

Our March was jam-packed and busy!!  We spent so much time outside enjoying the warmer weather.  We went on many walks around town and even made a few stops at the Rec Centre to climb and play games on the ``mountains``.  It won`t be too long before all the snow melts and we will be running in the grass!

During the last week of March, we enjoyed a fun Spring Break.  The boys were so excited to organize a game of ``street hockey``.  They all brought in their sticks from home and took turns playing the different positions!   We walked all the way to Ashland Park on one of the days and although the snow is melting, there was still a lot of snow we had to get trudge through to get to the swings and climbing structure - it was all worth the hard work!!  Another day, we went on a treasure hunt around town and enjoyed looking for a variety of things in nature.  One day, we even got to celebrate everyone`s birthday at once!!  We decorated the room with streamers and a balloons, made and decorated a cake, played birthday games and even had a dance party!

We`re looking forward to April and a beautiful Spring!      

Infants - March Blog

March has come and gone so fast!  It`s hard to believe it is over now.  This month we were able to enjoy lots of time outside in the beautiful spring weather.  The kids loved to go out and splash around in the puddles and there is so much more exploring to do now that all of the snow us melting!

The children are all such little monkeys - they absolutely love to climb on anything and everything!  We recently purchased a little climber and slide and we are so excited for it to arrive so the children can use it!

At the end of March, was Spring Break and it was such a fun week!  On Monday, we had a salon day where all children had their hair done and explored with velcro hair rollers.  We also pretended to paint our nails (using a paint brush and water!)  Tuesday was Doctor day and the children were invited to bring their favorite stuffed animal from home.  We pretended to be Doctors and help out little stuffed animals feel better!  On Wednesday, we had beach and camping day.  We set up a tent in our room and then got our bathing suits on and played in the water table - the children all loved splashing around and getting wet!  On Thursday, we all worked together to bake chocolate chip cookies (Mmmmmmm!!!), for our party on Friday.  During our party on Friday, we all got to try on some fun party hats and blowers.  We out on music and had a blast dancing!!

We are looking forward to April and all of the warm weather that will keep us outside exploring!  We will continue to work together to provide the children with fun learning opportunities, based on their interests.