Monday 29 February 2016

Sledding, climbing, and singing!

We had such a wonderful time outside playing, sledding, climbing, and singing!
We had children on the hill working together to push and pull each other's sleds down the hill. It was great to see the children asking each other for help and not just the teachers.
We had Miss. Lyss  from preschool one singing a song with some of our children called "Popseco" They loved the song and sung it over and over dancing around the Adventure Playground showing off their dance moves! Over all it was a great morning!
Ms. Penner


Wednesday 24 February 2016

Hot Dog Lunch

We had a special experience outside today.
We got to have a fire and roast hot dogs on it, then we were able to enjoy the hotdogs for lunch. Yum!










Concert

Today some grade 7 and 8 students from St.Charles school came to the centre to preform for our preschool children. 
We got ready for the concert by playing our own instruments and dancing to some music. 


Then we sat so peacefully as the band played, it was wonderful. They had our attention the whole time!










Risky Play: Its benefits and guidelines

One of the six categories of risky play is rough and tumble. It is a kind of play where children chase one another and fight playfully.  
Today while playing with the children in the Adventure Playground, I saw a group of children starting to push each other. I went over to evaluate the situation,and to see if it needed adult supervision. When I approach them I just listened and watched first without interrupting.  From that I gathered that they were  just playing.
In this situation I contemplated what to do. Should I choose the reactive or proactive side of me? The reactive side of me wants to redirect them to play something else to keep them safe. And the proactive side of me wants to let them experience the play safely.  
I decided to choose the latter. I went to them and gave them some guidelines on how they can play the game. I told them that I could see that they were enjoying their "pushing game" and I want them to have fun but also be safe.
The guidelines I chose were: we can only push on their bodies and not on their faces.   I also told them if their playmate fell on the ground they would have to help them get up and wait until they are ready to continue the game. The game lasted for 20 minutes. After that fun game they decided to run up and slide down the hill. 
Risky play is very vital to the children's physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. It opens the children's opportunity to explore and discover their abilities and creativeness. It is risky but what they can gain out of it is worth the challenge.

Written by: Mrs.Cruz

Beads and Mirrors

Today we explored reflection with mirrors and glass beads. (Thanks Mrs.Davis for the donation!)


Some children lined up the beads making beautiful patterns.


Some children enjoyed looking at their own reflection
   "We're standing on the roof!"


































Later on we took out wooden blocks to build on the mirrors, we noticed it looked extra tall in the mirror.
"There's only one block.... Look!" The child pointed to what appeared to be two blocks.


Written by: Mrs.Thiele

Friday 19 February 2016

A knocked over plant

A plant was knocked over during free play time this morning, what a perfect time to learn about responsibility and how plants grow.

At first some children were resistant to helping clean-up the mess made from the plant but Mr.Tooshkenig explained how the plants roots need to be covered with dirt in order for the plant to stay alive and keep growing.


As we began to pick up the dirt and pack it back into the pot, we talked about how God gave humans the job to take care of the Earth which includes it's plants, thus it is our job to take care of the plants in our room and around the centre.
This discussion led one child to ask if she could water the plants.

Thursday 18 February 2016

Height

The theme of being tall and powerful continues in our room...
"Mr.Freeman I'm taller than your hair"

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Valentines Card 2016

Last week we had a small Valentine's Party and the children made Valentine's Card a day ahead as part of a play experience. 

This child spent 45  minutes working on his Valentine's Card. He showed a lot of preserverence on it.

This child used the sticker foams and paint to decorate her card.


"I'm going to give it to my mommy"

"I'm putting pom-poms"


"I'm giving it to daddy" 

Thursday 11 February 2016

Beans

The children are busy rolling and playing with beans on the tray.
The children all laughed when the beans hit the bottom. They kept on doing this play experience for 10-15 minutes. They showed cooperation and patience as they wait for their turn to roll the beans.

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Bear families

We compared the sizes of some little bears today. The littlest bears were called "baby" while the medium sized bears were called "mommy" and lastly the biggest bears were called "daddy"

The children lined them up on the shelf in small families, discussing which bear was which, while they placed them.

"The daddy is way bigger, just like my daddy"

"Baby bear, mommy bear, daddy bear. There they are all here."





"Building Blocks"



Today the children went to the block area and decided to "fix" the blocks. It started when one child went over to the blocks with a tool in his hand.  He started to gather all the wooden blocks, then he proceeded to build his fort. The other children saw him and also went to the area and worked with the "coloured blocks". They spent 5 to 10 minutes playing separately when one of them decided to build a bridge using the different blocks. They showed their cooperation and team work as they helped each other carry and align the blocks.

Finger Tubes

The children were putting the marker lids on their fingers. They were interested in doing that frequently, but we didn't want all our markers to dry out so we found a different way to encourage and support their ideas. We chose to cut tubes to let them explore it. We called it "Finger Tubes".


Thursday 4 February 2016

Tall, taller, tallest

There has been quite a few conversations about height going on in our room lately.
We heard children talking to each other about how tall they are and how to find ways to feel even taller. To do this they were standing on chairs, blocks and sitting on the shelf by the window after climbing the log.

Being tall feels powerful to a child!


"Look it's so high"

Understanding length is one of the first steps of understanding math concepts.

"It's getting taller!"

We are helping the children learn about these concepts by using words such as long, longer, longest, short, shorter, shortest, tall, taller, tallest and more.

"It's bigger than me!" 

We measured and compared the two different things. How tall we were compared to the creations we built.

Coffee Break

Today a few girls set the table, got babies, and decided to have a little break. They were having coffee...

"You spilled my coffee!"
"Oh sorry there's more, you can get it"
"Oh I spilled my coffee"
"Not again.... You have to clean up your mess."


These girls are learning about the world around them by acting out activities they have seen adults who they admire do. They are learning by watching you. 

Monday 1 February 2016

Painting the Play Garden Red

Winter sometimes can be a difficult season to endure with the frigid temperatures. Well here in the our XP room we find creative ways to enjoy the season outside. One day our teachers brought out coloured water in bottles that spray and squirt. We had a blast colouring our winter wonderland.












Some comments we heard were " I'm making green blood, you're making red blood", "it's turning colours", "mine's sticking together" "it's almost empty, I need more" 














Pomelo Tasting

Our "lamb" group had the opportunity to try something new today. The children were given time to examine and look closely at the peel and inside of the fruit. First they felt it, the peel was smooth and cold. Then they smelled it, it had a  citrus smell.  What is it? This fruit is a pomelo. When we cut open our pomelo, the children noticed that it looked different than the one in the picture. Mrs.Cruz explained that the color of our pomelo was different because our pomelo was not as ripe as the one in the picture. Then we all had a chance to taste the  pomelo, it tasted sweet.