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Come Garden With Us!

6/22/2023

This year was our second annual family gardening event and it is quickly becoming a favourite part of spring at the Centre. We were overwhelmed with how many parents, grandparents and caregivers came to help us plant the gardens! This year, the families helped us plant our vegetable gardens, fairy gardens and flower pots. Each family chose a place to start, some choosing to start with vegetable seeds, vegetable plants or flowers. Parents and children worked together to ensure that everything was planted successfully, no one was afraid to get their hands dirty! When the plants and seeds were in the soil, the children and their families added water so that the plants would grow big and strong.

The families also had the opportunity to partake in a few different gardening activities with their children. They made garden markers and planted their own plant to take home for their gardens.
Gardening with children has so many benefits but most importantly, it shows the children the impact that they can have on the environment and teaches them about sustainability.

We are so grateful to all the families that came out to help us with our gardens. We can’t wait for next year!

Moon Sand

1/5/2023

Sensory explorations are an important role in our daily play experiences. The whole month of December, the Robins were exploring and experimenting with different textures, loose parts, and art materials. Each and every sensory activity offered something new and unique for the children senses.
To encourage the children to use multiple of their senses, we used a wide variety of materials such colored sand, table salt, baby oil, flour, various beans, pretend snow, popcorn kernels, and natural and manmade loose parts.

Moon sand was one of the Robins favorite sensory activities. The Robins spent long time exploring moon sand with their sense of touch, smell and sight. To make moon sand, we mixed baby oil and baking flour, this created a unique texture and gentle scent. To stimulate their sense of sight, we added some foil sequins and colorful glass beads. What could spark more curiosity than to dig your fingers into a smooth and fragrant mixture and feel the smoothness of the round glass beads?
While touching and feeling the mixture with their hands, the Robins shared their excitement with each other. The children often were heard saying “wow” and “cool” while exploring the moon sand table. The children had big smiles on their faces each time one of them would find a “moon rock” for which they named the various glass beads.

The moon sand activity was a learning opportunity for the Robins. The Robins learned that if you mix baby oil and the flour, you can create a wonderful and exciting material which will provide you with an endless fun, ideas for an imaginary play and to identify which senses they were using.
Of course, the children explore with their senses on their own throughout the day, and there are many different kinds of sensory activities. However, we wanted to share this particular sensory activity because it is an activity that you can replicate with items commonly found in your home and the children’s creativity made this an opportunity to travel to the moon!

Building Community by Fostering Connection and Belonging in a Preschool Setting

1/4/2023

What does community building in a preschool classroom setting look like? For us, it’s building each other up, creating a sense of belonging and fostering connection within our room. Filling buckets, doing kind things for one another even when we think no one is watching, having photos and artwork on display in the room, participating in group projects, having children’s portfolios where they are easily accessible, and creating a sense of responsibility by giving each child a job to do for the day are all ways that we foster a positive community.

Filling Buckets
Have you filled a bucket today? Very simply, filling a bucket means showing kindness in some way to another person. This could be a kind word, offering a helping hand, sharing, including someone, making a card for someone else, etc.

This book shows us how filling buckets can be put into practice. Showing kindness, offering help, and including others not only fills other’s buckets, it also fills our own.
The Owls gave examples on how we can show kindness within our room, at home and in our community outside the classroom. Some examples were cleaning our room, helping to wash dishes, using our manners, sharing toys and donating toys, just to name a few.
We have recently started a “Caught Showing Kindness” board. The children love seeing themselves showing kindness and offering helping hands to others.

Photos/Photo albums and Family Tree
Each Owl has a picture of themselves on display and they frequently look at it and talk about what they are doing in the picture. Seeing pictures of themselves and everyone else in the room creates that home like feeling. That is the type of community we want to build.
Again, having family pictures of everyone in the room, including the educators is inclusive of everybody and shows the diversity of everyone’s family and backgrounds. It makes us all feel important and valued in this community.
This is our photo album entitled, “Making Memories with the Owls." We often look through it to reflect on how much we’ve changed and grown or the variety activities we’ve done since September.

Collaborative Projects
At the beginning of September, the Owls were given a task. Each one of us, including the educators, filled an ornament up with items that were special to us. After each one was filled, we strung them up in our library area.
The hanging piece represents each one of us and the differences we have. It symbolizes how each one of us is unique, however, come together beautifully. This was a great community building activity as each of the Owls were curious about what the other's put in their ornament.

Each Owl has their own rock which they have decorated with markers. Once they arrive in the morning, they put their rock in the basket, to signify that they are signed in to their classroom. The rocks provides transparency for the children and their belonging in the classroom.

Portfolios
In the Owl room, the children have easy access to their portfolios. Portfolios are a reflective tool that provide the children with the opportunity to enhance their learning. Having access to all materials in the room teaches the children that they are valued and trusted members of their community. The Owls frequently go through their portfolios to see what has been added. They also take turns looking in each other’s portfolios. This has been a great way to further build our community.

Community Helpers
The community around us includes helpers, or people who do jobs which allow it to function smoothly. The same goes for in the Owl room. We have created job tags which the children are given at the start of each day and they include recycler, snack cart helper, table cleaner, sweeper, etc. The children are eager to receive their job for the day and frequently remind us about their jobs! They have thought of new jobs to add as well. Having these jobs gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility to ensure the job is done. It also has given them a voice to encourage their peers to help to keep areas tidy when no one is using them.

Building community is very important to us. It makes everyone feel like they belong and are a part of something special. We love seeing the smiles on everyone’s face when they see that their picture is a part of many on the wall or in our photo album. We ensure our classroom and everything in it is accessible to everyone. We are so proud of the community we have built together. Each member of our community is highly valued and their ideas are as equally important as everyone else’s.

Lights, Colours, Pizza!

6/2/2022

During the children’s exploration of colour, we set up an invitation using a projector and manga tiles to expand their curiosity.

Some children started by taking all of the tiles and trying to cover as much of the light as they could. Other children created houses, pizza and buildings. After creating, they would put their creations on the projector to see what would happen.

One of the children arranged the triangular tiles into a circular shape and exclaimed “I am making a pizza!” As he looked back and fourth between the wall where his pizza was being projected and the projector he said “What am I going to use for the cheese?’ I took some scrap paper and started cutting it up to look like cheese. I asked “would this work for cheese?” With a big smile on his face, he said “Yes!” and started placing the paper exactly where he wanted it.

As he continued to place the cheese he began asking for different ingredients. With each ingredient the child added, their smile grew bigger and bigger. After placing all of his ingredients on to his pizza, he went to the wall to inspect his work.

Another child tried using a variety of the magnets to see if the projector light would shine through if he stacked the magnets tall. He adjusted the light on the projector and experimented with where to put the tower to have the most amount of light shine through.
This invitation inspired the children to explore and play in many different ways, including building and construction, science and dramatic play.

Fantasy in Real Life

12/21/2021

Written by: Andrew

Escaping reality is something we all love to do. Movies, TV, or books are ways we do this but to children it’s more commonly seen in their dramatic play. We’ve all seen the usual playing house or taking the role of community characters such as construction crews or firefighters but what about taking this play to a whole new level. Fantasy genre is one such area that often gets overlooked bringing with it an endless supply of ideas to bring to life.

Our Eagle room as an example, started with a topic of space. Normally some dress up clothes or a few items around the room act as props for the desired play. Then again why not add lights, cardboard, paint and tin foil and suddenly our kitchen area transforms into a fully operational space centre. Now with a greater visual concept, the children can then continue to add to their fresh new environment while expanding their imaginative play. This idea also expanded play to a centre wide gym experience where each room was able to enjoy a space themed set up hosted by the Eagles team.

During December, the children had their new plan all ready to go. It’s one thing to be able to pretend to visit the North Pole, but it’s another to build a workshop and walk through its front door. By providing this extra element of their play, it takes them out of the day to day environment of the room and transports them to a place of fully realized learning and exploration.

To have a great idea is amazing but to see that idea brought to life with a dash of fantasy in the mix can be out of this world.

A Touch of Yellow

6/22/2021

On this afternoon, we went outside and I opened the shed doors. One of the girls stated those famous words "I'm bored!" I love those words because I know that's when our best ideas come. I told her to take a look and bring one of the bins out to the grass. She began looking for materials but she didn't know what she would do with them. She found a container with holes in the bottom and watched as the water poured through. What comes next is magical.

The first step was to search for materials to use. They weren't quite sure what the plan was, as it kept evolving into something different and more elaborate. Those are the best plans, aren't they?

Next came the pouring. Water was poured from different sized jugs into a medium sized silver bowl.

“We need mud!” Dirt was gathered, then shaken into a sifter to create a “smoother” texture. “We can’t have lumps!”

Out came the measuring spoon and spatula. Dirt was carefully shaken into the bowl of water. “Look! It’s clumping! Holly, feel it thickening.” Then a bit too much dirt was added. “Ooops. Let’s add water.” Water was then carefully added to the dirt and water mixture; one tablespoon at a time so as to not overfill with water.

The result was a bowl full of perfectly mixed and homemade mud; the consistency of “muffin batter.”
A muffin tin was found and set beside the bowl full of yummy goodness. The mud-batter was scooped into the moulds of the muffin tin.

“We need a touch of something!” Then voila! The perfect addition to the most perfect mud muffins. “A touch of yellow!” Tiny yellow (what I think were buttercup flowers) were added very carefully to the tops of the muffins.

Creating a dish from mud is not an uncommon practice. In fact, I'm sure most of us adults have done this very same thing when we were children. During this activity, there is so much experimentation and trial and error with ratios of dirt to water; getting that perfect consistency and pride when you have created something you’re proud of; and trust me, they were certainly proud!

I invite you all to go back to your childhoods this summer, and play with mud!

Making Seed Paper

6/1/2021

Blog by: Melanie and Holly

Eco Kids is a child-led club the Falcons created to take a deeper look into our consumption and ways we can reduce, reuse, and recycle. The club members share their environmental and sustainability goals, complete quarterly yard cleanups, and create several projects.

One of the goals of the Eco Kids is to cut back on paper waste. They created signs to remind the Falcons to use both sides of their paper. Another idea was to write their names on their papers so that they can take them home instead of the recycling bin.

Because the Falcons wanted to cut down on waste, they wanted to make their own paper. Then they had the idea to put seeds in the paper so that the paper can go straight into people’s gardens.

See how our project unfolded:

The Falcons enjoyed delivering the seed paper to people in their community and wondered how the seeds would grow. The response to our environmental gifts were astonishing. The school principal received several phone calls from community members thanking us for the seed paper. We can't wait to see what the Eco Kids come up with next to create positive environmental changes for the Falcons and beyond their program.

Outdoor Explorations with the Hummingbirds

5/26/2021

Blog Written By: Irina and Helena

For our Hummingbirds, we value spending time outdoors and the developmental benefits outdoor play brings. Here are some valuable environmental opportunities the Hummingbirds gained from their time outdoors.

Sensory Exploration

The children have been finding plenty of opportunities to discover and learn about the world around them by using all of their senses. The wide variety of natural loose parts such as sand, water, soil, wood, and rocks offer them rich sensory exploration.

Gross-Motor Movements

The Hummingbirds love crawling, digging, carrying, jumping, and most of all, climbing. Climbing has become a favourite outdoor and indoor activity. We support them by providing safety and encouragement as they master their climbing skills.

By climbing tall structures, pallets, tree stumps, and more, the children practice their problem-solving skills, enhance their gross-motor skills, develop perception of the world around them, improve their balance, and master risk-taking skills.

Tranquility

The children love to swing in the hammock. The back and forth motions while enveloped inside help them to relax and enjoy the world around them, whether it is the sky over their heads, or the birds chirping from the trees. It is a very peaceful and relaxing experience.

Beside the treehouse is another relaxing spot we created. We hung wicker balls, beads, and ribbons from a tree and placed a soft mat underneath. This is our youngest Hummingbird's favourite spot. He would sit and watch the fluid movements of the ribbons, He would practice standing up and try to grab or push the ornaments.

Social Development

By playing side by side, the Hummingbirds learn valuable social skills such as empathy, friendship, kindness, and respect with each other and the nature around them. We’ve been observing the older Hummingbirds helping the younger Hummingbirds with various tasks. We have also been observing that the younger children are following their lead in risky play such as climbing and other outdoor activities.

Connecting with Nature

The children have been so fortunate to observe one particular goose that comes close to our windows every day to drink water from the drainage hole. The children are always excited to watch the goose come down the stairs. The other day, the children noticed that two geese were sitting on the hospital’s roof. Immediately the children came closer to observe the birds. It was fun watching those geese walk, fly, and “talk”.

Recently the children observed a family of rabbits with four little bunnies. The Hummingbirds showed great interest and respect to the animals by keeping their distance and using soft voices. "Look, bunnies," said Q to J, as they watched the rabbits across the fence. It is great to see how our children connect to nature in such gentle and respectful ways.

Painting the Sky

5/5/2021

One afternoon, we read Peter H. Reynolds' book, "Sky Color," to the Robins. It is about a little girl that looks for the perfect colours to paint the sky for a school mural project. The Robins really enjoyed the story. We talked about all of the colours that were used and mixed together to make the sky. Some of the children even compared it to the colour mixing experiment that we did a few days earlier.

We took this as another opportunity for the Robins to practice their colour mixing skills! We printed up different images of colourful sunsets, just like the examples in the book. The Robins chose which sky they wanted to try and recreate. The results are amazing!

The paintings and the sunset images were displayed on our documentation board. We also placed the children's pictures in a separate binder on top of the lockers so the Robins and their families can compare the children's paintings to the picture of the sky they chose!

Our next step is to take this project outside! We are curious to see what kind of natural materials the children will use to create their next art piece. Maybe even add some mud into the mix!

Blog Written By: Noelle

Environmental Learning with the Budgies

5/5/2021

During our uninterrupted time outdoors, our focus was connecting the Budgies to nature. Here are some of the ways we observed the beautiful learning opportunities the children and Mother Nature had.

Blog written by: Jennifer

Seven Oaks Child Day Care Centre is located on original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Mètis Nation.
We respect the Treaties that were made on the territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.