Caterpillars

While we were playing out in the back, one of the children noticed some caterpillars on the tree.  When we looked closer, we realized that they were tiny ones and there were many of them.

That child called over his friends and soon enough everyone wanted to see.  

Of course, then they wanted to hold them.  Most of the children enjoyed having the caterpillars crawl on them.  We also talked about how the caterpillars were crawling to the top of the tree where the leaves were so they could eat them and after they would make themselves a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.

Pizza and beard

I observed 2 children playing in the housekeeping area, so I went over to listen to what they were saying.  Child 1 has a pencil and paper to write down what child 2 would like to eat. 
Child 1 - "You want pizza?"
Child 2 - "Yes!"
Child 1 - "What kind?"
Child 2 - "Olives, pepperoni."
Child 1 - "Here's your pizza."
Child 2 - "I want french fries and chicken nuggets."
Child 1 takes the pencil from child 2 and says "I'll write it myself."
Child 2 - "Can I have a beard?" (I'm assuming he means beer)
Child 1 comes back with a cup "Here's your beard."

~Mrs. Rodrigues

Play dough Creations

      I put out some blue balls of play dough and some items like; Popsicle sticks, tooth picks, feathers, pipe cleaners, google eyes, sea shells and coloured beads onto the table. The children came over to the table and observed the items in front of them. Then the creating began! Some pushed a bunch of popsicle sticks into their pieces of play dough, while others put google eyes in theirs making a monster. When the children were finished they showed off their magnificent creations!

    

   " I'm making mine very handsome!"

    "Mine's a butterfly!"

    ~Mrs. Friesen~

Construction!

Starting this week, the daycare has had some construction begin in the parking lot, so being outside in the adventure playground we're able to cautiously observe the workers use the big machines. Many of the children have plenty of questions to ask, and some have been inspired to construct something themselves.  Here's what our preschoolers have constructed...

Quite a few of our friends used their teamwork skills to help lift the heavier pieces of wood and build them into a little fort. This was good for their stacking and balancing skills.

We noticed 2 of the younger children had a great idea to build a see-saw, and they helped each other out until the job was done! Once they got the weight distribution down, they had a blast.

Mr. Castell

Sunshine!

We have been enjoying the beautiful weather by getting outside as early as possible.

There are crates in the Adventure Playground that we can build with.

"I found a seashell!"

Spending time with your sibling.

Chasing each other on the rocks.

Climbing the tires.

Jumping from one rock to another.

Passing the ball to each other.

~Mrs. Rodrigues

Painting With Yarn

     For our latest invitation to create, I set out some paper plates with tempera paints and pieces of        yarn and invited the children to get busy creating! The children dipped their piece of yarn making sure it got fully covered with paint. They then pulled it out and then placed it on their paper and moved the string all over their paper to make a cool design. I also showed the children how they could fold their piece of paper and place their paint covered piece of yarn onto the paper, then closing the paper and pressing the paper with their hands. When they opened it up they were surprised to see what kind of design they had created.

      

         Art has the role in education of helping children become

    themselves instead of more like everyone else.

  

    ~Mrs. Friesen~

Funny Faces

Recently, Mr.Castell created a new table top activity for the children to use. All that was needed was some full pages of faces (we used the teachers in our room), a little bit of cardboard, and some long magnet strips (cut to size).  

Once the faces were glued to the cardboard all that needed to be done was cutting out the needed body parts (eyes, nose, mouth, and hair), and adding magnet strips to the back.  After the activity was complete we set it down on the table and observed all the goofy faces the children were making out of all 3 faces. 

We noticed some children would try to correctly re-build each teachers face with its belonging parts, while others would make them as silly as can be, some with one eye, another with 5!  It was very fascinating at how many different variations they could make.

Mr. Castell