I ho I ho it' s off to Kings park we go🐸

What a beautiful day to return to Kings park! As we headed out today there was a lot of discussion as to whether or not we would find frogs again, and if so would they have grown bigger. 

We caught 16 frogs today! We noticed that some of them are getting bigger. The group found that if we searched by the fallen logs we were able to find more. "The logs are their home. It's like a apartment for frogs where they all get their own rooms." Another child responds " That must be one big family living in that apartment!"

Because of the dryer weather we were able to venture further on the trails in search for the frogs.This gave the children a chance to work together deciding as a group which paths to take. We have a very adventurous group that day as they picked the trails with the most inclines and dips.

With a little determination and help from the teachers the group were able to get up this incline in the blink of a eye. With each child that went up, there were shouts of encouragement " You can do it!" "You did it!" (There was a staff at top and the bottom to assists the children if needed).

To end off our day we found some raspberry bushes where we enjoyed a little snack from Mother Nature. 

Written by Mrs.Balharry🙋🏻

The Clover Patch

Our children have been feeling the heat in the afternoon. So, we sat by the pine tree for some much needed shade. As we sat and chatted the children discovered a whole patch of clover. They started picking and making bouquets. 

They plucked clover one by one using their nimble fingers.  

"Ah I got one!"

"Look I got a whole bunch." 

Then children thought, now what do we do with our flowers? I suggested to make necklaces and bracelets. So, I got right to work as the children collected more clover. 

I decided to enhance the children's' play by adding some science to the mix. I explained.

Miss Santilllan : "You know, we can change the color of the flowers." 

Child: "How?"

Miss Santillan: "We can put the flowers in a container then add food colouring at the bottom."

Child: "Really?"

I took some children inside to gather a container and some food colouring.

We found two glass containers. These containers would help the children see the change happen. We then snipped the bottom of the clover so that the color could travel up the stem to the flower. One child chose the color red, and the other blue.

Miss Santillan: "Remember kids, the colour will not change right away; you have to wait until the next day for the clover to change colour."

Child: "One  whole sleep?!"

Miss Santillan: "Yes over night."

 

The next day the transformation was complete. The clover completely changed in color. All of the children were amazed by the experiment. 

"Wow, the flowers are so pretty."

 

Science and nature go hand and hand. Watching the transformation helps the children understand about change. The stem acts like a straw sucking up the color and travelling up to the clover to dye the flower. We are learning with science and inspired through nature.

Written By: Miss Santillan🙋🏻

Paper Airplanes

We have a lot of different interests in our classroom that can be very spontaneous. Today was one of those days where an interest popped up and we flew with it... Literally! Some of the children decided to try their hands at making paper airplanes. It started off with grabbing whatever paper they could find and trying to fold it in different ways to figure out what works. Some succeeded and some didn't at their first attempts but that didn't stop them from wanting to make them better. The children decided to approach the professionals (teachers) for some guidance on how to make the perfect plane. We grabbed some plain white paper and got to work. I got a group together and step by step I showed them a good design in which to fold their paper to make it fly far and high. A few of us thought it would be cool to tie an elastic band through the bottom of our planes to give them extra speed on takeoff. Once we all had our planes folded and ready we started our test flights in the classroom, with all of them being successful and most flying straight across the room we thought it would be best to move our flying outside. We gathered our planes and off we went to our playground where we climbed to the top of the hill for maximum height and one by one they all took off flying up, down and all different directions. It helped that there was a nice breeze outside to give them that extra push to fly higher or longer and they kept going and going. During this time it occurred to us that after a few too many hard landings the noses on our planes were getting squished and they weren't flying very well. So, we would stop and straighten out as best we could then continue on our paper plane journey! Because most of their paper planes looked the same the children decided that they would like to decorate and change the way they were folded to experiment with different flight paths and so we knew who's was who's! To be continued.......

Written By: Mr . Reimer 👨🏼

Colourful Animals

This morning as we were playing outside in the hot hot sun we decided that the children needed to slow down and relax, so we took out an activity. We pulled a couple of picnic tables into the shade, put out some markers and animals to colour. The children casually came over and began engaging in the activity.

As they were busy, the conversations was building between all the children. They started naming their animals and taked about the different kinds they had. The children had a choice to choose a fish, elephant, pig or a dog. 

"This is sprinkles"

"My dog's name is rainbow"

The children used their creativity skills and eye hand coordination. Some children put a lot of thought into what colours they wanted to use. One child said  "look I made the lips red and his fins green". The other children responded "my fish has brown lips". 

Using your imagination and memory makes children use their cognitive skills. Even through art children are developing and learning skills that they can use everyday. 🎨

Written by: Mrs. Zilkie 🙋🏼

Kings Park Part 3

Another hot one at Kings Park today. We made the most of the day. It was the first time for some of my friends so it was quite exciting. We rounded up the troops and we were on our way.

For our newbies on the bus pure smiles. 😄

We went back to our favourite spot to hunt for frogs. Today we caught 16. The children we searching and weaving through the bush. This spot was great because it was shady and keep us out of the sun.

On our way to the washroom we found wild raspberries. The children foreged through the bush to pluck them off. 

"Can I try one?"  "Oh yummy!"

Then to end off the trip we relaxed in our shady spot and had a lunch picnic. 

Written By: Miss Santillan 🙋🏻

Snacks from our Garden

We have been harvesting many vegetables from our garden to make delicious snack. 

Last  week a few of the children picked a zucchini from our ever growing garden. The children and I tried figuring out different ways to eat this delicious vegetable. Should we eat it raw? Should we put in pasta? Should we bread it and bake it? Then Miss Franchewski found a great recipe for zucchini pineapple bread! That day we got started on the baking.

First we used the food processor to mince the zucchini. All the children wanted smell it.

"It smells like cucumber."

Then we added all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Measuring and mixing as we went along. After we added some sweet pineapple. Then baked in the oven for 1 hour at 350.

The children devored every slice some didn't even notice the zucchini while others did. 

With a little butter spread on it was scrumptious.😋

Every week we harvest and make snack with our garden. 

Yesterday a child and I spent some time outside picking from the garden. We picked the spinach and lettuce with our hands. Then we used scissor to snip green oinons and herbs. A huge cumber was growing  and getting over ripe so we decided to pick it as well.

" Mmmm it smells good!"

For this snack we decided to do our famous cheese muffins. We added some herbs like fresh oregano, garlic chives and green onions. Then added some fresh spinach as a twist. Then with the cucumber and lettuce we made a fresh garden salad with a side of ranch.

We used measuring , chopping  , and fine motor skills to create a 2 course snack.

The children  ate and enjoyed the different variations of snack. 

"Mmmmmm it's cheesy." " I like it."

The children are learning the importance of where food comes from , how it grown and how it gets to our table.

Written By: Miss Santillan 🙋🏻

Kings Park

Today some of the children headed to Kings Park to explore. Since it was a rainy day we made sure to dress in head to toe rain gear.

When we arrived we found a picnic table with lots of tree cover to shelter us from the rain. Right away the children excitedly gathered the bug catchers and went frog hunting! Immediately I heard loud voices all over yelling "I found one I found one".

The children quickly started gathering lots of frogs. Every time someone would find one they made sure to tell the rest. They used team work and cooperation to help each other. 

After a while of frog hunting the children found a big puddle...needless to say we did not come home dry! Between the rain, frogs and puddles they kept busy all day! 

The children started getting very curious about the frogs they were finding! 

"Can they swim?"

"What kind of frogs are they?"

"What do they eat?"

With the curiosity lingering some children wanted to know if the frogs could swim. Before putting them in the puddle we had a group discussion, because we did not want to harm the frogs. 

"Frogs have big legs that move out to swim" said a child. Then another children said "the baby frogs are born in water right Mrs. Zilkie?" After much discussion we decide it was safe to carefully place a frog in the puddle. The verdict is....they swim!!!!!

All in all we had a very adventurous day at Kings Park! Some of us even got a little sleepy on the way back. 

Before returning to the park next week we are going to do some research on the frogs we found at the park. We are curious about what kind of frogs they are and what they eat. If there are any frog experts out there we could use your help please share your knowledge. 🐸

Written by: Mrs. Zilkie 🙋🏼