Stick Snowflakes

It was wonderful to see so many families back for the first day of
StrongStart. 
Two weeks is a long time of no programs to attend.


The art table was busy with children and grown ups designing
snowflakes
using popsicle sticks.

First step was to decide what shape your snowflake would be. 
Most went with a simple laying the sticks across each other in
an 'X' style.

But as the morning progressed I started to see other designs come to life
as the families noticed that there were little popsicle sticks too.
 



Second step was to decorate the snowflake.
 

Adding buttons was a last minute decision on my part. 
Watching the children search through them reminded me how much the simple
things that you find around the house are just as attractive as glittery
purchased items.

 

A Message from the Fairies

     
This morning as I was entering Fairy Lane I was surprised and thrilled to see
this sign. “Love” made with paint and glitter. 
It must be the fairies way of saying thank you.

Over the past two weeks I’ve been able to walk through Fairy Lane
almost everyday and I’ve been tickled each time to find a new little treasure
left by the doors.
 
Ornaments hanging above the doors.

Precious toys placed in front of the doors too.

And there’s been visitors calling.
                                 
Frogs, ducks, nut crackers and robots.

I've seen coins, real and not left as gifts.
  
Plus lawn furniture
 
and a mailbox and flower pots
 
shows that they are settling in for good.

Time to consider creating a different trail for other creatures of the woods, like gnomes, trolls, nymphs and more.  But should it be in the forest or a different one?

My Centre, My Schedule

I’ve received emails asking about my room and the flow of the schedule.
Today I went in to finish prepping for next week so I'll show you what the
families will find on Monday after returning from our two week holiday.

Welcome.
     
This is what you see when you first enter.
I have very high ceilings and even though there is a curtain rod that runs
around the whole room I can’t hang anything from it because the room
has a movement sensor alarm.

 
My StrongStart runs every morning beginning at 8:30.
Families sign in together.
Parents sign the attendance form and the children find their picture on the
cabinet and taking it to the white board (in the left hand picture)
answer the day's question.

Then they are free to explore and play at all the areas in the room.
      
The first table they see holds provocations about our main focus.
For the next couple of weeks it will be winter, snow, snowflakes.
They can match the shaped lights on the left side of the table or use the
magnifying glass to find two snowflakes that look alike on the light table.

     
The art corner offers easels, collage material and a focus craft.

Free discovery play time runs from 8:30 – 10:10.

Here are the rest of the areas (play areas may not be side by side in the room).
 
              Play tray table and blocks with cars corner.
 
                      Sensory table and the sand table.
 
                Explore, create and narrate your play and our climber.
  
            Sensory table that can be used for puzzles and the house area.
 
                  Dramatic play area which is a vet clinic at the moment.

At 10:10 we clean up and have story time.
The grown ups read with their child then I lead them in songs and stories together.
 
              
                  10:30 we head to the gym until 11.
 
Then back in the classroom it is open play till 11:40, when we clean up,
stack the chairs and finish by 12 with a second circle time.

You may be wondering what about snack??
    
                   It is available all morning.

We used to have a set time for snack but changed it for several reasons.

1.  With 30 or more children at a time it is difficult to find the space to sit everyone.
2. By removing a set snack time we removed two transitions in our morning, allowing more time for play.
3.  By allowing the children to choose when they are hungry we are letting them listen to their body’s needs.

Also because this is a drop in program families can arrive at any time in the morning.  Some may sleep in and have just finished eating when they arrive or the opposite they awoke early and it has been several hours since they had breakfast.  So it meets the needs of the family that attend.

Other early childhood educators have argued that by not having the group snack it takes away from the social time that happens during eating.  My answer to that is – there are rarely a time when a child is eating alone.  There is always an adult with them or a friend will join them.  Casual conversations, focusing on manners and passing food, etc is still happening.

I hope you enjoyed my tour.  See you soon.

Ready?

Are you ready to head back to school on Monday?  I’m getting there.

It has been wonderful having this many days off after Christmas.
It is really relaxing and has given me time to re-energize and think about
this coming school year.

Last year I found hockey sticks the right size for the children
to use in the gym.  They are one of the favourite activities which the whole
family becomes involved.

With that in mind, here is one activity that families will find on Monday.
   
                 Table Hockey

Colleen, another facilitator here in the Valley, in the past has made a hockey
table at her centre.  She covered the table with foil and put blocks around the
edge to keep the puck on the table.

It brought back memories of the table top hockey game we had as children.

I always admired that creative idea and have been on the search for materials
ever since. 

This year at our Scholastic book sale it all seemed to fall into place.
First I saw the book “My First Hockey Book”  and then the little hockey figurines,
which are really erasers.
Perfect!

The hockey 'pencil' sticks were found at a teacher supply store
but I couldn’t get them in the same colour as the figurines,
so a little bit of blue tape took care of that.

The table I used already has a lip around it so I just had to add the tape
to make lines on the 'ice'
and make nets from recycled plastic veggie container.

Can’t wait to see who is more interested in playing – the children or their parents.

I'll be back into school tomorrow finishing setting up.

Yoga–Breathing Ball and Buddies

This school year I introduced the Breathing Ball
in our yoga routine during gym time.

The Breathing Ball is a Hoberman Sphere.
The Breathing Ball represents our lungs.
I have the children place their hands on their chest then
we take deep breaths – inhale and exhale.


This week I introduced our Breathing Buddy Bears.
Each child gets a little Ty bear to place on their chest.
Then we breathe and watch the bear go up and down.

Here is a glimpse to today’s yoga session.

New Year’s Goal – I Spy Nature

It’s been a full year since we moved into our school.
We’ve experienced every season and have explored inside and out.

Last September we spent once a week heading outside to the playground
or to the woods behind the school but as the weather turned it happened less and less.

One of my goals for this coming year is to plan more activities out of doors,
by discovering new areas in our community and encourage more families
to participate.

A weekly activity will be held outside with a specific purpose to an accessible
location and regardless of the weather.

Knowing that some families won't participate out of doors and not wanting to
take their opportunity to come to school to play away,
we'll close early and spend the end of the morning enjoying the activity.

With this goal in mind, over the holidays, I put together these bags.

I call them our “I Spy Nature Pouches".
At the moment they hold a mini clipboard, magnifying glass and a pencil.
But depending on what we will be doing outside, equipment may be changed or added.

It might hold activity cards like; colour matching, animal track cards, shape cards, etc.

Our first outing will be to a local marsh that is known for having lots of birds.
Birds that will come and eat from your hand.
So I’ll include some pictures of birds for identification and a container of
bird seed.
The clip board will have paper so they can document what they see.

The bags were easy to make and it helped that my mom had given me a big pile
of upholstery samples.  They were already finished on three sides so all I needed
to do was sew two pieces together on the unfinished side, turn inside out and finsih
by sewing up the sides.
I used cording for the handles, if they are too long for a child they can easily
be tied shorter.

Have you made any goals for your program for the coming year?