National Child Day

November 20th is National Child Day and this year's theme is:
The right to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Health

To celebrate this day our local Early Childhood Educators hold a 'guest reader' at each of their centres.
Fifteen centres are taking part this year and the ECE organization sponsors it purchasing a book for each centre.  This year's book is Llama Llama Home with Mama by Anna Dewdney.

Our guest, RCMP Officer Godard visited on Friday.
The children and families enjoyed listening to the story.

Lava Painting

It all started with a volcano.

Mini, individual volcanoes.

I added red and yellow paint to the vinegar.

Plus a touch of dish soap, 

wish I would have added more

to see what would have happened.

Herbivore Snack

This week we've been talking about herbivore vs carnivore in respect to dinosaurs.

Today we enjoyed a herbivore snack of twigs, leaves, fruits and veggie.

Going on a Dinosaur Hunt

Field trip day to our local museum.

We are fortunate to have fossils at our museum.

I thought we had dinosaurs but learned today that

the Elasmosaur that was discovered locally is not a dinosaur 

but a marine reptile.

There are great exhibits of other dinosaur fossils at our museum 

and we had fun exploring them all.

Before we went I created a booklet of items to be searched out.

Plus a little magnifying glass (a borrowed idea from a colleague - thanks Colleen).

The booklet gave the children a focus and 

helped them looked more closely at each item in the displays.

Pat, the museum expert spent time talking to the families about the displays.

We finished with a snack and story.

My voice is still just a bit more than a whisper 

so one of the dad's volunteered to read the story.

It was great!

I love how he emphasized certain sounds.

Pete the Cat also came to enjoy the museum and here are a few of his favourite displays.

 A dino smaller than himself.

 A sea turtle to ride on.

But his favourite was this BIG fish, mmmmm!

Coffee Ground Fossils

Without much success with our baking soda clay yesterday, I still attempted another new recipe today, Coffee Ground Clay for making fossils.
It worked much better and the look is a lot more appealing.
What I liked about the baking soda clay more was the smooth consistency where the coffee ground clay with gritty.
Here's how it went today.

The fossil on the left was made with the baking soda clay and on the right with the coffee ground clay.

Laryngitis

Do you know what I love most about my job?   

The families! 

Everyday is a different mix of families and I try to get to know them well and them me.

Today I went to school with no voice, yes I have laryngitis.

Luckily I feel great otherwise.

Being almost voicelss gave me an opportunity to step back and listen to the families interact with each other and with their children.

My only worry was about story time.

How do I lead the songs and the stories.

The families are again the answer.

I have been using more and more sign language in the program and singing the same songs on a regular basis made it easy for the families to lead us through.

Then I picked a story that was a well read favourite so they could do the same.

We read "Pete the Cat" and the families sang Pete's song throughout.

I was impressed that the community that has developed in our StrongStart program is a strong one.

We work together.

Baking Soda Clay

Have you tried this recipe before?

Baking Soda Clay
2 cups baking soda
1 1/4 cup water
1 cup cornstarch
Combine all ingredients in a pot.  Add color if desired.  Stir while heating on low for about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and continue stirring.  When it begins to look like mashed potatoes, it’s ready!  Store in an air-tight container until ready to be used.  Clay dries in about 12 hours (depending upon the thickness of the creation.)  Once dry, the clay can be painted or colored with markers!

It was my first time and I liked the idea that it would air dry fairly quickly.

But as we attempted to make dinosaur shapes the clay crumbled apart.

We changed tactics and used rolling pins and cookie cutters.

Instead of waiting for the clay to dry we decided to paint it right away.

I'll be looking for a new recipe.

If you have a favourite let me know.

Thanks