Bubble fun!

March 9-13 is National Bubble Week! We were super early this Friday, but it's a great way to get prepped for the week of bubbles, and get our spirits up for Spring!

On Friday, February 22nd we went to Edmonton's Telus World of Science for their 'Bubble Fun' program.
We were greeted by their kind staff, and brought to a room to meet a wonderful instructor - Jennifer!

Jennifer taught us some interesting things about bubbles. She told us bubbles are lazy, even if you use a square bubble blower the bubble will always come out as a circle, which is also called a sphere. Another interesting fact, bubbles also like to be wet. When you try to use anything dry to touch them - they will pop! But if you went your hands in bubble juice you can even touch bubbles. That was probably the best part, when we had opportunities to put our hands through the bubbles, or hold them in our hands.  
Last but not least, bubbles reflect light.Which, as one of our brilliant little ladies told Jennifer, means we can see rainbows in it. 

Once we were educated in the art of bubbles, Jennifer introduced us to our 6 centers.

1. Bubble Painting - using coloured bubbles to make pictures we could take home
2. Blubble Drawing  - blowing bubbles on laminated pictures of shapes like caterpillars and mice to cover the drawings with bubbles
3. Bubble touching - putting our hands through the HUGE bubble maker - as well as using our hands to make bubbles by touching our fingers together.
4. House Hold Bubbles - using items we find like funnels and spatulas to make bubbles
5. Bubble Houses - making igloo dome houses for our tiny toys
6. FREE BUBBLES - just use your straw to blow bubbles

From there we were offered our own diy straw bubble blowers, broke into groups and went to work.

It was a very well put together field trip, and one of my favorite ones of the year. 
I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

Sincerely,

Ms. Asha

Easy DIY bubble solution

1 gallon water
1/2 cup Dawn (or Joy) Dishwashing Liquid
1/4 cup glycerine (obtained from your local pharmacy)  

Note: Let solution sit over night.

To make the colourful bubbles just add food colour! Careful it doesn't stain clothes.

 

Will you be my valentine?

Pardon the late entry. For the beginning of February we learned about being good friends to our peers. How to share, use our words and take turns. This will be a life long adventure, but it was so wonderful to see it be exercised during our Valentines Week.

We molded and manipulated sparkly pink playdough. Playdough is a long time staple of fine motor development, using it to make small balls and snakes. It is also really helpful at exposing us to math (when we make the playdough using the measurements, and when we make patterns of hearts that match), and exercise our cognitive development.

 

We up-cycled paper towel rolls by using the circle shape and bending it in half which offered us a new familiar shape - a Heart! 

 

To prepare for our Valentine's Day party we made mail boxes for our Valentines!

It was very exciting to receive so many thoughtful notes and candies from our friends at Capilano Playschool. My heart warms to see the children take time to put effort into sharing their first Valentine's day cards, and learn the value of sharing and letting our friends know how much they mean to us.

I also taught the children a very old, very fun game in the gym! We all sat in a large circle with our hands behind our back. I chose my helping hand to go in the middle and hide their eyes. We then sang, "A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket. I wrote a letter to my love and on the way I lost it. A little puppy picked it up and put it in its pocket." At that time I hid a small envelop behind a different child's back, and the child in the middle who was "it" had to guess who had the letter. It is a great game to get 2 children moving at once! The child who was in the middle, now gets to hide the letter behind a different child's back and the child who receives the letter will be the next child in the middle.

Christian Note:

We had our second Chapel on Monday, February 11th! 

First, we spent time learning some interactive songs about out love for one another and God.

It was really beautiful seeing the children use the ribbon to dance

Our local pastor, Pastor Patrick, who can be found at the Church on 99th in Edmonton AB, came and spend time talking with us and telling us such interesting stories.I always love hearing what he has to share with us about God, and his experiences.

We also had to help a Shepard find her lost lamb, Lamby. She was REALLY worried when she couldn't find him but was thankful to have our help. She reminded us that God is our Shepard, and will always find us and take care of us - especially when we feel lost.

Then, we got to make our OWN LAMB! We used Timbits, marshmallows & pretzels.
Thanks so much to our amazing community for coming in and sharing with us.

Sincerely,

Ms Asha

Life long Friends

In our room you could see how strong our friendships have grown since September. The children really enjoy getting together to do crafts, play and participating in the classroom experiences. Through the month our theme's will all support our understanding of Valentines Day, including our relationships with our friends and our family. This week I tried to really plan around the friendships between the children, but you can see some Valentines Day inspiration.

The first fun featured experience was the sensory bin.
I enjoyed a wander through the dollar store to grab various hearts that offered various textures. There were felt hearts, foam hearts, third dimensional hearts, squishy hearts, as well as beads, and more! I also found containers to put in for the children to open, and fill. They used large cooking tongs, learn chopsticks, bamboo tweezers, clothes pins and strawberry hullers.

My objective for this bin was to support cognitive and fine motor development.
In my experience with Occupational Therapist, when trying to strengthen children's dexterity for holding pencils we have used tweezers! The smaller the tweezers the better, as we are trying to avoid a whole hand hold on the pencil, and work towards a tripod grasp. Children can also practice their tripod hold by simply picking up small objects, such as beads.

My favorite tweezers are the small silver Strawberry Hullers, as they are hard to close (needing to work on strength) and are hard to hold in a fist. The children's favorite are the bamboo ones.

Our Monday/Tuesday craft was sun catchers or stain glass hearts.
The children were offered heart templates with a transparent heart cut outs, to decorate and place between the foam hearts.

Our second craft of the week was a "Friendship Chain". Sadly, I didn't get an end result photo - but I will make sure to post one next week or add it to this one Monday.
I pre cut 6 inch pieces of paper, and drew a long dark black line down the middle. The children were encouraged to cut down the middle "on the black line". I really tried to identify that we were making "one paper, into two".
Some children commented that it was "hard" but never stopped until they were done. I had to support some hand over hand skills for a few children, reminding the children to have "thumbs up." Occasionally, I will put stamps on the children's thumbs if they're having a tough time with this concept, and remind them they need to see the stamp while they're cutting. After they cut through the black line, the children were asked to pick on strip of paper, and wrote their names on it before decorating it with pompoms, stickers and hearts.

 

Once dry, I connected all of the children's paper to their peers to make a paper chain. I connected the M/W class to the T/Th class with my paper to create a unity between the two classes.


I transformed the house center into a writing center, and explained to the children about Valentines Day cards and letters.
In our writing center, I took a package of Valentines and wrote all of the children's names in orange. I laminated them all together and put out dry erase markers and an eraser. The children enjoyed finding their own names, and writing their peers names over and over.

I also offered a "free writing" space, and posted words that were common to write for Valentines or in letters. When I saw the children sit at the center I would come and read each word to them, so they knew what the letters and words represented.

We also brought out "Love Bug" which is the trash can I dress up thematically to let the children free cut, and feed him. I try to offer items which provicate the children to either master cutting across or challenge smaller shapes, in this challenge - hearts.

The children really were engaged in their play on Thursday, it was like music to my ears. I looked over from craft and it was just huddles of friends engaged in various play experiences.

Sometimes it is hard to get outside from November to January in Edmonton. Thankfully, the weather is starting to warm up so we will be going out as much as possible.

I felt bad telling her they were on backwards, and tried to help identify how to know which way they go.

Going outside at this age is more than what meets the eyes. It is an opportunity to develop self help skills, independence, gross motor (not to mention its adorable to see them dance around getting their stuff on), and fine motor (those buttons and zippers take a while to master sometimes).

We got to spend time at the park and play on a man made hill this week!

Sincerely,

Ms Asha