Capilano Playschool: Apples & Fall

The beginning of our playschool year has been very exciting. It gave us the opportunity to explore our senses. Fall is full of wonderful sights, smells, tastes, sounds and textures.

Using many of our senses we cooked some apple sauce together!
Teaching children to cook has many many benefits. It is an amazing way to bond and make them feel included. Cooking includes many curricular concepts such as math (numbers, order, weight) and science (mixing, changing of the texture and constancy). Children also tend to try more styles of food when they are included, giving them the pride in "their" snack.

We washed the apples, and invited small groups of children to come help us use a butter knife to cut the apples into tiny pieces.

In circle we used our sense to smell the cinnamon, feel the difference between the texture of apples, cinnamon and sugar, and taste the sugar.

The Capilano Playschool children enjoy cooking at the school.

Cutting apple playdough and learning to roll balls

The children enjoyed the science of floating and sinking in our fall water tub. It included apples of various sizes and types, cinnamon sticks, leaves, pine cones, sparkles and measuring utensils.

In the spirit of apples, we also used them to do some comparisons which is a great preschool experience for practicing math. The children got to try a sour green apple and a sweet red apple, and then tell us which one they enjoyed more.

The children were responsible to sign their own names under the colour of apple they enjoyed more. While some names were more legible than others, it was important to me that they attempted to sign their names. It helped me observe where they are when it comes to their names and how confident they are with holding a pencil. Lastly, I want them to feel proud of their name no matter how they write it. It is important that they own their name and are proud to try and write it. Being capable to write it properly will come with time in playschool with lots of exposure and practice, but it starts with the confidence to try.

Leaf play light table

This week was read in week for our schools. I wanted to include our adorable little playschool this year so we invited some people into our classroom. Every year we invite Edmonton Public library into our program to read to us each month, so this year we booked it during read in week.

Our Principal of Haridsty K-9 instead invited us into the kindergarten room with the grade ones to hear him read "Oh the places you'll go" from Dr Seuss.