Moving into our second week back after the holiday feels wonderful! It is a joy to laugh, play and learn with these children! Please enjoy this mini- blog; our week is fun and very full so we want to share our experiences thus far as we head into a couple of busy days to finish off the week. Kate and I are heading into a computer training course tomorrow and Friday brings a special and unique opportunity of some professional development training ( we will share more about this session later on).
Some observations from Heidi:
After a safety lesson with Kate, Ginny practices the skills she has learned with a pair of pruning shears and a branch. She carefully ensures the position of the shears before making the cut.
The Owls class gather for a group discussion about making loud noises in close proximity to one and other. Some members of our group love to shout and make loud noises while others get scared or frustrated by the sound. Facilitated by an educator, group discussions such as this help the children come up with strategies and solutions to issues.
Aaran and Myles pose with their sticks which, “are ready to do battle.” Many children have a desire to use long sticks as weapons but are still learning to gauge distance from one and others bodies. As a strategy to help the children identify proximity, the educators sometimes add flagging tape to the ends of long sticks to make the ends clearly visible.
Mia, Aaran and Bevelyn notice a large puddle and immediately gravitate to it. The children express their joy in shouts, smiles and laughter.
Wayden leads Yehuan and Elizabeth through an overgrown, swampy part of the park. “Look out for the crocodile,” Yehuan warns the others as they wade through the ankle deep water together.
Other moments in our time together:
One must wear a “helmet” in a car! Justine and Erika offer helmets to others as well. Love the creative thinking!
Ryan, Roy and Dion are fishing in the pond. Fishing is an ongoing theme.
The beauty of connection.
This group is trying to measure the depth of this water to see if they can go in safely or not.
The Eagles gather around to listen to learn about the proper and safe way to use a saw. Later, many children had an opportunity to cut Kate’s Christmas tree.
Kate helps Ronan steady the blade.
Experimenting with foam paint- sadly, it only worked for a short while- back to the drawing board!
Ezrah bumped his head on the way to sign into the Cottage so we gave him an ice pack. In this photo Oliver asks Ezrah if he would like help to hold the ice pack on his bump. So sweet!
Elizabeth and Daniela share twigs to make some designs; will they remain abstract designs or will they start to create a picture with the shapes?
Owls cook green beans from the garden (they were in the freezer). Wow, the chefs created a popular dish as most children ate 3 or 4 servings!
Sun streaming down on the painting station- talk about inspiration!
Rhys, Daniela, Yehuan and Sarah are contemplating how to get the small toy cars out of the wheel. They suggested shaking it up and down but only one car fell out. At this point, they were stumped!
Ryan connects “roads’ for his cars.
We had not played this game in a while so we brought it out again. There was great interest and it was a joy to watch them looking at the animal figures and relate to the animals we have here at Terra Nova.
Exploring with clay and wire in the Studio. Clay offers endless possibilities in terms of artistic expression, gross motor development and social awareness.
After I helped facilitate one bingo round, I then took myself out of the game so they could play independently.They really did a great job, ensuring the rules were followed and all was fair.
Tyler notices the photographs on the wall in a collage Barry made for us last year. Shantelle and Tyler enjoy looking at the photos together.
Dion and Jackson negotiate train wrecks, bumping trains and loud ‘kabooms” together.
In gratitude,
Emily