december 2022
The children in the school age room have been interested in all things winter and Christmas! We have been so fortunate to be able to spend majority of our afternoons outside in the snow. Outdoors, the children have been developing games such as ice monster tag, snow mermaids, tobogganing races, and finding ways to interconnect sleds. The sleds are a huge interest in the school age room . The children compare the different types of snow and decide which snow is best for sledding. "The snow is too fluffy today. My sled is going so slow." -C. "Woah! The snow is so hard today! I'm going down the hill so fast!" -A. The children find ways to share the sleds and use them with each other. A, S, and E grabbed the blue sleds and experimented in ways they could go down the hills together. They began sitting down on the sleds and holding hands, scooching the sleds forward, trying to get down the hill. "We're not moving very fast" -A. "We should run first and then jump onto the sleds while holding hands" -E. The children tested out E's idea, but found it difficult to jump on the sleds at the same time, causing their hands to let go of each other. "What if we run and then try to grab each other's sleds?" -S. The children tested out S's idea and noticed it worked a lot better. Collaboratively working with each other, they were able to problem solve the best way to make it down the hill while being together. The children wrapped up their gives for the seniors and finished creating the last of the cards. T, N, and C used large pieces of paper and drew on them to create the wrapping paper. "I'm going to write Merry Christmas all over it" -T. "We gotta put lots of drawings on to cover the entire present" -C. R and M created a few more cards and used wood loose parts around the room to add detail to the cards.
The school age children also created ornaments for the seniors and for their families. Opening up clear ornaments, the children painted and filled the ornaments with different materials. "Look there's snow in it" -A D. A put cotton balls and some glitter inside the ornament to create snow. R took pieces of ribbon and carefully glued them onto the ornament to "wrap it up". T took a paintbrush and dipped it in paint and then flicked the paint off the brush onto the inside of the ornament to create an abstract effect. "It makes it look fancy when you splatter the paint on it" -T said while laughing. A and C used the cotton balls in a different way. A grabbed two cotton balls and glued them one on top of the other. He then took paint and painted on a face on the top cotton ball and some buttons on the bottom cotton ball. "Look at my little snowman! He's a little squishy" -A. C painted the cotton balls different colours and tried to find the best way to hold them without getting her hands too dirty. "I need a stick to hold it when I paint" -C. C stuck her cotton ball on a pencil and painted around it. She was then challenged with the best way to dry the cotton ball without the paint coming off. "I should put it on a paper towel so it doesn't stick [to the table]." -C. C then used string to attach to her cotton ball so she could hang them around the room. With the snow falls prevalent recently, E brought in her best newscaster voice. E walked around the room with a plank in her hand that she used as a microphone to do her news segment. "So S, what do you think about all the snow outside?" -E. She also covered other pressing topics around the room such as the child of the week. "So E, how does it feel to be child of the week?". We're excited to see how all these ideas develop in the new year. Have a great winter break everyone!
Jen Kesner RECE, Ashlie Johnston RECE
