Canada Water Highlights 21st March

Irish Crafts, A Farm Trip and Learning About London in the Baby Room!

With various crafts, a trip, and songs alongside mark-making activities, the Baby Room had a busy week.

Communication and Language

Irish Songs and Numbers

The children learned a few phrases and numbers in Irish while playing and singing together! They learned how to count with cards, and then transferred that learning to the blackboard to draw pictures and practice writing. This encourages all types of learning from linguistic to reading, writing, and cognitive development.

Then they also learned how to say "Dia duit" (Hello) and "Slán" (Goodbye) as they practised singing along to the new sounds. It was a great way for the children to connect and play while also expanding their minds as they eagerly took on the challenge of learning a new language!

STEAM Activity: Irish Potion Experiment

Science and magic were combined and the children had a bubbling, fizzing Irish Potion experiment! Using red baking soda and vinegar, the children watched as the potion fizzed and spewed right before their eyes. This engaging experiment helps little minds with scientific processing and provides a great foundation for cause and effect—all with magical fun!

Festival of the Week: St. Patrick's Day

For St. Patrick's Day, we went into the nature reserve where we created a clover craft out of natural materials.

The children explored the area and found many clovers and leaves which they placed on a large cardboard cutout of a clover. Then with paint and glue, they accessorized it while listening to the teachers talk about St. Patrick's Day and how it plays an integral role in Irish heritage.

Regional Education: Making a London Bus

Little Picassos learned about London red buses through a collaborative art project.

After talking about the importance of having buses in London, we created a double-decker bus! Using a cardboard box, red paint! As we created our bus, we shared how buses were important.

This was a great opportunity for teamwork, group cohesion, and fine motor skills as they collaborated over something familiar to their daily commute to the nursery.

Excursion: Surrey Docks Farm!

The week's highlight was our farm field trip where the children could meet and feed some animals!

🐄 They got up close and personal with cows, goats, and chickens—many of them for the first time!
🐖 They were particularly fond of the goats.
🐑 They posed some great questions about where food comes from and how they care for animals.

This was a wonderful sensory, interactive and learning experience that helped connect the children to animals, nature and the great outdoors. We hope to visit again!

Specials: Music, Movement and Sensory!

Mindful Music with Molly

This week with Miss Molly was all about music, movement and mindfulness!

🎶 The children made percussion sounds as they shook their instruments to the song "Up and Down," practising listening and control.
🚣‍♂️ They also engaged in movement as they rocked back and forth during "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as a group activity.
🐷 They squealed with delight as they played with soft farm animals and sang "Old MacDonald Had a Farm".
🌈 For Spring, we brought it home with a "Rainbow Song" as they flailed their arms in colourful gestures and explored colours and textures.

Lucy Sparkles: Music and Movement

The children had a wonderful time this week with Lucy Sparkles!

🐯 The "Tiger Introduction Song" had everyone roaring and grooving as they were led to make animal sounds and movements.
🌈 The grand finale was the Rainbow Parachute where we lifted it above our heads and watched the twirling and glistening of colours as we sang "I Can See a Rainbow".

Irish Heritage, New Season and STEAM in Preschool!

This week in preschool we welcomed the Irish heritage, learned about the Spring season as it's upon us, and commenced with STEAM learning to promote creative problem-solving. It's been a week filled with learning and laughter from rainbows to Gaelic!

Gaelic Heritage

As our unit on Ireland and the UK continues, children learn about the gorgeous Gaelic language. To start, we listened to a "meet and greet" song which helped them learn some new sounds; they happily sang along and loved discovering how others say hello and goodbye.

We then talked about the flowers of the UK; the national flowers are the shamrock (Ireland), thistle (Scotland), rose (England), and daffodil (Wales). Children created their fabric and crafted collages of a flower; this taught them about texture while working on fine motor skills.

St. Patrick's Day

This week, we got into the St. Patrick's Day spirit over at preschool! We decorated the classroom with green and sang along to Irish-inspired tunes.

A few of the children explored how to play the different instruments we had on hand and we played Gaelic music. We also explored what the shamrock means, who St. Patrick was, and how he helped the Irish!

Welcoming Spring Ostara

In honour of Spring being finally here, we celebrated Ostara, which is the festival for this time of year when new life and rebirth happen. The preschoolers made decorations out of pressed flower petals to welcome the natural beauty of flowers and listened to a poem about blooming where you're planted.

Our favourite activity was pretending to be in a fairy garden where children role-played with one another to create narratives centred around fairies and flowers. It connected them to nature and beauty while promoting imagination and cooperative play.

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STEAM Activity: The Myth of the Rainbow 🌈

Taking from the Irish myth that we learned about, the children explored the myth of the rainbow and that at the end of rainbows, there is a pot of gold.

🔹Drip coloured water with pipettes onto cotton and tissue to create our rainbows (where colours blended and we got our variations)

🔹Golden coin counting where the children used tweezers to transfer coins to pots to use their mathematical thinking and support fine motor development.

London Landmarks

As we continued learning about the UK with our home—London! Preschoolers discussed landmarks they know, recalling places they've travelled with their families.
Then, as a follow-up to this experience, they engaged in a building activity, using newspapers, they made their rendition of Big Ben. This encourages collaborative and creative construction and affirms a relationship with the children's present-day city of residence.

Specialist Sessions: Movement and Music

Mindfulness🧘‍♀️

Miss Molly led a wonderful mindfulness and movement workshop where the children became different animals that then went under a blanket while others guessed who was hiding. It explored various movement skills and opportunities for sound which allowed the children to practice their imaginative development and verbal expressive abilities. At the end of the class, they engaged in some calming techniques which helped them self-soothe and regulate emotions.

Sports Minis🏃‍♂️

With Coach Terry, our preschoolers focused on the following to improve body control and physical coordination/movement capabilities. Using scarves, tennis balls, and hoops, the children engaged in:

✅ Foot stability and movement  ✅ Catching and throwing  ✅ Running and directional skills

Music 🎶

Hannah Sparkles was all about storytelling, songs and waiting your turn. With the use of puppets, she had the preschoolers involved in an active musical which led to heartfelt singing and raised voices.