Children's Festival

What a beautiful day we had for Children's Festival this year! The last few years have been rainy and cold but the sun came out this year. It made the day that much more enjoyable!

 

The morning started off a bit hectic, getting everyone organized at STA but we all made it in time for the Frogz show. The show was a big hit with the kids. The show was a compilation of  little skits including various creatures.

 

After the show we divided up into our groups and had a picnic lunch. Then afterwards we explored the festival. There were many things to do and see (face painting, story time, exploring sounds, toy making, water play, riding the bus, going through the maze, etc.). Because there were so many other people and children we got a lot of practice with the skill of waiting!

 



The Very Hungry Caterpillars

Continuing with our animal theme, caterpillars arrived in our classroom. Our caterpillars definitely are hungry! They have been eating lots and some have already started making pupas (chrysalis). Soon we will have beautiful butterflies.

Day 1:

Day 7:

Day 13:



 

 



H is for...

Hat, Horse, Hamburger and...

 

 

The focus this week during Letter Time was the letter H. Some of the kids discovered that their name started with the letter H or that they had the letter h somewhere in their name! We also played a game of Hot Potato which was a huge success. With some team brainstorming we made a "hot potato" out of a sock and put rice inside and heated in the microwave so it was warm and passed it around.  We also made a mini obstacle course using the hula hoops in the gym. Hooray for H!  

Our Classroom Pet

We are happy to announce our new addition to the STA classroom - our pet fish!

 

 

A couple weeks ago, a small group of our kids went on a field trip to Pet Land. Before leaving they made a shopping list of things that the fish would need (i.e. fish food, water, fish home/tank, etc.). The fish has brought a lot of excitement and  commenting to the classroom. We are still deciding on a name for our fish. Some of the kids suggestions are:

 

- Car

- Fisheyes

- Ruby

- Fin

- Jeremy

- Tara

- Summer

 

 

We are hoping to name our fish on Thursday. Stay tuned! 

Happy Mother's Day

Our Mother's Day Lunch was a huge success! Thank you for all the moms who were able to attend  and for all of the moms who were unable to come we were thinking of you. The afternoon was full of food, flowers, picture taking and face painting. The afternoon ended with a little performance put on by all the kids. 

Rainbows

The first week of Spring themed lessons is almost done and we've been learning about rainbows!

We started by reading Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. The book is a great introductory to spring as it talks about planting a garden and growing flowers. We use it as a basis for discussion of colour.

 

After the story we create our own rainbows by following the colours in the book. Unifix cubes are great for learning about patterns and sequences. Our rainbows need 1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow, 1 green, 1 blue, and 1 dark blue (but we pretend it's purple!). This activity allows the kids to practice their colour identification and their ability to reproduce a pattern. It's been really cool to see just how many of our kiddos can do this independently!

 

We finish our classroom time with this cute rainbow craft. The kids glue on the precut strips and then cover the paper plate in cotton balls to look just like a cloud.

K is for...

Kangaroos, kittens, koalas...
It's K week in our Animated Literacy program! Yesterday we had a circle time all about the letter K. We passed around and played with some small toys that looked like a kite, kettle, koala, kangaroo, and kazoo. Next we read a book called Ken's Kitten and the kids took turns lifting flaps to see where the kitten was hiding. We finished up with a craft turning a big letter K into a kangaroo. I think they turned out pretty cute!