Stampede Week

 

In honor of the Calgary Stampede, we talked about cowboys and horses during group yesterday. We read a simple story about a rodeo called "Cowboy Up" By: Larry Dane Brimner. While reading the story we used small figurines and got the kids to imitate various actions. Then we made paper bag cowboys during craft and for our gym portion of group we rolled the big dice and did various horse actions (i.e. horse eating, horse galloping, horse jumping, etc.) and played I had a little pony! 

 

 

 

 

Summer Time!

Summer is here and we couldn't be happier! Our classrooms are all switched off to the new themes (camping, backyard and ocean/lake), outings have started - the first one was last Friday at Sikome lake. We had great weather and everyone had a fantastic time playing in the water. Today, we went Dragon Boating and all the kids successfully coped with getting in the boat and they all stayed in the boat. Also our Annual Stampede Breakfast is on Thursday which is always a blast, hopefully we will see lots of you there!

Here are some of the new activities you can find in the classrooms:

In the "backyard" (Tree Room) you can BBQ, water your plants, wash and hang your clothes to dry as well as mow the lawn and paint the fence.

 

 

 You can go camping in the sunroom. You can sleep in the tent, build a fire and roast marshmellows. There are also fun camping games, like lawn bowling to play.

 

In the Rainbow room you can catch some waves in the pool and then afterwards go to the ice cream/popsicle stand for a tasty treat. 

 

 

What a wonderful day to garden!

This afternoon for learning group, we went outside and planted flowers in the backyard. We learned today that not everyone is a fan of dirt! Some groups planted in pairs, so they had to help one another out and take turns. Others worked on coping with touching the dirt and helping dig a hole. Watering the flowers was a favorite of most of the kids.  After we planted our flower garden we went and played in the backyard! It was a great Thursday :)

Doctors and X-rays

This month we are learning about safety and community helpers. This week we have been talking about doctors. Yesterday for craft we made x-rays of our hands. First we traced the outlines of our hands, then we coloured them in with a white crayon. Next we glued on Q-tips for the bones.

We also read a story about a little girl who was sick and had to go to the doctors. We talked about what a doctor does, what a doctor wears and some of the tools a doctor uses.  For some of the groups, we also looked about some pretend x-rays. For other groups we played with a pretend doctor's kit and listened to each other's heart beats and looked inside one another's ears.

The Mixed-Up Chameleon

Today in learning group we read  The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle and talked about colours and animals. Check out this online version of the story:

For craft, we made our own mixed-up chameleons!

 

 

 

Children's Festival

Today we went to the Calgary International Children's Festival! The show we saw was called BAM. This year we got front row seats. Here is a little preview of what it was about:

 

The show was a bit longer than was expected and at times the drumming was quite loud but all of the kiddos coped well and seemed to enjoy it! After the show we had a picnic lunch at Olympic Plaza and then we explored the rest of the festival. They had live music, face painting, story time and other games and activities. Some of the line-ups were quite long so most of the kids splashed around in the wading pool!

 

 



Oh, Mr. Sun

One of the songs we have been singing a lot lately during group time is Oh, Mr. Sun! We had forgotten about this classic song until Amy sang it the other day. We also loved her sun props so we made some of our own. We like incorporating props into songs as it allows all of our kiddos to participate.

 

Here are the lyrics if you would like to sing at home:

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun
Please shine down on me

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr, Golden Sun
Hiding behind the tree

Oh these little children are asking you
To please come out so they can play with you

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr.  Golden Sun
Please shine down on
Please shine down on
Please shine down on me!