Hippity Hoppity Easter’s on it’s way!

It may have been a short week, but it sure was action packed! With Suzie Sunshine, Monkeynastix, Karate, Movin’&Groovin,’ and Meditating Munchkins visiting the House.

The Easter bunny will be hopping into town soon, and that means all classrooms were focused on egg-citing things. Starting with the Seniors of the House, where they decorated their own eggs to later hang in the windows to shine.

They worked on their letter recognition, pincer-grasp while writing and tracing the letters, scissor skills, and colour sorting and grouping too!

Mr. Singh introduced string art to The Senior’s, where they carefully dangled string covered in paint across their pieces of paper to create their own string designs. The children also helped Mr. Singh mix the ingredients together to make playdough too!

And with Spring-like temperatures allowing us to take to the outdoors, we took advantage…

Both Senior Preschool and Preschool went on a hunt for eggs…where oh where could they be?

Not only does Spring mean Easter and eggs, it also means April showers, and WORMS! And Preschool found just a few of the slimy, slithery ones…

When the hunt for eggs and worms was over, the Preschool class went back inside to decorate their own eggs using eggs to do so!

Where there are worms, there are birds! And Preschool has been working on building their own bird nests, using their fine-motor skills when using the tongs to create such a nest!

The egg decorating continued up the stairs in the Toddler Two classroom…

The Toddler Two’s also worked on their numbers and counting when placing the small blocks on to the plate, matching the number of blocks to the number on the plate. Counting each block as they placed them on the plate.

They also counted the bricks when building a tower with Ms. B before it came crashing down, and braved the tickle of the paintbrush when Ms. Rogers painted their hand for their art piece.

The Toddler One class brought their indoor learning outdoors, when they did a little science experiment under the trees using Easter eggs, baking soda and vinegar…

The results below…

Ouuu, ahhh!

We can continue the ou’s and ah’s because the weekend is here, and it’s a long one!

From us to you, we wish you all a very Happy Easter!

The Chartwell House.

Go Raptors&Leafs Go!

After the House sported their blue and white to support the Leafs in Game One, the Leafs took the game with a 4-1 win over Boston…we would like to think we had just a little something to do with it. Raps….you’re up!

Speaking of Raptors, the Senior’s of the House were all about Dinosaurs…lava, and volcanoes too!

Ms. Shannon inspired by Bill Nye himself, did a little science experiment herself…showing the Senior’s what happens when a volcano erupts!

Then just like that the dinosaurs, and volcano were extinct.

And the Senior’s took to the outside where they joined Preschool in prepping the garden beds for the seeds and planting to come.

The Senior’s also joined the Toddler One classroom for their Reading Buddies Meet-up! The youngest and the oldest mixed up their groups to spend time together reading their short-story favourites.

We will stay in the Toddler One area to see what they got up to this week…

April showers, bring May flowers, but also mud….so why not paint with it? The Toddlers splashed their paint brushes into the mud to then cover their boots!

Focusing on their fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination the Toddlers very carefully stacked the different blocks to build up, up and up.

In the Senior Toddler classroom they were all about sensory play…from water, to water beads, to fishing to sand to all things Easter!

We’ll leave the Senior Todds to their bins, and move on to the Preschool classroom where they were exploring ramps…what rolls down the ramp? how fast does it roll? how far can it roll?

Rolling along..

Using their pincer-grasp they very carefully transferred the water from one bowl into a much smaller bowl….impressive hand-eye skills happening!

And with Easter just around the corner the Preschoolers have been practicing their egg-hunt skills…

Just like the eggs, the weekend was in hiding, but now it’s HARE!

The Chartwell House.

April Snow Falls bring May…?

It was another busy week with Monkeynastix, Karate, Movin’ and Groovin,’ Yoga, French with Madame S, and “M is for Music,” visiting the House.

There was no April Fools joke here, we really did have Crazy Hair….

We will start in the Senior Preschool…

Where above you can see them working on their fine motor skills when carefully balancing the bunnies to make a tower. Slow and steady!

With a balance scale, the Seniors were estimating, problem-solving, and learning about weight and comparing different items and recording what items are heavier or lighter, understanding the concept of more than or less than.

Providing loose parts, allows the children to make their own choices, and use their imagination to create on their own. With a few different options, the Senior’s chose how they wanted to decorate their butterflies.

And because Spring is in the air…they were inspired when creating this art piece.

They practiced using scissors, worked their self-help skills when washing the babies, and continued to fine tune their motor skills when using elastics to carefully pull and place using the boards to make different designs.

Before we move into Preschool, let’s move outside…when the sun shines, we play!

Back indoors, and over in the Preschool classroom, they were all about building their own ramps, and letting the marbles fly!

Once they lost their marbles, they moved to the sensory bins.

We will keep this moving, and head up into the Toddler district where the Toddler Two’s got their creative on…painting with flowers!

They worked on their colour recognition when sorting and grouping the different colours.

And put their hand-eye coordination to work when fitting the puzzles pieces together.

Just one more class to go, and then we won’t BUG you anymore….the youngest of the House will though…as they explored all kinds of bugs. Bugs on the walls, bugs on the table….

….and bugs in the sensory bin! Some they had to catch, and some they had to save from being trapped in an ice cube.

Speaking of ice, it’s still a little too chilly Mother Nature….we are looking for those Spring time temperatures like…

However, if you’re looking for the weekend, look no more…it is here! Happy Friday!

The Chartwell House.

Let’s March on to April!

It was the last week of March and we took full advantage of the Spring like weather this week at The House…

The Animals came for a visit…

And both our Preschool classes got to ride a big yellow school bus to Playtown, and oh, did they PLAY!

Meanwhile back at The House, the Toddler Two’s took over the Preschool yard! When the cat’s away, the mice will play!

When they weren’t in the Preschool yard playing hard, they were up in their classroom working hard…

The Senior Toddler’s have been talking all about feelings and emotions, and the rollarcoster you can go on through out the day from happy, to sad, to excited, to being overwhelmed, to being sleepy, hungry…hangry…

The youngest of the House….played House.

From the colours, to the creative art, Spring has brought some fresh ideas to the Toddler One classroom…

We will move from the youngest of the House to the oldest, where they talked and learnt all about Community Helpers before heading to Playtown where they transformed into little helpers themselves!

They also worked their fine motor skills when working with the magnets, construction, and while threading too…

Last, but not least we will finish in Preschool where the classroom turned into The Chartwell House Doctor’s Office.

They may not have been painting but they all have green thumbs in Preschool….

They also have been mastering their letter and name recognition too!

The sun is shining and it is Friday…that means this is the end of the blog for this week. Stay tuned…more to come next week!

The Chartwell House.

It’s Spring! We are so excited we wet our plants.

We made it! Through the Antarctica-like temperatures, the snow, the snow days, the ice age…we made it to Spring ladies and gentlemen! Bring on the worms, birds, puddles, and warmer temps please!

Now that we are finally on the plus side of zero we are back to our regular scheduled programming which means we are back outdoors and loving every minute of that fresh air! Breathe in the Spring, breathe out those Winter germs!

Spring has sprung in Toddler One! And they got creative. Using their fingers to dab the buds on to the tree, painted cupcake wrappers to transform into a beautiful bouquet of flowers, used foam paint to rain on to an umbrella, and glued feathers on to birdies.

The best way to get our sillies out and all that extra stored energy?…Ms. J’s Movin’ and Groovin’ and Monkeynastix with Heather of course!

The Senior Toddler class joined in on getting their sillies out too…with Yoga, Suzie and Monkeynastix!

The Senior Todd’s also got their fine motor skills on when holding the fishing rod to make a catch, painting the news while grasping the paintbrush, and holding and pinching together clothespins with one hand while painting with H2O on the brush in the other.

And with new blocks in the room, they built their very own version of the Three Little Pig’s brick house…no big bad wolf will be huffing and puffing this one down!

The Senior Toddler’s were not the only fish in the sea exploring the deep blue, Preschool took a dive into exploring sea creatures.

Using recycled egg cartons, pipe-cleaners, paint and googly-eyes the Preschoolers made their very own sea creature.

And when they came back on land, they took to the Small World play.

Small World Play: Small world play is creating a life scene for the child to play with. You can use miniature items (such as miniature furniture or barn animals) in the environment you create for them to play with. The goal is for the child to act out ideas from real life or reenact stories they know of.

What do you do when life gives you cups?….Answer below. Another example of ‘loose part,’ play and how important it is for children to explore open-ended materials on their own and let their imagination soar!

The Senior’s of the House also rocked the loose part game…

Got their Spring colours inspired paint on…

And increased their fine tuned motor skills when threading, and building with Lego.

The Senior’s of the House also impressed Madame S during French Friday when they learnt all things Spring en Francais!

La Fin.

Is that the weekend we see?

It sure is. The weekend and Spring are here, and we could not be happier!

The Chartwell House.

It’s just your luck…

 St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and the PADDY has started here at the House!

Sorry, no SHAM here, the Irish puns ROCK! Just Dublin the fun this week…

Let’s see what the wee ones got up to!

It was all sensory play in the Toddler district. Both Toddler classrooms worked those fine-motor skills when diving into the sensory bins.

Five Key Benefits of Sensory Play:

1. Builds nerve connections within the developing brain’s neural pathways, which trigger a child’s inclination for and ability in competing more complex learning tasks.
2. Supports language development, cognitive growth, motor skills, problem solving skills, and social interaction.
3. Aids in developing and enhancing memory functioning.
4. Is great for calming an anxious or frustrated child
5. Helps children learn vitally important sensory attributes (hot, cold, sticky, dry, etc.).

The youngest of the House also explored loose parts when collecting different sized lids from recycled items – stack, fill, dump, repeat. A major highlight and excitement for Toddler’s is the process of filling something up, and then dumping that something out. They are not just making a mess, they are learning all about size, volume, incline, force, gravity, and cause and effect. So what may look like “making a mess,” is actually a long term project of figuring out the relationship between a container and the objects that fit inside.

 

They continued to work the fine-motor skills when manipulating the toddler-proof scissors when cutting through the slime, and using a pizza slicer to divide the playdough into pieces. Look at those little hands work!

The hard work continued in the Toddler Two classroom, as they too used proper form when rolling and cutting the playdough.

And focusing hard with their hand-eye coordination when threading green pasta dyed with care by Ms. B.

They kept those little hands busy while creating some St. Paddy’s Day inspired art.

The Toddler Two’s added the gold to the pot, but Preschool and Senior Preschool added what they would do with that pot of gold…

The Preschool classroom put their pot of gold together, to welcome a new friend to the classroom! Chartwell Families meet….Timbit. Timbit, Chartwell Families.

Timbit is a Betta fish coming all the way from PetSmart. Our Preschool friends have a big responsibility with Timbit, helping keep his home clean, and his little Betta belly full.

Now back to our regular scheduled programming…

Preschool kept the thread game going when weaving in and out of the holes around the four leaf clover.

The St. Paddy’s Day creative continues…

So does the sensory play, beneficial for all ages!

Including the Seniors of the House.

And the art…

The Senior classroom worked on their number recognition, fine motor and matching skills all at the same time when using the tongs to carefully place the right amount of jewels on to the clover.

Together the Seniors made green playdough, helping add the ingredients before adding all things green to the dough!

The teachers added shapes and St. Paddy’s Day inspired drawings and patterns on the light box for the children to follow! What a bright idea!

It wasn’t all green in the classroom, they took a closer look at all colours and explored colouring mixing too.

Speaking of mixing, we mixed a little bit of French into our Friday today, when Ms. S stopped into the Preschool classrooms to teach the children their fruits en Francais. After learning the name of the fruit, they were challenged to find the fruit Madame S would announce…find the…ananas!

La Fin.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The Chartwell House.

Twelve days till SPRING.

Jokes over Mother Nature. We NEED back outdoors, so if you could warm things up even just a little bit, we would all greatly appreciate it. Sincerely, The Chartwell House. PS. Good job on the sunshine though, we will take that!

We were extra happy to see our extra curricular programs visit the House this week. With more than enough energy stored up, we let it all out while singing with Suzie, rolling, balancing, and stretching with Monkeynastix, kicking, dodging and karate-chopping with Mr. McCoy, movin’ and groovin’ with Ms. J, and lucky for us Ms. Rachelle brought the Irish music that charmed us over during ‘M is for Music.’

Since we have been cooped up indoors, it has been a zoo in here, actually more like a jungle…and especially in the Toddler One classroom.

The Todd’s spiked an interest in all animals, and got creative while learning the names, and sounds of each one!

The animals were even invited for some afternoon…tea? Served by the Todder’s themselves while using their hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills. 

And after all that…tea, the animals seemed to have taken a turn for the worst, but with a little help from their friends, they got by.

Once the animals felt better, the Toddler’s invited their Kinder-buddies from across the parking lot to join them for story time. The Senior Preschool class bundled up for the short journey into the Toddler district, and brought along a few of their favourite stories to read to the youngest of the House.

While these two groups got their reading on, the Senior Toddler classroom went green. Why are their hands always sticky? The answer lies below.

Threading: a great way to encourage and build fine-motor skills. – Check!

To develop and build those fine-motor skills you must continue to put them to work. And the Senior Toddler’s did just that as they manipulated the pipe-cleaners bending them to make a rainbow! And using the tongs to transfer items to one bowl to the next.

Encouraging gross-motor skills at anytime of the day is a good idea when stuck inside! Jump, jump, jump!

Let’s jump into what the Preschool class got up to this week…

They worked with paint, exploring and observing what happens when they mix two colours together, and got their Picasso on when putting the paintbrush to paper choosing their colour, and type of brush stroke. They also helped Ms. Marney paint the bulletin board to later hang in the classroom.

Early literacy: is what children know about reading and writing before they can actually read and write. Early literacy skills are the roots of reading success.

This continued in the Senior Preschool classroom…tracing their name, recognizing the letter in their name, and forming different words encourages and inspires reading.

Introducing items that are seen at home, can help children develop self-help skills, such as pouring on their own, or using cutlery properly.

Without even knowing it, colour recognition happens through-out the classroom, when building a tower they name the colour of the block, and while they name the colour, they may count how many blocks they stack on top of one another to build a tower, and then along with colour recognition, comes one on one corresponding as they count the blocks they stack. Learning happens constantly….and it’s happening during play!

The Senior’s joined in on the luck, as they were inspired by Ms. Hillis’ pot of gold art piece and attempted to create their very own…

We’ve come to the end of the rainbow….and you know what’s there? The weekend!

We hope you all enjoy it.

The Chartwell House.