Knock, knock!

We’re here! And we are back for another glance into the week at The House.

Before we take a closer look into what the children were exploring, and diving into this week, let’s talk about PLAY, and what is means when it comes to learning.

Play-based learning provides opportunities for children to develop a sense of world around them through inquiry, exploration, interaction, and problem-solving. Allowing the children to play, you are allowing them to bring in language , customs and culture into the classroom as they start to reveal themselves.

Below the Preschool classroom has showed an interest in Arctic animals that has taken over the small world play. Small world play is creating a life scene the children can explore and act out ideas from real life or reenact stories that know of.

From the youngest to the oldest of the House – letter, number and colour recognition will take place during play. Without even knowing it, the children are constantly looking at and viewing letters, colours and numbers around the classroom and over time they will begin to recognize and bring what they know into their language.

Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your child’s senses: touch, smell, taste, movement, balance, sight and hearing. Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore.

Free-art, structured art, any type of art allows for the children to explore their creativity and imagination. Fine-motor skills are tested as they hold the paint-brush or move their tiny hands to push the paint across the table.

The best part of play? It continues on even when it’s the weekend! And with snow on the way, let them play!

The Chartwell House.

Twenty-twenty vision.

New, year, new decade, same blog.

We hope you all enjoyed your holidays! With another year over, and a new one just begun, it has been a busy first full week back at the house. And so, I present to you….a week in photos.

From the youngest, to the oldest it is important to master your fine motor skills. These look mighty fine!

We were happy to have Suzie, Mr. McCoy, and Madame S back for music, karate, and French!

When Madame S is not teaching Francais, or prepping the food for the House, she is running the Mother Goose program for the toddlers. She introduces those classic nursery rhymes, with actions, song and Mother Goose herself.

And the rest of the week in photos show: teamwork, letter and colour recognition, the practice of the pincer grasp, patterning, magnets, and more…

That’s this week complete in photos. Now, on to the weekend…we will see you back at the House Monday!

The Chartwell House.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas….shopping.

This time of year can be stressful, and we can get caught up in the whirlwind of it all and before we know it, the holidays are over and we rushed through the most wonderful time of year. And so this is a small reminder, to slow down and enjoy it. Enjoy the music, the time spent with family, the art show, the Christmas Concert, slow down and breath in the holidays. This time of year is magical, don’t let it rush by.

So before you scroll through…put your feet up, pour some Egg Nog, curl up in front of the fire and enjoy this week in photos.

They say a picture says a thousand words…

It has been a very busy week, and we are ending the week with the Toddler Christmas Around the World Art Show, and before I go to walk through the winter wonderland of art I would like to thank the Toddler Staff for all the hard word they have put into pulling off the most wonderful art show! It is a lot of work, and a lot of tape, but you ladies did such an amazing job, and we thank you!! A job well done, and a weekend well deserved.

From all of us here, we wish you all a great weekend!

The Chartwell House.

"Busy, busy, busy!"

In the words of Professor Hinkle, we have been, BUSY BUSY BUSY here at the House. The Toddler classrooms have been set up like Santa’s workshop and they have been the little elves creating what will be the most wonderful Christmas Around the World Art Show, and it’s just a week a way! The Preschool classrooms have been putting their vocals to the test, as they continue to practice for their big show on the stage in 12 days.

It really is the most wonderful time of year! And we are all excited to give you all a whole lot of Christmas cheer!

But for now….let’s take a look at what happens when we let it snow!

The Preschoolers brought Frosty to life! “Happy Birthday!”

And the Toddler squad went on an adventure following the footprints of an small intruder that scurried across their yard.

After playing in the snow, it was back into the classroom they go…Holiday Fun was had throughout the House.

A sneak peak into the Toddler prep for the Art Show…that is all you will see until the doors open at 3:00! (….next week).

The oldest of the House worked on their pincer-grasp as they shared their wish list for Santa.

Short and sweet this week but the snow is falling and we want to get back outside to play, and so we hope you have a happy Friday! And a wonderful weekend too!

The Chartwell House.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year…"

This week at the House, we had Mr. McCoy put us to work with an obstacle course during Karate, Little Ray’s shared their facts with us as they introduced a few furry friends, Ms. J danced our sillies out and then calmed us right down with some solid meditation and Madame S tested us on our Francais matching skills.

” It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival…”

When the rain is coming down, and keeping us indoors…we make Gingerbread men. The toddlers put their whole self into this creative…

Grass! A river! Uh oh! Mud! A forest! Uh oh! A snowstorm! A cave! The Preschooler’s favourite story came to life, as they went on a bear hunt.

The importance of patterning in Preschool: it helps children make predictions based on their observations, an important math skill. Understanding patterns can help prepare children for learning complex number concepts, and mathematical operations.

Letter recognition: the ability to visually recognize letters of the alphabet through hands-on learning.

And because we are so close to the holiday season…we painted some “O Christmas Trees…look at those fine motor skills, and concentration and all it took was a pinecone and paint.

Speaking of concentration, it is Friday afternoon and I have lost mine and so I will end things here and say, have a wonderful weekend everybody!

Dear Secret Santa…

We have a lot to discuss. But first….let’s show the people what they want.

The House was rockin’ this week, with both Suzie and Ms. Amy visiting.

Music and Dance not only brings the fun to the house, but they bring a lot of benefits too! Music encourages and engages the brain as the children learn new sounds, words and patterns through music. Dance allows the children to control their bodies and movement. Both can cultivate communication skills, bringing the children together to sing, rhyme, and learn new actions to interact with other children. Music and Dance gives an opportunity for self-expression and encourages creativity. Physical skill will be worked on during dance, helping children build their coordination, balance, and control. Both will also open up the children’s imagination and creativity sides. So sing and dance like no one is watching!

Funkey Kids made a stop at the house too, continuing to help the children work on their coordination, balance, and control. All that built-up stored energy…gone!

Fine motor skills are achieved when children learn to use their smaller muscles, like muscles in the hands, fingers, and wrists. Children use their fine motor skills when writing, holding small items, buttoning clothing, turning pages, eating, cutting with scissors and using computer keyboards. Mastery of fine motor skills requires precision and coordination

Schemas are patterns of repeatable behaviour the children use to test out ideas and to make sense of the world around them. The positioning schema in play: ordering and arranging objects sometimes in very obsessive manners. They sometimes line them up in order of size, colour or shape or texture too.

There is said to be at least 6 stages of writing development: drawing (scribble pictures), random scribbling but the children tend to name their scribble, letter-like forms where the children will use unconventional letter forms and familiar symbols such as circles, but still give meaning to their writing, random letters is when the children will use letter shapes to convey meaning, and then there is the patterned letter stage where children begin to string letters together, sometimes having their name appear.

And just before we head off into the weekend…let’s talk about Ms. S’ Mother Goose program this week, where she brings those old nursery rhymes to life using a little Mother Goose herself, who the children watch wide-eyed as she sings the classics.

Okay Secret Santa…I hope you are still reading because the following is a short list for you to check twice:

unlimited coffee
half day Fridays
and Peace on Earth

Happy Friday!

The Chartwell House.

Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum

There is just nothing better than a fresh coat of snow when you’re a child.

There’s just something about this time of year.

That brings just a little bit more cheer.

This time of year can also make you think a little bit more about those around you, those you hold close, those who you may call a friend. Friendship for the little one’s is a vital part of growing up and an essential part of their social and emotional development. Building friendships at this age could mean playing side by side with one another without the need to communicate, it could mean having your own language, asking where someone is because they notice they are not in school today, or it could mean waiting by the door for someone and as soon as they enter, a huge smile takes over both of their faces.

Friendship is not being able to contain yourself when your best mate does something so silly, all you can do is laugh. But what can be contained…well that’s just one area that the Preschool class explored. Containment. There are a few important schema’s that children will experience. Schema’s are about repeated patterns of behaviour and one of these patterns is the containment schema. Which is simply, putting one object inside of another and having an understanding of volume and capacity.

“Red and yellow, and pink and green. Purple, and orange and blue.” Colour recognition was happening in Toddler Two.

Learning the colours of the rainbow is a basic foundation for children 18 months up to 3 years of age, learning the colours help children build their vocabulary, they start to understand sorting and classifying, and they learn that different colours may refer to health and safety, like stopping at a red light, or that green means go.