Christmas is right around the corner, and we felt so excited to celebrate this cheerful atmosphere along with the kids. Last week, to welcome this holiday season, our babies got to experience digging through snow with their scoopers. Since the babies enjoyed playing with the icy snow last time, we wondered what would happen if the snow felt a little different this time. So today, we brought in a Christmas Sensory Bin made with fake snow (made with baking soda mixed in with shaving cream), then we put different kinds of ornaments on top, along with pompoms, and beaded necklaces with bells attached to it.

Zendaya was looking with curiosity. We gave her a selection of ornaments, and Zendaya kept her attention on the golden leaf ornament. She would brush her fingers along its ridges, before lifting it up, and shake it with full energy. Nearby, Paxton reached straight for the red textured ornament, dragging his fingers across the rough surface. Soon he found the beaded necklaces and made them dance with a happy, happy shake!

One by one, the babies all gathered around the Christmas Bin. Vihana, Jason, and Zendaya each grabbed one necklace and filled the room with tiny jingles. Wyatt arrived with bright energy, picked up two necklaces at once, and waggled them with a big smile that matched the lively sound. Jingle, jingle!

Later, Habiba and Remy took their time exploring. They picked up the ornaments and pressed their fingertips into the snow. When Habiba touched the snow lightly, we asked her whether it felt soft, and Habiba began moving her hands through it in slow strokes. Remy tapped the snow, lifted handfuls, and proudly showed us what he had scooped up. 

Through this play, the infants explored different textures and showed their own preferences for what felt interesting to them. They used their hands and fingers to feel the ornaments and to move the necklaces up and down. At the same time, they were exploring the concept of cause and effect, as they noticed that shaking the necklaces made the bells jingle. 

On a tuff tray, the children at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick were presented with four large shapes drawn on a piece of paper covering the whole tray. There was a heart, triangle, circle, and square, as well as some small foam shapes that matched the large ones. They were not asked to do anything with it, but instead on their own they decided that they were going to sort the foam shapes, saying “We need to sort the shapes!”.

They placed all the hearts inside the large drawn one, and did so with the other three shapes. From there they decided to take it a step further and sort the shapes in each category into the same colour groups as well, “Let’s sort the colours!” we heard one child say to another. We then observed them putting them into rainbow order as well!

After all the sorting, they looked at the shapes and noticed that there were more of some than there were of others. They noted “There’s the most squares.”, and then counted how many there were, we counted 23 squares in total! The children participating in this activity were engaged with it for a while, and seemed to love sorting and matching the shapes. This activity was a great way for them to build their categorizing, shape and colour recognition, and team work skills!

The School-age 2 children at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick have shown a strong and ongoing interest in building and creating structures, roads, and forts since the start of the school year. They have experimented with a variety of materials wood, cardboard, and plastic pieces and enjoyed using figurines and craft supplies to bring their creations to life.

To extend this interest, we introduced real-world building materials such as hand tools, an outdoor toy cart, screws, washers, and bolts. We also added new LEGO build sets and large cardboard boxes, supporting the children as they explored different ideas, shapes, textures, weights, and sizes.

Some children chose to design buildings and roadways before school, using fine-motor skills and creativity to sketch and construct their ideas. As they worked together, each child contributed different materials, toys, and perspectives, collaborating to create sustainable and stable structures. They engaged in meaningful problem-solving conversations, such as noticing, “If we add a heavy brick on top of the wood pieces, it might break the whole structure.”

A highlight of the week was when a small group built an outdoor cart completely from scratch using real tools. They read instructions, interpreted diagrams, and determined how each piece fit together. I supported them throughout the process, and they demonstrated impressive teamwork, persistence, and problem-solving skills.

We also spent a week building large structures from cardboard boxes. The children used tape, additional cardboard pieces, markers, and stickers to customize their designs. What began as a friendly competition between two teams each wanting to “outdo” the other evolved into a collaborative celebration of creativity. By the end, the children proudly shared and admired both unique forts, complimenting the ideas and designs of their peers.

These process-based building experiences promote fine-motor development, critical and creative thinking, collaboration, resilience, and rich conversations with both peers and educators. Most importantly, they support confidence-building and empower school-age children to explore their ideas with pride and curiosity.

Health and wellbeing are very important parts of our lives.

Talking about health and well being helps children understand how to take care of their bodies and mind. It gives them language to express how they feel and that it is okay to talk about emotions like- sadness, anger, or worry. It also talks about the strategies that they can use to help make them feel better again. This month we enjoyed various activities to promote physical, mental and emotional well being.

Firstly, we began with reading a story called “be kind” and we got to make connections on how to be kind to our classmates, communities, families and ourselves. Here are some ideas that our preschoolers came up with on- How they get to be kind- “saying Hello to friends, sharing, giving hugs, making a picture and dancing together”.

We also talked about the “Coloured Zones” Blue meaning sad, Green meaning happy, Red meaning upset/Disappointed and yellow meaning frustrated/angry. We discussed about the ways that we can use to help our bodies and mind feel better again. Like- drink water, deep breaths, going to calming corner, asking for help, etc.

Now this was all about emotional wellbeing. So, to learn about Physical wellbeing children opened a dental clinic in the classroom and participated in learning about dental hygiene. They pretended to be dentists and had so much exploring the dental tools and teeth set that we have in our dental kit. We had a short discussion on happy tooth and sad tooth. We referred a healthy/strong/clean tooth as a “Happy Tooth” and weak/painful/tooth with cavity as a “Sad Tooth”. Children enjoyed being dentists- looking at each other mouths, checking the teeth set in the toy kit, spotting the Sad Tooth out and replacing it with a Happy Tooth. We extended this activity further by talking about foods and habits that causes “Sad Tooth”.

For this learning opportunity we began by having a large group discussion about various food items and categorized them into healthy and unhealthy food for our teeth and body. We also talked about the importance of brushing our teeth everyday. Then, children were provided with pictures of various foods and were invited to put in the mouth with Happy or Sad Tooth. They came one by one, showed what food picture they got to their friends and decided whether that food will make their teeth happy or sad. We ended our discussion by asking children their favourite healthy food. This activity also encouraged our quiet preschoolers to stand in front of friends and express their thoughts and perspective about food.

To continue with promoting overall wellbeing, we decided why to have all the physical activity in the playground, let’s bring it inside the walls too. So, our preschool class decided to have some fun by building an indoor obstacle course. We moved some furniture around gathered up- tape, wooden blocks, table and chairs and brainstormed what we can make. The educator put tape on the floor to mark a path for hopping. Then comes the wooden blocks- children decided to play “Floor is Lava” and we placed the blocks for them to walk on the Lava. After that, they had to crawl under the table and circle back to starting point. Overall, it was a fun indoor gross motor and turn taking experience for everyone. Children learnt how to wait in line without overtaking the friends in front of them. Some children were hesitant to step on the blocks with both feet but, they outgrew their fear with some help from the educators and developed confidence to balance and walk on blocks without touching their foot on the floor.

Moreover, to extend this topic we also practised some Yoga with our educator and it was a wonderful experience. Yoga is not only good for the body but also for the mind. They learned how to breathe deeply, stretch their muscles and relax. Doing yoga together also built a sense of teamwork and friendship. The children encouraged each another, laughed and enjoyed every pose. It was a fun way to stay healthy and strong.

In the upcoming months, we will continue to develop more fun ways to work on our overall wellbeing with our preschoolers.