This month at RisingOaks Early Learning| St. Patrick, in the Toddler Room 2 Program, Nancy created a colourful and inviting learning environment where toddlers could explore, match, and discover through play. Bright materials and engaging displays were placed around the room, sparking curiosity and encouraging independent investigation.

A row of colourful buses; green, red, blue, orange, pink, yellow, and purple, invited the children to match pictures to the bus of the same colour. Dante found a yellow star and excitedly shared it with Nancy, who sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” while he listened with delight. Sebastian spotted a yellow bee and confidently matched it to the yellow bus, while Lily noticed her purple bow matched her outfit and carefully placed it on the purple bus.

Another activity encouraged exploration of animals. Large pictures of animal bodies were displayed on the wall, with Velcro animal heads for the children to match. Augustus held up a lion’s head and proudly identified the roar, correctly pairing it with the lion’s body. Zoey noticed the stripes on a zebra head and successfully matched it to the zebra, enjoying the tactile sensation of the Velcro as she worked.

At the table, toddlers practiced fine motor skills using tongs to pick up felt balls and rings in a variety of colours. Florence carefully placed a yellow ball in the correct section, Robbie concentrated as he lifted a red ball, and Brantley giggled while exploring a large yellow felt ring. Children shared discoveries, compared colours, and sorted pieces while developing coordination, problem-solving skills, and teamwork.

Throughout these activities, the educator encouraged observation, thoughtful questions, and conversation, supporting the children’s language development, colour recognition, and cognitive growth. The room was filled with laughter, curiosity, and joyful exploration as the toddlers learned together through hands-on play.

 Since the infants have been showing interest in sensory exploration, Tai prepared a simple activity with bubble wrap. She placed paper on a small table, added paint on top, and covered it with bubble wrap for the infants to explore with their senses. 

Paxton and Thaniel watched carefully as Tai set everything up. Tai offered them small rollers and modeled how to roll them over the bubble wrap. Paxton quickly began rolling the rollers on the surface, even trying to use two rollers at the same time! Later on the day, Remy and Paxton started tapping the rollers on the table to pop some of the bubbles. What a creative way to explore the material!

Thaniel and Harnaaz preferred to explore with their hands. They touched the bubble wrap and squished the paint underneath, watching the colors move and spread under the surface. With the help of educators, Zendaya and Max joined the table as well, exploring with both their hands and the rollers. Tai supported the experience by modeling language and curiosity. “Look what happens when the blue and purple mix!” she said as she moved the colors under the bubble wrap using her fingers.

Ramona also came to explore, testing both the rollers and her hands. She observed Zendaya, who looked very excited, moving her hands up and down while holding one roller. With a big smile, Ramona offered Zendaya a second roller to use. What a sweet moment of sharing! Later, Paxton noticed Tai wiping some paint from her hands with a cloth. When Tai placed the cloth on the table, Paxton picked it up and started rubbing it over the bubble wrap where the paint was underneath. “Were you trying to clean the table, Paxton?” Tai wondered.

Throughout the experience, the infants explored tactile and visual sensations as they watched the paint move under the bubble wrap. There were also lovely moments of observation, creativity, helping, and sharing while the children discovered different ways to interact with the materials. To extend this idea, Tai wants to bring in an activity where the infants can paint with bubble wrap.

This month, the children in Toddler 1 at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick have been showing a growing interest in light and reflection. It began with Cassidy and Renzo’s curiosity and excitement when they noticed the light from the iPad reflecting onto the ceiling during lunch one day. Soon, our lunchroom was filled with laughter and joy as we watched the light dance across the ceiling, disappearing and reappearing. As the toddlers followed the light with their eyes, Cassidy reached up her hand in an attempt to “catch” it.

This emerging interest inspired Eria to introduce a flashlight and mirror, reflecting the light onto our whiteboard so it would be within reach for the children to explore. Cassidy and Renzo once again followed the light. Cassidy repeatedly tapped the whiteboard where the reflection appeared, trying to “catch” the light.

To extend the exploration further, Eria wondered what would happen if we used our translucent blocks to shine the light through. How might the toddlers respond to the light changing colours? Cassidy was mesmerized by the changing colours and reached for the flashlight to try it herself. She carefully balanced a yellow block on top of the flashlight and watched as the light changed colour. Cassidy then explored other blocks, switching to green, blue, and purple, shining the light through each one and observing how the colour of the light changed depending on the block she used.

Building on these emerging interests, Nitya later set up another experience. She introduced additional flashlights along with a variety of coloured lenses for the toddlers to investigate. Dino and Renzo began by experimenting with how to turn the flashlights on and off. Once Dino became confident with how the flashlight worked, he began exploring the coloured lenses. He shone the light through each lens, testing the different colours and noticing how the light changed. Through this process, Dino explored cause and effect as he experimented with the materials.

Renzo explored his flashlight in a different way. He pointed it toward the ceiling and watched the light move as he moved his hand. Excitedly, he called out, “Up light!” as he watched the beam shine above him. Renzo then continued exploring the room, pointing the light at different objects and observing how it interacted with them. He shone the light on toys, on the door, and even inside a cup, carefully noticing how the light appeared in different spaces.

To further extend the children’s curiosity, Nitya invited the group to explore the whiteboard again. She placed coloured magnetic tiles onto the board to see how the light might interact with them. This sparked the interest of several children, including Rahiya, Cassidy, Seren, Nellie, Vivaan, and Dino, who eagerly joined the exploration. The children experimented by shining their flashlights onto the whiteboard and moving the light around. They watched closely as the light changed colours through the tiles and as shadows appeared and moved with the motion of the light.

Rahiya brought over a blue lens to explore and excitedly noticed the colour change as she moved it across the board. She proudly demonstrated her discovery to Nitya, calling out, “Look! The blue is moving!”

Throughout these experiences, the children demonstrated curiosity, excitement, and attention to detail as they noticed changes in light and colour. They also engaged in problem-solving and early scientific thinking while exploring concepts such as cause and effect, light and shadow, reflection, and colour.

The children in the after and before school program at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick have been enjoying beading and crafting over the past month. We have been enjoying using melting beads, pony beads, and other types of beads to make animal creations, Pokémon, shapes, bracelets, and different types of art. The children have also been using rainbow loom to create with, they have been practicing putting beads and ornaments on the rainbow loom creations. 

 Some of the children have been helping the others to learn some of the beaded craft techniques and master skills. They have been learning through their friends and their learned experiences and being very creative and learning new skills. The children have been doing many art activities and being social with their friends by discussing what they are doing in a group. We have continued our interest in beading and stringing and thought of new ideas and items we could purchase to expand this interest. We looked through the Avron Canada magazine to find these things. We also looked on Pinterest for new activity ideas we can try. 

 Narin is our second teacher in the room and did some wonderful stringing activities with the children. We did a paper heart medallion stringing craft and a basket weaving stringing craft. The children were proud of their work and proud that they learned a new skill.

 Children in school age like to learn real skills and master new concepts. They are increasing their problem solving skills by challenging themselves to navigate string through small holes and slits. They are learning patience and concentration by fostering focus and perseverance as children work through and complete tasks. The children are strengthening their fine motor skills by using their small finger muscles, they are practicing hand eye coordination when using precise coordinate

movements. These tasks require bilateral coordination by encouraging both sides of the body to work together. Beading introduces concepts like sorting by colour, shape or size, as well as creating patterns.