Week of Dec 8th 2014

This week during our Early Literacy Drop-In we played Musical Letters.  The chairs were set up in a circle, each with an alphabet letter.  The children danced around the letters to the drum music - when the drumming stopped the children had to write their letter on a white board.  These boys were motivated and managed to practice writing lots of letters while having some fun! 

During our story circle we heard a Christmas story about a girl who asked for 3 gifts: one small gift, one medium gift and one large gift. 

'ƛ̓eekoo ƛ̓eekoo' to 

Jacqueline for sharing her music.

We also had a great time during our Outdoor Drop-In - we started with some physical work, tracing around tires and making patterns.  Young children need a great deal of practice using their whole body to make marks, it is an important step in being able to write smaller with pencil on paper.

After all of this writing we decided to move the tires to see our patterns.  The children immediately noticed that our marks looked like a snowman.  This motivated us to add some details as well as create a second snowman out of found objects in our playground!

Happy Holidays everyone!

We will have our last week of Drop-Ins for the year next week:

Early Literacy Morning on Wednesday 8:45-12:00

Outdoor Drop-In on Friday 8:45-10:00

Everyone is welcome!

Dec 3rd - Early Literacy Morning

This morning we added a projector and alphabet letters to our learning space.  The children were immediately interested and explored with letters sounds, letter names and even some simple words.  We also used our gross motor skills to trace the GIANT letters projected onto the wall.

Later we heard a new story about Portia the Polar Bear. Can you remember some of the things that Portia likes to eat? 

The children used puppets, sang songs and played the drums.  

Our Early Literacy Drop-In Morning is every Wednesday from 8:45-12:00 with our story circle starting at 9:45.

Everyone is Welcome!

Drop-Ins - week of Nov 26th

It was such a busy week that we are behind with our blog posts...
Last week saw two fun Drop-In sessions on Wednesday and Friday.  During our outdoor morning we set up pipes with the wood blocks and invited children to explore using small balls and cars.  We also played a fun number game using basketballs and pylons.  The children were given open-ended challenges such as:

"Knock down a number bigger than 2 and smaller than 5."

"Hit the number that is one more than 3."  

"Knock over an even number."

The children were also given a chance to 'Be the Teacher' and practiced giving instructions to their friends - a great way to develop communication skills!

Earlier in the week we heard 3 stories during our Drop-In Literacy Morning and did several activities to develop language and pre-writing skills.

 Our Early Literacy Morning is every Wednesday and our Outdoor Drop-In is every Friday 8:45~12:00.  

Everyone is welcome!

20 Fifth St.

Early Literacy Drop-In Nov 19th 2014

All of the children had a turn drumming today with our visitor Jacqueline Watts.  We learned a new song and practiced keeping a steady 1-beat with the music.  You can listen here:

listen to ‘Jacqueline Watts -Early Literacy Morning Drumming’ on audioBoom

Rhythm and beat are important Early Reading skills - at home you can encourage your child to practise this by clapping or by using pots and pans.  Practice drumming out the beats to names of family members or with everyday objects: ce-re-l, ta-ble, wa-ter, sun-glass-es...

Donna, the Literacy Lady, joined us for stories from the Pine Forest and we learned a new song about the drumming circle.    All of the children drummed, we used logs to build a log house and the children made bright yellow suns.

Drop-In every Wednesday Morning 
8:45- 12:00.  

Our Story Circle starts at 9:45.

Everyone is welcome.

Outdoor play morning - Nov.14th

Today during our Outdoor Drop-In we use water to paint words and pictures on the pavement.  This is an easy way for  children to develop hand and arm muscles needed for writing.  We also add numbers and a dice to the environment - our visitors threw balls at the numbers.

"This is a fun game!"

The logs were also out today and the children used dump trucks to transport the wood.  Their play evolved as they used their imagination to plan what they would build.  Following the lead of our learners we will add some hard hats and clipboard to the area.

"I'm a worker.  Let's pretend
my hat is a hard hat!"

Come and join us outside every Friday morning 8:45-10:00am.

On Friday November 21st we will have a guest drummer!

Rain or Shine!

Everyone is welcome.

    

Early Literacy Drop In - November 12th

Donna, the Literacy Lady, was here on Fifth St. for our Wednesday morning drop-in.  She shared Elder Mabel Mitchell's version of "When Seagull Stole the Sun."  The boys and girls were re-introduced to the characters and we all learned some hul'qumi'num words to go along with the story.

Each week during our Early Literacy Drop-In the children are invited to do some centre activities that are related to the stories we have learned.   It's a great way for boys and girls to playfully explore and understand stories in more detail.  

Story-telling teaches children of all ages about communication skills, about emotions and allows them to build their vocabulary.  This week we made sea-urchins using play dough and toothpicks.  We also did some alphabet sewing and some sponge painting!  

Visit our Educator's blog for more information about this lesson.

Please come by next Wednesday for another Early Literacy Drop-In 8:45-12:00.  

Circle time is at 9:45 ~ on Wednesday November 19th, our friend Jacqueline will be here drumming and singing.

Everyone is welcome!

Outdoor Drop In

During our Outdoor Drop In Mornings we add  natural objects to the space so that children can use their imaginations to explore, build and create. 

Today we add chalk roads to the pavement so our visitors can transport dry leaves using some big dump trucks.  I wonder what else we can move?  Do you know what sounds a dump truck makes?  

Alphabet letters are attached to our fence with a bucket of balls.  Children practise the letter names and sounds as well as develop gross motor skills by throwing soft balls.  

Our Outdoor Drop-In is every Friday morning from 8:45-10:00am.

Rain or shine.

Everyone is welcome!

Raven Steals the Sun

A big thank you to our Literacy Lady, Donna, for bringing in so many props for our story-telling session on Wednesday.  Stories are always so much more engaging when children have real-life objects to touch and feel.  Today we spent some time sharing ideas about where light comes from, why light is important as well as how we might feel if we had no light.

During our activity centres we used salt trays to draw characters from Elder Ellen White's Raven Steals the Sun story - this is a great way to hear what details children remember from the story and we worked on our patterning skills.  We also took some time to sit, share and read books alongside our stuffed animals.  Three stories a day that's the way!


Interested educators can always visit our Growing Up to Read blog for reflections on our teaching practise.

Join us every Wednesday morning

 at 20 Fifth St.  for our Literacy Drop-In from 8:45-12:00. 

Our Story Circle is at 9:45.

Everyone is Welcome!

Spawning Salmon

This is the mural we created together during our Literacy Morning:

 What can you see? 

It's on display at the Boys and Girls Club for everyone to enjoy.

Today we continued with our salmon theme.  The children worked on their pre-writing skills by drawing eggs and connecting each egg with the flowing river.  We also made spawning beds with shells and rocks - children practiced letter names and sounds with this fun puppet game. 

As always our Story Lady Donna shared 3 more stories and this week we were SOOOOO lucky to taste some real salmon!  

Our Literacy Drop In morning is every Wednesday on 20 Fifth St. from 8:45~12:00. 

Story circle starts at 9:45.  

Everyone is welcome!

Early Literacy Morning

Our drop-in literacy morning has started up again every Wednesday morning - everyone is welcome!  This week we set up some fun alphabet activities for the children to explore with a focus on the SSSSS sound.

Keeping with our motto... 

"Three stories a day, that's the way!"  

...Donna shared 3 salmon stories.

We also learned a new song:

Down at the river when the leaves turn red,

there were 5 adult salmon in the spawing bed,

along came bear all alone,

and he caught one fish,

and he took it home.