Kidlets Academy

I added pond themed items to our block shelf. The children used the frogs all over the playroom. Lining the window sills, hopping on lily pads, and even appearing in the play kitchen as ice cubes in drinks. I love their imaginations! We took a close look at the life cycle of a frog. We used books, a puzzle, photos, and life cycle figures to help us explore the amazing transformation of tadpoles to frogs. I added some sea themed loose parts to our Playdough. Shells, plants, blue jewels, and fun little sea creatures. I also added some letter stamps for us to enjoy, and scissors for practicing cutting skills. The children rolled, cut, and used the loose parts to create beautiful ocean landscapes.

I added some treasure boxes filled with trinkets and shiny items to the preschool room. The children were quick to find them, and add them to their play. They filled the pirate ships with the treasures, and created adventure stories using the sea animals and props. They worked well together, taking turns with the boxes, sharing the treasures to make sure everyone was included, and using their imaginations together. We also had fun practicing some of our newest letters, by identifying them, covering them with seashells, and playing matching games.

Our grass heads grew!

The children have been exploring Sea Life at preschool. We added ships, pirates, ocean animals, and blue sensory blocks to the block area. The children really loved the sea creatures, picking out their favourites, and creating adventures at sea together using the pirates. We used our light table, along with pictures of sea life animals. Each picture has an X-ray photo to match. The children were challenged to match the X-rays with the animal pictures, and they pointed out characteristics such as the teeth, the spines, and the unique shapes of the animals. Water play is always a favourite activity at preschool! I added aquarium gravel, coloured shells, eye droppers, and bowls to kick things off. While we played, we explored the properties of water, identified colours, counted and sorted shells by colour and texture, strengthened fine motor skills using the eye droppers, and enjoyed the sensory experience of water and textures on our fingers, hands, and arms.

My little gardeners really enjoyed last week’s sensory bin. We had fun using gardening tools to fill our pots and plant flowers. And the very realistic looking worms were a HUGE hit! Their fascination with the earthworms led us to a more in depth look at them through books and pictures, learning about how they benefit our gardens. We created Spring flowers using tissue paper and paper plates, putting our fine motor skills to work, and we got some Spring Cleaning done, role playing with brooms, mops, spray bottles, and squeegees to make are preschool shine. We’ve also been reviewing the letters we’ve learnt most recently, using puzzles and colouring pages.

What do plants need to grow? What are roots? How do seeds sprout? So many interesting questions about plants. We used books, puzzles, pictures, and real seeds to dive deeper into our plant investigation. We turned our dramatic play area into a flower shop, and our little gardeners were busy buying flowers for their gardens. Identifying colours in flowers, counting money and flower stems, identifying numbers on bills, and developing language and social skills through conversations and role play. We used a pan of garden soil to practice letter formation. Making letters with our finger allows us to focus on the formation without the added fine motor challenge of manipulating a pencil or marker. And we had fun making grass heads together. We added eyes, nose, and mouth, filled our cups with soil, and sprinkled a little grass seed. A little water, and we’re ready to wait and see if our grass heads grow hair. Updates to come!

We took a close look at butterflies and caterpillars and discussed their life cycle together. We used books, puzzles, and picture matching to help us investigate. While we played in the sensory bin, we counted and sorted butterfly gems by colour, collected caterpillars on leaves, and found letters buried in the rice. The children had fun creating their own butterflies on the light table using various gems. This activity worked our fine motor skills, helped us identify colours, allowed us to be creative, and sparked conversations about butterflies and caterpillars. We also created beautiful symmetrical butterflies using paint and paper. Each one so unique!

How would you like your tea? We played tea time together, pouring cups of pretend tea, adding milk and sugar, and serving up some tasty cookies to go alongside. The children took turns, created conversations with one another, and loved using their imaginations to serve treats. I put out several different building challenges in our block centre. We used a fun flower building set to create large flower gardens, and we used butterflies and flowers in creative ways with wooden blocks. Over the next few weeks, the children can return to these challenges over and over, using the pieces in increasingly creative and complex ways through play. Our new alphabet friend was ‘V’. We used scissors, snipped paper, stickers, and glue to give our letter V a Spring look, while working hard at our fine motor skills.

I pulled out our toy bugs this month. The children have been fascinated by all the different insects, and making comparisons between them. Which ones have wings? Which ones are blue? How many legs? We had fun creating homes for the insects using leaves, cardboard tubes, and coloured blocks filled with sand, water, and beads for some extra sensory fun. We added bugs and nature items to our Playdough, and had fun squishing, squeezing, cutting and rolling. Such a great way to work those hand muscles! Our sensory bin was buzzing with excitement. We enjoyed collecting and counting bumble bees, and had great conversations about the important role that bees play. We used pipettes to fill ‘honeycombs’ with yellow water, and discussed how bees make the honey that we eat.

We have been celebrating our beautiful Earth, and learning how to properly care for it. I switched out all the play food in our play kitchen for various nature items. The children used their imaginations to cook up all sorts of meals for one another. I added recycling trucks and various pieces of recycled items to our block play area. The children had fun picking up the recycling, labeling letters, and building creative structures using the recycled items. We filled our sensory bin up with water, along with ‘garbage’ and nets, and learnt about keeping our water free from garbage while having fun scooping and pouring. We put our fine motor skills to work, colouring and using spray bottles, and have been loving the mud in the backyard for scooping and driving vehicles. We’ve had such a blast these last few weeks discovering our beautiful earth together!