My dear StrongStart friends, 

During our time at StrongStart we had many special moments together. I have many memories and pictures of you creating and exploring, learning about different materials and textures, building the structures and knocking them down, playing with your grown-up, talking, telling the stories that matter to you and sharing the ideas though your play, using your hands and bodies in different creative ways and making many friends along the way.  

For privacy reasons I cannot post pictures with children faces but am posting some pictures of their creations and playful learning moments. 

Some of my favorite memories are of us singing together. 

I hope you will join me in singing your favorite song and doing all the actions. Maybe you and your grown-up could come up with some ideas for NEW actions!  

Monkey See, Monkey Do (click to watch the video)

Here are some of my suggestions:  

  • When you wave, wave, wave your hand; The monkey, wave, wave, waves his hand 
  • When you stretch, stretch, stretch your arms: The monkey stretch, stretch, stretches his arms 
  • When you touch, touch, touch your toes; The monkey touch, touch, touches his toes 
  • When you roll, roll, roll your hands; The monkey roll, roll, rolls his hands  
  • When you kick, kick, kick your leg; The money kick, kick, kicks his leg. 

This song is helpful to release our energies and get our bodies to move and it could be done with children of all ages.  I hope you will enjoy it together! You can adapt it into a calming song, singing it slowly and softly to your child to calm body and soul. 

  • When you take a deeeep breath (AAAH and then exhale); The monkey takes a deeeep breath (AAAH and exhale) 
  • When you hug, hug, hug yourself; The monkey hug, hug, hugs himself 
  • When you give your mom (dad, baby…) a hug; The monkey gives his mom a hug 
  • When you curl up in a ball; The monkey curls up in a ball 
  • When you lay down quietly; The monkey lays down quietly. 

Dear parents, please don’t forget to leave your comments or suggestions (those will not be posted for everybody to see and I will be the only person reading it). You can also e-mail me at: lillian.kocmaruk@burnabyschools.ca 

Our StrongStart time together will look differently but my passion to support you and your children is always the same. 

Take care everyone, 

Ms. Lillian