Feb 24 is Pink Shirt Day.  Pink Shirt Day began as an awareness campaign about homophobic bullying.   People wear a pink shirt on Pink Shirt Day to symbolize a stand against bullying.  It is never too young to start conversations that encourage healthy self esteem, kindness, compassion, respect, empathy, diversity…

Here are some suggestions on how to raise a caring and compassionate child

Click her to listen to a story about kindness, friendship, and inclusion.

After listening to the story, you may want to talk about how it is much more fun to be playing together with friends than by themselves.  You may want to talk about how we are different but also share a lot of similarities.  For example, we have different colour hair, but we both like to play on the swings, or like to eat the same kind of fruits, or like the same colours.  You can also talk about how it feels to be excluded and is that fair or friendly.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!!  Although we will not be celebrating the day with our extended families and friends in person, we can still make Valentines and put them in their mail boxes to show that we are thinking about them.  It is always a special treat when you receive something special in the mail.

Here are some activities to do for Valentine’s Day

click here to listen to a story

To the friends that are celebrating Lunar New Year.    Happy Lunar New Year.  Gung Hay Fat Choy.  Best Wishes to everyone.  The following story is about how one family celebrates the New Year.  How does your family celebrate the New Year?

click here to listen to a story

What do you think shape gator like to eat for lunch?  Do you think he wants to eat an apple, orange, banana…?  Let’s find out.

Shape Gator, shape Gator,

munch, munch, munch,

Would you like a circle for your lunch?

Continue with different shapes until Shape Gator is full.

Click her to listen to the story.

Were you able to find any shapes and what shapes were you able to find?

These were some of the shapes that we found in the park.

we found a circle

We found lots of triangles

We found diamonds

We found rectangles and crosses

We found hexagons and circles

Then we used different shapes for our craft activity.

Peter made an ice cone with a circle and triangle, and a tree with two triangles and a rectangle.

Parker used a piece of square paper and made a picture of a flag on a mountain

Parker teared a piece of square paper into strips and made a fountain.

Welcome back everyone.  Happy New Year.

For the past few weeks, during our outdoors and zoom circles, we have been learning about shapes.  Shapes are all around us.  Every object has a shape and the world is full of interesting shapes.  Lets see what shapes you can find – in your homes, or when you go for a walk.  Where did you find them?  Sometimes, a shape is within a shape.

Click here for a shape scavenger hunt.  shapes

Have fun!

Join me in singing Santa and Rudolph.

Click here to sing along.

There was an old man had a beard

And Santa was his name – O.

S A N T A

S A N T A

S A N T A

And Santa was his name – O.

Rudolph Rudolph, what do you see?

I see a blue nose looking at me.

Rudolph Rudolph, what do you see?

I see a colour nose looking at me.

Hello Friends,

Here is a very simple craft to do with your child.  This craft encourages fine motor skills, math concepts and language development.

First, have your child cut up some paper stripes.  You can either draw  some lines for them to cut or they cut then on their own.

Second, glue the paper stripes on a piece of paper.  Ask the children what they think a Christmas tree might look like, is the top bigger or the bottom?  Where does the shortest stripe go or where does the longest stripe go?

Decorate the tree using items such as tissue paper, markers, stickers, glitters – ask your child for ideas.

For older children, you can either dot the paper stripes or number the stripes.  Then ask them to glue the paper stripes in chronological order.

Have fun.

Helllo Friends;

Meet AlphaGator.  This story was adapted from Library Village.

Click here to listen to the story and sing ABC.

I want to share some of the children’s activities that were inspired by children’s books.  During one of our zoom circle times, we did the “Go Away Green Monster” story, written by  Ed Emberley .  I encouraged the children to create their own versions of green monster.  This is Parker’s green monster.

During our outdoor exploration session, we read “The Leaf Man” by Lois Ehlert.   After we read the story, the children then walked around the park to find their favourite leaves and other materials to create their own versions of leaf man/animal or whatever they want to create with the leaves.  Here are some of the leaf  creations.

First, we collected the materials

The we made our creations     

What gives you inspirations?

Remembrance Day is the day we pause to remember the brave soldiers who fought for our country.  That date and time mark the moment that World War I ended.  It’s also important not to forget the sacrifice our Armed Forces have made and continue to make for us.  There are many ways we can honour the.  Some of the simplest way to teach young children about the meaning of remembrance day are to wear a poppy, do a poppy craft.

Click here to listen to a song about PEACE.