In-Service Day Group 4

The children had an extra, extra long weekend! Thursday was an in-service day followed by Remembrance Day :)

 

In the morning the children voted and decided that we would go to Marjorie Park. It was sunny, warm and beautiful outside! We spent the entire morning there and then went back to Discovery for lunch.

 

Lately some of the children have been really interested in wrestling. Big body, rough and tumble play is healthy for children and wrestling is a fun way for children to express themselves.

• Wrestling requires a lot of body control
• Wrestling develops personal responsibility
• Wrestling brings kids together and builds a strong camaraderie
• Wrestling is fun!

We have a few simple rules around wrestling:

 

1. Wrestling happens on the mats (gym) or outside on grass *always supervised by a staff
2. Wrestling involves two people (i.e. no two on one)
3. Wrestling starts face to face (no jumping someone from behind)
4. If someone says, "Stop!" everyone stops
5. Keep your hands off people's heads and necks
6. Hitting and kicking are not part of wrestling
7. No running on the mats (being slammed by a kid with a head of steam can really hurt)
8. No knee drops onto people
9. If you get hurt (people do get hurt wrestling) you can sit aside until you're

ready to come back

10. If you get angry, you need to leave the mats until you're not angry any more
11. Shake hands when you're done
12. Have fun!

 

 These boys are similar height and weight, making for a fair match

 

 

 The wrestling 'stance'

 

 

 The younger boys were watching the older ones wrestle and thought they'd give it a go...

 

 

 Smiling faces shows that both children are enjoying the wrestling activity...

 

 

 The other children enjoyed playing on the structures, climbing up the slide and playing tag

 

 

Being silly...

 

 After lunch some of the children expressed their creativity through their sewing projects...

 

 

 Relaxing after a busy morning outside ⇑

 

 

 LEGO!!!!

 

 

We went back outside at 2:00pm and stayed out for the rest of the afternoon! :)

~Mrs. Carr

Stop-Motion Club Week 1

Stop-motion club has started and will continue for the month of November. During our first club session, we went over the different roles and positions on the set of a stop-motion movie. A director is the story-teller who has an interesting idea and works with the animators to make it happen. The animators are in charge of moving the characters and objects a tiny bit between each picture taken by the camera person. The camera person makes sure to hold the camera steady and only takes a photo when all hands are out of the frame. The editor is the one who gets to add the captions, titles, and credits to the movie once we have all the photos on the computer.

 

We worked very well as teams and were able to negotiate roles and make compromises. We came up with some helpful on-set phrases like "Clear!" (when the animators have their hands out of the photo) and "Good!" (when the cameraperson has taken the photo).

 

Wednesday

 

Thursday

 

Stay tuned for the movies themselves to be posted.

 

~Mr. Dueck

Balancing

The other day while in the Adventure Playground, Mrs. Crew and I noticed two brothers practicing their balancing skills on a spool and 2x4 board. They had most of the board angled down to the ground, but had a little piece sticking up and they were working hard together to try level out the weight of the board with their own weight. Quite a few times they got it where the board was horizontally level and held it there for numerous seconds before bailing and having to reset.

 After the spool was finished with, the boys moved on to the "diving board" where they practiced their jumping skills.

 Funny enough, we captured Mr. Blatz just arriving to the Daycare in one of our shots.  

These type of activities promote teamwork, trust, patience, but also help develop their balance and larger muscles.

Mr. Castell

Barber Shop Talk

This morning we brought out the hair kit, and Mr. Bordush and I gave the children a little style before sending them off to school!

Lots of dippitydo(hair gel) makes for a solid hold!

So fresh and so clean!

 

~Mr. Reyes (and Mr. Bordush)

 



At the Carpenter Bench

The school age children are always interested in taking things apart. The other day when an old sewing machine was donated, they showed some extra interest in seeing what was under that plastic shell.

When inside the machine the children used tools to remove smaller components that had interest to them. Some used the parts to build their own machines and some children just enjoyed collecting them, because they are different and they view them as valuable.

As I listen to some of the children at the carpenter bench, I can hear them talk about how they are going to collect the "copper". When they open up a computer they are always looking for this copper that they have heard "is worth lots of money."

We love working with tools and exploring these old machines. If you have any old electronics kicking around at home that you think we would enjoy taking apart, please let Mr. Bordush know. We would be happy to use them for further work at the carpenter bench! 

Mr. Bordush-See you soon!