What a crazy and fun week we had! We were so happy to have all the kids together to celebrate the end of another school year. What better way to celebrate than to have a Superhero Princess Party!
 
All week was spent gearing up for the party on Friday. The kids made superhero popsicle stick puppets and worked together to create their own superhero symbols for the backs of their capes. Each child came up with their own superhero powers that were reflected in their symbols. Check the photos to find out their powers! The capes were donned, the crowns placed upon their heads and voila we had some Superhero Princes and Princess’! And good thing because those letters and shapes needed saving! Earlier in the day the kids helped to set up the obstacle course that was used for the party. To save the letters they had to take one out of the water bucket, run it through the obstacle course and write/draw it on the board. They were just flying through the course! Being a superhero is serious business. Not only did they work on their letter recognition, shape recognition and gross/fine motor skills, they practiced patience, taking turns, cooperation, and teamwork. This later evolved into pretend play where they took turns making up scenarios where they had to save the day. Oh, and we cannot forget the rainbow cake! They spent a couple of days trying to guess what our party treat was. So funny! I think we all ate more cake than we should have! 
 
What a fun day we all had! I cannot believe we have come to the end of another school year! Time sure goes by when you are having fun! 
 
Best of luck to all the soon-to-be Kindergarteners! And I look forward to another year of Preschool with my younger ones!
 
*Weekly blog posts will resume in September. In the meantime, keep checking back for summertime photos! 

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!

The kids have been super excited that Father's Day is coming up, and many of them came up with their own ideas as to what they wanted to make for their Dad's. Many of them practiced their writing and letter sounds with the cards/notes they made. They sure have been working hard!

This was the second week of our Special Craft Box. I have recently come into many random craft supplies/bits and pieces, and the kids having been finding it quite fun to dig through the box for new surprises they do not normally have in their craft area. They have been discovering how to use new tools and techniques as well.

We have a busy week ahead of us! We have our virtual story time with the Calgary Public Library on Tuesday, another Special Craft Box day on Wednesday and our End of Year Superhero Princess Party! We look forward to a fun-filled week!

Buzz Buzz Buzz
 
We learned so much about bees this week; types of bees, roles that bees in their hive, how bees communicate, how honey is made and even how bees pollinate other plants. The most fascinating, and yucky, thing we learned was about how honeybees make honey. If you don’t know, you should investigate! 
 
It was a lot of fun pretending to be bees, collecting pollen (pom poms) on their bodies, while slurping up nectar. There was a lot of buzzing throughout the house to find this pollen and stick it to their shirts. This turned into them pretending to pollinate a “Pan” flower so they could grow a new Pan (although they know that pollination does not result in new pets).
 
The kids also made buzzing bees. Some of them had pollen attached to them (glitter…because glitter is much like pollen in that it gets everywhere)! They also practiced used beads to build the letter B or the word BEE and drew something they learned about bees into their journals.
 
The special craft box came out on Monday. They were pretty excited to use craft supplies that are not out every day. They got to try their hand at stamping with stamps and diluted acrylic paints.

This week was all about water; types of water, states of water and how we use water. The kids did a great job brainstorming ways in which we see water in our world, and they had a million ideas as to how we use it!
 
Our learning about water was perfectly timed for our incredibly hot week. We spent much of our time outside playing in the sprinkler and with water squirting toys, playing with ice and doing science experiments. We did an experiment where you fill a baggie with water and poke a pencil all the way through. The kids were quite surprised that the water didn’t come out until they took the pencils out. It was also quite fun, and tasty, to try and get mini dinosaurs out of discs of ice. As soon as they caught onto the idea of smashing the ice on the ground, those dinos came out real fast.
 
Some of our math activities ended up being outside too! We jumped an ABC hopscotch while singing the alphabet (great letter recognition and gross motor practice) and searched for numbered rocks at the top of Nose Hill Park to sequence (a great impromptu activity that someone had made that was just waiting for a group like us to find).
 
We also made our own “pink fish” popsicles. That name does not reflect what is actually in the popsicles. There is definitely a story to go with this name we came up with!
 
Oh! And we also headed down into the ravine to explore. What a busy week!