We love building

Did you expect to see pictures of blocks or building toys here? Nope. Today we are talking about building on activities that we originally laid out. As you all know, we at BCCNS use emergent curriculum to programme plan for our class. Instead of planning themes, we "build" on activities in which we have previously observed the children engaging. 

Last week we had the gak in trays along with the little insects, amphibians and snakes. We noticed the children taking it out and playing with it directly on the table. Next step? We took away the trays and watched them explore the dynamics of this cool material. Did you ever think that we'd be talking fluid dynamics in preschool? The best part is, the children discovered that the animals (and hands) make really cool tracks in the gak and loved moving them through it. And they discovered this all on their own. 

Here's another example. Here we put out tubes, chairs and cars, fully expecting the children to use the chairs as an inclined plane to zoom the cars down the tubes. but look what happened. One of the kids discovered the physics of the fulcrum and suddenly we had seesaws in the class.

Fluid dynamics and physics in the same blog about a preschool classroom? You bet!

Miss Heidi, Miss Karen and Miss Kate

Welcome back!

We all hope you had a happy and restful holiday. We are so glad to be back in the saddle and working with your kids again.

For our first blog post of the year, let's talk about healthy snacks.

We at BCCNS ask the duty parent to provide a snack for the class about once every 6 weeks. We all know that snack isn't a meal so it's not necessary to have all 4 food groups, but a healthy snack should still be more than just a handful of crackers. And the best part is, it doesn't have to break the bank!

Check out what we had one day last week. Simple pretzels, cheese and apples. But there was enough choice for those children who may not have liked one of the choices, it was super popular and incidentally hit 3/4 of the food groups. Score!

Since we have allergies and sensitivities, we don't permit peanut or peanut products or sesame in our class. So what can you bring? Besides the above pretzels and cheese we like...

Fruit (please cut grapes in half at home)

Veggies like cucumbers, carrots or peppers 

Mini pitas

Cheese

Chex mix

Cereal

Frozen yoghurt tubes

Dried fruit (raisins, craisins, or even figs or dates)

Rice krispie treats (you can make them with cheerios or any dry cereal too!)

Mini muffins

Bread sticks

Tortilla and lunchmeat rolls

Be sure to check the snack board outside our classroom to see what's already been brought this month and have fun, be creative and the yum will come!

Miss Heidi, Miss Karen and Miss Kate