West Richmond Preschool

The children seemed to thoroughly enjoy “ruler” painting in our Four-Year-Old Class recently. Each child visited the art table this day, with some children creating as many as four art pieces.   Each child chose their own base colour.   The paper was then dotted with one colour at a time. Next, a ruler is gently pulled down the paper. A very simple process with a vibrant effect.   Garrett chose to experiment with white as his base colour.   With all that ruler scraping, Judy felt it necessary to give her ruler a good cleaning.   Alara switched to finger painting, and Judy experimented with a fold over.     The beautiful end result!   Barbi :)    

When we went to King George Park, the children enjoyed playing in the snowy playground. While running around, Jerome, Koen and Fraser noticed the ice on the ground and were intrigued by it. They came closer to look at it and Koen said “this is a big piece of ice”. Fraser started to walk on it and realized that it was very slippery. He almost fell but caught himself. Fraser said “this feels like skating”. Jerome was determined to look for small pieces of ice on the ground. Jerome found a small enough piece of ice that he could carry and threw it across the ice. He saw how the ice turned into smaller pieces and it just slid across the frozen puddle. Jerome said “the big ice no break”.     Koen and Fraser wanted to break the ice and see if there was water under the ice. Koen started stomping on the ice. The ice started to crack and eventually broke. There was still water under the ice.       Fraser and Koen both enjoyed walking on t...

Last week our preschool class had the opportunity to enjoy a “walking field trip” to the Freshii restaurant at Seafair Mall. We, as educators, were so grateful for the dry, sunny weather and the willing parent volunteers who assisted us in our safe arrival each way!   Thanks so much! When we arrived at the restaurant, the children were greeted with a friendly hello and a hug from Renite, the owner of this establishment.   It was wonderful to feel so welcome in this environment! Once we all settled in, the children were split into two groups and invited to visit the kitchen in the back where food preparation is done.   Each child washed and dried their hands and received a hair net to wear before the demonstration began.   We all got to see avocados chopped and soaked as well as lunch bowls compiled for consumption.   As the children watched, their questions and comments were enthusiastically welcomed by Renite and her staff.   The children also got t...

Hello parents,   We know that an unbalanced diet can c ause:   Digestive problems Poor dental health and tooth decay Brittle bones and lack of energy Lowers levels of immunity Stunted growth Impaired cognitive development and shorten attention span Obesity But did you know that, an unbalanced diet is also a big culprit in behavioural challenges and mood irritability? An unbalanced diet includes too much or too little of the recommended food groups. Here at West, we hold the Canadian Food Guide as our standard, and encourage staff, families, and children to incorporate healthy choices provided by the food guide into meal preps. If you are finding a change in your child’s mood or energy level, there are two areas which I would like to highlight to you in this blog: Sugar and sugar substitutes Offer foods that don’t have added sugar or sugar substitutes. Limit refined sugars (sucrose, glucose-fructose, white sugar) honey, molasses, sy...

Welcome back families and a Happy 2018!   Can you believe it is already February?   I can hardly wait for Spring to come and say goodbye to Winter. In January, we began our hands-on science exploration.   We had volcanoes erupting, balloon blowing with vinegar, dissolving egg experiment and some fizzing art.   The children were very captivated by the experiments but most of all each of them took part in the process.   By teaching children in a fun and hands-on environment, it captures their curiosity and it leads to learning.   The best way to teach a child is to have them involved in it and going with the flow of what is happening.   A great example of this happened a few days ago, when the children were actually playing with stacking blocks.   The children decided to take the stacking blocks to the floor and started to make a long line with the blocks.   At first they were making individual ones to begin with and then comparing the...

We have started 2018 with a bang! By that, I mean we have been experimenting with vinegar and baking soda to introduce science into the class. The children have been guessing what will happen when we mix the two together and the outcome has been pretty exciting.   We have created a few volcanoes with red lava erupting out.   The children were pretty thrilled in making the volcano with clay, and then we put in the baking soda, but the most fun was when we added the red coloured vinegar.   We did this hands-on experiment a few times since the children were very intrigued by it and captivated. Children learn best when they’re involved in the learning which is by doing.   Through this experiment and the other hands-on ones we performed, like the vinegar in the egg, the expanding balloon, and the fizzing art, the children were able to take part in the experiment, observe, smell, touch and most importantly ask questions. It was fun discussing what they thought w...

The world can seem immense when you are a “small person”. Maybe that's part of the appeal of retreating somewhere small and cozy. We recently removed our classroom chairs, and pulled out our box of sheets. Sheets were strewn over the tables, sectioning off various play areas and transforming our classroom.     Some children arrived with smiles when they first noticed the tents set up in our classroom. Others arrived looking a little more cautious. All seemed intrigued. “Whoa, what happened?!” Scotia It was a very enjoyable and quiet morning. The children happily explored each cozy haven. From dolls to books to manipulatives, there was something for everyone. Open areas were left available for those not wishing to be under cover. Going, going, going.... gone!   We look forward to our next tent day! Always so much FUN!   Barbi