Theatre Group's Last Day of Outdoor Challenge

Yesterday we enjoyed our last day at St. Vital Park for our Outdoor Challenge. Our group had a picnic lunch near the duck pond. Afterward, we played parachute games, including Cat and Mouse!

Later, we walked to the flower garden to have a mini 'Hanami'. Hanami is a Japanese tradition that recognizes the beauty of flowers, often including a picnic near a blossoming tree.

Throughout our time at the park, we have observed our group playing with water, mud, and wood chips - using them to create a variety of concoctions. During our Hanami, we made our own edible mud pies, complete with worms. Yum!

Other special events today included a group Yoga class and Popsicles. We had a great day!

-Ms. Meghann & Ms. Ashley

Outdoor Challenge Day 7

Today we went exploring in the park.  The Mini Gym group went for a walk down to the boat launch.  They had so much fun watching the boats go by and splashing in the water.  They even had the opportunity to see a boat docking and speak to the driver. 

They had such a good time that after lunch they decided to go back and try their luck with some fishing.  They created fishing rods from sticks that they found within the forest area and some twine that we brought from the center.  

 

They did not end up catching any fish but they did catch enough sticks to bring back so that the rest of the children at could make their own fishing rods too!  

I hear they plan to try again tomorrow.  

Ms. Lindsay

Outdoor Challenge Day 3

 Well it was definitely a hot one today but with big smiles and great spirits we found a few ways to beat the heat.  Ms. Ashley organized a water fun day and by the end of the afternoon there wasn't a dry shirt in the house. 

 

 

 Ms. Kym and Ms. Khadija dropped by the park with a treat for the children. 

 

Towards the end of the day we stayed cool in the shade and played some group games.  The children gave Oscar winning performances in the role of victim during our game of assassin and one of our children found a new friend in the trees.  

Hot or not, it was a great day!

Ms. Lindsay

Outdoor Challenge Day 2

Today we had a visit from Barret who is the Special Projects Interpreter for Fort Whyte Alive.  He guided our children on a more in depth tour of the park taking them into the forest to learn about the plants, animals and ecosystems that live within the park.

Ms. Amna and Ms. Shila also wowed us with their amazing henna artwork.  The children admired each others tattoos as they patiently waited for their turn.

 

More fun to come tomorrow!

Ms. Lindsay

Outdoor Challenge Day 1

Here are just a few highlights from our first day at the park.  All smiles and lots of fun!

 

See you tomorrow!

Ms. Lindsay

Mad Science

Yesterday (July 12) Mad Science of Manitoba came and held a hands on workshop about Structures.

"Dr.Bugs" asked the children what they knew about Structures and to give her some examples. The children gave confident answers of "houses", "chairs", "buildings". "Dr. Bugs" stumped the children with her next question, are people structures? The children learned that people are in fact structures.

The children learned about the strength of paper when left unfolded and when folded into accordian style. To demonstrate this the Mad Scientist used pennies and the unfolded paper to build a bridge, the paper was unable to support more than 3 pennies at a time. When folded accordian style the paper was able to support up to 30 pennies.

After this demonstration "Dr. Bugs" showed the children how to build their own pentagon structure using marshmallows and toothpicks. "Dr. Bugs" demonstrated to the children the strength of their structures and gave examples of other structures that resembled pentagons, such as Epcot Centre.

School of Rock

The School of Rock joined us for a 6 hour workshop today.  The children had a great time learning about music and rhythm through listening and movement games as well as some hands on learning with some pretty cool instruments.

 Our Theater Group learned some basic music fundamentals like learning to stop and go to the music, keeping the beat, identifying sounds and an introduction to guitar.  

Our middle ages group learned about keeping a beat and the dynamics of music.  They had an opportunity to play multiple instruments as well as channel their inner rocker by yelling into the mic.  We had a few piano players in the group and one of our little rockstars even played us a song.  

Our oldest children had the chance to get some in depth music lessons and by the end of their session they were playing together as a group and they sounded really great.  

A big thanks to The School of Rock for all your amazing work with our children today!

The School of Rock is located at 657 Corydon Ave. You can click the link below to access their website.  

The School of Rock

July 4th, 2016

We are well on our way to a great summer.  It didn't take the children long to get to work with their imaginations today.  All three rooms were buzzing with excitement by mid-afternoon.

The Theatre Group was feeling very artistic and spent a good part of the day drawing and creating disguises.   

The Street Group helped us to assemble some of our new furniture and created some contraptions of their own.  Others just needed a little break from the heat. 

 The Mini Gym Group also worked together to assemble our new art carts and what would a summer at Cairns Children's Centre be without our much sought after Lego.  

We can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.  

Ms. Lindsay