On a cold day in the afternoon the JKK class from RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick went outside to make some ice cream from scratch! This was something that we had been talking about in our room for a couple weeks and the children were so excited to try making it for themselves, with many of them exclaiming “YAY” as Harper told them that they would be doing this activity. 

To begin we talked about what it takes to make ice cream. First we would need to dig holes in the snow that were big enough for our mixing bowls, then we had to sprinkle some salt in the holes so it could make the bowls even colder, and then finally we could start mixing all of our ingredients together. 

Now it came time to prepare everything and make the ice cream! Some of the children were given shovels to start digging the holes, this took a while as the snow was quite frozen, but the children were determined to do it! Once our holes were dug Harper sprinkled some salt into them before putting the bowls in. Some of the children were curious as to how salt could make the bowls colder, asking “what does the salt do?”, which began an interesting discussion about the scientific reaction between salt and ice/snow. We knew that salt could melt snow but we learned that it could also remove heat from things around the snow, therefore making it colder! 

Finally, it was time to combine all of our ingredients. We got together our whipping cream, cane sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. The children were given the opportunity to take turns measuring and pouring in all of our ingredients. While we were pouring in the vanilla extract, some of the children asked “can I smell it?”, Harper went around and let everyone who wanted to, take a smell test. We all decided that it did not smell very good, which made some of the children hesitant about the flavour of our frozen dessert. 

Now it was time to mix! The children took turns mixing everything together, which ended up taking us a lot longer than expected. Because of this, our ice cream did not end up looking very much like cream, it looked much more like ice cream soup. We all came to the conclusion that maybe we needed it to be colder for the ice cream to freeze faster, or maybe we needed to mix faster. But after everything some of us still took a taste test, and the consensus was that it was delicious!

This March, the Preschool 1 classroom at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick was full of excitement, creativity, and discovery! The children explored healthy habits, dental care, and self care, celebrated Holi and Ramada, created art and sensory experiences with playdough and oobleck, and even built a leaf mountain together!

This month, the children continued our project on self-care and hygiene. We talked about ways to keep our bodies healthy, especially learning about dental care. the preschoolers explored how to brush their teeth, why is it important to keep them clean, and how dentists help take care of our smiles. To extend this learning, we opened our very own Happy Smiles Dental Clinic In the classroom! The children enjoyed role-playing as dentists, dental hygienists, receptionists, and patients. They practiced taking turns, caring for others, and letting their Imagination run their play! all while learning about healthy habits. We were also lucky enough to have a special parent visitor who works as a dental hygienist. She talked to the children about how to take care of their teeth through a book called "Daisy Visits the Dentist" , showed real dental tools where children took turns exploring, and shared some dental goodies with the class. the children were very excited to learn from a real expert and asked many thoughtful questions. Later on, our dental clinic turned Into a walk In clinic where the kids would bring dolls or act as patients with "booboos". They would take turns being the doctors, nurses, and patients. With this growing Interest, we have another visitor, a parent who works as a doctor, to share stories with the class.

March was also a wonderful time to celebrate and learn about different cultures and traditions. We explored the colorful festival of Holi through story books and thoughtful conversations with Manisha, one of our educators who celebrates Holi. She shared that this celebration is all about colors, joy, and togetherness. Our classroom was filled with colors and laughter as the children explored different colors through our Holi art wall throwing colorful cotton balls and painting their friends and teachers with the color powders that they themselves made. The children also learned about the special month of Ramadan. A parent visited our classroom to read a story called "Ramadan Nights" and share about Ramadan traditions. The children later expressed their learning through Ramadan-Inspired art. Creativity and sensory exploration were also top favorites of the month! The children enjoyed our hand stamp art series, creating sea creatures with their hands, and explored classroom made oobleck and playdough, discovering different textures, shapes and how materials move and change.

We also spent time outdoors exploring nature. the children were so happy to finally see the sun and enjoy a nicer and warmer weather. They collected leaves and worked together to build a "ginormous" leaf mountain, experimenting with natural loose parts and cooperative play.

We have observed a lot of children sharing kindness in the classroom lately and this just fills our hearts! Our little friends have been demonstrating empathy and helping hands as they see friends who seems to need help, friends would step in to check In on them, offer help, and share a hug. This action seems to be really contagious in our classroom as the children would simply follow and pass the kind action forward to others. Indeed, we have come a long way, building deeper and more meaningful connections with one another.

Throughout the month, the children expressed curiosity, creativity, and kindness as they learned about healthy habits, nature, art, and diverse traditions within our community. These experiences helped build a strong sense of belonging, respect, and collaboration in our classroom.

This month in Preschool 2 at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick, we have had many very sensory based experiences which had been the talk of the classroom. We are been experimenting with the different forms of art mediums. On a daily basis, the children have been exploring crayons, pencil crayons, and markers. The children have been enjoying these mainly on various coloured paper. We have since furthered this sensory experience through other forms of art and sensory experiences. We have many different materials such as paint as a full body experience, slime, clay, and glue.

Lunar New Year Lantern

This month we began our sensory experience as we celebrated the Lunar New Year. Each child had the opportunity to decorate with markers and crayons as we used bright colours to celebrate the bright flowers and colours we see at this time. The children also used sparkles to add their own unique shimmering qualities to their creation. I then adapted their art creation into a lantern which we decorated our classroom with.

Slime

This month we also had our first experience with slime. The children helped to create the slime by measuring and adding the ingredients. The children assisted with mixing all the ingredients, as we discussed how each ingredient mixes together to form the slime substance. The children used words like squishy, soft, and slimy. This experience was exciting for the children as they enjoyed the squishy slime that got stuck to their fingers. As it was made with dish soap, many of them children enjoyed washing their hands as it felt soft and slippery on their hands.

Easter Egg Sensory Bin

A sensory table full of Easter eggs, cotton balls, and pompoms were left available for the children to explore and experiment with. The children at first enjoyed the colourful eggs and enjoyed matching the colours of the eggs with the Pompoms. As the continued to enjoy this experience, they began to practice their fine motor skills as they clicked the eggs together and separated them. The children seemed to enjoy the fluffy soft pompoms and cotton balls as they felt the soft feeling on their hands and then felt the rough fake grass.

Festival of Colours Holi – Full Body Painting

This month the children had a very adventurous day as they participated in a full body painting experience. With paper covering the floor and wall, the children used their feet, hands, paint brushes, and their body to spread and mix the colours. The children enjoyed slipping around on the paint, watching how their slides and falls spread the paint. As their bodies filled with paint, the children laughed and as they worked together to fill the paper with colour. This activity helped the children to celebrate the festival of colours - Holi, as they got to experience the joy of bright colours that we will continue to enjoy as the weather continues to transition from winter to spring.

Oscar the Grouch’s Visual Sensory Overload

            This month we also had a visitor come to our classroom while the children went on a walk throughout the school. When returning to the classroom, Mr Oscar the Grouch had visited as he heard about the great recycling and composting that the children had been engaged in. As he overheard the ruckus from living inside the garbage, he decided to come out and play with our recycling toys, along with our other classroom toys. Unfortunately, Mr Grouch left quite the mess as he dumped every toy bucket, and flipped every chair. Throughout the afternoon, the children helped to clean up after Mr Grouch. This was great help to assist the children in learning where the toys belong now that the classroom layout has changed. The children seemed to very much enjoy this different sensory activity as it can be overwhelming to see such chaos within the classroom. The children continued to talk about the Oscar the Grouch visit for the following day as the toys on the floor reminded the children about that crazy mess.

Sensory Bottles

            The children who venture into preschool 1 at the end of the day have been enjoying the sensory bottles their classroom created. This month preschool 2 created their own bottles. In this activity, the children got to decide what got into the bottles to enjoy. The children use these bottles to shake and watch the sparkles and beads float around. The children also listen to the sounds of the rattling beads. This is a fantastic sensory experience that can be also used for quiet time moments.

Mud Play

            The children also experienced an exciting mud play activity. With this activity, the children got to enjoy the mess of mud play. They squished, flattened, smoothed, and splatted the mud. They created recipes, buildings, sculptures, and many other creations through the mud. The children had great fun with another messy sensory activity as they laughed and smiled during this exciting play.

This month at RisingOaks Early Learning| St. Patrick, in the Toddler Room 2 Program, Nancy created a colourful and inviting learning environment where toddlers could explore, match, and discover through play. Bright materials and engaging displays were placed around the room, sparking curiosity and encouraging independent investigation.

A row of colourful buses; green, red, blue, orange, pink, yellow, and purple, invited the children to match pictures to the bus of the same colour. Dante found a yellow star and excitedly shared it with Nancy, who sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” while he listened with delight. Sebastian spotted a yellow bee and confidently matched it to the yellow bus, while Lily noticed her purple bow matched her outfit and carefully placed it on the purple bus.

Another activity encouraged exploration of animals. Large pictures of animal bodies were displayed on the wall, with Velcro animal heads for the children to match. Augustus held up a lion’s head and proudly identified the roar, correctly pairing it with the lion’s body. Zoey noticed the stripes on a zebra head and successfully matched it to the zebra, enjoying the tactile sensation of the Velcro as she worked.

At the table, toddlers practiced fine motor skills using tongs to pick up felt balls and rings in a variety of colours. Florence carefully placed a yellow ball in the correct section, Robbie concentrated as he lifted a red ball, and Brantley giggled while exploring a large yellow felt ring. Children shared discoveries, compared colours, and sorted pieces while developing coordination, problem-solving skills, and teamwork.

Throughout these activities, the educator encouraged observation, thoughtful questions, and conversation, supporting the children’s language development, colour recognition, and cognitive growth. The room was filled with laughter, curiosity, and joyful exploration as the toddlers learned together through hands-on play.