Happy Two Year!

The two year olds have been busy growing, learning, and playing. Here's a peek at the past few months:
Toys on the Floor

Different types of blocks



Cars

 Magnetic Animals

 Pegs

Playing Music

Reading Books



 These cubbies get used as many things -
Including: garage, oven, microwave, house, cave, etc...




Table Top Activities







Imaginative Play

Dressing Up








 Cooking and Baking





Making Sandwiches


Cutting Fruit



 Celebrating a birthday

Making a "muscle"

Driving a car


Art

Drawing and Colouring



Painting




 Gluing

Glitter




Bingo Dabbers


Sensory Activities

Sand


Water


Pumpkin Guts




Getting Out of the Classroom


 Blowing Bubbles


 Bouncing Balls


This year we hope to continue to develop social skills, introduce more sensory activities and provide more challenging art options! 

Let's have some fun!

Nicole


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All Aboard!

Here we are, two months in, and wouldn't you know it - we are starting to find our rhythm!! The twos are settling in and having a great time. The teachers are very excited by how far the children have progressed already!

Here's a few pictures from the past month to give you an idea of what we have been doing:

Table Top Activities

A construction puzzle

Sorting and stacking

A farm puzzle

A magnetic car puzzle

The barn and modes of tranportation puzzles

A teacher bonds with one of the children over a puzzle

Colour sorting

The Magna-Doodle


ART

Gluing

Carefully applying the glue to the tissue paper

Making a colourful collage

Painting - we love to try different things to paint with

Painting with duplo blocks

Or with our hands!


Floor Toys

We stack these and then send a ball down through them

Cars - these girls are taking turns seding the cars down the tracks

Animals

Fishing for different coloured fish

Putting the fish back in the fish bowl

Foam stacking - a definite favourite!

Trains

Sharing the trains and the track

Alphabet stones

The afternoon class loves to do the "ABCs"


Music

Our "piano"


Music on wheels

Taking a giraffe for a ride

Shaking shakers while we dance to the music

Playing the bells



Singing "Let it Go" in front of the CD player

We also love to sing songs and dance at the end of every class, just before it's time to go home!


Outside

If the weather is nice, we go out on the deck to play with bubbles...

...and chalk

Learning how to blow bubbles

Taking turns to dip the wands into the solution


Imaginative Play

Casting magic spells with her magic wand

These two drove these cars all over the room...

...from carpet to carpet...

 ...to carpet...

...and then under tables...

...through tunnels...

..

...even under the lego table...

...no space too small...

...this lead to the teachers creating a long tunnel...

...for everyone!

They took turns crawling through the tunnel

Which became more challenging

And then it turned into a train!!!

All Aboard!!

The train to Two's Time is chugging along at a wonderful pace and we hope to keep moving forward!

Choo-Choo,
Nicole




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It's all about the Twos

The past 2 weeks have been very exciting in the Two's Time program! The children have been getting to know the classroom, the teachers and each other and are starting to settle in!

Here are some pictures to give you a sampling of the things we are doing in class:

 
Duplo
 
 
 
 
 
Stacking
 
 
 
 
 
Beading
 
 
 
 
 
Music
 
 
 
 
 
Snack
 
 
 
 


Art
 

Painting


Using Stamps

 
 

Pastels

 

Puzzles
 

Apples - Biggest to Smallest

 

Modes of transportation
 
 
 
 
 

The Alphabet

Sea Creatures

 
Imaginative Play



Taking the toys out of the bowl...


Using the bowl as a nest...


Jumping out of the nest!
We love to dance, read books, play with bubbles, draw with chalk and to sing!

Some of our regular, favourite songs include:
  • The Wheels on the Bus
  • The Itsy Bitsy Spider
  • Slippery Fish
  • Shake it, Shake it, Shake it!
  • Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!


We are eagerly looking forward to what the next month will reveal to us!

Thank you,
Nicole


 
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Growing and growing......in the Spring!


Welcome back!  We have a few new friends joining us this term.  It is always an exciting time for children who showed up with their stories from their break.  Some children told us that they spent their time in their hometown, and some stayed in beautiful Vancouver for their holidays.

It is always fun to bring out lego in our classroom as children can use their imagination to create anything they want.  A few of them played together and they lined the lego up constructed buildings, chairs, and cars.  Some children seemed to simply enjoy the act of holding the pieces in their hands.  Some liked to use the same colors and some liked to use different colors.



We had another station for pegs last week.  I am surprised that children did not play the same way that we anticipated.  Some flipped the board over and pretended it was a table with many legs by putting the pegs in.  Others saw and started to do the same.  C said "many legs many legs".


For art, we put out materials that ensure projects that are open-ended, which will give children room to imagine.  We put out Q-tips, paint, chalks, glue stick, tissue paper, paintbrush, crayons and pastels and children just love it!

 
 
Some children love to spend their alone time at the library corner.  There was a book called "Pete the Cat" that captured everyone's attention.  The teachers sang the lyrics as part of the story.  R liked the melody a lot and he sang out with his own lyrics while he was playing a toy tow truck.  Instead of singing "I love my blue shoes, I love my blue shoes, I love my blue shoes...", he sang "He is towing that home,  he is towing that home, he is towing that home...".


It is so amazing to see each of the children grow and develop new skills every week.  We can't wait to incorporate more challenging activities to our little brainers soon!
 






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Pumpkin Season!


October is always an exciting month at school. Children look forward to the first party of the school year - the Halloween party!  Children dressed up in their favourite characters or animals.  It was interesting to watch them take on the persona of the character they were dressed as- Snow White, Tinker Bell, a zebra, a bee, a tiger, a dinosaur, a firefighter, Super Girl, Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder all came to school that day!

During group time, we showed the children a pumpkin. We discussed the outside but they were most curious about the inside. So we cut the pumpkin open, took out the flesh and played with the seeds.  The colour, the texture and the smell of the pumpkin caught their attention and some of the children even tried to have a taste of it :)




Here are some comments the children made about the pumpkin flesh:

"It's sticky."
"It feels funny."
"Orange."
"Waaa.."
"Can I try?"
"Yucky!"


By alternating toys and activities each week, children are given multiple opportunities to play in their own creative ways.  When I watch children use materials in new and unconventional ways, I question why adults expect toys to be used in a certain way. Isn't this limiting their creativity? I have observed that the simpler the toy or material, the more complex the play becomes.




It was impressive to see how children interact with the art supplies. Some children liked to repeat the same step over and over again, while others preferred to try new ways.  It is an inspiring moment when observing children play and learn new skills.  I learn so much each time I actively observe their play; I love being both a teacher and a learner!

Bonnie









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