Hey Folks, Peter here with an update on Dungeons and Dragons at Junior OSC. Our quest is still going strong. More kids have joined the adventure since I last wrote a blog. D&D is a role playing game where the children's actions have immediate effects on the game. So, for example, if a player decides to freeze the lake, it may or may not change the outcome of the story, which I have created. I've been trying to reward good behavior in the game by giving extra points to children who use their 'abilities' for good, and also help their friends in the game by sharing items like health potions. The stories I've been using are mostly made up, but I've taken parts from Disney movies as well as Greek and Aboriginal mythology to make it really interesting for the kids. Here are some of the things the kids have said about the game:

Dinosaurs are an ongoing interest for most kids, so for Science Club we took this interest and looked at it in a different way. When asked how people knew about dinosaurs the kids quickly came up with the word fossil, and when asked what a fossil is? The replies were varied and the group came up with responses like “Dead Dinosaurs,” “Rock shapes,” and “Bones.”

After a discussion about how fossils are made, we went on to make our own using a simple recipe involving coffee grinds. Not surprisingly one of the highlights of the entire process was the kids passing around the coffee to smell, and making faces while exclaiming “EWWW,” or “GROSS,” followed by much laughter.
Everyone went about making their fossil a different way. Some, like Emily, spent the entire time meticulously printing a single leaf, others, like Trenton, made as many prints as possible on the fossil surface, and Camryn even designed a scene on top of their fossil before leaving the prints behind. Take a look at some of our creations.

-Gemma

In the last couple weeks all of us at West Richmond watched as the Sochi Olympics took place live in Russia. In the child care program we tried to put on our T.V to showcase some of the events in the mornings. We watched as the kids cheered Canada on in all kinds of events such as bobsledding, skiing, curling and many others. When the kids were asked if they had any favorite events many answered with hockey after watching both the Canadian men and women winning gold medals. During the pro-d day we kept the Olympics on a screen for the children to come watch as they pleased. Many of them enjoyed watching the skeleton and luge runs, although they said that those kinds of sports would be too scary to try themselves. Overall the kids enjoyed cheering on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics whenever able.

-Aislinn

Despite some foggy days and the ever-expected rain shower, we've been really lucky with the weather lately! This is huge help for Junior OSC because we can take the kids out to the playground for a good romp. There's something about the playground that the gym doesn't have, oh yeah, fresh air! While the gym is fun for organized games like soccer and floor hockey - which is very popular among the boys (and a few girls), the playground is where the kids' imaginations really run wild. Of course the kids enjoy a classic game of tag, grounders, hide and seek, or just making use of the park apparatus, but they've also gotten creative in inventing their own make believe games too. Many times I have been invited to play a game of 'Harry Potter' with authentic wood wands, spells and secret headquarters. I've also come across the game 'Puppies and Kitties', 'Petshop' and 'Restaurant'. It's really entertaining and also kind of satisfying to see them exercise their creativity; they put so much thought into their games, they cooperate and compromise usually without any help from leaders at all. It's good to see that in an age of electronics being the primary means for entertainment for kids, our kids would often enjoy going to the park.