Integration Art Days!
25-04-2014, 10:16 AM
Ever since the Grade 2's have began the weekly integration day at Senior OSC, Tuesdays have been pretty quiet at Junior. Couple that with the fact that this past Tuesday was beautiful (well, not cold and not rainy) and you've got a very quiet art table. With only a handful of kids signed up, we decided on two simple spring crafts. We tried our hand at tissue paper flowers. Not much to it, but very cute. We used tissue paper and streamers and kind of just folded, crunched, and layered our 'petals' until they looked like a flower. We moved onto butterfly paintings which is just how it sounds! My initial idea was to suggest that they only paint one half of the butterfly and then fold it onto the other half to demonstrate the symmetry of a butterfly's wings. HOWEVER, I don't think that made sense to most, so they just painted the whole butterfly, which was totally fine too.
Though it was a quiet day at Junior OSC, there was no shortage of fun nor creativity!
- Sara
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| Butterflies! |
Comments
"Would you like some cookie with your icing?"
23-04-2014, 11:48 AM
My over used, not-so-funny joke during our cookie decorating activity this
week in celebration of Easter.
I know that baking and decorating sweets will always make for a messy but
enjoyable art table at Junior OSC and as Easter was nearing, why not! Sorry
parents, I know, as if they weren't already going to be spoiled and
'tummy-aching' from chocolate this long weekend. Instead of baking cookies, I
went ahead and baked some really quick flower shaped sugar cookies on my own to
create a blank canvas for our little Picassos. Some white frosting mixed with
neon food dye, sprinkles and a handful of skittles were all we needed to occupy
them for a whole half hour. Unsurprisingly, some kids preferred a 3:1 icing to
cookie ratio - AKA a whole lotta icing, while others were more conservative,
carefully icing each petal a different colour.
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| Decorating each petal |
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| Cookie artists at work |
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| Sprinkles! |
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| Slopping on icing |
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| How we imagined the cookies would look |
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| How they actually look |
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| Keeping track of which cookies belong to whom. |
Bring out the Looms
16-04-2014, 11:06 AMRainbow looms are one
of the most popular recent trends in OSC. There are endless combinations of
patterns and colours, and with every new creation the kids only seem to like
them more. Recently we dug out looms that were relics from my own childhood, and
yarn looms began. A surprising number of kids instantly took interest in these
instantly, and very soon all twelve were occupied. This activity has attracted
boys and girls from all age groups, some very unexpectedly. Some of our
greatest enthusiasts include Logan, Emily and Keira.
-Gemma
-Gemma
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| Using some teamwork |
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| Different sizes |
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| Tangled yard, a loomer's worst nightmare |
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| Our art cart ever since the children discovered looming |
City of Blocks
08-04-2014, 11:16 AM
The Keva blocks have
been a hit since first introduced to both Sr. and then Jr. OSC, and almost
every kid has devoted a good chunk of time to building various structures at
some point. This interest has only grown for many children, and has resulted in
the invention of a variety of games. Some of these games include designing
marble tracks to race marbles, or building towers that can withstand a
strategically thrown object. We were all impressed one day when a group of kids
took it upon themselves to organize and build an entire Keva city.
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| OSC Tower |
The core crew of this endeavour included Logan, Peton, Andrew, Sean, Adriana, Toby, Noa and Leo. The city they built included buildings contributed by many children, such as city hall, OSC tower, main road, and many unique houses and scenery. They collaborated on this project from 3pm until about 5:30, which is a long time considering everything else happening around them, and all of them were extremely proud of their City of Blocks.
-Gemma
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| An aerial view |
Dungeons & Dragons
11-03-2014, 01:51 PMHey 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:
"I like the snakes" - Mia, Fire Fairy
"Finding treasures" - Vlad, Red Robot Guy
"Using powers like Fire Breath" - Justin, Dragon Guy
"Getting new powers!" - Alarii, Wizard
"When monsters come out!" - Nyah, Fairy
That's all folks, cya soon!
- Peter Sammarco
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