Welcome back everyone!

 

Last week we all began our regular routines again- school, OSC, work, etc.  However, with a new year come some changes or resolutions.  We said good-bye to Gina, who went on maternity leave, and we said hello to Katie, who joined us from SR OSC.  A few other changes we saw included Dustin stepping-in for Gina, and Jason replacing Dustin. 

 

Not only did the New Year bring in some changes, it also brought fog!  Going outside with the kids this week was interesting.  Usually, the lightest times are earlier in the day, especially in winter, but last week it was almost the opposite.  The later it got the brighter it got.  Since the playground is so close to the community centre and tennis courts, it was lit up by the fog and their lights.  This was awesome because the kids were excited to stay outside longer on these foggy days.  Of course, we can only stay out as long as fingers and ears stay warm, gloves and toques are always more than welcome to help encourage the kids to head outside.

Check back for next week’s blog!

Many of the children have been occupying themselves at Junior OSC with Christmas colouring sheets. With Christmas just around the corner, the popular colouring sheet to colour this week seems to be one where they can fill out wish list for Santa, so they have been showing the staff all the fun stuff they hope Santa will bring them for Christmas.


Hope everyone has a wonderful winter break!


Pearlena

With the holidays creeping up on us quickly, we at West Richmond have been hard at work making things festive. Many of our arts have been holiday oriented as well as even some of our snacks. The art projects have included baking reindeer cookies and Christmas coloured pin-wheel cookies. The crafts we have done with the kids have involved snowflakes, snow globes, and many different types of tree ornaments.
With all the seasonal spirit going on here, at West Richmond, I  decided to ask the kids what they thought about  the holidays. I know that their favorite  part of the holidays are decorating  the Christmas tree, opening presents, making gingerbread cookies, and the party crackers that go "crack". The kids here are ready to bring on the holidays!

On Thursday December 11th, the rain unfortunately prevented us from going outside and playing at the park, instead we went to the gym and played the game Eliminator. In this game each team tries to shoot balls into the other teams’ hoop and score points. The first team that gets three points which is three balls in the hoop wins. You also have to try to avoid being hit by the balls because if you do you have to go to jail and can only come out when another player on your team throws a ball and hits the post behind the other team.

Mentioning the game excited and pleased many children in the group. This was a game where the children played against the leaders. Near the end the game, the leaders got a little help from a parent who assisted us as we faced the passionate and fierce group of children. I was impressed with how well the children played and the amazing effort they made. They were so determined to beat the leaders and really gave it their all. It was nice to see the children working together as a team and trying to help free their teammates from jail and not being focussed on strictly scoring points. When a child was hit with a ball and sent to the jail they were never in there long because their teammates always helped to free them quickly.