TURTLE POND
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Painting & Father’s Day Gifts
Painting & Father’s Day Gifts
The Turtles enjoyed a fun mess-free painting activity that allowed them to explore colour, creativity, and self-expression while keeping little hands and clothes clean. Painting has always been a favourite experience for the Turtles, and this month it was used to support the creation of Father’s Day gifts.
Through this activity, children practiced fine motor skills and engaged in meaningful conversations as they created something special for the important people in their lives. It was a joyful experience filled with pride, creativity, and connection.
Water play
Recycled Cardboard Car Wash Pretend Play
Recycled Cardboard Car Wash Pretend Play
Using a recycled cardboard box, we created a pretend car wash for the children to explore. The Turtles love hiding, enclosed spaces, and imaginative play with cars. This experience encouraged creativity, problem-solving, social interaction, and early pretend play skills. Tapering off our interest once again from Transportation.
Outdoor Exploration and Nature Learning
Outdoor Exploration and Nature Learning
The beautiful rainy days provided many opportunities for hands-on learning and exploration. The Turtles observed puddles, ripples, rain, and even thunder, turning everyday weather into meaningful learning experiences.
Children tested their ideas by throwing wood chips and sand into puddles and stepping into the water to observe the results. These experiences supported their understanding of cause and effect, encouraged curiosity, and enriched their sensory development. We also saw these ideas scaffolded as we explored different outdoor areas, where the Turtles continued testing the same theories in new contexts. After heavy rainfall, many children returned to the same puddles, repeatedly exploring and refining their understanding through continued experimentation.
Bringing Outdoor Learning Indoors (and Vice Versa)
Bringing Outdoor Learning Indoors (and Vice Versa)
Rather than letting the rainy weather interrupt our exploration, we intentionally revisited these experiences indoors. The Turtles engaged in water play with dried flowers and essential oils, recreating sensory elements from outside.
Revisiting familiar experiences helps infants and toddlers deepen their learning and build on prior knowledge. As educators, we scaffold this learning by extending children’s interests and introducing new materials that enrich their play.
This indoor extension allowed the Turtles to continue exploring textures, scents, and water movement while strengthening their observation and investigation skills. These experiences also help prepare them for our upcoming Urban Forest adventures.
Inversely, as the Turtles showed a strong interest in DIY kinetic sand, we reintroduced it on several occasions and added loose parts connected to their interests in hiding and digging. This experience evolved into rich opportunities for exploration, problem-solving, and imaginative play.
We then extended this learning outdoors by introducing scoops, bowls, and sand toys, encouraging the children to recreate similar ideas in a new environment and observe how their play adapted and expanded. This progression allowed the Turtles to deepen their engagement, test new ideas, and further develop their understanding through hands-on experimentation.
Summer Reminders
Summer Reminders
The summer schedule will be posted on the parent board inside the Turtle Pond, along with Urban Forest days, activities, and water days. A few reminders for summer are:
Hats are required daily.
Rain boots and raincoats are needed according to the weather.
Swimwear and towels are required on water days.
Please ensure your child has a complete set of extra clothing in their locker.
Urban Forest Days
Urban Forest Days
No heat-up lunches, please.
Children should wear long pants for Urban Forest days.
Hello Summer!
Hello Summer!
As we move into the summer months, we look forward to continued exploration, discovery, and joyful learning with the Turtles. Thank you for your ongoing support in helping us create such rich and meaningful experiences for the children.
We also take a moment to say a special goodbye to Toren as he steps into preschool as a Buffalo. We are so proud of his growth, confidence, and curiosity, and we wish him all the best in this exciting new chapter.
Maria
Maria
Javaan
Javaan
Komaljit
Support Educator
Komaljit
Support Educator
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