Sharing the Love for Friendship Day 

As Friendship Day approached, our focus naturally shifted toward themes of kindness, connection, and community. The children prepared special bags to collect the cards they would receive, fostering a sense of anticipation and gratitude. We created a variety of heart-themed crafts and engaged in hands-on experiences creating friendship bracelets for each other and experimenting with fizzing hearts, combining creativity with early science exploration. The NKs also took pride in collaboratively building their own sensory heart table, demonstrating teamwork and problem-solving skills. One of the highlights of the month was rescuing our “pompom friends” frozen in ice—an activity that encouraged patience, cooperation, and fine motor development while sparking excitement and curiosity.

Enhancing Literacy Through Play

Recently, we received a literacy grant from NERI to enrich our learning environment, and the children have been exploring the new materials with enthusiasm and curiosity. Using lacing letters, children strengthened their fine motor skills while simultaneously practicing letter recognition, building a foundation for reading and writing. The introduction of letter stones offered a tactile, hands-on way to explore spelling, encouraging children to experiment with early writing and develop confidence in expressing themselves. Emotion characters and matching cards provided opportunities for children to identify, discuss, and label their feelings, fostering social-emotional awareness, empathy, and effective communication skills. The memory game challenged children to recall patterns and details, enhancing their concentration, attention to detail, and cognitive flexibility. Extending learning beyond the classroom, children planted a sprouted potato, discovering the processes of growth and care while cultivating curiosity, responsibility, and an appreciation for the natural world. Overall, the literacy grant has transformed our environment, supporting meaningful learning through play, exploration, and discovery.

Celebrating Lunar New Year

On February 17th, our CC Nursery Kindergarten group celebrated Lunar New Year with a day brimming with creativity, cultural learning, and shared experiences. Children crafted beautiful lanterns and lively dragon puppets, using a variety of materials to bring their imaginative ideas to life. These hands-on activities nurtured fine motor development, visual-spatial awareness, and collaborative skills as children worked together to create their projects. As part of the cultural experience, children sampled traditional foods, including soup with rice and chives, and enjoyed homemade dumplings for afternoon snack. Engaging with cultural traditions in this way deepened children’s understanding of diversity and encouraged curiosity, respect, and appreciation for different ways of life.

I Love to Read Month

February has also been filled with stories, imagination, and a shared love of books as we celebrated I Love to Read Month at our CC School Age Centre. Special guests enriched our literacy experiences: Adrian, our Knowledge Keeper, read meaningful stories to both our Nursery/Kindergarten and school-age children, while Trevor from the local WPS Foot Patrol joined the school-age group during lunchtime. Thank you to Minister Beaudin (MMF) for reading to us as well as committing to supply heritage seeds for our gardens this year. Thanks to Bernadette Smith our local MLA, Michael Redhead Champagne, Alexis from the Southern Chiefs Organization, Leigh from our local Fire Hall #6, and all our other friends, family members and community partners for coming out this month. These shared reading experiences went beyond listening to stories—they fostered vocabulary growth, strengthened listening comprehension, encouraged critical thinking, and inspired creative expression. Children learned that reading is not only a skill but a source of joy and connection, highlighting the power of storytelling in building both literacy and community.