Sara's Post: November Theme

As our program continues to evolve from the children's wisdom and their intrinsic desire to experiment with movement. I have witnessed lately their interest in tossing and dropping objects found in nature at different heights. They also have discovered a great sense of satisfaction climbing up to hills and sliding dawn while saying: "I landed on earth!" Sara. From Camouflage, we blended into diversity, and we will be up and dawn with Gravity.
November's pedagogical theme: EXPLORING THE MEANING OF FALL AND GRAVITY. We will be deconstructing these concepts with sensory explorations, games, and much more!!!!!!

Parents are welcome to participate and to collaborate with books, ideas, skills, and by discussing these themes at home with children. Then the children can share these with the group.

Many Thanks

Well, with most things clued up and the hiring of our new staff member, Marie Cook, I'm finally at a place where I can write a final blog prior to leaving for Maternity Leave. As most of you know, the baby is due in January, but I'm really looking forward to slowing down and taking naps with little Hazel.

I want to take this moment to acknowledge the support we've recieved in the past year from parents and community members who have so graciously enrolled their children into our preschool, been patient with our growth and multiple programming changes, and sent letters and phone calls to endorse what we are now offering the West Carleton Community. I am so very grateful for the successes we've experienced, and for the opportunity to meet each family and get to know the beautiful children who roam our Forest on a daily basis. Their presence has been such a gift, a unique learning opportunity, and I thank you for entrusting us with guiding them in the natural world.

I'd like to offer my alternate email address if anyone has any questions or stories in the upcoming year: nurturemeinnature@gmail.com

Also, we had two journalists visit our preschool this past Tuesday to do a video-story for the online multi-media site called "Capital News." The story should be posted Friday of this week:
http://www.carleton.ca/Capital_News/03042009/

Wishing you all a nature-inspired year, and I look forward to seeing you all during my visits to the preschool once we've adjusted to our new addition.

Kindest, Marlene

'Fire Building 101'

Children learned that a fire needs air and wood to stay alive

Children strayed from fire momentarily to explore, and when I let them know the fire was dwindling, Coleman repeatedly said "Thank you, thank you, thank you Marlene for keeping our fire alive!"

'Ah-hiding-we-will-go'

Children hanging out in the shelter they helped build over the summer months with our campers. It was amazing to see how each child intereacted differently with the shelter. Some explored it by going inside, others started taking it apart to see how it was constructed, others stood outside and watched, and the remainder ran around it playing games.

'Snacks and Igloos, perfect Combo'

Snack Time near the 'sacred space.' We have a Shaman Group that comes on site once a month to perform a Sweat Lodge. Now that the winter is coming, the tarps have gone back on, and the children explored it and magically turned it into their very own igloo. Griffyn talked about his family who lived up North, and the other children learned about other cultures who live and sleep outdoors in ice homes.

Snowsuit Time

Last week we enjoyed the company of Pierre Blin, our wilderness expert who also runs our homeschooling program here on site, who spent two days with Sara and our children exploring specific wilderness skills. During his time here, Sara and the children will get the chance to learn fire-building skills, plant and animal identification, wilderness safety, and much more. Additionally, they will get the chance to make their very own 'talking stick' which assists in our theme of celebrating diversity, allowing us to explore First Nations traditions. Also, the talking sticks help our preschoolers learn the sacredness of listening to their peers throughout the day and in story-telling circles.



A friendly reminder for parents when dropping your children off in the mornings, please have their rain gear on them (waterproof pants, waterproof jacket, warm layers underneath, boots, warm hat, and mitts) even when it's not raining given the amount of dew collecting as temperatures drop. Also, in upcoming days (tomorrow to be precise) we may dip to temps -8 degrees, in which case children need to come wearing snowsuits, insulated boots (or rainboots with thick woolen socks), hats, and mitts. When looking to get your child's snowsuit this year, ensure you are getting a waterproof one, and that you're child will be comfortable running around (meaning it's very warm but not too bulky that they cannot move). Thanks kindly for your cooperation on this. It means when the children arrive Sara can immediately go into programming, and not go looking for gear indoors which delays our program from starting up to 1 hour at times...it can be quite difficult getting children indoors, changed, and back outdoors in a short amount of time.

Check back shortly for recent pictures taken during our fire-building workshop! They capture the uniqueness and beauty that our children are experiencing on a daily basis.

October's Theme: Celebrating Diversity

The theme for October: Celebrating Diversity [ October 6-30 ]

Family participation DURING THE MONTH:
1) Brainstorming what is diversity and send me the notes (to post in our bulletin board)
2) Ideas about activities on how we can celebrate diversity (to post)
3) I will like to extend an invitation to the parents to visit the library with the children and choose some books about our monthly themes and share with the group
4) To create a family book with pictures (including extended family) and some stories they will like to share to enrich our forest preschool library
5) Share world maps and/or the globe, posters, games, toys, musical instruments, photos of vacations and any material and resources.
6) Parents are welcome to share talents or time in our program

During this month we will explore the many facets of diversity; diversity in people and our environment. Please take a look at our Bulletin Board in the Learning Centre, and take the time to read our programming tree as the children assist in adding the leaves as the month unfolds. It's quite magical to watch a theme unfold, as we allow the children to lead their learning process, and to witness how they incorporate their learning into the lives at home.

Last month we explored the theme "Camouflage" which took us in many different directions with the children. They watched the camouflaging of the environment as the leaves changed with the passing of the summer, they experienced Camouflage as they played games and learned to blend into their own little hiding spots, they discussed how compost begins to Camouflage as it breaks down into soil, and so much more. We have heard tons of stories from our families about how their children picked up on this theme at home, witnessing how animals and other things in their environments also lent themselves to the great world of Camouflage.

If any parent has anything to contribute on Celebrating Diversity, please suggest them to Sara at any point in time. We welcome story-telling circles, pictures brought from home, science experiments, etc.

Enjoy this Harvest Season, and looking forward to seeing this learning unfold in front of our eyes.

Fall Updates

I've just returned from the Learning Centre where I listened to three children snoring in unison...which was not music to the one child who remained awake on his mat. Oh, the Fall and stuffy noses! Just a quick update below, please see each item and send me an email if you have any questions:

1. Sara will be posting her monthly themes, including various activities the children will be taking part in, on the bulletin board as you enter the LC. Please check it out, and see the effort that goes behind the scenes in our early childhood outdoor learning process.
2. Beginning later this week, we have two volunteers who will be assisting the Forest Preschooler's in making a scarecrow family for the garden. If anyone has any scarecrow outfits they would like to donate, [shirts, hats, jeans, accessories] please do bring them in. We will display our scarecrows by the LC for the month of Sept, as the children work on them, and then will place the scarecrows in the garden for October.
3. Starting on Tuesday, Sept. 22nd we will have a Katimavik volunteer joining us every week to assist in our Tuesday programming day. We'd like to welcome Valerie to our preschool, and look forward to seeing her wonderful contributions to our program!
4. As the weather is getting colder, and we're going through a transition in seasons, please pack warm clothes for your children for the colder days [ie. fall jacket, warmer socks, hat and even light mitts on some days].
5. Given the recent media attention given to H1N1 these days, I thought it would be beneficial to review our sickness policy with families. Please check out: http://www.carpridgelearningcentre.ca/pdf/Parent%20Handbook.pdf on page 15. It states:

"Parents will be required to pick their children up from preschool or keep them home under the following conditions:
1) Temperature over 101 degrees F or 38.3 degrees C
2) Vomiting
3) Diarrhoea (3 watery, profuse stools)
In the case of communicable diseases such as measles, chicken pox, mumps, flu, strep throat, viral pneumonia, head lice, et cetera. The child in ill‐health may not return to the preschool without permission from their health care provider (i.e. Naturopath,
doctor, nurse, etc). Please Note: Any outbreak of communicable
disease will be communicated to parents in writing."

In addition to this statement above, we request that children do not return to the preschool until they are asymptomatic for 24 hours without the use of tylenol/tempra.

Thanks for your assistance in the areas above. Cheers, Marlene

Resources for interested parents

Here's a great list of resources on early childhood education and sustainability for any parents interested in learning more about the benefits of nature-based education, or on the theoretical underpinnings of 'early childhood education for sustainable development.' Enjoy!

http://www.connotea.org/user/Sustainability