WE STRIVE TO SEE THE WORLD FROM A KIDS-EYE-VIEW
Bellwoods Playschool uses a child-centred, socially conscious pedagogy to engage young children in social and artistic thought and action. Using what the city has to offer, we empower our students with the knowledge to be socially and environmentally responsible citizens while they develop into explorers of their urban landscape.

WE THINK OF THE CITY AS OUR CLASSROOM
A valuable aspect of the Bellwoods Playschool program is to empower children as navigators of their city. We journey on regular excursions, by foot and by public transportation, to art galleries, museums and cultural events, as well as markets, parks and city landmarks.

WE KNOW ITS TAKES A VILLAGE

Our Playschool runs on a model that links a range of artists together to engage and inspire children. We like to bring in different perspectives and actively pursue a diverse teaching staff. As such, professional educators and artists trade chalkboards for personal anecdotes and textbooks for real life experiences. Together, they create an atmosphere that is at once intellectually stimulating and deeply personalized.


Our Community

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

November & December!

Learning how walnut cakes are made during our visit to Korea town. 


The labyrinth at Christie Pits Park




                                                             Self Portraits with chalk
 Warming up with a bowl of miso soup in Kensington Market
 Remembrance Day thoughts...
 Will this origami boat float or sink? We experimented ...
 We slowly added lego figures to see how much weight the boat could hold. It held a lot and stayed a float for a whole minute!


MOVEMBER! 




 Our new friend, Patric McGroarty stopped by and did some song writing with us. We learned about rhythm and how to make up a funny verse and chorus! Listen to a part of our song "things you shouldn't eat" here:



                                               http://totesmcgroats.com/index.php


Making guacamole 




We ended the month the same way we began, by visiting the Frida Khalo & Diego Rivera exhibit at the AGO!!  The Lion Wolves were completely enthralled by the story of their magnificent, colourful and courageous lives and artistic styles.

                                                       Distance & Perspective


                              Painting on photographs in the style of Frida Khalo's father!


Making progress! Our solar system is almost complete!! 






Saturday, November 10, 2012

Our trip to Earth Echoes.

We are becoming experts at getting around in the city by public transportation. Last week was the first time we ventured on the subway (now we've taken every mode of public transportation!) We spent quite a bit of time watching the trains zoom by and listening to the music of the subway chimes. 


The sounds of the subway...
 Our trip to 'Earth Echoes' on Bloor Street West. The store is full of different creatures (from bearded dragons to chameleons - both big and small, turtles and many different types of snakes). We met the owner of the shop, Jeff, who was really friendly and knowledgeable. He asked us if we would prefer to learn about lizards or snakes on this visit....we chose snakes! We were lucky enough to hold a baby python and two different corn snakes! We learned about their habitats and many different cool facts. We're excited to visit again and learn about a different creature family!!

 We watched the sucker fish cleaning the algae from the tank. The coolest vacuum around!
 Our friend Jeff showing us the different snakes in the shop.





Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Guest Musician: Ronley Teper

Ronley Teper is a local singer-songwriter, storyteller and performance artist who has been active in the Toronto music scene for over a decade. Ronley has spent many years traveling and conducting vocal improvisational music workshops with children, and we were lucky to have her stop by and play some vocal, rhythm and improvisational games with us! 




http://www.ronleyteper.com/

Monday, November 05, 2012

Fall Field Trips

Our trip to Fort York





Riverdale Farm


 Learning about the animals and plants that inhabit the Riverdale Farm Ponds.




A tribute to the animals we saw at Riverdale Farm
 A perfect way to spend a rainy day: The Josef Sudek photography exhibit at the AGO
 Watching a short film made by Josef Sudek.
 Exploring light, shade, colour and architecture in these beautiful photographs.

 Sketching the model ships!




Sunday, October 21, 2012

Crazy Bedroom

Last month, The Lion Wolves wrote a story called "Crazy Bedroom". It was a rainy day and an exercise of storytelling turned into quick an epic story! They loved it so much they wanted to turn it into a movie. I documented the story as they took turns creating it orally amongst themselves. The story ended up being 5 pages long! Pretty amazing stuff. Narration in the video here is done by me, but the story line is 100% kid directed. Enjoy!!


Thursday, October 18, 2012

October

Public Art & City sights

We always stop to look and talk about the colourful murals that we see on our walks. 



 Sometimes you come across a fall fair at a neighbourhood school and get to enjoy wonderful local musicians playing and maybe even have a tasty treat!

 Planting bulbs for the spring...



 Creating our own 'Buildings & Bodies' drawings by local artist, Ryan Dodgson. www.ryandodgson.com.







 Science Experiments! Exploding Volcano!
 Costumes are always a good idea.





Exploring parks and nature in our wonderful city







                                         The beginning of our paper mache solar system
                                                                  Funny collages