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, October 30, 2013

Art at Leah's Studio

Painting Magic Horses!










 A whole herd of superpower horses. Laser beams, Ice, Poison and Smarts.

Printmaking.



Sunday, October 27, 2013

David Bowie/Ai Weiwei/Learning from Nature/Spooky Storytelling

David Bowie exhibit at the AGO. 
The kids loved all of David Bowie's different costumes and songs that were a part of the exhibit. I think they all enjoyed the Ziggy Stardust era the best! We celebrated David Bowie by listening to his music and drawing pictures of what we thought the songs were about, doing Ziggy Stardust style facepaint and dying our hair with hair chalk. 

From 'Ziggy Stardust'
'Diamond Dog'
'Golden Years'

 Songs we really like:









Science Fun! Making goop, slime and playdough structures!








Our Visit to the AGO and the Ai Weiwei exhibit.








What we learned from the Ai Weiwei exhibit:
-He's from China
-Has a big beard
-He's angry because people aren't being treated fairly
-Makes art with materials not paint
-Doesn't care about money but that everyone is safe
-He's been arrested
-Likes cameras and taking pictures
-Survived the earthquake. He is sad about the earthquake and that people were hurt.

We liked that the art had a message and we thought of some ways we could send a message:
-make signs
-write a letter
-say that people should be treated fairly and not go to jail for speaking








Nature sculptures


Nature is our teacher and the parks are our classroom. 
Here we are measuring trees on a little walk in the woods. We measured and compared sizes of the tree trunks and leaves in the park.






Planting bulbs for the Spring!




Carving pumpkins and roasting seeds.





SPOOKY STORYTELLING!!

One of our favourite activities is storytelling. The act of sharing ideas and collaborating together is a wonderful exercise and endlessly creative. 

'Whooshy Sea' - By Evan & Alessia
(Whoosy Sea Monster)

It was Halloween Night. There was a stormy sea. I looked out my window and saw a shark leaping out of the water and the waves whooshed. 
Suddenly there was a knock at the door and I told my sister not to open the door. I ran and hid. She opened the door and....
There was a big whoosh of water and suddenly a dark monster appeared!!
And...
My sister ran to her bedroom. The monster growled a big growl. He was angry. It's a mystery why!
The monster came into the house and went into the basement and takes some drums and throws them into the garbage!!!!

THE END

'The Terrible Monster' - By Finn & Soren
(Terrible Monster)                                                      (Terrible Ghost) 
It was Halloween Night. Outside there was a haunted sea.  I went to the park to see a friend who was dressed as a vampire. Suddenly I went home and left my friend the vampire. 
When I got home, I looked out my window.
Finn looked out his window and there was a finn showing in the sea. A shark finn!
Finn went outside and walked to Soren's house and rang the doorbell and had a sleepover.
Soren dressed up as a pirate and so did Finn.
They had to be really quiet. 
They heard a knock on the door. They answered the door. There was a spooky ghost and one spooky monster. Finn and Soren hid. Then they ran outside and jumped into a jeep and went on vacation. 

THE END




'The Tornado & Goblins' - By Evan, Toby and Nikko
(The Goblin)

It's Halloween Night and there's a lot of lightning outside. Suddenly there's a tornado.
Toby went to the park with his friends but they got scared and went back home. Toby jumped into his car and drove to Evan's house. In Evan's house there was a knock on the roof! 
A big sword was knocking! 
They left the house and ran to another house. There was a big knock at the door. There were 2 goblins. They were good guys. They all had a party. 
Then the tornado came and lightning flashed.
Toby, Evan, Nikko and the 2 goblins jumped into a car and went to the beach. It was stormy there so they went to Toby's house and had a sleepover. Then the tornado took the roof off of the house so they had to build a new, bigger and stronger house!

THE END