January!

ITS BEEN A VERY FUN MONTH!
While the bellwoods big mama/founder has been re-discovering her roots in the Phillippines, The Twirlybirds (and Hamsters) got up to some very fun activities.

We wrote a new song called FAST MOVEMENT.  Its about.....goin fast, and the activities we enjoy in this capacity.
(******recording coming soon*******)

Dufferin Grove was home to our ice skating adventures.  Sammy and Ruby enjoyed their first time EVER skating!  We had the whole rink to ourselves for most of the day, and it was an exciting time for all.  All the Hamsters and Twirlybirds were total pros, and were great at helping one another on the ice.  I believe we stayed for close to 3 HOURS!

Most recently, we all attended the HaloHalo silkscreening studio at Dufferin and Davenport.  Hosted by the inimitable and incomaparable Jeff Garcia, a local screenprinting legend, the day was spent foraying through Jeff's living space, known as the EARTHSHIP, and generally seeing how and amazing creative force like Jeff lives and works.  We then entered the other side, where the children screenprinted in a REAL STUDIO.  I can't speak for everyone, but I'm pretty sure that this was a memorable imaginative and exciting (and hilarious) time for EVERYONE involved!

(******VIDEOS AND PICS UP SOON*********!)  

There has also been much snowflake cutting and making, bombing down hills on toboggans, and learning about arctic living (in Toronto and outside!)  

The person who wrote this entry apologizes for the delay in multimedia examples, but these will be posted as soon as the technological boundaries are crossed!

Sincerely,
Dan

Spaces in the AGO

The Twirly Birds and Wandering Hamsters LOVE exploring spaces. They definitely admire art pieces and talk about what they like and don't like about them, but wandering around the AGO and exploring its architecture is what they like best. Kids 5 and under are always free at the AGO so its a good time to take advantage of this!

 

Block Printing

The kids loved learning about this technique. We tried out two different ways of making prints and will be learning some other techniques in the New Year.

St. Lawrence Market

We had food type hunts, searches based on the colour of food and just generally explored the market. We also picked up some holiday treats from Domino Foods! One of the Twirly Birds recognized the neighbourhood and lead us to his grandma's house where we had snack at a fancy table by candlelight. 

Hunukkah Olympics

We had some non-competitive Hunukkah fun with all the other groups. One of the Pouncing Pumas told us all the story of Hunukkah and we lit the menorah together. Here are more photos from the day from Crawford Afterschool: Hunukkah Olympics.

We played Dreidel.

Leah told us about the Hunukkah story in more detail.

We made candle drippings.

And of course, we made delicious Latkes!

Learning the Music Scale and Having Fun

We are getting a good handle on singing up and down the musical scale, which we further discussed to day. We started learning what it actually looks like, practiced drawing the treble clef and each made our first staff. Did we mention that it was all also very fun?! We ended our music session in a mellow, thoughtful, rhythmic jam.

The AGO + Shary Boyle's Exhibit

We spent a rainy day last week at the AGO. We checked out some, not all, of Shary Boyle's work (some of it is too scary). Later, we created and drew our own creatures like she did! We were also lucky that the print room was open. The lovely gallery attendants showed us some water colour prints and other drawings up close and talked about them with us. We also LOVED riding the elevator and going down the swirly stairs. Checking out the cityscape from the upper floors of the gallery were pretty interesting too. It was a fun but long day and we were pretty tired by the end of the day.

A Few Snapshots from Some of our Days

We are pros at riding the Streetcar

 We started practicing with Watercolour Paints!

Baking gingerbread cookies at Lorna's. We used healthy alternatives and had so much extra help!

Dressing up during free time is always brings out the rock stars in us.

Having some quiet time at the Toronto Public Library is a great way to relax.

Green House Work!

We are happy to be part of the Trinity Bellwoods Community Green House! Last Friday we choose the shelves that we will be sharing with the other playschool groups. We will plant some leafy greens and herbs, as recommended to grow this winter. We took turns sounding out and writing "Bellwoods Playschool" and decorated our shelves with tape, hearts and a garden princess. We talked about our shared responsibilities, and how every 4 weeks, we will be responsible for watering everyone's plants. We learned about the soil mix we use for the seeds and mixed a small batch up. Later, the Wandering Hamsters, with a couple of our other mates who stayed in the playground for a game of tag, joined us and Roy explained to the whole group about our role in the community green house. All other 8 children were amazingly attentive!

Practicing Paint Mixing + Colour Making, Finishing Our Shakers