Book Launch at The Monkey's Paw

The Monkey's Paw warmly invites you to attend a dual book release party for:

Leanne Shapton's THE NATIVE TREES OF CANADA (Drawn & Quarterly)

  -- and --

Jason Logan's FESTUS (J&L Books)

Saturday, October 30, 6-8 p.m.

at... the Monkey's Paw

1229 Dundas St. West, Toronto

Afrooooo Beeeeeat

A couple of weeks ago we started learning about Afro-Beat w/ Mr. Daniel. We have been doing our music lessons with the Wandering Hamsters, which works out much better for focusing (when one of our peers is being distracting, it affects everybody less when there are more of us).

Checking our pulses and feeling the rhythm of our hearts.

Tapping along to Mr. Daniel's rhythm.

Learning about the pioneer of Afro-Beat, Fela Kuti from Nigeria. We also learned about tape players!

Then we played percussion along with Fela Kuti on tape and danced around.

Jamming Along to Fela Kuti from Bellwoods Playschool on Vimeo.

More Tree Fun

Playing hide and seek in the trees at Trinity Bellwoods is a popular game.

Seeing how many Twirly Birds and Wandering Hampsters can fit on that giant stump in Trinity Bellwoods. We counted the rings to be about 150.

Urban Sights + Sounds

One of great advantages of being out and about on the street (instead of contained in a room or yard all day) is being able to see people at work. Watching construction machines, workers painting up high or down low in pot holes are always very interesting.

New Bonsai Tree

We ventured out to Chinatown to choose out a Bonsai Tree. It was tough because they were all so great and we had to come to a 5-way consensus. It ended up being 4 to 1, so the 1 chose the ornament to go under the tree. We had snack at a restaurant where we shared some shrimp dumplings (these sure were a big hit). The nice waitress let us see the giant lobsters they had in the aquarium up close. 

Tree Study

We have been talking and learning about trees for the last few weeks. We've been discussing all the wonderful things trees provide for us and their importance. We have also been figuring out how old certain trees are either by counting their rings or seeing whether we can wrap our arms all around them or not. We've also been admiring all their pretty colours and looking at them up close.

Hiking through the Sumac Forest in Trinity Bellwoods park.

Our hike in High Park, with the Wandering Hampsters.

(Learning about Poison Ivy)

Some of our Last Couple of Weeks at a Glance

In between free play and down time, we are always up to exploring and learning new things. Here is our last couple of weeks at a glance.

We enjoyed the beautiful singing of Maylee Todd, a teacher with the Cycling Giants, at Dundas Square.

And then enjoyed running around through the fountain paths.

Making pins at Leah's studio in Chinatown, with the Wandering Hampsters. (See the Trinity Playschool blog for more details!)

Sharing play dough during quiet time.

Making coffee based play dough with Carolyn at the Drop-In Centre.

An Autumn Yesterday

So much happens in a day! We started off by eating lunch amongst the leaves at the North end of Trinity Bellwoods. We talked about the many things that trees give us:  air, fruit, nuts, wood, paper, a place to climb, leaves, branches for playing with and maple syrup! We had a lot of fun burying the teacher in leaves (one of the kids took this shot) and then making the biggest pile of leaves in the world, making sure there was room for all of us to jump in it. We walked over the the lumber yard at Dundas and Euclid where Joe, an elderly Portuguese man, showed us the machines used to cut the wood and sent each of us off with a beautiful piece of scrap cedar. We ended our day with meeting our new friends in Grade 1, the Cycling Giants. We were partnered off with them to make percussion instruments out of our cedar wood. We took turns sanding down the edges and nailing bottle caps in to make jangle and jingle sounds.

Planet in Focus Festival

The 11th annual Environmental Film Festival, Planet in Focus, is this month - October 13 - 17.

On Saturday, October 16, they will be screening films appropriate for 3 - 6 year olds.
Find info here.