Strathcona Child Development Centre
200 Festival Lane T8A 2G6 Sherwood Park, AB, Canada

Using a variety of items, the children of Cottonwood continued their exploration of stacking and building. Incorporating found and unusual items allows children to build upon the knowledge they have to extend and try new and unexpected combinations.

The children in Maple collected a variety of toys throughout the classroom. Through playfully exploring with the toys, they identified the different shapes they saw. They dipped the toys in the paint and found the group it belongs to. While out on their morning walk, the children were heard having conversations about the different shapes they saw in the community. Through the disposition to play and be playful, the children were using their imagination and creativity to identify what they saw.

The Maple children were presented with varying patterns, with which they followed with buttons. This is a multi sensory opportunity the children much enjoyed.

The children of Oak have been exploring the topic of building and stacking. On Friday, they were provided with two different provocations, with one they made different creations and pathways with the other they made homes and discussed the different homes for people and animals.

ECE staff in Birch brought the outdoors in today. After setting up a train track, ECE Genevive brought snow and ice in for the children to experience

Tamarack added some visuals to their rock museum and the children have been adding as they collect. Here, you see the children investigating and exploring

For their next project, Maple will be exploring the world through senses! Here they are exploring the sense of touch

Bubble wrap footprints in Evergreen today ...need I say more...

Tamarack children enjoyed learning how to sew (safely) today. This is a real life skill and was most enjoyable for our children as they learned some basic textile facts.

Today in Oak the children worked on their counting, matching, and puzzle building skills as they worked together to complete the matching puzzle game.

Process over product in Oak. The children enjoyed this open ended activity where they were spraying the snow with lovely colours.

What can we do with these loose parts? Cottonwood- I can make patterns; I can build and stack; I can mix them up to see what happens. Thank you to ECE Christine for setting up these beautiful items

Another fabulous experiment the Tamarack children found in a classroom book! We made glowing test tubes using highlighter ink, tonic water, and a cell phone flashlight turned into a UV light! Thank you to ECE Molly for these photos

Tamarack built some from scratch vehicles today- a rolling around good time

Evergreen classroom today, courtesy of ECE Kurestyn Pouring and dumping oil and food colouring using cups and pipettes

Birch enjoyed lovely snow play with Canadian winter animals. Thank you to ECE Jennifer for this photo.

November 20 is National Child Day in Canada. It is also World Children’s Day, championed by UNICEF to mark the date in 1989 when children’s human rights were recognized with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) There are many reasons to celebrate children, but most of all because children deserve to be recognized as important members of our community. All children have the right to an adequate standard of living, health care and to play. All children have the right... to express their views about things that affect them and to participate in communities, programs and services. All children have the right to be protected from abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination. We at SCDC want to express our gratitude to our children for all the great moments, stories, smiles and especially love that they give us every day. We are blessed to have you #SeenAndHeard 365/day See more

Color mixing with lights in the den. This morning, we combined with science and technology to mix, create, discover and investigate our own different colors using flashlights. Cottonwood classroom, courtesy of ECE Raman

ECE staff in Birch presented the children with these colourful sensory bags to enjoy this morning.

Maple exploring with pumpkins. We shook them to hear what’s inside and then cut it open to see, smell, and touch the inside. Thank you to ECE Jazelle

Tamarack found some lady bugs and played with them this morning! The children were all surprised to have found them at this time of the year! Thank you to ECE Scott

Tea painting this afternoon in Evergreen. Yesterday while outside the children were curious about coffee with pumpkin in it and all the children where asking to smell pumpkin coffee. Thank you to ECE’s Kurestyn and Karen

Going with our movement and motion big idea, this week in Evergreen, we are looking at ‘transporting’. There was a fire in our room and we needed to help the fireman move from the fire truck to the fire. Pictures were hard to get, but it was definitely an experience! ... Thanks to Mazel for adding more pulley systems to the activity. Idea and photos thanks to Director Tiffany

Evergreen children enjoyed some painting experiences today- vertical work with scrubbers using gross motor, and fine motor pipette. Thank you to ECE staff Kurestyn, Karen, Mazel and Tiffany

These are from Oak, and I (Danielle) missed posting on Friday! Too cool not to- it’s the culmination as it was explosion day!

If you look very closely, you will see the Cottonwood children carefully placed their leaves to create beautiful translucent trees. Thank you to ECE Raman

This is a child enjoying some beautiful watercolor today in tamarack

ECE Taj set up this oiling brush activity on canvas for our Maple littles to enjoy today