Every morning depending on the how the children are feeling, they usually start off with Arts and Crafts, or Playing with toys that are set out such as animals and barns, wooden train stations, ramps, cars and trucks, and puzzles.
After they spend some time playing its time to wash up for snack time. the Children know the routine to use the washroom and wash their hands before sitting at the table.
Once they done their healthy snack its time to play outside depending on the weather sometimes its too cold. when its time to come in the children wash up and use the washroom before sitting down at the table for lunch time then down for their nap.
Once the children have waken from their nap they play with toys, read books, and puzzles until its time to go home.
The staff member Laurel and Rupinder are very lovely, they welcome me when I arrive, they discuss about their meal plans, how many children we have today, and anything about the children or future events coming up such as their Christmas party. Great to feel so welcome and included Lora!
First Day of Practicum
When I arrived at Xwisten Headstart, I was greeted by the lovely staff members who introduced me to their three wonderful children in their program. They started their morning off playing with different shapes of magnets, wooden blocks, puzzles and books.
The one little boy B enjoys listening to his favorite books being read to him “How do dinosaur’s say good night?” and “Knot cannot.”
For everyone safety we stayed indoors, since there is a crew working outside on the roof top. we didn’t want to get in the way of their work or knocking down their ladders.
After they enjoy a healthy snack of sliced strawberries and Shreddies cereal with cup of water. After they carried on with playing with blocks, train tracks, and puzzles until lunch time they kept to their routine of putting away their toys and washed up before joining everyone at the table for lunch they had soup, corn and cucumbers.
After their nap, some did arts and crafts while others played with farm animals, barns, puppets, and anything they were interested in, until their parents/ guardians came to pick them up. Nice to see lots of loose parts for children to explore.
Lora Solonas
Destructing and Reconstructing Play
On this Wednesday morning B was in a mood. Sometimes we feeling a little anxious, or just want to knock something down. So by lining up the blocks to knock them down B is learning the cause and effects of movement, force and the concept of failure and success, by watching the domino effect when he pushes one or two blocks over.
This encourages B to express his imagination, empathy towards others, develop confidence, resilience, cooperation and understanding their own limits as to what is too rough. What a wonderful way to help a child learn to manage their frustration or big emotions.
As an ECE or a parent we can support children in destructive play by resisting the urge to cleaning up after they make a mess. If we let the mess happen children benefit from being able to experiment with the cause and effect of domino’s and how it can be a powerful learning opportunity for them to understand what happens when they hit or throw something (Trail and error). Great video clip !
Laurel talked about how importance it is to keep up with Fire drills at the HeadStart and how you never want to miss doing fire drills.
Laurel mention practicing fire drills procedure helps ensure the safety of children and staff by identifying areas of weakness such as the kitchen. Educating regular drills helps build confidence in responding to a emergencies and help teach fire safety measures.
It is important to practice fire drill once a month to help staff and children be comfortable responding to emergencies when there is a fire.
Conducting drills regularly ensure their evacuation routes are clear, accessible and inspected regularly. Their mustard station is a safe distance outside across the street.
It is always wonderful when a practicum mentor or staff provides students with this important information and even better if they can experience the Fire Drill.
Sensory Play
Sensory Activities are a great way for the children to enjoy and helps engage them into learning and developing their skills. I brought a Christmas/ Winter theme sensory with beads, pine cone, bells, little Santa’s and other little hidden treasure they’ll like. I choose this activities because it was good way for the children to self-sooth/calm, engage in social , motor skills and cognitive growth. Looks so inviting!
“I believe sensory play encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem-solving and creativity“
Moe the Mouse
I came across a little mouse, and never knew there was a story and what his purpose was until Laurel told me the interesting program that was built around him. It is a great resource that is free to all members of BC Aboriginal Child Care and Resource Program that we will be joining in the new year.
Moe the mouse is a speech and language development program a resource that uses indigenous toys and stories to enhance language development in children ages 3-5. Activities and materials in the curriculum box helps parents and educators provide opportunities for children to practice language skills in a natural setting.
These activities help children:
- comprehension of spoken words
- Social language use
- vocabulary
- discrimination of speech sounds
- Ability to pronouce speech sounds
- knowledge to preposition words
- Ability to express feelings and ideas
- Really wonderful resource and has area appropriate animals and language!!! So great that you got to experience Moe!
These are Moe’s animals friends
Last Reflection Learning of 1st Practicum 2024
What I learned from the children at Xwisten Head Start
Photo taken by Rupinder
The children at Xwisten Head Start program have taught me the better understanding of child development and understanding their needs. For instance The two children “C & B” are at different stages of development by 2 years differences between them, they’re building meaningful social relationships with educators and each other. They both have different learning styles and are reaching milestones such as potty training. Every child is unique and develops at their own pace.
What I Learned from Practicum Mentor?
Rupinder and Laurel has modeled the appropriate guidance of children’s behavior is best communicate is in calm, gentle, kind voice you get the best positive response from the child to learn to be respectful, mindful, and kind. Mentors have provided the importance of modeling health and safety of understanding keep play area clean, the policies, fire drills and incident reports when supervising small and large groups of children. Rupinder and Laurel have provided encouragement, support, feedback and a trusting relationship that lead to improve performance and that everyone engages with children differently.
Goals for my next practicum
- To gave a voice to communicate effectively with children, parents/guardians, and practicum mentors
- Learn best way to guide children’s behaviors in a appropriate way