Through child guided interest, Wyatt from RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick, played peekaboo using his hands to hide, Vihana used the big neck on Shannon’s sweater to hide Shannon, and Shannon did an activity where she placed felt on the mirror and window, to play peekaboo with their own reflection or toddler friends outside. This interested continue with …

Zendaya hiding behind a toy giraffe then moved it to peek around. Shannon noticed from across the room and said “peekaboo”. 

This gave Shannon the idea to bring out a mini ball pit and fill it with blankets and stuffed animals, for peekaboo. Jason climbed into the blanket pit using his gross motor skills, on his own. Wyatt and Remy used their gross motor muscles to lifted the opposite sides of the blanket pit up and down. I wonder if you are shaking it like a parachute. I wonder if the infants would like to explore a parachute. Jason and Wyatt continued to explore together as once they were both inside the blanket pit, they would pull the blanket off each other’s head, to find their friend, BOO!. Jason would babble with excitement when Wyatt was found and Wyatt would smile, and giggle. What a cute social interaction. They both also pointed at each other when, found.

 Remy liked to lay down on the soft blankets feeling the soft texture on his face, to be covered up, by Shannon to play peekaboo. He also peeked out over the edge of the pool. Once Wyatt, Jason, and Paxton were inside the blanket pit, Shannon found the biggest blanket and cover all three up at the same time. Like they were inside a fort. You could heard giggles from under the blanket, then more, laughter and squealing once the blanket was pulled away, revealing each other to Shannon. Shannon would also hid under the blanket with the infants, they found this confusing and funny. Zendaya sat in the blanket pit and found the stuffed animal giraffe, from this morning, what a great memory. She preferred to play peekaboo with the blankets and stuffed animals outside of the blanket pit, sitting on a floor chair. Vihana giggled as the first time the blanket missed her completely, it made Shannon laugh too. Shannon tried again to throw the blanket over her, this time Vihana, smiled, when she pulled the blanket off herself and giggled. Wyatt could put the blanket over his own head and pull it off to play peekaboo. Wyatt was so proud of himself as he clapped and smiled that he could do it on his own. He then hid a toy carrot into a cup and looked inside,  like it disappeared, were did it go. Wyatt then pulled it out, with a smile, Tada! Magician in the making. Vihana started to play peekaboo with Shannon from behind the floor chair that Zendaya was sitting in. She did this by crouching down behind the chair, then popping back up. To extend this activity next week we will do a ball pit, to see which item is preferred blankets for hiding,  or balls for throwing.

As December kicked in, the Preschool 1 classroom at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick, have turned into busy bees exploring and enjoying lots of festive activities! Since November, the children have been talking about the incoming holidays, their plans, and how they would love to turn our classroom into one magical candy land! With this growing interest, we tailored activities around the holidays theme. We started with exploring and bringing a snowy small world into the classroom. The preschoolers were incredibly curious on how the snow felt in their tiny fingers and how they could form different shapes out of their own imaginations. The next day, the Christmas tree sensory play was a hit! We have noticed that them enjoyed anything sensory- exploring textures, using their hands to discover and create surprises. The excitement grew as they dug through the bin finding treasures like sparkly pompoms and colorful stickers to decorate their mini Christmas tree.

The children also had the opportunity to express creativity through their wreath making. They explored shapes, colors, and a variety of loose parts materials as they arranged it together to create their own wreaths. One of the highlights of our December fever is our Magical PJ day! What made it extra special was adding the photobooth session on that special day. The Preschoolers worked together to create our Christmas “photo booth” adding different sparks of each child’s creativity. We finished the photobooth session with P1 friends flashing their biggest smiles and silly faces as we froze memories into photos. It was a fun and memorable day as you could see the never been seen smiles and friends helping friends laugh for their photo session. Additionally, that day, we also put up our Christmas tree. Our friends were very excited to help as they all gathered around the tree. “We need to fluff it first”, Toviyah announced.

The next days, the children worked hard exploring their own imaginations and bringing it to life as they made personalized ornaments to hand up the tree. They made popsicle snowman with scarves measuring their heights for December 2025. They also made Christmas balls, gingerbread, candy canes- which we all used to decorate our classroom! Preschool 1 learned how to make salt dough, taking turns to pour and mix the ingredients, pressing, shaping, and cutting. Lastly, the children have expressed their love of music and rhythm as they start their own marching band. It has seemed to be an afternoon routine as Niko would pick up a tambourine, beat it like a drum (into Jingle bells rhythm). He would start marching around the table and peers would join, finding their own musical instruments, as if they are having their own parade!

Through these activities, the children were able to practice and enhance their fine motor skills, creativity, problem-solving, self-expression, musical, and social skills! The holiday activities supported sensory exploration and encouraged building meaningful connection, confidence, and a sense of belonging. Each learning experience gave the children opportunities to make choices, explore new materials, and express their imaginations and ideas in their unique ways. These activities also strengthened language skills as they shared stories about their creation, talked about home, and connected with their peers.

With this, we continue to wonder how we can keep building on their excitement and creativity as we move into the new year. What new materials, events, or experiences might spark their curiosity next? We can try and explore winter sensory bins, dramatic play with a wide variety of winter clothing, collaborative art projects that would support teamwork. We look forward to unwrapping what interests will guide our next learning adventures.

This month the children have been incredibly interested in lights and the different ways we can explore what light can do. This originally started from a table activity in which the children discovered that our coloured translucent blocks allow the light to pass through and shine this light on the table. The children enjoyed stacking the blocks to make towers and observe the reflection on their towers. While taking a photo of this exploration, Fiona discovered a light on the ceiling that kept moving. The educator started to move this light around the classroom while the children ran to follow this moving light. Other children watched how Jeet moved the iPad around watching how it moved the light as well. 

The following day we decided to continue this exploration of light play by providing mirrors to the children to try and reflect the light themselves. This gives the children a better understanding of how moving the mirror at different angles can either make the light reflect forward, backward, left and right, or disappear completely. This took some time for the children to learn how to turn the mirror to reflect the light without blocking the source of the light. We used a projector as the source of the light, assisting the children in understanding how use the single source of light to reflect rather than using the window as it can cause some confusion of how to use it. Along with using the mirrors with the projector, the children also used our mirror ‘X’ shaped blocks. The children then got to move and stack the blocks to discover how it reflects onto the floor and walls. Afterward we brought out the light table to continue stacking and making towers, however this time we used translucent coloured cups. With these cups they were able to make towers or stack the cups. While stacking the cups, the children were able to observe the colour change when different colours get mixed. The educators overheard the children explain how the yellow and blue blocks created green, and the red and blue blocks created purple. 

On day three of our light exploration, flashlights were provided so the children had control over the source of light. While using the flashlights the children used coloured filters to set over the light source and observe the change. The children began to yell out the filter colours that shone on the ceiling as orange, pink, blue, and green. After watching the individual filters shine on the ceiling, they began to use two filters at a time. With the filters mixing colours, the children then began to yell out colours like purple, and green. This was a great experience to both understand light filters and colour mixing theory. Along with the filters, the children were also provided mirrors and DVDs. They used these by shining the light on them to observe the reflection on the ceiling and walls. While they had used mirrors for a few days and have started to better understand how to reflect this light, the DVDs were a new medium for exploration. With the DVDs, they discovered they can reflect like the mirrors but also can create a rainbow on the DVD surface which can move when the light source is also moved. 

We again continued to explore light on day four by focusing more on our shadows. The children seemed amused when standing in front of the moving light source which created the illusion of shadows dances. The children went back and forth between the children dancing and watching the shadows move and standing still and watching the difference when the light source moves. The children would point to their shadow making silly moves and laughed when their shadow s would be close to hitting the ceiling. Along with this, they also used their hands to make puppets such as a butterfly. The children appeared very amused when their shadow create the shape of different objects. They also got to watch a puppet show when a light was shining behind a box, creating the shadows of different animal toys. Along with this, the children also watched a science experiment of a turmeric lava lamp. This was using turmeric in water with a light shining through the bottom. The children were very interested in watching the turmeric disperse through the water creating the illusion of a lava lamp. 

Our winter learning experiences have grown beautifully over the past few days, beginning with a simple, hands-on sensory invitation and expanding into rich creative play led by the toddlers’ own curiosity.

We began with Cileena’s winter inspired creative activity. On the wall, we set up a large sheet of sticky contact paper with a snowman shape on top. A basket filled with cotton balls, pom poms, popsicle sticks, cotton swabs, and felt pieces invited the toddlers to decorate freely. The moment the materials appeared, the children eagerly explored them. Lily rubbed cotton against her hand, Dante pressed pom poms to his face, and Robbie became fascinated by the sticky texture of the contact paper. As they worked, the toddlers discovered how the sticky surface held each item in place. Owen noticed that when he removed cotton balls, the fluff stayed behind, and he joyfully covered the snowman in soft white pieces. Clementine immediately added the mittens, carrot nose, and hat, excited to see the snowman’s face appear. Throughout this experience, the toddlers showed problem-solving, creativity, and fine-motor control as they pressed, peeled, and positioned their materials. The finished snowman decorated by many little hands now hangs proudly in our hallway.

Inspired by the excitement and sensory engagement of this activity, Nancy expanded on this learning by offering another colourful, hands-on experience. This time, the toddlers explored big festive shapes, trees, bells, stockings, snowmen, and gingerbread people taped onto trays. With baskets of bright tissue paper, the children layered and crinkled pieces onto the shapes, creating vibrant sun-catcher-like designs. Tiny fingers pinched, pressed, and carefully placed each piece, building fine-motor skills without even realizing it. When they finished, we gathered the leftover tissue paper, and the children gleefully tossed it into the air, watching it float down like colourful snow. Their laughter filled the room as they tried to catch pieces in their hands and on their faces. Soon after, the toddlers extended this play themselves, gathering bowls and plates from the play kitchen to create a “tissue paper cooking station,” scooping, pouring, and pretending to cook with the soft, crinkly pieces. It was messy, joyful, imaginative, and wonderfully child-led.

To continue this seasonal exploration, Deborah introduced the toddlers to an interactive Santa activity. After reading stories and looking at images of Santa, she created a large Santa face on sticky paper and invited the children to build his beard using small pieces of cotton. The toddlers carefully picked up the cotton, pressing it onto Santa’s face one piece at a time. Some experimented with the texture, sticking cotton on and peeling it off again. Others focused on filling the space, proudly creating fluffy beards and adding their own unique touches. This collaborative Santa encouraged creativity, fine motor development, and social learning as children shared materials, worked beside peers, and designed Santa together.

Across all these experiences, a clear thread of learning emerged: sensory exploration, creativity, collaboration, and joyful engagement. The toddlers showed curiosity and confidence as they explored new materials, practiced important fine motor skills, and participated in shared, meaningful projects. What began as a simple winter snowman activity blossomed into a series of rich, playful learning moments each one shaped by the children’s interests and the educators’ thoughtful extensions.