This month, RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Luke started a shoe drive! We were excited to be a part of such a wonderful project of collecting shoes that will be going out to the organization “House of Hope”, an orphanage in the city of Zacapa located in Guatemala. During our shoe drive we were able to implement learning opportunities that enhanced our ability to improve our self-help skills as we worked to put our shoes on. We also explored the different types of shoes we wear for different seasons.
We started by decorating the box that we were using to collect all donations, then we took it down the hallway and placed it in its designated spot. We invited other age groups to participate by doing an activity relevant to shoes. One morning, Kairo and Zachary pointed to our notice board and said “Look Amanda, shoes, lots of shoes.” The toddlers were quick to notice something new on our notice board. Kairo and Zachary noticed the shoe cut-outs posted around our notice board and began labeling all the colors. Kairo then asked “Why are the shoes there?” Amanda explained that the children from School-age did a shoe story and decorated their own shoes.
Finally, Amanda created a chart with four images, Kairo and Julia were quick to notice the chart and without asking them Kairo told Amanda “look, indoor shoes for our classroom!” Parker then proceeded to point out to the other two images and he said, “Outside! Boots!” Amanda responded, “Yes, Parker you are right. We use our boots outside!” Lana then showed Amanda her pink rain boots and said she was wearing the right shoes outside. This was a fun way to reinforce appropriate clothing for the cold weather. The children were able to identify the images because they were images of places the toddlers spend their time and days in, such as our classroom and playground. Our next step was to use our chart that’s inside our classroom; it's called our “First Than chart” where Amanda placed images of indoor and outdoor shoes. This has been a great addition to our transition periods as it slows down our transitions by adding a fun step to our routine.
During this month we developed our sense of self and well-being as we worked on our self-help skills, and felt a sense of belonging as we worked together to color the box and place it as a team at the front of the centre.
