What We Did

Small beginnings

11th June 2012

According to our licensing officer we will be licensed and ready for business on the 1st July. However we opted to take 6 children (the legal limit) from today to accommodate parents who needed child care in June. The photo above is Logan with his proud dad. Logan was the first child through our doors when we opened up this morning.

Theme of the week

13th June 2012

This week we are learning our nursery rhymes, leaving the more traditional sequence of themes for the beginning of the school year in September. Judging from the craft work we have some budding artists at Fledglings.

Days of rain did not dampen our spirits. Instead the children worked off their energy dancing and marching to music in our media centre and playing their own modified version of lacrosse in the hallway.

However, when the sun did appear it was much appreciated and we celebrated the break in the weather today with a pizza picnic outside on the grass.

At last!

 

Today our licensing officer gave the centre her thumbs up. We will hopefully be collecting our licence on Friday and will be opening officially on the 3rd July, after the long weekend. It’s been a long haul (see my blog at if https://wordsworkinc.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/starting-a-new-business you are interested in a blow by blow account of the process) and we are thrilled to be starting the next chapter.

Talking of thumbs up – here is Eason’s version. He is obviously as pleased as punch with his accomplishment!

Out of School Care

We are very proud of our Out of School care classroom which we have just completed. Here are some photo’s. Our Out of School programme starts at the beginning of the new school year at the end of August and we look forward to welcoming Grade 1’s to Grade 6’s to our centre. We will be transporting children to and from the 4 schools in our area: Canyon Meadows, St Catherine’s, Ethel M Johnson and St Stephen’s.

Our first social at the centre was our Stampede Breakfast on the 7th July. Many people contributed to the success of the morning – special thanks to Holly who took us up on our request for a volunteer to make pancakes, and turned them out by the dozens, using her own equipment and even donating an enormous bottle of maple syrup. Thanks also to the rest of our willing helpers who kept tripping over each other in our little kitchenette and to the parents who were wonderful about ensuring that all the toys and games were packed away after use.

Hopefully this will be the first of many get-togethers as we work to build a close community of parents, teachers and children at Fledglings.

Last week we enjoyed real summer weather at last. As a result we made the most of our playground and neighbourhood park.

The children had great fun playing in the water,

Eating ‘freezies’ in the sun (not recommended as a nutritious snack but enjoyable nevertheless!),

and going on nature walks around the neighbourhood.

On Friday we ended our Summer Fun theme with a Hawaiian/beach day. The weather held for us and the children all arrived with their swimsuits and towels, ready to enjoy the day. They wore their leis, made shell pictures, ate watermelon and played under the sprinkler and in the little pool. Staff and children alike were liberally sprinkled with water guns.and had the occasional bucket of water poured over them (not always appreciated!)

Eventually a rumble of thunder sent us all indoors where we sampled fresh coconut milk and tasted the coconut.

This Friday ended a busy week at Fledglings leading up to the long weekend. On Monday Logan celebrated his birthday by treating everyone to a visit by Penelope the clown. She entertained the children with magic tricks and ended up by making balloon pets for everyone.

With the continuing warm weather we spent a lot of time outdoors, playing in the field up the road and fishing and chasing bubbles in the playground.

Our theme for the week was Pets and, having decided that frogs were also pets, Kohlin donned the frog suit to prove just how cute and cuddly they could be.

We completed our Pets week by inviting some furry and feathery friends to visit. The children enthusiastically welcomed Budget the budgie, Milo the cross Yorkie/Poodle puppy and Yhana’s fluffy black bunny to the centre.

This week we ‘went camping’. We set up a classroom campsite complete with fire pit.

And, of course, on our last day of camping we made (and ate) smores.

… and, when we were briefly caught in the rain at the park, we made a ‘camp-fire’ under the trees.

We also made boats and sent them sailing down the creek.

A great deal has been happening at Fledglings since we last posted on this site. The one group we started with has grown too large and split into two: the Sparrows and the Chickadees. We have added more staff members who have each brought their own special talents to add to the richness of the centre. You can meet them here:

With the start of the new school year we have also welcomed a number of Grade school children from the schools in our area who have joined our Out of School programme : the Robins.

Our pre-school programme is running well with the children settling into the routine and enjoying the different activities, especially the music and crafts, and learning as they play. For example:

… and enjoyed making and sampling healthy smoothies.

And both groups love the music and movement rings and join in enthusiastically, improving their physical development, balance and rhythmical skills as they enjoy the activities.

As one of their themes the Sparrows learnt about healthy eating.

While the Chickadees learnt all about bears and brought their teddy bears from home to have a teddy bears picnic.

And suddenly its Fall! Where has the year gone? Here are some of the things we have been busy with over the past few weeks.

We celebrated Grandparents’ Day with tea and goodies and invitations decorated by the children.

Grandparents were treated to a short concert and invited to take part in some of the craft activities.

Another visitor to Fledglings was the Music Man. He played his harmonica, told musical stories, taught the children songs and had them dancing and swaying to the music.

They loved him and we have arranged for him to give us all a music lesson every week, starting in October.

The Robin’s room have been busy getting ready for Halloween. They used balloons, glue and paper to make paper mache pumpkins and then, helped by the kindergarten kids, painted them orange and added cones for stalks.

Here is the finished product. Stand by for their scarecrow – coming soon!

Never short of ideas, the girls in the Robin’s room set up their own beauty salon, handing out free coupons. Ms Lucy was the first to take advantage of them, enjoying, among other benefits, a relaxing pedicure.

And finally, for now, we are planning a field trip for the end of October and organized a bottle drive to cover the costs of the bus.

The children counted the bottles, cans and cartons as the containers filled up and recorded the number collected on a graph.

All in all, September has been a busy and exciting month and we are looking forward to what October holds for us.

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

So far we have had a beautiful Fall, the yellow, gold and red leaves are lingering on the trees and the Sparrows have been collecting the fallen ones to make their own leaf booklets.

In the Reception area the Robins have made a scarecrow to join the pumpkins they constructed last month, and decorated card leaves to hang above their doorway. The Centre is looking very festive.

The Chickadees’ room has been transformed with new vinyl tiles on the floor and is festooned with autumn art like colourful leaves and corncob wreathes.

Visitors to our centre so far this month have included Hoji, from Hoji’s Pizza, who showed the children how to make pizzas and then let them sample the finished product,

and Peter, the Fireman, who held the children entranced as he told them stories, asked questions, led them through a mimed response to a fire alarm and gave them each a fire helmet and an activities book

and Peter, the Fireman, who held the children entranced as he told them stories, asked questions, led them through a mimed response to a fire alarm and gave them each a fire helmet and an activities book

The children had been discussing what they were thankful for through the proceeding week and we celebrated Thanksgiving itself with a traditional turkey dinner, including cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

Lorna, Sienna’s aunt, who is a nurse,

The Sparrows, as part of their community theme, also went shopping at the Mac’s on the corner, choosing and making their own purchases.

The Sparrows, as part of their community theme, also went shopping at the Mac’s on the corner, choosing and making their own purchases.

Fledgling has also acquired a ‘new’ Astro minivan to transport out of school and kindergarten kids to and from their schools.

We still have much to look forward to this month: On the 24th Christopher Cook will be performing his Halloween Magic show at the centre, the 26th will see us all heading for Kayben Farm for a day of outdoor fun, (with luck the snow might have stopped falling by then) and the Robins have been practicing their Halloween play which they will be performing on the 30th. On the 31st all the children will be wearing their Halloween costumes to the centre for a day of ‘Trick and Treating”.

Well, we didn’t make it to Kayben Farm, a sudden winter storm put paid to that outing, and turned our playhouses into ‘Gingerbread cottages” iced with snow:

Instead, the Sparrows and Robins dragged sleds to the field up the road and spent the morning sledding. As you can see by their faces, it more than made up for the missed outing.

All in all the children at the centre have been kept very busy this month, learning and playing. Christopher Cook the magician duly arrived and his show was a great success. He interacts with the children at their level, keeping them in fits of laughter and has them marvelling at his tricks.

The Halloween play was the brain child of the Robin’s group and they included the Kindergarten children from Sparrows. A great deal of enthusiasm and hard work went into practicing their parts and learning their lines and, as always, potential chaos magically resolved into a really fun play with everyone doing their very best to make it a success.

Spiders, yellow tape and ghosts of all shapes and sizes quickly replaced the scarecrow and pumpkins of harvest and Thanksgiving. Pumpkins were carved into jack-o-lanterns and a very creepy horse and carriage took up residence in the reception area, providing a suitable background for our Halloween play.

And the Robins made and ate ‘mud pies’ decorated with sour worms and had a weird hair day!

And, finally, what is Halloween if you can’t dress up! October the 31st saw Fledglings staffed with devils, a witch and a toothfairy whose charges ranged from princesses and superheroes to butterflies and weird other-worldly creatures

Movember, and always ready to rally to a cause, the Chickadees sported luxurious mo’s at the beginning of the new month.

The highlight of November was probably Diwali, the festival of lights, which we celebrated in style. The reception area was decorated with lights and the children’s (and teacher’s) hands were decorated with intricate henna patterns.

Ms Bal cooked a delicious selection of traditional Indian food which was set out for the parents to sample when they came to pick up their children.

With Winter Wonderland as our theme, the weather did not deter the staff or children from enjoying the increasingly cold and white outdoorsand the Sparrows and Robins made a number of trips to the ‘sledding hill’ in a nearby field.

Cold weather did, however, limit our choices of field trips and, since Kayben Farms fell through last month, we hedged our bets and booked an (indoor) outing to Wildflower Art Centre where the children were able to experiment with clay and make gifts for Christmas.

The bus ride there and back was probably as exciting for most of the little ones as the activities at the Art Centre.

Unfortunately it was not possible to arrange a time which would suit the Kindergarten and After School children so we planned for a clay modelling lesson for them at Fledglings next month.

“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”

This month started with our promised clay workshop for the Robins and the kinders who missed out on our field trip. Tracy provided everyone with a fun, informative and constructive morning.

While the whole centre enjoyed Pyjama Day and the little ones all brought their stuffies to school. The Chickadees held a Pyjama Day parade:

Then, of course, came all the excitement of making Christmas decorations

and decorating the tree.

Our Christmas concert was almost too much of a success with so many parents and friends turning up that we ran out of space to put them all. Next year the Sparrows room will have to be turned into our concert venue.

Of course, no Christmas concert would be complete without a visit from that much loved old gentleman – Santa Claus – who, with his little elf helper, handed out presents, and hugs, to all the children.

And so ends a full and exciting year. We can’t wait to see what 2013 brings.