‘Twas The Week Before Christmas…

This past week has been a fun and festive week full of activities. We had daily themes for the children including: winter hat day, fancy dress up day, Christmas sock day, and red and green day! We also spent our indoor time keeping busy with Christmas crafts and activities that were done with all ages. Below are some of the activities that we did this past week (that we remembered to take pictures of).

Above are some photos of a craft that was done with our preschool age group where they decorated their own christmas trees! Below are the beautiful finished products.

Another activity that was done with our after school age group this week was baking gingerbread cookies! This was a great activity that helped us learn how to measure ingredients, follow a recipe, and roll out and bake cookies.

Below are some pictures of the gingerbread men and gingerbread snowmen that they made. They had a lot of fun making these, and even more fun trying the finished product!

Our little friend Jimmy also got stuck in a jar for a couple days this week, but our friends had lots of fun carrying him around The Spotted Toad and playing with him.

He also got into some mischief swinging around on our paper chains that we made!

This past week we also made Christmas cards and Christmas gifts that we wrapped together and sent home with both our preschool and school age children. We also had a Christmas diner for lunch this week, a Christmas dance party and other holiday crafts and activities with our friends here at The Spotted Toad.

Dinosaur Day!

Jimmy brought in a special book to daycare, The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas! This was a hilarious book about a greedy little boy who asked for to much for christmas, so Santa gave him a dinosaur egg that hatched and ate his whole house. The dinosaur later felt bad and then pooped it all out, hence the name of the story. This story led us to talk about appreciating what we have and not to be so greedy.

The above photos are of our dinosaur “poop” play dough that had some treasures hidden inside that our preschool group had fun playing with and digging them all out. It was a very fun morning, and they loved making dinosaur tracks in the play dough!

The above photos show some of our preschool group searching for the toys our dinosaurs ate.

 

Our Second Week With Jimmy

Jimmy has been a great little friend to have around, he always has something silly to share with us! We all love to look around The Spotted Toad everyday to see what he is doing, check out the below photos to see what he’s been up to this past week!

December 12th: Jimmy made up with the fairies and they invited him over to their house to play!

December 13th: Jimmy brought a special book into daycare called “The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas”, and we found him reading it to all of our dinosaur friends!

December 14th: Jimmy was missing the warm sunny weather and because it is too cold outside to go to the beach, he brought it to us!

December 15th: Jimmy heard that is was “Ugly Christmas Sweater” day at The Spotted Toad so he decided to show up in style in a horse drawn sleigh!

Food Bank Walk

Over the past month we have been collecting food bank donations to bring down to our local food bank. This past Tuesday, we took our preschool group and the box full of food we collected, for a walk down to the food bank. Once there, they gave us a tour and talked about the importance of the Food Bank in our community with all of our little friends!

We also had lots of fun in the fresh fallen snow this week! It was the perfect density to pack together to make snow people, or in the case of the photos below a snow dog!

Christmas Crafts

During this festive time of year we love to spend our time creating different christmas crafts and activities. Below are some of the things we have been working on over this past week in preparation of the upcoming holiday season.

Above are some photos of our preschool group working on sponge art paintings! These were made by placing painters tape on the paper in the shape of trees, and then allowing the children to paint in various colours over top. Once they are dry peel the tape off to see the beautiful picture.

The above photos show another craft we did with our preschool group here we made our own gingerbread houses and decorated them with sprinkles and candy. These ones are not for eating as they are put together on paper with glue, but they were very fun to make!

Above are our finished “gingerbread” houses!

The above photos are of our after school group making their own snowflakes. We spent part of our afternoon learning to cut out our own snowflakes and make all the different shapes. It was a very fun activity that they all enjoyed and the finished products now cover the art room walls.

Welcome to The Spotted Toad Jimmy!

On the first day of December we welcomed a friendly little visitor who stopped in to stay with us until Christmas, Jimmy the Elf! Jimmy is here to report back to Santa about how all of our little friends behave, so we all must be on our best behaviour because Jimmy is watching! Check out the photos below to see what Jimmy has been up to this past week.

December 1st: Jimmy’s first day at The Spotted Toad, we found him fishing for candy canes!

December 4th: Jimmy thought it would be fun to put some toilet paper on our Christmas tree, we had to remind him that toilet paper stays in the bathroom. He also brought us a special story to read together!

December 5th: Silly Jimmy wanted to make snow angles, but we do not have any snow in Sackville yet so he improvised with some flour!

December 6th: We found Jimmy tied up and hanging form the ceiling, there was no note so we do not know who did it!

December 7th: Jimmy told us it was the fairies who tied him up, poor little guy had to take a long break after that adventure.

December 8th: Today Jimmy was feeling much better after his run in with the fairies so he brought in a special dancing friend for us to have a dance party with!

‘Tis the Season 🎄

Despite the chilly weather we have been keeping warm and busy  here at The Spotted Toad. With Christmas in a couple weeks and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season upon us we have been working hard to transform our little corner of the world into a winter wonderland. Below are a few of the photos of some of the decorations we have up around our centre.

Above is a picture of our welcome board that is up in the porch for the month of December in celebration of the holiday season fast approaching.

We have also put up an interactive “Winter Wonderland Wall” in our hallway downstairs. Here we have velcro attachments for some snowmen, a christmas tree, and some gingerbread people. These are also close to the floor so that all of our little friends can decorate and change how they look everyday!

Above (left) is our beautifully decorate Christmas Tree in our downstairs playroom, and our beautiful little tree that we have upstairs (right).

Above is our Christmas art board that our after school group of friends have been working hard on filling up.

This last group of photos is of some more decorations and props that all of our after school friends worked very hard on together. These were made for our Christmas concert that we had on December 6th, where our after school group performed a play they wrote themselves called “Christmas is Ruined”.

November Adventures

A couple weeks ago we went on an adventure to the Sackville Public Library with our preschool group. Here we had one of the librarians read stories about some funny penguins, they were a big hit and brought lots of laughs from all!

After story time they had some fun coloring pages and activities planned with our group including a scavenger hunt, and a sing along.

It was a very fun adventure and we have been going back weekly for more story times and activities since! After our library visit we also stopped at the park on the way back to The Spotted Toad to burn off some energy, all in all it was a very fun filled morning for all!

Lest We Forget

Last month for Remembrance day, on the Thursday before November 11th, we took our Preschool and toddler group to the cenotaph here in Sackville. They made a hand print wreath with some poppies on it to take down to show their respect for those who fought for us during the wars. It was a beautiful day for a walk and our friends had lots of questions and were very respectful, it was a great learning experience for all!

Fire Safety Field Trip

Last month we went on a field trip to the Town of Sackville Fire Department. While here we had a special fire safety talk with our preschool group, a firefighter showed us their special clothes and equipment that they use, and we talked about how to be safe if we are ever in a fire. After the demonstration they gave us a tour and even let all of the children sit in every single fire truck in the building.

This was a great learning experience to teach our little friends all about fire safety, and it was also a fun experience exploring all of the trucks and equipment that they have!

Huge thank you to the Sackville Fire Department for showing us around!