PELC - Fairhaven

05/24/2024

Exploring Clay!

Schoolers showed their interest in clay sculpture. One day I found the clay in the cupboard and decided to show them after school to see how they would react and if they were interested.
As soon as I put out the tools and clay in front of them, they all got so excited to make something with the clay. I gave them instructions on how to use the clay and they all listened attentively and followed my guidance.

To begin, they dipped their fingertips in water and molded the clay into their desired shapes. They created different shapes such as mushrooms, flowers, hearts, etc.
They all asked if they could colour their creations once they dried, and I agreed. However, the next day, they found one or two of their creations broken, which made them feel sad.
I asked them how they thought we could fix it, and one child suggested using water to reshape the clay. Surprisingly, it worked!

After this, they decided to make pendants for Mother’s Day. They inscribed messages for their mothers such as “U da best Mom” “I Love You Mom” and so on using the clay tools. They had a lot of fun during this activity.

05/17/2024

Hello everyone!

Just a reminder that All Preston Early Learning Centre's will be closed on Monday, May 20, 2024, for the Victoria Day long weekend!

Enjoy!

05/12/2024

05/08/2024

Banana Bread!

Banana bread is one of our main morning snacks that the children thoroughly enjoy.

The children continue to ask questions about the foods they are eating like, “How do we make this” or “What ingredients do we use for this?” They have learned so much about how different ingredients and measurements of the same ingredients can make various things.

They have made many kinds of breads and doughs that all consist of different recipes. A few children have noticed that we need a lot of salt to make playdough but just a little bit for cookies. This allowed them to understand more deeply how these foods that they love are made. They have also discovered the joy and pride of doing it themselves!

We decided to make banana bread as it was coming up for snack this week. The children were asked what ingredients they thought we would need for banana bread.
Many of them said bananas, flour, and sugar and someone asked if we needed eggs. The recipe also called for Greek yogurt but instead, we substituted it for a non-dairy yogurt so everyone in the centre could enjoy it.

The children took turns cracking the eggs, adding the wet ingredients, and stirring the mixture. Elizabeth noticed that two of the egg yolks didn’t break as they were added to the bowl and commented on how they looked like eyes.
As we mixed, Kyuss saw that the batter was turning yellow, Madisson asked everyone what we added that could be turning it yellow. After some thinking a few children said bananas but then realized that we hadn’t added them yet, then they remembered the egg yolks were yellow and that must be the reason why.
After the wet ingredients were all mixed, we started the fun part, mashing the bananas!

Brittany brought in a pastry blender and potato masher to mash the bananas as we weren’t sure which would work better. The children remembered that we used the pastry blender when they made biscuits for afternoon snack a while ago.
As each child tried out the pastry blender and potato masher, they discovered that they liked using the potato masher more and that it worked better.
Once we folded in the dry ingredients the children noticed that it didn’t look the same as other bread they have made. Brittany explained that this recipe was more similar to batter for pancakes than the bread dough they had gotten used to seeing.

Once everything was mixed, we poured the batter into the loaf pans and took them to Dawn in the kitchen to bake.

The next day it was served for morning snack and the preschoolers were so proud as they said, “we made that for everybody” and “this is good banana bread!”

04/19/2024

Traditional Serbian Bread!

On Tuesday we decided to make traditional bread from Serbia, Danijela’s home country.

She was a kitchen chef. The very first step was putting the yeast in warm water and adding a spoonful of sugar to it, then we had to wait for the yeast to activate.

As we waited, in a big bowl we put in the flour, a spoonful of baking powder, and salt and mixed it all together.
After all the ingredients were combined together, we added olive oil, a spoonful of vinegar, yeast, and more warm water.

We can’t tell you the exact amount of all the ingredients because as “very experienced cookers”, we just felt the dough to determine what else might be needed, then let it rise. We could tell you a tip: “It has to be as soft as a pure child’s soul.”

Once the dough had risen enough, we shaped the bread the same as the pan and added a bit of sesame seeds to the top.

We served the bread at lunchtime and all of us enjoyed equally in the smell and taste of the homemade bread.

04/04/2024

Yoga Day!

We had a yoga instructor named Kristy-Rae who came to the Centre to do yoga with the children.

The children were so excited to know that they were going to do yoga in the room. When Kristy-Rae came to the room, they all welcomed her and greeted her.
They expressed their joy in inviting her to the room. The toddlers used their social skills to spread out the yoga mats on the floor. They took turns to help the yoga instructor.

The toddlers used their gross motor, fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination to perform the yoga.
They also used their cognitive skills to follow the instructions given by Kristy-Rae. They also watched their peers and educators and imitated different positions of yoga.
They expressed their joy and excitement throughout the session. T

They also helped Kristy-Rae to fold up the mats while finishing up the yoga session.

04/04/2024

Buns!

On Friday the children made homemade buns to have with their jam and butter.

They mixed the ingredients and waited for the dough to rise again, the same as the pizza dough!

Once the dough had risen enough, they shaped it into buns and put them in the oven to bake.

Then at lunchtime, Collene set out our homemade butter and jam on the table with the buns. She provided each child with a butter knife so they could cut open their bun and spread on the jam and butter themselves.

Many of the children expressed their enthusiasm as they ate the buns.
“Mmm, this jam is delicious” -Kipton
“I have a bun” -Elizabeth

04/02/2024

Jam Making!

After we made butter, it was time to make jam!

The children used their child-safe knives and cutting boards to cut the strawberries into small pieces.
Once the strawberries were all cut up, we added them to a pot with sugar, a splash of lemon juice, and a pinch of salt.

We put the pot on the hot plate and brought the mixture up to a low boil. Kipton was very enthusiastic with each step, as he was stirring the strawberries he said, “I’m a real cooker!”

This inspired Danijela to find our chef’s hat and oven mitt from the dramatic play area. Each child then had a turn to wear them while they mixed the jam.
The oven mitt protected their hand from the steam as the children said it was hot and they could see it coming out of the pot!

Kyuss noticed that the jam was getting “juicier”, and we explained that the juice was the liquid coming out of the strawberries from the heat.
The solid strawberries were turning into a liquid just like the day before when the liquid cream had turned into solid butter!
These were great chemical reactions the children got to experience.

After Elizabeth was done being a “real chef” she took a step back and said, “wow, that was good science, Brittany!”

Once the jam started to thicken, we turned off the heat and let it cool. When it was cool enough, we poured it into a jar and put it in the fridge to enjoy the next day on the buns they made.

04/01/2024

Making Butter!

Many questions have been asked at lunches and snack times such as:
How is milk made? How is jam made? How do the bees make honey? Where do crackers come from?

This has sparked us to provide new recipes and new experiences for the children to support their interests.

This week, when Koden asked how jam was made, Brittany looked up the recipes and decided to have the children make homemade jam and butter on Wednesday and Thursday and then Collene would make buns with them on Friday to have something to put their butter and jam on.

To make the butter, we ordered heavy whipping cream and poured it into three jars. We tightened the lids, and the children took turns shaking the jars as we discussed the process of how the liquid cream would turn into solid butter.

As the children continued shaking the jars, they could feel the liquid getting thicker. Brittany took the lid off a few times so everyone could see how the cream was looking like and the transformation that was happening, which really intrigued Kipton as he is always building things that can transform.
They also wanted to smell it, Kyuss said it was fresh. Kipton said it smelt like popcorn.

Brittany told them that we needed to put the lids back on and shake the jars some more to continue the transformation.

A few of the children said it was taking too long and wanted to go play, others stayed until the end and as they shook it, they started to feel a hard ball hit the sides of the jar.
Kyson also said that he heard splashing. Brittany explained to them that the liquid was called “whey” and that it was separating from the fat, which was the butter!

We drained the liquid whey from the butter and added it all to a container.

The children could see the final product and they expressed how excited they were to eat it!

03/28/2024

Just a reminder that All Preston Early Learning Centre's will be Closed on Friday, March 29, 2024, for the Easter long weekend.

Wishing everyone a wonderful long weekend!

03/22/2024

Pizza Time!

The children have been involved in making a lot of different things as we have been going through our baking project.

We have noticed the children have been more and more curious about how certain foods are made as they are eating them.

On Thursday we made pizza dough, with the plan to let it rise overnight and assemble and bake the pizzas the next day.
The children helped add the ingredients into the stand mixer, such as flour, oil, salt, and yeast.
We had to activate the yeast before adding it to the bowl, using some warm water and watching it bubble up.
Once the yeast was ready, we turned on the mixer, and some of the children put their hands over their ears indicating that it was loud. Mateo said, “It’s mixing together!” Kyuss said, “It still looks crumbly”.
Brittany added a bit more water and it started to form into a dough ball. We put plastic wrap over the bowl and set it into the fridge to rise overnight. Then the children cut up peppers and mushrooms to have as toppings for their pizzas.

On Friday morning, Brittany brought in the pizza dough and cut it into small pieces for each of the children to prepare their own pizza.
The children placed their dough on a piece of parchment paper and stretched it out with their hands and also used a rolling pin.

Once their dough was spread out enough, they were given a squeeze bottle of tomato sauce and a spoon to spread it around. We had cheese, small pepperoni, and cut-up veggies for them to choose what to put on their pizzas!

Dawn put the pizzas into the oven for us and we served them with our lunch! There was lots of discussion, many children were comparing their pizzas and noticing the different toppings they had used, and they also recognized the different shapes and sizes.

“Mmmm, I love my pizza!” -Kipton

“This is good pizza!” - Stella