Infinity Place

A collage of children playing with dinosaurs in ice, holding an ice egg, and squirting water onto a dinosaur ice egg

Melting Ice

Ice play provides a thrilling sensory experience. With the varying textures of ice, along with the cold temperature, this activity helps stimulate children’s growing senses and fosters their sensory exploration and cognitive development. Ice play also offers an opportunity for social interaction and communication as the children engage in collaborative ice exploration together. (Please click for the full photos and more information.)

View
A collage of a child exploring a whole pineapple, a slice, and tasting it

Taste Testing for Lunar New Year!

To celebrate the Lunar New Year, we explored a lucky fruit – pineapple! The children were invited to touch and explore the pineapple. Then we removed the skin, cut it into pieces, and tasted the sweet fruit. These types of sensorial activities give us a chance to come together and build social skills such as parallel play and taking turns, as well as enrich language, fine motor development, and tactile discrimination. (Please click for full photos and information.)

View
Children working on skip counting with bead chains and arrows

Skip Counting

These beautiful bead chains are hung from a wooden frame that holds squares and the cubes of one to ten with the corresponding chains and the containers with the respective coloured arrows. The chains are used for skip counting (for example counting by fives) and for learning the squares and cubes of the numbers one to ten. This activity is very useful because the child learns how to skip count as well as how to count in bases other than ten, which indirectly prepares them for multiplication. (Please click for full photos and more information.)

View
A collage of children placing coloured pony beads inside metal cookie cutters and spining a dreidel

Holiday Fun

Please click view to see videos of children spinning a dreidel and making 3D pony bead art, as well as full photos and more information about the holidays they explored and the fun they had!

View
A collage of children exploring objects in water and placing them in the corresponding side of the chart

Sink or Float?

Young children have a natural curiosity for the world around them. The children had fun engaging in our sink or float science experiment, which helps children explore the concept of buoyancy. Science experiments encourage children to explore their environment and to question how and why something happens. (Please click for full photos.)

View
A collage of children working with the ovoid, sphere, and cube in nesting containers

Nesting Geometric Solids

The Nesting Geometric Solids activities are the beginning of the Montessori puzzle sequence. A child begins with the Ovoid (egg) and Cup, then the Sphere and Cup, and then the Cube and Box, which adds the complexity of matching the corners. These simple activities encourage various grasps, eye-hand coordination, and both hands working together. (Please click for full photos and more information.)

View

Grace and Courtesy

Grace and courtesy starts with intentional modeling. Children are always watching and learning from behaviours. Grace and courtesy is taught during circle time as well as in real-time situations such as table manners, greetings, polite language, waiting patiently for our turn, helping others, and respiratory etiquette. (Please click for full photos and more information.)

View
A collage of families enjoying the BBQ

Family BBQ

We hosted our first barbecue in several years and families of every classroom attended to mix and mingle. Proceeds of cash donations went to the SickKids Foundation. We also held a silent auction of canvas paintings designed by each classroom and the proceeds were also donated to the SickKids Foundation. Thank you to everyone for your support. We had a great time!

View
A collage of children placing a seed and paper towel into a cup, adding water, and potting a seedling

Germinating Seeds

The process of germinating, planting, maintaining, and growing a child’s very own seed is a great way to encourage a love of nature. The children placed their bean seeds into clear cups with paper towel and added a little water daily. They watched as their seeds began to germinate, sprouting roots, a stem, and leaves. We potted the small plants and were excited to see how big they grew! (Please click for full photos and more information.)

View
A child placing a blue disc in a small blue bowl

Sorting Objects

Sorting objects into compartments or categories helps support a variety of cognitive skills such as matching and problem solving as well as encourages fine motor and language skills. Children will show a sense of pride and accomplishment once they are able to complete the activity and tend to do it repeatedly until they feel like they have mastered it. (Please click for more information and photos.)

View