Day 1 November 25, 2024

It was a great start to my first day. I started by introducing myself and asking if I can help with anything. I was offered that I can do the sensory bin. I was shown all the items of all their supplies and what their theme of the month was. I ended up putting together a water sensory activity with marbles and blue pebbles. The theme of the month was space. I felt like the blue pebbles represented the water of the planets and the clear were like the stars. the circle mountains were representing the plants. even if the children could not see the vision I had on when choosing the sensory items this is the thought I put into it.

In the morning the has a morning art time. I brought in my own project for the day. I printed out photos of bugs and a box with sticks, rocks, grass, leaves and rosehip. They didn’t do the project I intended however they did have a little fun playing the nature items. Some children were colouring on the pieces. However, I didn’t stop it because the markers were out and I didn’t mind that they could find another project to do within the project I intended.

I took a look at the decor around the room and what they were teaching the children. At circle time we were teaching the good morning song in multiple languages. We went into learning about space and what it is called when you a cluster of stars make a pattern which is called a constellation. It amazed me that 2 out of the 8 children knew it was called a constellation. I was told about the routine of the day which I felt went smoothly. I liked the style of teaching they use about singing to the children.

The program is called the nest and these children were called owls. so when the chimes were rung they would do owl eyes. To make sure the children heard the chime they would do the owl eyes back and say whoo whoo while looking at the teacher. Once the teacher would see she caught the children attention she would sing “ok owls I looked at the time and what did I see. 5 more minutes to play, 5 more minutes to play then tidy up time.”

At the end of the day we were outside playing and a lot of the children were interested in the ice. which made me think of how I can bring a project on ice into the setting.

Day 2 November 26, 2024

Today I came in and there were a few different workers today. and I came to realise that a new bunch of children have come into the class today. I was able to recognise that a couple children were there yesterday. But from the most part a lot it was my first time meeting the children.

I joined a new circle group today. The nest splits its self into two groups when doing circle time, quiet time and art time. I enjoy being able to learn from all these children and teachers throughout this time here. I can see the way the different teachers are doing their circle time. Today during circle time I see that a child is able to sing the good morning some in a different language without any help. I think he is about five years old. It makes me think about how these children take in so much knowledge during their time here at the nest.

I sit with a child who is interested into a planet book. I am sitting there reading to her and asking her questions about the planets. She is so knowledgeable about space. I am realising that children teach us as much as we teach them. I knew this a saying that I heard however I never thought so deeply about this until today. I am more in awe of how much these children are interested in space and how much they have learned. They are now able to teach other about the knowledge they know. I am learning more about space then did when I started.

I am listening as the teachers are talking to the children. I want to see how they are able to talk to the children when they are arguing with each other or when they have big emotions. This is something I hear about in books and in class on how children are feeling and what happened for them to feel this way. However, it helps me know with hands on learning to understand more and be able to learn more when I am here.

We sit and eat and I hear the children talking with each other about when they have. I enjoy the way the tables are set up with the children in the middle with this long table in a rectangle and the teachers sitting at each end of the tables and two other teachers a little on the outside. I like to see that the teachers are eating when the children are eating.

Day 3 November 27, 2024

The children remembered me from Monday and it was good to be able to see them and inteact with them a little more. I wonder my role in the morning when the children come in. I don’t want to be to intrusive to the children. I want the children to be able to enjoy playing with other children and not interrupt their play. I also want to get to know the children and be on their level. When I try talk to some children they would answer my questions and then continue playing or walking away. I wonder if I should step back a little and wait until they come to me.

After snack we get ready to go outside. I question myself on if I should be helping the children get ready or let them get ready on their own. I look around and see what the other teachers are doing. I wonder about other programs and don’t want to overstep on helping the children too much. I understand when children are old enough to do things on their own. They should be doing this activity or task on their own. I do not want to overstep and do things for the children when they are capable to do themselves. I ask each child that looks like they are struggling if they would like my help. There are a couple that say yes for me to help them. I question them on what I can help them with and see if I can lay it out or how much help they need with putting their outside gear on. We go for a walk away from the daycare and walk to park near by.

I love hearing the teaching singing to the children when walking across driveways and streets. I find it cute that they are able intertwine learning about safety with singing each day. They go for a walk everyday after snack.

I get back to the daycare that the children are outside now playing in the yard before pickup. They use yellow and black retractable tape to block off areas when they are off limits. The daycare are two outside areas that can be open or closed. its great to learn about how centres teach children that this area is closed and that its not in use right now. Their first area is the sand box its a large area with sand from the beach at the river. its natural local river grade sand which is nice to know that they are able to incorporate a local environment for the children. The second area is the park where the child have a play ground with rock climbing wall and slide. The play ground has been open for the past three days. I see and hear from the other teachers that the sandbox is not open all the time.

Day 4 November 28, 2024

The morning starts with free play as the children pile into the daycare area. It is my second day with the children from group 2. I stand by the front door smiling and waving at the children as they come into the daycare. I am unsure if I should help children undress or follow the children inside. I get a little confused on overstepping as a ECE. Part of me wants to help the children take off their outside gear. Another part of me does not want to interrupt their play during their free play. I also have a third mind set that I should stand aside and wait until the children come to me. however, when I do this I feel that I am not doing enough with the children.

I get to talking to a few of the children and they have already formed a bond with me. “O” takes my hand to the swings to watch her swing. I feel that I am sitting there to long so I get up to go see what the other children are doing. However “O” insists that I sit and watch her swing.

Circle time the children sit around in a circle and are learning more about the group of stars. The teacher talks about the sun and asks the students what the sun is. One student answers that it is a star. These children retain so much in their small circle time hours.

Day 5 November 29, 2024

The morning free time the children have a lot of energy. It is nice to see what the teachers do to help the children with their build up energy. The teacher grabs down small circle hoops and lays them in a circle along with arrows. The teacher plays music which sings “skipping, skipping all around, skipping, skipping, skipping” As the children hear this song they are skipping around the circle. When the children do not know what the song is saying the teacher steps in to show the children how to move to the music.

I enjoy watching these the way the teachers interact with the children. When they see that the children need to burn energy they find a way to help them instead of asking the children to keep still. I like hearing that the children need to walk on the brown flooring and they can run on the green flooring.

The day ended as the children had an early dismissal and I stayed to help the teachers decorate. While the daycare was closed and all the teachers were setting up. There was a child brought in while their parents had a parent/teacher meeting. I was asked to play with “H” as his parents were in the other room. He was ecstatic to see all the new material being brought out and was overjoyed that he can play with the items. He was throwing the fake snowballs around with me and another teacher.

The environment changed through out my time here as I watch some of the teachers pack up the tray items and bring out a new set of activities for the week. They place a tray activity on each of the three tables each morning. These tray activities are also used during quiet time.

1. Tree activity: a triangle laminated paper tree with columns and numbers up to 9. placed in a bowl are sparkly balls.
2. styrofoam snowballs with sticks for the children to build small forts.
3. felt tree and gingerbread cutouts with a bowl full of all different shapes of felt.

Day 6 December 2, 2024

The teachers put out a morning art activity for the children. They placed wrapping paper, scissors, tape on the table letting the children learn to cut the papers. I seen such a simple activity put together which the children enjoyed so much. They all concentrated hard on using the scissors for this activity. The teacher helped one child by bringing the large roll of wrapping paper to the floor and letting them cut the roll themselves.

Afternoon arts the children decorated puffy cookies. They were shown how to make puffy icing paint at the beginning of the art session. The children sat in a circle with the teacher bringing out liquid paint and shaving cream. Once the teacher poured the ingredients together she had each child help stir and mix them together. As the children were stirring the teacher explained the ingredients and that this was not edible.

In the other room the other half of the children were having free play. The teacher had fake snowballs and were letting the children throw the snowballs into a bin. Teaching the children hand eye coordination as well as standing behind a line made out of rope. I liked to see the positive attitude this teacher has with the children. As they get excited waiting for their turn to throw the snowball he explains that its ” _Child’s name_” turn and we need to wait for our turn. Lets sit and wait for your turn because its ___ turn right now.

Day 7 December 3, 2024

“B” brought a dinosaur into class today. Each day every student is able to bring a comfort item to help them throughout the day. “B” was interested in his dinosaur and taught me that it was called a pterodactyl. He said this one eats insects.

Went for a walk to the park for our after lunch outside time. The children all wanted to roll down the hill. It amazes me to see the children how much the daycare are letting the children do the activities they want. They all wear head to toe in outside gear such as rain pants or snow pants.

Afterschool pick up time the children all get dressed up before pick up time. This is free play where they can play in their area by the daycare. At afternoon free time a child picked up the rope that was lying on the floor. The rope was from making a line on the floor for an activity for throwing snowballs throw a hole. As the child picked up the rope he asked the teacher to pick up the other side. this ended up with the kids playing tug a war with the children. They played this game for about 10 minutes until the children were falling onto each other because they were getting to excited. Which helped in the end once one of the teachers brought out the rope to play tug a war with the children outside. I was able to see a safe fun way to play a game with the children. And was able to see how to stop the game when it gets to out of control.

Day 8 December 4, 2024

The children walked to the playground about 5 minutes down the road. As the children walk across the sidewalk driveways and cross the roads. The teachers sing a song

“Hands up when we cross, hands up when we cross, hands up when we cross the road.”

“Keep on going to get across, Keep on going to get across, Keep on going to get across the road”

“Big steps to get across, big steps to get across, big steps to get across the road.”

I enjoy hearing the teachers singing when they are teaching the children. being at the nest I see how much they sing to the children to get their attention and teach them certain things. its good to see their positive attitude in the class.

In the afternoon as we wait for the parents to arrive to pick up their children. I set out a sensory activity outside. I have been thinking about day one and how the children enjoyed playing with ice. I decided to do a 3 bin sensory activity outside. I put ice, warm water, cold water and course salt in bowls on the sensory bins. I stood beside the bin as the children all ran over to see what I had. I placed some tools along Sid the table for the children to play with. “H” enjoyed using the salt and water container more than playing with the ice.

Something I would change is adding smaller containers or more containers. They other children were not able to use the salt because “H” enjoyed the salt and didn’t want to share.

“T” seemed to enjoy having to ice outside of the bin and carrying it all over.

Day 9 December 5, 2024

I came in the morning asking if I can be the lead for the morning art. They agreed before the children arrived I had five minutes to prepare the activity before the children arrived. On my first day they said I could use some items from their art area which today I accepted and was able to use their watercolour paint.

I prepared glue and salt snowflake project for the children the night before. I found this art project online and wanted to try with the kids. I found out that watercolour paint has special paper they use. even though I used regular printer paper I think their art turned out great. some children loved using as much pain they paper can take. Which I was worried it was going to rip the paper but they kept adding more.

All week the children are grouped together for one big circle time. This is because they are practicing for their winter concert get together. They children are learning three songs

this little light of mine

reindeer poky

and a rocking dancing song which the parents will get up and dance with the children.

There are children that do not like to sit and listen to circle time. They try to ask them to sit and join in on circle time however give them space when that is what they ask for. They are teaching the children that the toys are not in use right now and that they can have their alone time and relax however they can’t be playing with the toys because its not that time right now.

through out the week the teacher have been talking with the children through lunch time and outside free time about how they feel about preforming for their parents. The teachers are letting the children know it is ok to be scared to preform however with more practice they will get more comfortable and it’s ok to be feeling the way they feel.

For afternoon art time I was in the second group while the first group of children were in art. I was presented my felt story I made for the children. I put together winter gear to teach children about what they need before going outside. I sang to them as I put the felt cut out down.

Day 10 December 6, 2024

I did a morning art project with the children. I put together pop cleaner trees and beads so they children can decorate the branches of their trees. They ask if they can take their trees home. some children put them on their wrists to make them bracelets.

As my first practicum comes to an end I have learned so much. I enjoy when the lunch time fairy comes around the lunch table. When the table gets a little to loud the teachers will use the chimes to get the children’s attention. They say something like “I see you guys are having a bit of fun but its getting a little loud and its almost time to close our lunches so lets have some more bites.”

As the children get louder through out the meal the teachers get up and use some chimes to walk around the table. They play the chimes over the children’s lunch boxes letting the children know that this helps make their lunches extra yummy. One child has a hard time sitting at the table while it is time to eat which she asks to have alone time quite often. however as soon as she hears the chimes will run to the table to sit and have a few bites as the lunch fairy goes around the table.

The afternoon I do another felt story for the children which teaches about the Lil’wat nation had done before contact. I made a felt story which talked underground houses to teach the children. Later I had a few teachers coming up to me and talking about how they liked my story and it was interesting and that they could learn a lot from me.

Final Learning

I took in a lot during my time at the nest. I was able to see how nice the flow of the day goes having three to four people on the floor with the 18 children. I feel they all worked as a team and it was amazing to be able to have this experience at another daycare out of my town. One teacher taught me how you can talk to the children about the art projects and the science behind the art. Another teacher taught me the joys of being with the children. He seemed to have a connection with all the children and you could feel his absence with the children when he wasn’t there. It seemed to go more smoothly having him there. His voice was loud to sing to the children during five minute warnings and walking across the streets. It’s good to be loud and proud of the songs you are singing to the children.

its great to be apart of the nest team for two weeks I was able to learn even more from the children. its amazing how two weeks you can feel a strong connection with these children. I read that the children are with you for 6-8 hours a day and you as a teacher have these precious times to bond and teach them. I was taught a lot about the children about their time in the daycare. They were learning and retaining so much information in the daycare. One child I told him my name once and through out the day he remembered it.

My two goals for the next practicum are to learn how to deal with big emotions and to be able to learn to teach at circle time.