One of the preschool rooms has just started a project studying ponds. Before we build our very own pond in our classroom, we thought we should explore and observe some local water environments. Today we walked along the canal and found many things to explore and discuss... This included water bugs, fish, weeds, and a group of ducks bathing and swimming! We were even lucky enough to see fish feeding on the underwater weeds. The preschoolers were very concerned about the garbage that they found floating.This led to a discussion and awareness of the need to properly dispose of garbage so not to harm our environment.

Do you see the fish we spotted?

         The preschoolers were really excited to see a dragonfly as we have been discussing various living things found in ponds. We were able to observe real lily pads in the water before going back to our classroom for an art sensory activity where we made representational lily pads with plastecine.

 

Welcome to our Acorn Early Learning Centre Blog

               Welcome to the Acorn Early Learning Centre blog! We are a Reggio Emilia inspired centre located in the Glebe community in Ottawa Ontario, where our goal is to provide developmentally appropriate and experiential programs for children who range from toddler through to school age. We endeavour to achieve this by promoting the highest quality of professionalism, consistency in a respectful school environment with dedicated staff that are qualified and truly care.

                We believe that learning is an active process of self-construction which occurs as we (children, parents, educators and friends) go about our everyday routines and special times in the company of others. Educators treat and listen to children as individuals; competent, resourceful, curious, imaginative, and inventive, each desiring to communicate with each other and their environment.  We believe that all learning is intertwined; physical, intellectual, emotional, social, moral, aesthetic, and creative. Schools, homes and the community are all social learning environments and need to have strong partnerships to enhance a child's learning.

 

                The purpose of this blog is for our centre to share projects we have worked on within all of our age groups, examples of the different ways to show the children’s learning through documentation, as well as some of the community events such as our annual picnic, a kindergarten and school age sleepover in the country, and fundraising events for local shelters.

                As educators, we hope that you enjoy our posts and feel inspired to incorporate the Reggio philosophy into your centre. As parents, we hope that you gain both insight into your child’s everyday learning and how the role of the Reggio philosophy further enhances this learning.