I don't know about you but lately I have been getting a lot of interesting questions from my 3 year old! At dinner...." Mom, do carrots go in fruits or vegetables?" At breakfast...."Mom, what are eggs? Why? Are they junk food or do they give us energy??" And the list goes on.....
I wasn't entirely sure what Paxton meant when he asked if carrots go "in" fruits or vegetables so I was asking Jody about these questions and she shared with me that the students at BELA are learning to sort and categorize things. Ahhhhh! He has also been sorting everything under the sun at home and making different piles and containers full of stuff ! He likes to tell us all sorts of things about these piles and it keeps him busy and entertained so its a big win- win! ;)
I asked Jody to explain a little more to me about how theses new skills for the children at BELA are built into the themes and now I am able to, more and more pick out the skills Paxton is working on amongst all his chatter about fruits, vegetables and junk food!
Here's some information for all you BELA parents about the current theme and some of the skills that are built in:
Healthy, Active Learners
The Healthy, Active Learners theme is designed to shine the
'learning light' for our BELA children on two of our foundational program
building blocks - physical and emotional well-being, and character development. At BELA we believe in
teaching the whole child, giving the children the strongest foundation we can
for future learning success. This theme continues the learning we have included
all year from the At My Best program and focuses on:
* the importance of being physically healthy - physical activities,
exercise, and getting
enough sleep
* teaching children about how to eat nutritionally, including the
four food groups and the
Canada Food Guide
* caring for our teeth and eyes
* emotional well-being, developing our friendship skills, and
character education
Throughout this theme, the children are engaged in early science and
numeracy/math learning opportunities, as they participate in activities, in
relation to: food or physical activities; things that attract magnets, or don't;
things that sink or float. These activities are designed to increase their
skills by supporting them to:
* ask a question / respond to questions
* make predictions
* gather information/data
* sort and classify
* count or measure
* graph
* evaluate / draw conclusions
This information shed a lot of light on the in-depth planning that goes into each theme and as always the experience that our staff has in integrating these new skills into every day life at BELA. Our little scientists and mathematicians have been hard at work and play!!
