Johnson House
Preschool
Story by Educator Shireen
Painting a tree branch
In Johnson House preschool one of the educators provided paint in jars for the children to paint a beautiful tree branch we found in our backyard. The children were enthusiastic about joining in and mixing the paints. The educator added a small amount of white paint to each jar before filling them with blue, green and red paint. The children watched curiously as the colours changed while they stirred the paint. The children said, “The red is turning to pink” and “This blue is my favourite colour.” The educator said, “Yes, we can see the colours are turning lighter. Now we have light blue, light green and pink.”
After mixing the paint, the children enjoyed painting the tree branch together. They negotiated turns and swapped their colours—“Can I please have the green one after you?”. The children observed that the colours kept changing as they brushed different colours of paint on the tree. They found that the paint got slimy when they dropped it onto the table and their hands. They were excited to see the paints mixed up in their hands, turning their hands different colours, and they rubbed the colours on their hands to watch the colours changing.
The children were very happily involved in this art experience. They developed their sensory skills and fine motor skills through the painting experience, and practiced their social skills as they negotiated turns and shared joy in the experience as a group.
Community Playgroups
Story by Playgroup Coordinator Rebecca
This week the weather was beautiful and we held Red Bug playgroup in Ashfield Park, although unfortunately the ground was still very wet and soggy so we were unable to drive the Red Bug van to its usual place. We did manage to find a spot in the park that wasn’t too soggy and we set up playgroup there.
Along with the amazing weather, we had lots of fun playing with our friends and reconnecting with people we hadn’t seen in a long time.
We played in the sand tray, painted on the easel and used our fine motor skills to make dot paintings. At the playdough table we used cutters and rollers to bake ‘cookies’ and ‘cakes’. We practised our gross motor skills when riding the bikes and kicking balls to each other.
We had a wonderful day and we hope that the good weather continues and that the ground dries up soon!
