Academy of Heritage Commons

Friday, June 23, 2017

Power of Play - Science Week

We have been busy here at AoHC this week with SCIENCE! For young learners, science is just an extension of their everyday world. We don’t have to teach young children to be curious or how to discover because they do it naturally!

Here are a few ways you can encourage a love of science at home!

Ask your children lots of “why” questions. Even if you don’t know the answer, asking the question helps to develop critical thinking skills. It’s not so much that you don’t know the answer, it’s that your child asked the question in the first place.

Encourage children to solve problems. Learning how to find answers is a lifetime skill.

Visit your child’s science class. By visiting the classroom, this shows both your child and the teacher that you are interested in science. If you are unable to personally visit the class, make it a point to inquire about what your children are learning about in science.

Stacking blocks in Infant 3

What happens when we push the blocks?

Checking out some Geodes in TASK

Making simple machines in Preschool 2

Learning about animals in Infant 3

Discovering incline planes, wedges and levers in TASK

If you would like to learn more about why learning through PLAY is powerful, click here!

Friday, June 16, 2017

TASK News- Sensory Play

Hello AoHC families! Here is this week's TASK News.

Our Class of the week is Infant 3 with Ms. Christy and Ms. Donna. Jenna and Paisly interviewed them to learn more about what infants do all day and why they love working with their cute little ones! TASK News also focused on sensory play in our Toddler 1 and PreK 1 classrooms this week. Goodstart Early Learning's senior occupational therapist Sally Fitzgerald says providing opportunities for children to actively use their senses as they explore their world through ‘sensory play’ is crucial to brain development – it helps to build nerve connections in the brain’s pathways.

Check out our news clip below to see AoHC kids exploring through sensory play!

https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=6M5dpP

Power of Play - Sensory Week

This week has been smooth sailing here at AoHC with Sensory Play Week! Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your young child's senses: touch, smell, taste, movement, balance, sight and hearing...and we have been doing a lot with our senses!

Sensory play is very important for children, as the child develops trust and understanding of this texture it helps build positive pathways in the brain to say it is safe to engage with this food. Sensory play literally helps shape what children to believe to be positive and safe in the brain. Ultimately, shaping the choices children make and impacting behaviour.

For instance, a child who is particularly fussy with eating foods with a wet texture such as spaghetti, the use of sensory play can assist the child in touching, smelling and playing with the texture in an environment with little expectation.

So, now that we know WHY sensory play is so important, here are some fun activities we did this week to promote this type of PLAY!

Pet Washing Station in Toddler 1

Digging for Bugs in PS2

Old McDonald Sensory Tub

Colored Water Play with PS1

WATER BEADS (a school favorite)

Muddy Puppy Wash Station

Play Dough

Sensory Bags

Finger Painting in Todd 2

"Brick Laying" with PreK 3

Making Slime in PreK 3

Outside Art Center

If you would like to learn more about The Power of Play, click here!

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Fairy Soup!

This summer, rather than just having our students jump through a sprinkler on water play day, we have special water activities happening outside!

For our first water play day of the summer, we made FAIRY SOUP! The kids loved mixing all of the fairy soup "ingredients" and exploring all the magical things inside. They had fun dumping and filling and loved that it had glitter in it too!

Did you know that this helps with your child's brain development? It does! They are making brain connections by deciding where to start in this kind of play. Do they want to fill and dump water or sort the items. They must make their own choices and freely create. So much learning in such a little tub! 🍃💐🌻🌼

If you would like to learn more about The Power of Play, click here!

Friday, June 9, 2017

TASK News - Nature Week

Hello AOHC Families! TASK is going to be working on a themed weekly news report! We are so excited to kick it all off with Nature Week!

Click the link below to see some breaking news!

TASK News Nature Week

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Power of Play - Nature Week

Welcome SUMMER! We are so excited to have launched our new summer program, POWER OF PLAY! We kicked it all off with Nature Week! We have incorporated fun activities such as Mud Painting and Nature Walks! Stay tuned for more summer fun!