Monday, July 7th, 2025
I got to observe the children and get to know the daily routine of the classroom. I was able to start making connections with the children, engaging in exploration of play, and giving guidelines and directions for an outdoor activity that was set up. Any questions I had were answered by my mentor educator, who also guided me as the day went on. The children asked who I am, what my name is, and then generously accepted me as their new teacher. I was able to learn and practice the children’s names by helping in leading an art project connected to the summer theme for the week.
One child noticed me taking photos with a digital camera and asked to use it to take some herself. They were very intrigued and excited to see the product they had created. They ended up snapping a photo of the ground with our shadows in it, and it is one of my favourite moments that I captured. She did capture more pictures, but this one really stood out.
Tuesday, July 8th, 2025
This morning started with one of the educators showing me the yard sweep. I helped to clean the surfaces, check the ground for any foreign objects and set up the activities, toys and play areas for the day.
When I entered the classroom, a few of the children got excited to see me and remembered my name. They also remembered that I carry a digital camera and wanted their picture taken, and to see the photos I had taken the day before. I inquired with them about who was in the photo and if it was them or a friend in the classroom.
When waiting to transition to outside play, I connected with the children by reading a book while we waited. When the classroom went outside for play, a few of the children asked me to help them build an obstacle course for them to balance on and walk through. The children got very creative here, moving the objects around to create the desired course that would challenge them. One child asked that I hold their hand while going through the course, as they were unsure of completing it without help. After a few times, they no longer needed my help. I was able to help mediate conflict when other children in the classroom came to play with the objects used in the obstacle course.
I helped with a few conflicts during the day. I was able to talk to the children involved, discuss the guidelines and why they are important, and ensure that they used their words when expressing something (eg: feelings).
I also helped with transition times, keeping the children on track, making sure they changed their shoes and washed their hands before playing with the activities inside the classroom. I also helped with gathering a change of clothes due to any bathroom accidents or wet and dirty clothes from outside activities.
Monday, July 14th, 2025
Today was a continuation of building relationships with the children from the classroom. I got to sit with some of the children and read with them. We read books about dinosaurs, as the theme for the week is dinosaurs! I inquired about the play the children were engaged in to investigate their thoughts. What did they want to learn about this week? Are they excited to learn about dinosaurs? Can you roar like a dinosaur? etc.
I did keep establishing positive guidelines and reinforcing boundaries to ensure everyone’s safety. Some children try to intentionally push boundaries, and I am learning how to be patient and reinforce guidelines and boundaries without using negative reinforcement.
Snack time today got a bit messy and required more than one educator to clean up, so I helped with cleaning duties to make the transition time go smoothly.
The art projects for the week are all dinosaur-related, and the first art project was colouring dinosaur heads. A few of the children coloured for five minutes and then went to play with other activities, but some of the other children were very invested in taking their time with their colouring and creating a storyline with their picture (angry dinosaur, rainbow dinosaur, etc.).
Playtime outside was shorter today as it was pouring rain. The facility decided to wait for the rain to lighten up when it was our turn to go outside. When we did go outside, one of the children wasn’t feeling well and wanted to sit with me under the cover of the rain. We sat and watched the other children splash and play in the puddles outside.
Tuesday, July 15th, 2025
This morning, I was greeted right when I walked in by a couple of the children. One of the children asked for a photo of the skull they were holding, and another asked for a photo of their painting they finished that morning. A few other children were exploring the sensory bins that the educator set up for them, while the rest were in various other play areas. I sat with a few children playing with blocks and marbles, racing the marbles and listening to the noises they made when rolling over the blocks.
One child was very intrigued with my camera and wanted to know what I was doing with it when we went outside to the play area. We had a conversation, and she made observations as well as requests, asking me to turn my camera in another direction. There were activities related to the dinosaur theme of the week, with toys, dinosaur feet, bones in the sandbox, and a sensory station with smaller dinosaur toys for children to explore and play with.
Monday, July 21st, 2025
This morning I came into the class, greeted by the children who paused their activities to say hello. The morning was a bit different with the activities and transitions. Some of the children in the classroom did not like the different morning routine and expressed strong feelings throughout the day. It was a great experience to see the different ways children express their feelings and how educators help them express their emotions in safe ways, and to help themself-regulate their feelings.
The class made apple sauce today. I monitored the children while they used age-appropriate cutting tools to cut the apple slices into small pieces for the educator to cook the apple sauce. Each child showed their capabilities in cutting their apple slices, and some children were able to cut more than one slice because we had lots of apple slices to cut up. Each child enjoyed their apple sauce at afternoon snack, and some even asked to take some home. They were very proud of their work.
The educator showed the children an experiment today that involved grapes. The educator put a few Alka-Seltzer tablets into a jar of water. She then added about five grapes, which began to bubble up and float. One child giggled, another let out a noise of excitement, and one pointed at the jar excitedly. Another child asked how the grapes were floating, and the educator explained that the Alka-Seltzer affected the carbon dioxide in the grapes, causing them to float.
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025
Today was pizza day. The class had the opportunity to see and participate in the process of making themselves a small pizza to eat during afternoon snack. In the morning, an educator started the process of preparing the dough for the pizza. Once the dough was all made, each child in the classroom got to knead the dough before it set for a few hours. After lunchtime, after the dough set, everyone sat down, flattened out their dough, and put pizza sauce and cheese on it. One boy, after he put his sauce on his dough, got upset because he said he didn’t like cheese but wanted a topping on his pizza. Fortunately, we were able to solve the problem by looking in his lunch and seeing if he had anything to put on his pizza. He had ham in his lunch! He calmed down, satisfied with his ham and tomato sauce pizza.
Outside, there was a trough with water toys in it. There were floating fish toys that attached to the magnetic ends of small plastic fishing rods that were placed beside the trough. The children were excited to see the new activity that was brought out today. When the children caught the toy fish on their rods, they jumped and ran to one of the three educators who were outside with the children, showing them their accomplishment. A few of the children had few conflicts with one another over which fish was “theirs” that they were catching with their rod. There were a few different kinds of toy fish, such as different coloured goldfish and a couple of different coloured sharks. When the children caught the sharks, they seemed to feel more accomplished and visibly got more excited.
Tuesday, August 5th, 2025
This morning, the educators had brought out an activity that I had not seen before. There was a marble track that they were able to build with the different pieces and then send the marbles down the track and watch them go.
They got very invested in their track and built it as high as they could. They then enjoyed watching the marbles go down the track with excitement.
I played with a little boy later in the day. He was using connecting blocks to make what he called a train. When I sat down with him, he asked if I wanted to make a car to go on his train.
“If you wanna make… If you wanna make this car, you can, but if you wanna make… but if you wanna make… but if you wanna make… but if you wanna make… one of these cars, it’s a laser beam, it’s a laser beam car!”
“Did you make that up?”
“I just learned how to make all those.”
“Oh okay, you just learned how to make all of them.”
“I just know how to make them.”
I then picked up a few blocks to make a car. He did let me know that I was not doing it right and showed me how to make a car with the blocks.
I enjoyed my time sitting with him and seeing how creative he got with the blocks and using his imagination.
Wednesday, August 6th, 2025
Today, when we spend time outside, there is a sensory bin on a picnic table that has seeds and potion bottles to play with. A few children sat around the bin at the table filling the potion bottle with seeds. One of the children asked for help with filling her bottle. While filling the bottle she stated that we are all going camping together.
“Cause we are going camping with you, and you are part of my family.”
“Really? Thank you!”
“For pretend.”
“It’s still really cool to be part of your family. So what are doing to do when we go camping?”
“Cook marshmallows!”
“We’re gonna cook marshmallows?”
“And we’re going to have dinner.”
“Oh yum, are we going to go swimming at all?”
“And we’re going to have lunch, and we aren’t going swimming, but we can go visit a swimming pool if you’d like!”
“Yeah? Do you like swimming in the swimming pool?”
“Mmhm.”
“What about swimming in a lake?”
“Oh, no. There are sharks.”
“There’s sharks in the lake?”
“No, but I saw a shark before.”
“Was it scary?”
“No, it was underwater.”
Other children then began to chime in and talk more about sharks.