This lesson was all about pretending! The Friendly Frogs embarked on a sea adventure, pretended to be pirates, and transformed into royalty as they explored how far their imagination could take them. But pretend or imaginative play is more than just a fun way for children to entertain themselves-it is a complex process that builds skills in several different developmental areas. By pretending, imagining, dramatizing, and experimenting, children build language and communication skills, develop their capacity for empathy and cooperation, and practice creative problem-solving.

The Friendly Frogs are super excited to meet Santa and receive their presents. They had so much fun making their paper plate Santa artwork during their Visual Arts lesson. They enjoyed colouring and sticking the eyes, nose, cotton beard, and cap onto their paper plate Santa artwork. It is always great when children express their creativity through art projects like this.

Not many things in nature are as beautiful as the first real bed of snow on the ground and the trees. Yesterday was a magical day, with the first real snowfall of the year. The Friendly Frogs came to kindergarten in awe of the winter wonderland that awaited them outside; they waited with anticipation to go play, sledge and roll on the ground. We contained our excitement and delayed going so that a few more of the Frogs would arrive; we then bundled up so as not to watch that enchanting view from our windows anymore. The Frogs had a joyous time. The way they engaged and played in the snow defined childhood wonder.

Since Thanksgiving is around the corner, the Friendly Frogs children made a Thanksgiving turkey in one of their art lessons. First, they discussed the meaning of Thanksgiving and why people celebrate Thanksgiving. Further, they identified things they are thankful for, such as family, friends, food, clean water, clean air, our homes, and many other things. Then they identified the main body parts of a turkey for example eyes, beak, snood, wings, and feet. Then they made the body of a turkey by painting the bubble wrap and leaving the marks on the paper. By sticking the eyes, beak, and snood they completed the body of their turkeys. In the end, they glued the feathers onto their turkeys, and they really enjoyed the process of adding the colourful feathers.

The loving connection during quiet time is very important to the Friendly Frogs. The love, trust, comfort, safety, and warmth create an environment where your child’s learning and development can take place fully and naturally.

Children have a natural love for ponies; the Friendly Frogs could not contain their excitement when they saw the ponies. Many of the Frogs who hesitated to ride the first time were braver this time around and willing to try it.

Pony riding is not only fun; it is fostering skills that will last them a lifetime. For instance, responsibility and self-discipline are essential parts of pony riding because they need to listen and be in the same rhythm as the ponies. It requires a commitment to respect and behave responsibly towards the animal at all times. The Friendly Frogs are practising those skills and displaying them very well.

The Friendly Frogs children made spooky Halloween-themed spiders in one of their visual arts lessons. First, they observed the most popular Halloween symbols and identified their main features. Then, they learned a few interesting facts about spiders, such as they have eight legs and eyes. Next, the children painted the spider samples with black tempera paint, squeezed glue on the samples, and glued wiggly eyes on them. At last, they squeezed more glue and shook glitter on them.

Halloween is a day to be creative and show up with fabulous costumes to showcase our inner superheroes, princesses and any characters we desire to be. Let us not forget the candies that come with it. The Frogs had a day full of games, fun and excitement. The children came dressed in their most extravagant costumes. We had princesses, witches, deer, pumpkins, superheroes, Paw Patrol, a skeleton, a dinosaur and Harry Potter. We kicked off the morning with some games. The Frogs practised their gross motor skills, overall coordination, hand-eye coordination, and accuracy while playing balloon toss, ring toss and bowling. At the end of the party, we shared some delicious sweets to end the day.

Each week we go through the process of naming what we are going to hear, listening to the sound, and then engaging with that sound through vocal play. We are setting the Friendly Frogs up for success so that listening becomes active and fun. While we are playing with sounds, we are also training their brains to distinguish sounds.

The Friendly Frogs children have learned interesting facts about the harvest season and harvestable fruits and vegetables and therefore, they met with Jack, a brilliant gardener in one of their visual arts lessons. In the book, The Giant Carrot written by Allan Manham, Jack tries to pull out a giant carrot. The children got inspired by the story and made their own giant carrots. They cut orange-coloured paper pieces into smaller sizes, glued them onto the carrot samples, and practised the use of glue sticks and scissors.

Timbre awareness is the musical equivalent of phonemic awareness. It is an auditory skill that is developed through experience and exposure to many different musical sounds. Comparing and contrasting the sounds the bells and shakers make strengthens the same part of the brain that helps the Friendly Frogs listen to distinctions in the sounds of language.

The Friendly Frogs were hard at work preparing for the Autumn Assembly until the performance. They were terrific at singing the songs and dancing. We are very proud of them. After the Assembly, we went outside to play some exciting games and finished off the day with a dance party. Another highlight of the week was Rolli Polli. It is a favourite of all the children as they run around and do fun exercises, expending all that extra energy they have while strengthening those gross motor skills. They are very much looking forward to the next one.

The Friendly Frogs children made cute corn artwork in one of their visual arts lessons. First, they squeezed yellow paint into the containers. Then, they painted the bubble wrap pieces with brushes to the best of their abilities and created prints on the corn samples. At last, they glued the missing parts on the corn samples, such as kernels, silks, and husks. They used their fine motor skills, creativity, imagination, sensory exploration, and problem-solving skills. Also, they worked with patience and persistence.

We have had many exciting new things happening in the past two weeks. One was that the ponies came for a visit. As usual, the children were eager to get their turns to ride these gentle creatures. Some of the new children were hesitant at first, but once they got the courage to get on a pony, they loved it and asked for a second turn. We also had some guests from the Austrian-Hungarian European school. The children came to say hello to our class, felt right at home, and decided to join in and spend some time playing with the Frogs. Both sides had a fantastic time interacting and playing with one another. The Frogs are certainly looking forward to a future visit from their older new friends.

At about 10-12 months old, babies begin to interpret the facial expressions of the people around them to make sense of new or unclear situations. The Friendly Frogs’ age has continued to refine this skill, but may still only use broad categories of emotion, like happy or sad. Helping the Friendly Frogs identify and recognize their own emotions helps them to understand their own feelings and those of people around them.

Sharing and taking turns is a learned process that only develops when children can start empathizing with others. These skills take a tremendous amount of self-control. We model self-control for the Friendly Frogs as they see you patiently wait to play the triangle. We can also help the children wait by touching them gently or showing them how to pretend to play the triangle before it is their turn. This helps them find their own strategies for waiting. Learning these skills helps the Friendly Frogs when we celebrate and acknowledge all the tiny achievements along the way. Observe your child when he is with friends and classmates. Watch for opportunities to affirm his efforts, saying something like: “You are so polite to wait while Nancy takes a turn.”

The Friendly Frogs children were invited to create sensory self-portraits of themselves using a variety of materials. The children continued their fun with the All About Me learning theme and looked into mirrors to see what makes them special and unique, what colour their eyes were, what colour their hair was, what type of hair they had, and what colour their skin was. They created their faces with dough and added a variety of materials that matched their facial features.

The Friendly Frogs have been busy in the past two weeks, getting to know one another, learning the routine and starting a new Unit of Inquiry. Everyone has settled quite well into the environment and is doing a fantastic job in class. The Friendly Frogs have been learning about themselves as individuals and the diversity that exists around them.

We did some outdoor learning activities during our getting-to-know-you week, which the Frogs enjoyed a lot, to encourage and support their listening skills, following a variety of instructions and also having fun together as a group. In this activity, the Frogs had to locate task cards placed around the garden and, once found, perform the exercises on the cards. Learning outdoors has much added value in nurturing imagination, uplifting the senses, improving gross motor skills and fostering creativity. These little tasks also help children to bond with their classmates and create positive peer relationships.