Creative Juices Flowing

One of my favourite aspects about working at Junior OSC is appreciating how creative the young ones are. Whether this is during an art activity or during free play, the kids amaze me with what they come up with and create. Last Friday, Pearlena lead an art activity where the kids were able to draw whatever they wanted on some ceramic mugs. I saw so many creations ranging from poke-a-dot designs to butterflies. One child even drew “Shopkinz” on her mug (Shopkinz are these cute and small grocery-themed characters). The mugs turned out beautifully and they will be great to use for hot chocolate as the weather gets colder. Later that day, I also saw some children drawing Shopkinz on paper. One child put together a book with the different Shopkinz on each page while another cut the drawings out and put them in a paper envelope. It was great to see the kids take inspiration from these small figurines and then creating their own projects. Overall, it was a great afternoon! :)

 

Thank you to everyone who came out for the Lantern Festival last Thursday. It was great to see such a good turnout and all the staff had a great time! We’re also very excited for Halloween next week! I can’t want to see everyone in their costumes!

 

Alicia

Lantern Festival 2015

Lantern Festival 2015!

On a beautiful evening in early October,

In and around the community centre,

Families gathered for an evening of fun,

Games and activities for everyone!

Donations were made

For the Richmond Food Bank

Some got Balloons,

and others, Face Paint!

Some people went Bowling,

and drums were played,

shadows,

wishes,

and lanterns were made!

Nigel rode in

And we all stopped to stare,

As he contact juggled

In the cool night air!

Then it was time,

The lanterns were lit,

we went on parade

The night was a hit!

To all those who took part and volunteers too,

For such a great evening, 

we'd like to THANK YOU!!!

See you again next year!

Lantern Festival

Autumn is in full swing and what better way to have spent a perfect October evening than at West Richmond's 16th Annual Lantern Festival! In my opinion, this year's festival was the best turn out I've seen in the past few years. The sense of community that I felt seeing everyone was so neat! All the credit goes to the community members who volunteered their time and skills; Some of the popular attractions were bobbing for apples, face painting, balloon animal making and a huge percussion jam session. Not to mention the actual lantern march which always looks so cool! At Jr OSC we usually make lanterns with the kids out of milk jugs, but I was impressed to see there were a lot of homemade lanterns as well! With hot chocolate and cookies to finish off the night, I don't know anyone who could have gone home without a smile on their face :)

On a side note, I wish I had taken pictures, but unfortunately, my hands were tied... Because I was tying balloon animals. Get it?

Until next time!

Sara

Fall Finger Painting

Masterpieces in progress

Fall is definitely my favourite season of the four, I think it is the variety of vibrant colours that we are surrounded by that have me appreciating our wonderful setting. So for art I decided to combine that with my favourite activity, finger painting! I gave the kids a simple task, create anything you want with the theme of fall in mind and they had the option to use fingers, paint brushes or both. It was amazing to see their young minds put to work, everyone was working hard to put their amazing imagination to use. Once the kids were satisfied with their work I let them know that every artist must think of a name for their painting, just in case there were any interested buyers. Enjoy!


Jason




"Tree" by Lily




"Halloween Painting" by Theodora



"Fall Painting Halloween Painting Turkey Painting" by Ava

Fall Art

This month at JR OSC, we are jumping right in to Fall with the various activities that we have planned for the kids. Some of these activities include making lanterns which can be used at West Richmond’s upcoming lantern festival, or on Halloween! Last week Pearlena made Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with the kids and I made Fall Lanterns. Both activities went wonderfully, and I think many of the participants were quite excited to take their treats home. For the Lanterns, we used tissue paper and mod podge to add fall colours to our jars. We applied both mediums to the jars with paint brushes, then finished off our lanterns by hot gluing twine and a faux sunflower onto the lids. As you can tell by the photo, the jars look beautiful.

For the pumpkin spice cupcakes, we used a spice cake recipe and added in pumpkin puree for that warm, comforting fall flavour. By adding the pumpkin, the cupcakes immediately became softer and juicier, as well as healthier!

Fall is one of my favourite times of year, so look forward to these upcoming activities that follow the fall theme:

October 6^th – Fall Prints

October 9^th – Leaf Wreaths

October 14^th – Leaf Prints

October 28^th – Halloween Activities

October 29^th – Cheese Cloth Ghosts

October 30^th – Pumpkin Mason Jars

Enjoy!

Katie

Kinder Firsts

Garden City Park

The first month of school has sure flown by and both kids and leaders have finally settled into the after school routine. Our kindergarteners especially have had a chance to explore and accomplish many firsts in their young lives.

This month many of them experienced their first Pro D day, I joined the Dixons on their day off and we combined with our senior program. Together we journeyed into Richmond and headed to Garden City Park, where we spent most of our morning playing and taking in the good weather. We then headed to Paulik Park to grab some lunch and ended our day back at West.


Our very popular mascot Mr.Snail

Learning about glue gun safety

Another thing some of our kinders got to experience for the first time was using glue guns. It was my afternoon activity and we were making sock puppets, so I used it as an opportunity to teach our young friends glue gun safety and how to properly use a glue gun. While many were timid at first and hesitant to use them, they eventually became pros after recognizing their own comfort level with the hot glue.



Jason