Oh the Drama!

Drama Club is back by popular demand! Originally this was used as a rainy day distraction, but it has really caught on. Drama club has been an active way to exercise creativity, and some of the favorite games include “Death By…”, where the children act out a dramatic death by something thought up by a leader, “Museum” and “Silent Zoo.” Not only have the kids impressed us with their willingness to participate, but have awed us with their independence and group work. Some favorite moments from last drama club include a group of boys stumping Aislinn and I with a peacock impression, and three girls coordinating to act as a single spider.

-Gemma

Moments from a game of "Death By..."

Another dramatic scene.

 

Keva Blocks!

Keva Blocks have become incredibly popular among the children in our Junior OSC program here at West. Many of the children use the blocks to build marble tracks. Marbles have become some of the most popular toys at West Richmond since getting these blocks. Some of the children spend most of their day building complicated ramps for the marbles to roll down. Besides marble tracks, the children also enjoy making structures such as towers. They either create their own buildings or they try to copy buildings from a Keva Block pamphlet which ranges from easy to difficult projects. Some children have even built Beyblade stadiums out of Keva Blocks to host their battles. Overall the Keva Blocks are a huge hit at West Richmond.

-Aislinn

Our leaning tower of Keva.

Keva City

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

Just in time for Halloween, we started our weekly mini out trips with the kids on Wednesday October 23rd.  So many children were interested, we sent another group again the following Wednesday! We got to take the children to the pumpkin patch! We went to The Village Garden Pumpkin Patch on No. 2 Road in Richmond, where a pumpkin farmer gave the children a brief explanation of how the pumpkins are grown before each child got to choose a pumpkin to take home for Halloween. Luckily the weather held up for the most part and all the kids had so much fun. We had some great costumes on Halloween. If you didn’t get a chance to see us, all the leaders dressed up as superheroes. Hopefully you all had a wonderfully spooky Halloween! 

-Katrina

The farmer explaining what's inside a pumpkin.

He had pictures to show us the different stages of pumpkin growth.

The field the children got to choose from.

Happy Halloween from Super Cow!

Music Club

Hi folks! This past week has been a fun one. I'm excited to announce that I've started

a music club!!! It's still in it's experimental stage, but basically the kids have been learning the basics of music making using simple instruments like shakers, bells, and sticks. We may even work on a specific song and make a music video for it. Look out for more information. 

-Peter

Lantern Festival

This past Thursday was West Richmond's 14th Annual Harvest Lantern Festival, and I'd say a successful one at that! This was my first experience with the Lantern Fest and I was pleasantly surprised at the enormous turn out, given all the activities and family oriented atmosphere I shouldn't have expected anything less of our great community. The lantern festival has been around to celebrate autumn with family, both the blood-related kind and the West family. Some kid friendly activities and entertainment included Mr. Yo Yo Thrower, button making, face painting, pumpkin bowling and West's very own, world-class balloon animal artists (AKA our childcare staff, myself included). Winding down the festivities, our lantern processional began in front of the community centre, around the playground and circled back to be greeted with hot chocolate. I have to say, the way the lanterns lit up that chilly, foggy evening was really neat.

But what's a Lantern Festival without the lanterns?! For the week that led up to the event, the kids had been working on their own unique milk jug lanterns. Using the bottom half of a 4 litre milk jug, the kids used a paper-mache glue mixture to decorate their lanterns. They came out really well, resembling stained glass. We used a tea light glued to the bottom with a chopstick handle to finish off our lanterns.

I'm so glad that everyone who was able to make it out had such wonderful smiles on their faces, Thanks for coming!

-Sara

Busy hands at work!

Lanterns lit the way in a little fog.

A beautiful night for a nice walk.

Brainstorming Our Staircase

Earlier this school year it was announced that the staircase at West Richmond Community Center was due for an update. The redecorating project is called “Rising”. We were able to have the artist, Jeanette Lee, come in and brainstorm some ideas with a few of the children in our program about the project. She asked them what they love about using the stairs, and she got answers that included: “I can smell the snack in the stairway”, and, “when you imagine keys on a piano and walking up them”. The kids got the opportunity to give their ideas on how the staircase should be decorated. Some of these ideas were that the staircase should be colourful, the railing should be exciting and there should be poems on the stairs. There were many great ideas from the kids that the artist was able to take out of this discussion.

-Aislinn

Listening closely to Jeanette.

Asking questions and giving feedback.

Dungeons and Dragons

 Even on a rainy day we were able to enjoy a great game of capture the flag. Who needs to go outside when we can create our own land filled with potions, spells, traps and enemies. Alden, Cole, Jonah, Leo and Xander faced off against our new villains; Beast from the East, Geronimo Joe, Queen Liz and BooGrrr. Our villains got off to a great start and were the first to break down the barricades of the young adventurers and soon jumped the black hole to enter the flag zone. 

Characters doing battle!

The boys were forced to play defensive with the onslaught of attacks by the villains. After many battles the young adventurers broke through their enemies barricades and jumped over the rubble hill entering the other flag zone. With a lack of defensive troops on the enemy team, Jonah was able to dodge, get past his opponent, grab the flag , and once confronted by Queen Liz he was able to overcome her attacks and sprint back to his castle. With that good prevailed over evil once again and were victorious on this beautiful sunny day. 

-Jason

The playing field.