There has been a lot of interest in  transport all around the centre recently. Particularly in the sandpit. B, C and M have been taking extremely bumpy rides in the black “boat”. The “waves” have been overwhelming the boat  and causing  it to rock back and forth with the occasional “man overboard.” In the background, while observing the boys tumbling in their boat, N was setting up her car, making sure to buckle up her seatbelts as she drove off.  While the boys were riding all of the rough waves, as well as obviously having a terrific time, they were being careful of one another.  They were all demonstrating their funds of knowledge of how waves affected boats, and what happened when you fell out of a ship.

Later that same week,  I found N, H, L, C and B in the sandpit once  more. Where, for the umpteenth time, they had tipped the kitchen equipment over and  were using the cupboards are convenient seats.  This time N declared that it was a tractor, and then insisted that everyone put on their seat belts so that they wouldn’t fall out.

What’s going to happen next?

With this continuing interest in various kinds of transport—from the constant love of the trolley and bikes, to the trains being built inside out of  chairs, and then the kitchen equipment  being turned into cars and tractors, I would say that this is an interest that’s across the entire centre, in all areas of the environment. We’re going to keep facilitating this interest and see where it takes us.

Emily, May ‘14

Wow! After providing the children with the idea and resources to create their own story books, we have seen some amazing stories and books being created. The children have been taking the initiative to create their own books, or re-visit the books they have made that are kept safe in the ‘Story Book Bag’ just above the writing table. It is interesting to watch the books being re-visited and added to over the days – some have had paint added to them or bits and pieces glued or cello taped on. There are no rules or instructions as to how the children work on their books; it is completely up to them. Creating books and stories has definitely become a big part of Mt Royal’s culture and each day I am seeing and hearing about more amazing stories.

It has become quite a social experience also, with the children sitting together at the tables while sharing and talking about pictures and words together. The children are really showing a sense of pride and ownership over their books and love to share them with their peers and teachers. I quite often see small groups of children sitting together with their books – sometimes they are working so consciously the table is in complete silence! Other times I have been delighted to see them explaining their pictures to each other.

An important part of book making is sharing it with your friends J we create lots of opportunities for the children to share their stories, either in small groups or during mat times. The children are very confident to come to the front of mat times and share their stories, which shows just how much they value their own and each other’s stories and ideas.

We are very excited about this new and exciting interest that has taken off in Mt Royal. We have been talking about setting up a book shelf in the reading area especially for the books made by the children. We have made sure that the resources to create books are always available to the children and encourage them with their stories whenever possible.

A little while ago, Ally had a mat time with our older children and they all took turns writing on the black board—copying the words that they wanted to try to write. At my mat time the other day, we did this again as the children asked for another chance. Who was I to say no to another terrific learning opportunity. Everyone sat down and waited really patiently as the each got up and had a turn writing something on the board. Whether it was left over from the interest in bugs; E, C, I and N all wanted to try to write down the word bee. M just wanted the opportunity to practice the letter “e”, while C wanted to practice doing a big “C” and H asked for a large “H” to copy.

As they each wrote out their preferred choice, all of the other children sat quietly and waited for their friends to complete their work. It was a really relaxed mat time, with everyone who wanted a turn, getting one.

This shows me that the centre’s research focus on literacy has really gotten into the children’s minds. They’re all very interested and excited to do anything that you normally count under the literacy umbrella, and the literacy table is getting lots of use.

Keep up all of the good work, I’ll be sure to continue to offer all of you literacy opportunities like this to extend your learning.

Wherever there are superheroes, there are super villains. And wherever the two combine, the “baddies” invariably end up locked up in a jail. This is what’s been happening recently here at Mount Royal, except the “baddies” instead of trying to avoid their prison sentence have been asking to be locked up.

M, A, and J all asked the others to “lock” them up using the semicurcular blocks. This activity continued for over thirty minutes as each of the children had a turn being covered in blocks and “locked up”.

H and C came along and helped to “lock” people up as well, with everyone being incredibly careful not to drop any of the blocks on the “baddie” whom they were locking up.

When the “baddies”  were being locked up, they were being incredibly careful to keep perfectly still, and when they were getting out of the blocks, being equally careful that the blocks weren’t going to hit any of their friends.

I was really impressed to observe this afternoon’s scenario as it showed me many things about these children. They demonstrated that they were all capable of creating a shared fantasy world together and sticking to the rules of this world, without any teacher assistance or intervention. They also showed me that they are all very considerate and try to make sure at all times that the people around them stay safe and don’t get hurt. Lastly, they showed me that they have all gotten the concept of taking turns. They all volunteered to get up and let someone else have a turn when they felt as though their turn was up.

When it was tidy up time, they all showed me how responsible they were by packing absolutely all of the blocks away into their correct places.

I’m just so proud to be the teacher of all of these wonderful, motivated children. Keep it up!