Kindergarten Professional Development

Leaf Crowns

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About the Small Group Lesson
Takeaways

Children create leaf crowns with fallen leaves found on their playground. Leaf crowns are a fun way to study and explore the size, shape, and colour of the leaves collected.

We use strips of poster board with double sided carpet tape. No glue is necessary.

Sorting leaves by shape, colour, and size.
Understanding the function of the veins in the leaves and why they turn different colours in the fall.
Counting leaves and creating patterns with leaves on their forest crowns.

Toilet Brush Painting

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Takeaways

Children paint the snow with coloured water and toilet brushes. In this activity, we make shapes with sticks on the snow and children paint the inside of the shape by sprinkling coloured water into the middle of the stick shape with toilet brushes. All toilet brushes are bought new for this lesson.

Science skills including, mixing colours and understanding what happens when water is added to snow.
Math skills including, identifying 4 shapes, measurement of the sticks to make the shapes.
Social skills, working together to share the materials, supporting self-regulation, attention and focus.
Literacy skills include creating a story about the coloured shapes made in the snow.

Snow Volcanoes

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Takeaways

Children can work together to make a snow volcano and its lava. The lava is a vinegar and baking soda chemical reaction that has food colouring and a bit of dish soap added.

Math skills include measuring, counting, and ratio opportunities.
Science skills include understanding chemical reactions between baking soda and vinegar.
Working together to make a snow volcano and lava.

Snow Forts

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Takeaways

Children use snow saws to cut snow blocks to make a fort. Additional materials will be provided to add to the fort’s stability. This activity is full of movement and heavy work opportunities that promote body awareness, self-regulation, and attention.

Math skills including counting, shapes, weight, and size.
Engineering skills. Children can figure out what makes a structure stable.
Working together and problem-solving the building of the fort.
Creating stories about their fort.

Dirty Dishes: The Benefits of Learning with Mud Kitchens

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About The Workshop
Takeaways

Mud pies are a natural and memorable part of every childhood. In this workshop learn how to set up your mud kitchen in any playground and use it as a tool to support child development. Mud kitchens are easy ways to add sensory input into your programming to support collaboration, motor skills, literacy, math, and science. Discover the tools needed and expand the learning all year round.

Understanding the research behind ‘why dirt is good’ for a healthy immune system.
Expanding your sensory area with your mud kitchen and sensory tables.
Recognizing the developmental outcomes of using a mud kitchen as a tool to promote sensory input, motor, language and social skills while supporting math and science opportunities.
Providing sensory-rich opportunities to support self-regulation, belonging, and social connections.
Converting your mud kitchen into a snow and ice kitchen in the winter.

Outdoor workshops with Educators & Children

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Clay Creatures

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About the Small Group Lesson
Takeaways

Children can make a clay creature with a ball of clay and loose parts collected from the playground. The children can describe the attributes of their creature; what it eats, what it looks like, where it lives, and any other special feature.

Math and science skills include sorting, counting, and estimating the collected loose parts from the playground. Loose parts include sticks, pinecones, acorns, stones, and leaves.
Motor skills are promoted when children collect the loose parts and during the creation of their clay creature.
Literacy skills are supported when children create a story about your clay creature.

Stone Stories

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About the Small Group Lesson
Takeaways

Children can create and/or retell their favourite story by drawing pictures and printing words on flat, smooth stones and paint markers. It’s a great way to bring language arts to your playground.

Stories can reinforce concepts from the classroom or trigger from the events outside.

Presenting and retelling stories.
Reinforcing the ‘start’, ‘middle’ and ‘end’ of stories; intro, body, and conclusion’.
Supporting fine motor skills.

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Water Walls

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Takeaways

Children can work together to create a water wall with tubing and connectors on your chain link fence. There will be construction challenges and coloured water to increase learning opportunities. There’s so much potential in such a simple activity.

Math skills include sorting and measuring opportunities.
Science skills include flow concepts regarding speed and direction of the water and colour changes.
Working together and problem-solving.
Promoting fine motor skills.

ReUsing Your Christmas Trees

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About the Small Group Lesson
Takeaways

Discarded Christmas trees are amazing loose parts during the winter months. They provide sensory rich, heavy work opportunities that support creativity, social skills, language development and problem-solving. The children can work together to make forts with discarded christmas trees with the support of sticks, burlap and real tools.

Understanding the sensory opportunities available when using Christmas trees in your playground. Immediately, it engages touch smell, sound, sight as well as heavy work opportunities by just exploring the tree and moving it around the playground.
Identifying the many developmental opportunities included in this activity. This activity supports motor, creative, language math, science, and engineering skills,; something for everyone!
Learning how to introduce real tools to your class. Participants will learn how to introduce a saw safely and successfully.

Whittling with Vegetable Peelers

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About the Small Group Lesson
Takeaways

Children can whittle freshly cut sticks with a vegetable peeler. Children can make rulers, mud pencils, and stick people.

Increase focus and attention when using a new tool.
Retelling stories with the creation of stick people.
Using the whittled stick as a measurement tool to support standard and non-standardized units of measurement.
Increase grasp and fine motor skills when whittling and drawing with their mud pencil. When using a new tool children will be shown how to hold the handle, where the sharp parts are, and how it works to ensure safety.