<![CDATA[Dawn and Dusk Before and After School Program

<![CDATA[Dawn and Dusk Before and After School Program - Kindercare Blog]]>Sat, 05 Sep 2026 19:14:43 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[Kindercare Vision Board!]]>Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:23:43 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/kindercare-vision-boardIn March, the Kinders and I decided to create a vision board for our Kindercare experience! A vision board is defined as “a collage of images and words representing a person's wishes or goals, intended to serve as inspiration or motivation”.

The Kinders love to be involved in important projects and special tasks, so I thought I’d give them all the opportunity to let their voices be heard and plan part of our program for March!

I asked the Ladybugs and the Caterpillars what types of activities interest them and jotted down their creative and surprising thoughts!

These were some of the ideas that they came up with!
Kindness Day
Ping Pong
Wild Hair Day
Make Lemonade
Show and Tell
Scribble Day
Ballet
Superhero Puppets
Car Wash
And the list goes on!!!

To get us started, I printed pictures of their ideas and pasted them on our vison board! Whenever the Kinders thought of something new, I encouraged them to draw the idea themselves and add it to our board!

We’ve spent the last week fulfilling some of these wishes! So far, the Ladybugs have delved into the sport of Ping Pong and the art of ballet.

The Caterpillars have crafted thoughtful gifts for their loved ones, hosted a car wash and made homemade lemonade!

This has been such a positive and engaging experience for our entire group! I have loved how much the Kinders have been inspiring each other and celebrating everyone’s unique ideas!

I look forward to the rest of March!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Embrace the Mess!]]>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:52:07 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/embrace-the-mess

One afternoon, one of our adventurous Caterpillars had the sudden urge to dip their hand in paint and high-fived the wall! Instead of squashing that child’s instinct, it inspired us to set up some messy wall painting!

We rolled out LARGE pieces of brown paper and taped it to the wall! The Kinders worked in teams of two and spent the next 20 minutes hand printing, smearing and throwing paint towards their canvas! Two Kinders mixed a few colours together to create a dark green! They then chose to smear it all over their hands, pretending to be zombies!

“We’re zombies because this looks very much like a zombie”

“Now let’s blend it in!”

Another spontaneous Caterpillar saw some crafting feathers in a bowl and decided to press them against their creation. Since the paint was still wet, we discovered that the feathers actually stuck to the paper! We decided to add more materials like foam shapes, tissue paper and pom poms to transform our wall painting into a wall collage!

The final masterpieces were titled, “Frankenstein” and “Frankenstein Witch!”

This experience sure was fun, but it was also INCREDIBLY messy! Thankfully, our hardworking Caterpillars knew it was their responsibility to help clean up the mess! We brought out the mop to mop up the paint from the floor and used a cloth to wipe the walls and tables! Everyone pitched in and contributed to making our Kinder Room clean again!

I foresee many more messy experiences in the future!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Tea Party!]]>Tue, 05 Dec 2023 21:02:59 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/tea-partyEarly this week, the Ladybugs hosted a Tea Party! Not just any old Tea Party, but a Tea Party for our stuffed animals and dolls! The Kinders have been requesting to bring a special toy from home, so I felt like a Tea Party would be a fantastic way to introduce some new friends to the Kinder Room!

Before our festivities began, our special friends needed a nap after their long journeys from home! The Ladybugs chose a quiet area in the room to set up a comfortable, cozy and relaxing bed for them. They were very thoughtful as they used blankets, baskets, and decorations in their designs! As our special friends slept, the Ladybugs got some fresh air outside!

“I left food and water for bunny in case it gets hungry!”

“I made this fort for mine”

When we returned, we set up for our Tea Party! The Ladybugs took their seats at the table with their fancy tea cups, saucers and a scrumptious tea cookie. Even with all this excitement, the Ladybugs ensured that their special friends had space to join us!

While the water was boiling, I gave the Ladybugs the opportunity to smell the three tea varieties:

Chai Tea
Lemon Thriller
Raspberry Thriller

The Ladybugs AND their special friends were very intrigued by these three unique smells and with the process of making tea! The Ladybugs then had the opportunity to sample each flavour!

“Ellie wants to smell too!”

“It smells like chocolate!”

“mmmmm smells good!”

“What does the bag feel like?”

In the afternoon, we played some games with our special friends! After playing “Musical Chairs”, a Ladybug taught us how to play “Mystery Box”! Here are the rules if you’re interested!

1. Grab three boxes or containers 2. Hide a secret item inside one of them 3. Mix up the boxes 4. Guess where the item is!

This game was a HUGE HIT amongst the Ladybugs! They spent the next 45 minutes playing this game and adding variations to it!

“If you guess right, you get a prize!”

“I also set up a prize shop!”

“My stuffy wants to guess!”

What a wonderful day we had with our special friends! This experience helped nurture empathy, responsibility, experimentation and imagination in each of our Ladybugs!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Frost, Frost Everywhere!]]>Mon, 23 Oct 2023 22:08:22 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/frost-frost-everywhere

Last week, the Caterpillars and I went for a walk to Tomlinson Park! On the way, we noticed lots of frost! When we arrived at the park we found EVEN MORE FROST, so the Caterpillars decided to investigate! We explored these three questions:

What is frost made of?

What does frost feel like?

Where does frost appear?

Here were some of our discoveries:

“Frost is snow”

“Frost is made of water. I don’t know how it got on my hand!”

“Frost water feels weird! It feels flat”

“There’s frost on leaves! it has sparkles!”

“It looks like ice cream!”

“Frost is on gloves frost and frost is on sticks!”

“There’s frost on a tissue diaper!”

The Caterpillars loved how the frost sparkled in the sunlight! Since the Caterpillars were intrigued by this aspect, I decided to do a salt crystal experiment with them! I gave each Caterpillar a jar that they filled with warm water. Next, they added some salt and mixed it until the salt was all dissolved. Then, they had the option to tie a string around an item and dangle it into the salty water solution!

Most of the Caterpillars had their own plans and decided to add a whole bunch of items into their jar and observe the changes that were happening!

“Mine looks like potion!”

“I smelled it! It smells like candy!”

“My popsicle stick is BIG!”

“There were bubbles when I dropped the rocks!”

“Mine is mixing! So COOL!”

“It’s floating! Now it’s sinking!”

We let their jars sit for a few days before observing the results!

Our experiment was semi-successful! We noticed that the crystals formed on the popsicle sticks and the strings, but not on the items that we placed in the jars!

The Caterpillars were unfazed by their lack of crystals! They continued to investigate the contents of their jars and had a BLAST transporting water from one container to another!

It’s the process, not the product that counts!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Ice Cream Shop!]]>Fri, 06 Oct 2023 22:05:11 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/ice-cream-shop

The Ladybug Kinder group are so creative and imaginative! One day, we went out into the forest and sculpted with polymer clay. I originally thought that the Ladybugs would create miniature fairies or other characters, but they surprised me! During this experience, I noticed that the common theme was creating tiny food.

“I’m making a pizza for my dolly”

“I made a slug with a cupcake”

“This is an ice cream! Bubble gum on the bottom and birthday cake on the top! I added red for raspberry ice cream!”

This inspired me to set up a “Kinder Ice Cream Shop” after “Spa Time” one afternoon. Ahead of time, I made scented playdough with vanilla extract, a raspberry thriller teabag and a lemon tea bag to distinguish each ice cream flavour. When the Ladybugs saw me setting up the tables with the “ice cream”, sprinkles, scoopers and small paper cups, they jumped right in and got straight to work!

In the beginning, the Ladybugs focused on forming and decorating their ice cream scoops by rolling, squishing, pinching, stacking and mixing the playdough.

“I put the decorations in the cups!”

“I’m putting stuff inside!”

“I’m putting mine in the freezer! Right now it’s hot!”

“Is the ice cream nice and fresh yet? Nope? Then it goes back in the cup”

“I’m adding a spooky colour to mine”

To expand this experience, I added a cash register, fake money, and became the first ice cream shop customer! Adding customers to the play made this experience even more exciting and activated our imaginations.

“Pretend you asked for ice cream. How many scoops?”

“Would she like a cone or a cup?”

“Hello what would you like today? Come up! I have this many flavours”

“She wants Rainbow”

“She wants a blueberry sundae”

As the play continued, the Ladybugs added more and more NEW ideas!

One Ladybug said, “I have a great idea!” and added a metal plate and wooden spoon to use as the bell!

Another Ladybug announced, “ICE CREAM SHOP! ICE CREAM SHOP!” and decided to make a sign to advertise the shop!

A third Ladybug decided to open up a bank and designated himself as the police officer! He put on a costume to look the part.

This was a very collaborative experience that evolved as time went on! While our Ice Cream Shop employees were hard at work, they practiced so many valuable skills. They worked cohesively as a team, shared ice cream materials, waited patiently for their turns, learned new vocabulary, practiced basic math and creatively acted out different scenarios!

If you're looking for some good ice cream, pop by the "Kinder Ice Cream Shop" for a DELICIOUS scoop!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Welcome to Kindercare!]]>Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:36:12 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/welcome-to-kindercare1691517Hello and welcome to the Kindercare program! We have been very busy over the past few weeks getting to know one another and exploring our new environments. I wanted to take a moment and post a blog about what a typical day in Kindercare looks like.

To start our day, we have a snack to energize our bodies before venturing outside until lunch. No matter the weather, we make it a point to experience the outdoors! We are fortunate enough to have many beautiful forests here in our schoolyard. We've gone on "Bug Quests", discovered fairy houses, made nature playdough and have tested our physical abilities by climbing trees.

"Let's look at every tree and see if there's a ladybug!"

"What is it!? It's an egg!"

"I'll show you how to climb"

"I made a nightstand for the fairies!"

Nature play supports our physical, emotional, and social development. Not to mention it also promotes our imagination, problem solving skills, boosts self esteem and SO MUCH more!

After lunch, the educators set up the Kinder Room for "Spa Time". "Spa Time" gives the children the opportunity to rest and relax their bodies after our eventful mornings. We play peaceful music in the background and offer individual, sensory experiences. During sensory play, I've observed that the Kinders are very focused, calm and let their creativity flow!

"I'm making a maze for the ants!"

"I'm making my birthday! Decorations!"

"This has tread"

"I made my family"

"I'm doing it backwards! I almost made the number 6!"

From 2:30-3:00pm, we make our way back outside into the fresh air again. After an engaging and energetic day of Kindercare, your child will definitely be ready for a good night's sleep!

Stay tuned for more of our adventures throughout the year!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Dinosaur Dentists!]]>Fri, 12 May 2023 14:20:12 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/dinosaur-dentistsThe Kinders have been losing teeth left and right! It’s always a BIG deal in the Kinder room when someone has a new loose tooth! Since there has been so much excitement surrounding teeth, it inspired me to transform our Kinder room into a dentist office, but not for regular patients….. for DINOSAURS!

Our Kinders were split up into three dental teams and were assigned a dinosaur patient! Once they put on their dentist uniforms, which consisted of a medical mask and a dentist smock, they got straight to work!

Our dentists had three tasks to complete:
1. Scrape the Plaque
2. Apply the Tooth Polish
3. Repair the Rotten Tooth

I offered our dentists a variety of loose parts such as tooth picks, Q-tips, cotton pads, and clay to use as their tools and provided them with cups of water and white paint!

“We're taking the plaque off!”

“Look at that plaque!”

“He’s splitting on me!”

“I’m turning the green tooth into white!”

One of our dental teams decided to offer different flavours to their patient! This conversation inspired us to add colours to our teeth polish! This trend became very popular amongst our other dental teams!

“Do you have bubble gum? Yes we do”

“Ours chose bubble gum polish. We need pink!”

“It actually looks like bubble gum because it’s white and pink!”

“We need mint tooth paste now!”

“What flavour of fluoride would you like? Strawberry”

“Mine wants blueberry!”

Our dentists were very professional as they interacted with their patients! These were some of the conversations that I overheard:

“When was the last time you brushed your teeth?”

“We forgot to tell our patient, if you don’t brush your teeth your teeth will fall out!”

“Brush everyday!”

“Dino is waiting patiently”

“Open up little one!”

“He has cavities so I need to write that down… ‘cavities in mouth’”

Some dentists created new assignments for their team, such as adding braces, cleaning the tongue and extract a wiggly tooth!

“He asked for braces. We're taking off the guppy stuff before”

“I’m cleaning it’s tongue!”

“He has to get a mouth guard or braces right?”

“He has a wiggly tooth! Look your tooth came out! Thank you! Congrats!”

I was so impressed with how kind and caring our dentists were to each of their patients during this process! They even made them special gifts to show how much they cared!

“Ours is a baby and it’s scared”

“He’s gonna have treats on his spine because he was such a good boy!”

“Now I need to make a heart to feel brave”

“Here you go Borus!”

This experience fostered confidence, empathy, imagination and teamwork, all while practicing our fine motor skills and new vocabulary!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Earth Week!]]>Thu, 27 Apr 2023 15:11:32 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/earth-week Last week the Kinders celebrated Earth Week!

Our first task was to clean up any trash that covered our schoolyard! We put on gloves, grabbed a garbage bag and went straight to work, diligently scanning our schoolyard! A handful of hardworking, enthusiastic Kinders made it their mission to pick up EVERY SINGLE piece of garbage that they saw!

Look how hard they worked!
Can you spot the differences between these two pictures?

Since the Kinders were so passionate about this project, we’ve decided to do a weekly litter clean up!

Once the schoolyard was cleaned, we decided to connect with nature by getting our hands dirty. I gave each Kinder a recycled yogurt container and explained to them that we would be PLANTING.

I poured soil into a container and allowed the Kinders to explore this material while they filled up their cups with dirt!

“It looks like Oreos!”
“It smells good!"

During this experience, a few Kinders noticed that there were holes at the bottom of each yogurt cup and asked:

“Why are there holes?”
“Doesn’t the soil go through?”

We explored these questions by testing out some theories:

“When you shake, a little comes out!”
“It’s thick. That’s why it doesn’t go through!”

Once our cups were filled with dirt, each Kinder was able to choose a vegetable or flower seed to plant. The differences in the size, shape, and texture of each type of seed really captured their interests!

The Kinders placed their plants in a warm, sunny area on our plant shelf and have been watering them everyday!

Whenever we notice a new sprout pushing through the soil, we excitedly announce that a new plant baby has been born! The parent of that plant baby proudly parades around the room, showing everyone what they have grown.

It has been such a successful earth week. I can’t wait to continue these projects that help foster an appreciation for nature!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Calming Stones!]]>Mon, 10 Apr 2023 18:43:09 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/calming-stones Our Kinder group is a very passionate bunch! To help us work through intense emotions such as sadness, frustration, and anger, we made “Calming Stones” with polymer clay!

Before beginning the activity, we sat together and I passed around my own “Calming Stone” that I brought from home. I explained that when I feel scared or nervous, I feel the smooth stone in my hand while I breath IN..1..2..3.. and OUT..1..2..1...

Everyone then closed their eyes and envisioned themselves in a calm space, noticing the colours and shapes that they see. Once the Kinders had a sense of what made them feel calm, we brought out the clay and went straight to work!

“I chose galaxy colours!”

"Cheetah makes you calm because of all the colours... White, blue and pink."

Everyone had their own unique way to shape, form and design their calming stone! Some Kinders chose to roll or squish their clay in their hands, while others chose to use carving tools to add little details. I was so surprised to see how the shape of each worry stone varied from one another!

"I'm doing all this [squishing the clay] because I don't want it to be hard to use”

“I call mine Bacon!”

“This is my cinnamon bun”

“I made a donut ring!”

“I made designs on it!”

During this process, I also asked,
“How will your stone help you when you’re feeling upset?”

These were some responses:

"I'm going to use it when I feel scared to go to school”

"Mine means 'are you feeling brave?' Are you feeling ok?’”

"It's a cake! It's going to make me think of what cake to have for my birthday!”

"I'm going to make a snake stone! It will remind me to dance!"

The Kinders became very attached to their “Calming Stones” and loved keeping them close throughout the day! We are planning to apply this mindful practice to our everyday life in the Kinder room!

- Vita

]]><![CDATA[Mr. Skinny Leg Spider!]]>Thu, 08 Dec 2022 19:44:21 GMThttps://www.dawnandduskba.com/kindercare-blog/mr-skinny-leg-spider

One day, the Ladybug group was playing outside when suddenly, one child exclaimed, “LOOK! A SPIDER!”

Everyone rushed towards our spider spotter and saw a HUMUNGOUS spider dropping to the ground! Our eyes widened with wonder and excitement as the spider slowly ascended up a thin strand of thread all the way back to the ceiling.

While the spider was climbing, our curious group of Kinders started asking some thought provoking questions like,

“How does it move?”
“Where is it going?”
"How come it doesn't fall?"

. The Kinders also used this time to discuss what to name our new friend and eventually settled on “Mr. Skinny Leg Spinner” and “Mr. Skinny Legs” for short.

That afternoon, the Ladybugs were very eager to tell the Caterpillar group all about “Mr. Skinny Leg Spinner”! With all the hype and excitement surrounding "Mr. Skinny Legs", more and more questions started pouring out of the Kinders and the educators!

This inspired us to post all of our questions under our “I Wonder” wall in the kinder room!

Over the next few weeks, we plan on investigating the questions that we have about our creepy crawly friend! I can't wait to discover what we will learn!

- Vita

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