At Today’s Family, we like to think that every day at our programs are special for our children. After all, what’s a better word to describe a day where you get to meet with your friends, eat healthy snacks, and learn about the world around you through play?
That being said, we like to make some days more special than others.
A while ago, one of our preschool classrooms at our Greendale Centre decided to throw a Beach Day. Now, Hamilton is known for its beaches, but it’s a very long way from our Centre to the waterfront, so we decided to bring the beach inside.
It started with the attire. The children wore their favourite bathing suits and towels to program. We had spent the previous week painting pictures of sunny skies which we had hung up around the classroom to soak up those rays! We even, ahem, borrowed the water table from the classroom next door (don’t tell Miss Ashley!)
When it came time to go play outside, the children put on their sun hats and sunglasses (and sunscreen!) and played in the sand pit. We worked together to build sandcastles and made sand angels. It really felt like we were at the beach!
When we came inside, we decided to get a little bit messy. Our Early Childhood Educators sat the children down and asked them about all of the animals that lived at the beach.
We got some great answers, from fish to sharks, to clams, to crabs, to seagulls. We asked the children what crabs looked like. Some of our friends didn’t quite know how to describe what crabs looked like, so we helped them out. “Do they look like THIS?” our ECEs asked, holding their wrists together and fanning their fingers out.
The children had a fun time making crabs with their hands (see above) and then making them “crawl” over each other (although they stopped climbing over Sarah after she asked her friends to stop). They had so much fun, that they all decided that they wanted to make hand crab paintings. Each child got a turn to make two red handprints on a piece of paper. Then, we gave them googly eyes for them to stick on and complete the crabs (see photos).
After the paint was dry, some children took their paintings and drew beaches around them, complete with sand, sun, and clear blue skies.
Like we said before, we work hard to make sure that every day at our Today’s Family programs are incredibly special, because when the children are having fun, they can learn more and make better memories. We look forward to even more themed days in the future!
