These are a few of our favourite things .....

Hello, Sr OSC families

This week I decided to ask the kids in our program what they like most about out of school care.  Here are some of the questions or responses that I got,

Favourite snack

• Sugar cookies with icing and extra sprinkles.
• Gingersnap cookies
• Grilled cheese and cheesy bread
• Zucchini cake
• Chocolate chip cookies
• S’mores
• Dad’s cookies

Favourite activity

• Art: painting canvas’s
• Skittles game
• Two ball
• Iron art
• Camouflage
• Racing a leader around the track
• Choosing Brianna’s hair colour challenge

           

Favourite in-day

• Pirate day
• Baking day
• OSCity day
• Amazing race

Favourite out-trip

• Playland
• The Great Escape
• Canada games pool
• Six Pack beach

It was nice to see how excited the kids got when they were asked about their favourite things at OSC.  They look forward to coming to OSC everyday, looks like we are doing something right! Keep it up leaders!

Sincerely,

Brianne

Kid's Corner with Sarah: Winter Break Edition

Hey Sr OSC families,

Now that is officially December, the holiday season is approaching us quickly and school will be out for winter break soon! Since the first term of school is wrapping up, I thought it would be cool to interview some kids and ask them what they are looking forward to the most during winter break. In addition, I always wanted to ask the kids a more reflective question, which was, what is one thing you can do to give back to others who are less fortunate than us? Some kids chose to conceal their names and give an alternative name! Here are some of their responses…

Angel: 

I am looking forward to going to 6 Pack Indoor Beach and sleeping in. One thing that I can do to give back to those who are less fortunate is collect items such as blankets, scarves, and a thick coat as everyone should receive a gift during this time of year! 

“Vanessa”: 

I am excited to decorate my Christmas tree, spend time with my family, go to 6 Pack Indoor Beach, and Science World. I can donate toys that I don’t play with as much and also clothes! 

“Vicky”: 

I can’t wait to go to Science World, the pool, and decorate my Christmas tree. I can donate canned goods to a food bank!

Gabriella:

I am looking forward to singing in my Christmas choir. I can help out seniors! 

Elisa:

I can’t wait to have hot chocolate and watch shows all day! One thing that I can do to give back to others is make blankets and donate them! 

Science World and 6 Pack Indoor Beach were a popular response amongst the kids and I am excited that the kids are looking forward to going to these places. The holiday season is often referred to the season of giving back and it brought a smile to my face knowing that they all came up with amazing responses to help others! 

Until next time,

Sarah A 

Slimetastic Day

November 27 was a Slimetastic Day!

My name is Jordan, I have been working at OSC for my fifth consecutive week.  I run the art programs on Mondays and this was the most fun and exciting session yet!  Before it even started I had kids waiting to sign up for art. This was my first go at a hands on art.  While I was excited I was actually feeling a little overwhelmed in the beginning because I wasn't sure if everything would come together.  However, this art exceeded all my expectations and I left feeling overjoyed. 

Growing up as a child I was always a big fan of slime, what child is not? However there is play dough, silly putty and other weird textures in our program, so how much more fun could slime be?

I think I forgot that creating your own "slime" or creating anything is more satisfying and makes the experience that much better. The fact that everyone has a unique style, through the different colours, sizes, viscosity and texture, has made our slime creations all the more special.  

The ingredients used were:
1. ~1 cup of Elmers Glue
2. ~1 cup of water
3. Food colouring
4. Liquid starch

The Recommended Ratio: 1-1-1

The recommended ratio was the most fun part about this day, as it distinguished the children's style in how they created their slime.  This made everyone want to experiment with the ingredients. At the end of the day and the kids were experts at this creation and were able to know exactly what ingredient was needed to be added, how much of it and how it would help. With kids experimenting more, of course a mess was inevitable. Fortunately I was reminded to put down a table cloth or I would have been scrubbing the tables until night.  

Overall, I believe the slime creations went really well. The kids were playing with the slime the whole day until pick up time. They were blowing bubbles with the slime, kneading it, covering cups, making ice cream, the list goes on and on. Hopefully no messes were made outside of OSC time!

It was definitely a successful day and kids enjoyed the art with the simplicity of slime!

Until next time, 

Jordan

RAIN or shine @ Garden City Park

Hello everyone,

As some of you may already know, at Sr. OSC we try and provide one optional afternoon out-trip a month to a local playground or facility in Richmond. This month we were joined by the Jr. OSC program and together we visited Garden City Park.

Posted on our sign-up forms we try and make it clear  that these out-trips are 'rain or shine', and we definitely mean RAIN or shine. 

So we bundled ourselves up, grabbed our buckets & shovels and away we went! We even fashioned some handy dandy ponchos out of garbage bags.

These out-trips are certainly a blast for the kids, but even our leaders enjoy getting out there and playing!

If you're wondering how you can make sure your child makes it out with us on the next afternoon out-trip, look for the sign-up sheets that get posted beside our sign-in binder one week before the trip!

That's all for now!

Regards,

Matt (the bat)

Exploring Our Environment

In the educational world, there is a model of learning based around three educators: parents, teachers and the environment.  This Fall, before the rain truly hits, we've been trying to take advantage of that third educator, the environment, as much as possible.  This has revolved around a couple activities that have occupied and captivated the imaginations of the kids at OSC.  

At Gilmore there is a large hill with a long metal slide that shoots down it's side.  Much to our curious delight, our attention has been captured by a family of young rabbits that have made their home safely under the slide.  When the kids first found out about the rabbits there was a lot of excitement and eagerness to get close to them.  As we've watched them grow over the weeks, we've also had a chance to learn more about them and how we interact with nature.  One of the lessons that the kids have taken to heart is that although we may have good intentions, having the rabbits get use to humans may actually put them in danger.  It's been really cool to watch the kids take this lesson and to hear them live it and repeat it to their peers. We are still captivated by the rabbits, but now we know to give them some distance, for our safety and their own.

Early in the school year, I got to prepare an activity that brought nature up close to our students.  Collecting pond water from Terra Nova Park, our students were able to explore the tiny creature that inhabit our waterways, all from the dry safety of our space.  We found that the water was full of tadpoles, tiny snails and clams, and aquatic insects that would dart around with great speed.  It was a lot of fun watching the kids get close and exploring these creatures that would otherwise remain hidden in plain sight.

While the water bugs were great, sometimes it doesn't take a lot of planning to engage our kids with their surroundings.  Sometimes all it takes is a rope and a tree, perfect for climbing.  This fall, the kids have also had a great time exploring their school grounds from different vantages, challenging themselves to climb higher and to problem solve where the next handhold will be. 

While the days are getting shorter, and the weather may be turning a little wetter, we are still happy to explore our surroundings, and to appreciate the third teacher we have around us.

-Keefer

Smash Day!

Have you ever wondered what smashing a watermelon in slow motion would look like? What about a Kinder Surprise Egg? What about milk, lego, or even a real egg? This list grew longer and longer as Emma, Nathan and other children started brainstorming these hypothetical questions.  I love sitting and chatting with the children about crazy and wonderful ideas, however, this time we were so inspired we vowed to make it happen.  It was here, at a typical OSC table, that we created the idea of Smash Day.

In order for Smash Day to work we first needed a list of items.  Even though we had some initial ideas we wanted to talk more about why we were picking each items and what were the pros and cons of the items we wanted.  Our main goal was to find a balance between science, fun and minimal waste.  We quickly revived our list to include the following:

• Watermelon (mini)
• Kinder egg
• Egg (expired) 
• Water balloon
• Lego
• Pie (crust + whipped cream)
• Apple
• Milk (small container) 
• Mentose and coke (mini can)
• Cup of coffee ( Carolyn's) 

Our next step was to organize a safe, easy way to clean up our proposed mess.  Luckily, we had an old tarp on the way out that would take care of the mess for us.  Soon we were hyping up Smash Day to everyone, from kids to leaders.  Wednesday couldn't get here soon enough.

On Wednesday afternoon everyone jumped into action and helped set up the final phase of our project.  Sarah organized the items into a smashtastic order.  Brianna set up the ladder and found us an optimal smashing space.  Kevin set up the tri pod and slow mo camera and I set up our observation board.  I checked in with our planning crew and we agreed we wanted 3 questions answered.

1. How high did it bounce?
2. What did the item look like after it was smashed? Was it close to the original shape or not?
3. How close did it land on the target?

As everything was being organized we split everyone into groups and handed out observation sheets.  Before anything was smashed we all took a moment to predict the outcomes.  I noticed that the phrase "a thousand pieces" was used quite a lot for question 2. 

Soon the excitement bubbled over as I announced it was time to drop the first item, a banana.  The silence after the banana landed was strange.  There was a sudden feel of disappointment.  The banana drop was a flop.  However, soon water balloons, mini pies and even my cup of coffee were splashing onto the tarp (and Kevin, Sorry!)  which filled the group with excitement once again. 

For me the highlight of our experiment was the mini watermelon.  The slow motion video was by far my favorite, and unfortunately the last because my phone ran out of storage. 

After the last bit of chocolate milk was cleaned, the observations recorded, and the videos compiled and am left feeling very satisfied.  I look forward to the next time we take a wonderful, creative, and crazy idea and smash it, figuratively and maybe literally.  Tune in to find out!

Back in the Swing of Things

Welcome back to Sr. OSC!  Though the weather is sticking around, summer has indeed ended.  We are back into the full swing of things at Senior as we enter into the second full week of school.  Our staff are all looking forward to a wonderful school year and have many amazing things to bring to the program. We are looking forward to seeing all the familiar faces and we welcome those who are new to Sr. OSC.  If you have not had a chance to meet all of the staff, please do not hesitate to say "Hello!" and introduce yourself.

Getting back into the routine can sometimes be challenging, but here are a few friendly reminders of the important things that take place in our program:

•  Breakfast is served daily from 7:00am-8:00am: 
• Hot breakfast is served Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, with regular breakfast being offered throughout the week as well. 
• What we serve for breakfast may change throughout the week. However, there will always be cereal, bread, english muffins, oatmeal, and juice.

• Bus pickup times are as follows and we ask that your child be dropped off by the designated times if they require transportation by us.
• If your child goes to Quilchena or Dixon, please arrive at Gilmore Sr. OSC no later than 8:00am. Bus pickup is 8:15am from Gilmore.
• If you miss the designated time, please drop off your child directly at school, as the bus does only one pick up in the morning.

• If your child is looking for something to do during the afternoons, feel free to encourage them to check out our daily activities. Each day a leader brings something new and exciting to try, and all your child needs to do is sign up on our magnet board and go into it with a good attitude! There will also be monthly options to explore Richmond during our optional afternoon out trips. Keep an eye out for a sign up sheet at the sign out table for these out trips.

• If your child will NOT be coming to Gilmore Sr. OSC after school, please remember to give us a call at: 604.272.3661. This is the direct line for our program and during off hours we have a voicemail available. Please leave us a clear and detailed message, otherwise there is a good chance we will be hassling you until we know your child's whereabouts!

• Please check your parent folders regularly and keep an eye out for any Pro D sign up sheets that may be posted throughout the year.

These are just some of the reminders from Sr. OSC. In the meantime, we hope that you will join us in ushering in another awesome school year. We look forward to getting to know and/or catching up with everyone. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask any one of us.

Carolyn

Summer Weather

Hey Sr OSC families,

Mr.Blue sky is back again! 

While the sun showers us with gifts of light, warmth, and energy, it also brings us sunburns. This is the beginning of sunscreen season, please remember to equip your little sunbeams with sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, bug spray, and LOTS of water! We've already begun our transition back into the great outdoors with water fights, so packing an extra change of clothes would be a great idea! We are all so pumped for the coming summer program, and we hope you are too!

Have a wonderful sunny weekend!

Mackenzie H

A Sneak-peek of Summer

Hello OSC families, 

This past week has shown a sneak peek of sunny summer weather. On Monday, the children had a chance to make their own hacky sack to enjoy indoors or outdoors. It started with fabric or felt that was cut out using a template. Then, using a glue gun, it was glued tight only leaving a small hole to put the rice inside. Once filled with rice, it was glued closed so that none of the rice was to escape. It turned out to be a success! The children enjoyed throwing, rolling and catching these fun hacky sacks.

On Wednesday, OSC took advantage of the weather and organized a large game of capture the flag. The game was filled with excitement as capture the flag never fails to please the children. I saw the children use teamwork and strategies to out-think their opponents in order to get the flags. It was a tiring game that ended up in a tie but from my perspective, both sides won as they enjoyed the game outside.

Until next time, 


Michael 

'A day in the life of...'

Hey everyone,

For my blog this week, I decided to flip the script and ask some kids at OSC a series of questions in an interview format. No surprise that their answers were full of surprises! I interviewed 10 kids and wanted to share some of their responses:

CHILD #1:

Name: 'Bob' 
Grade: 5
Favourite school topic:  Language arts because I love writing
Favourite OSC snack: Lemon Loaf
Favourite OSC activity: Reading at the couches
What's something you want to be when you grow up:  An actor
If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be:  Knife- Because cutting stuff with a spoon or fork is too tough 
If you were an OSC leader, what rule would you make up:  More desserts as snack 

CHILD #2:

Name: 'Nothing'

Grade:  0

Favourite school topic:  Social Studies- I like to learn about the world

Favourite OSC snack: Cheese & Crackers

Favourite OSC activity: Building houses

What's something you want to be when you grow up:  Spongebob & August (like the month)

If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be:  A fork- so I can poke salad in the face

If you were an OSC leader, what rule would you make up:  We would all live in Candyland

CHILD #3:

Name: '?'

Grade: 5

Favourite school topic:  Gym- I can play with my friends

Favourite OSC snack: Cinnamon Buns

Favourite OSC activity: Gym & Park

What's something you want to be when you grow up:  A Disneyland employee- of any kind 

If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be:  Spatula- so people would run around hitting other people with me

If you were an OSC leader, what rule would you make up:  Allowed video games @ OSC

CHILD #4:

Name: 'Mom'

Grade:  Past University

Favourite school topic:  Parenting

Favourite OSC snack: Raspberry lemon loaf

Favourite OSC activity: Big & small park

What's something you want to be when you grow up: A mom

If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be:  Spatula- it has an awesome name

If you were an OSC leader, what rule would you make up:  Parents can only pick up their kids after 5 pm

CHILD #5:

Name: 'Jeff'
Grade: Kindergarden 
Favourite school topic:  Gym- I'm athletic 
Favourite OSC snack: Anything sugary 
Favourite OSC activity: Capture the flag
What's something you want to be when you grow up:  I want to be a 'jeff'...
If you were a kitchen utensil, which one would you be:  Fork- so i can eat EVERYTHING
If you were an OSC leader, what rule would you make up:  Eat high-chews all day

Thanks for checking in and and checking out some of the great answers!

Matt The Bat

Doodle for Google Project

For the past three weeks, some of the children at Senior have been working tirelessly on their Doodle for Google projects.  This a nation wide contest hosted by google promoting children across Canada to answer this question:

However, the catch is their answer has to be illustrated through a Google Doodle.  Below are some examples created by the professional doodlers at google.

Lantern Festival 2017

Seven Earth-Sized Exoplanets Discovered!

Doodle for Google 2017 Winner - US 

Cole's First Draft

To get the children on board with this project I started off by showing them a few videos featuring doodlers from google.  These videos seemed to inspire the group to participate in the contest.  Soon everyone was doodling "google" over and over trying to create the best design.  Some of the children wanted to see past winners because they were curious.  

Cole's Second Draft

Over the past 3 weeks everyone has been making draft after draft until they were satisfied with their work.  Some of the children like Emma and Cole are using a digital sketch program to draw their final project while others like Andrew and Trenton are using professional markers to color their final copy.  The due date for this project is Tuesday, May 2nd and I can't wait to see how everyone's turned out! 


Stay turned for final images. 

Cole's Third Draft

    Carolyn

\

Emma's Final Draft

Trenton's Final Draft

Andrew's Final Draft

Doodle for Google Canada

Egg-cellent Afternoon Activity

Hello OSC families, 

Tegan recently organized an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. There were over 70 eggs filled with all sorts of candy such as sour keys, Hi-Chews, and Skittles. As an added challenge, there were two golden eggs which contained a huge amount of Starbursts. While the kids were kept busy outside, Tegan and Sarah hid the smaller eggs while Carolyn had the task of hiding the golden eggs. The eggs were hidden all over the multi-purpose room, the nearby hallways and the equipment room. Carolyn hid one of the golden eggs in lego table and another in a case of girl guide cookies. To make it challenging to find, Carolyn placed a sheet of cardboard over the golden eggs and then covered it up with either the lego or girl guide cookies. Therefore, when the kids went looking in those areas, they often stopped when they reached the cardboard thinking that they hit the bottom of the box. 

During the hunt, the kids had a lot of fun running around and grabbing as many eggs as they could while also keeping an eye out for the golden eggs. While many of the kids got close to the golden eggs, it was Emma (grade 6) and Trenton (grade 3) who finally found them.

It was great to see all of the kids enjoying the activity and I know that the leaders definitely enjoyed watching.

Hope everyone had a egg-cellent  long weekend!

Alicia 

Spring Break Fun at Terra Nova Park!

Spring Break flew by so quickly, however, the two weeks were filled with creative themed in-days such as Colour Wars and Fantastical Beasts to exciting out-trips to Eileen Dailly Pool and Science World. On the last day of our Spring Break camps, we had a bike trip to Terra Nova Park. On our way to the park, we saw a Heron on the dyke and the kids were amazed to see this beautiful bird. 

Despite the chilly weather, this did not stop the kids from having a blast. Even though the big slide is always a hit, the most popular attraction at the park was the zip line. The kids spent at least an hour, taking turns going down the zip line and every time I would look over, I saw the biggest smiles on their faces. Instead of the kids asking the leaders to pull them on the zip line, Cole, Emma and Andrew made up their own airline called C. E. A.  Together, they pushed countless children and even some of the leaders! Our kids also like to stand at the end of the zip line and when a child gets to the end, they all fall over like dominos. It was great to see all the kids playing together and having a lot of fun.

The bike ride back to Gilmore OSC was a little harder because the kids were tired from playing at the park for so long. But with some inspirational Disney music playing, we did not “give up until we reached the end.”
 

I hope you all had a fun and relaxing Spring Break!

Until next time,

Sarah A 

Mad Libs with Tegan

Recently at OSC all the kids were talking about how excited they are for spring break. They talked about all the adventures they were going to have, so I thought that I would get their imaginations going with a game of Mad Libs.  Mad Libs is a fill in the blank game where the children provided me with random words.  We then fit these words into pre-made sentences.  Below is the results!

In Canada the mascot is  a rotten lady bug then you totally messed up on the 18^th day of school in  English.

Jennifer Lawrence accidentally poked herself with grapes and then the worlds best rubix-cuber  messed up by   89   days.

On  Thursday, Michael Jackson danced and the silliest music artist won 200 Grammy's.

One day Jutin Bieber went to USA to audition for frozen.

He had 1 million callbacks but instead he just kicked his legs.

Kids comments on the activity.

"I really liked the activity but I don’t like the name Mad Libs I think it should be called fill in the blanks."

"I thought the activity was fun and one of the best arts but I agree the name should be changed."

"good"

I loved that I could bring something brand new to the table and even with the kids having absolutely no idea what Mad Libs meant they were willing to give it a try and were actually very clever at creating them. We had a blast and hopefully can create more in the future. 

Have an amazing Spring break OSC families. 

Tegan

Cookie Making with Damian and Alicia

So Many Treats!

Hey, Everyone! An exciting start to the month of March, through all the rain and clouds there has been a light! Through the power of sweetness and love, Alicia and I have planned some awesome sugar cookies that the kids took part in for our art project! We took a bunch of children to join us in the kitchen to learn the safety and rules of what to do and not do in the kitchen. We learned the dangers of not eating raw cookie dough, because of the chance of getting salmonella. We also enjoyed learning the correct way of rolling and measuring the ingredients to prepare such a yummy treat!

Not every cookie has to be perfect.

While waiting for these bundles of sweetness to bake, many of the students such as Theodora, Max, and some leaders (Carolyn and I) were improving their reading skills, by reading out kids plays (Green eggs and Ham, Pippi Longstocking) and trying to create funny voices to make reading so much more fun!
 Even though it was a messy task fitting so many chefs in a little kitchen we found a way to express our creative minds, in the art of forming shapes and cutting out animals. Even if the edges were rough or the dough was too dry, we all learned an important lesson. Following the rules and recipes, so we can take these skills to help our parents around the kitchen for dinnertime!  Talk to you later Alligator,

Damian L