Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!!

To kick-off Winter Break at Senior OSC, we celebrated with a pyjama party for our first in-day! For this day, we encouraged everyone to wear their favourite pyjamas, whether it was their favourite animal onesie or a fluffy pair of slippers to get into the holiday spirit.

The day started with the children working together to create forts out of tarps, sheets, chairs, tables, and couches. The end result was a giant fort that we called “Party Palace” that took up the entire room. To add some festive decoration to the forts, the children added christmas lights, rugs, and our OSC speaker with colourful lights. The children listened to christmas stories and sang along to their favourite holiday songs.

Afterwards, Brianna lead an activity of making marshmallow monsters with different sizes of marshmallows and some lollipop sticks to connect them. It was a great hit with the children as they were able to use their creativity and imagination to create unique and wacky figures made of fluffy sweetness. This activity was followed by smaller activities such as nail painting and “Name that Tune”.  

Here are some examples of their creations:

In the afternoon, we prepared the gym for a newspaper snowball fight since sadly no snow has yet to fall this Winter. It did not stop us though as hundreds of newspaper balls flew through the air, back and forth, as the gym filled with joy and laughter. The children were challenged to work together in teams to create their own base using gym supplies such as soccer nets, mats, and benches to protect themselves from the newspaper snowballs. The day ended with warm hot chocolate and to add some more sweet treats, the children melted their marshmallow monsters into their cups.

Some upcoming out-trips to expect this Winter Break is Sun God Pool, Science World, and Garden City Park. With the addition of some in-days such as OSCITY Day and a News Years Bash!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!

Until next time,

Emily 

Card Hunter

Hi everyone,

With daylight savings in full swing, it's abundantly clear that it is getting darker earlier in the afternoon. That does not stop us from heading to the playground and enjoying our time together outside. At times, free play and multiple rounds of the tag game 'manhunt' is enough to pass the time. However, sometimes we like to shuffle things up and provide options for new activities we haven't tried before. I want to take the time to share a game we played this week at the park titled 'CARD HUNTER'.










The children got themselves into their own teams and were racing to go! One player at a time was tasked with running into the playground and scavenging the area to try and find a playing card.





Once they found a card, they had to run back to their teams and send out the next member. This process continues until the time limit runs out. Using the collected cards from the playground, teams were provided two minutes to create the best 5 card hand possible.



Once teams sorted through all of their best options, it was time for the grand reveal! Teams' best hands ranged from straights, to flushes to full houses.

Although each round was short and simple, it was great to see the children so excited and engaged in the activity. We will certainly be trying this game again some time in the near future!

Warmest Regards,

Matt

Community Building

At OSC we strive to create a welcoming environment for all of our students. We know that it takes people to create a community. A couple weeks ago, we gathered all of our kids and worked together on an assignment. We were all given the same three questions to answer:

1. What is a community?
2. What is one community you belong to?
3. What do you like about your community?

Each of the kids (and leaders) answered the questions on a blank sheet of paper. The answers we received were very unique and varied from individual to individual. Each reflected how that person saw their surroundings. Most kids noted that other people fill up their community.

They then had to decorate the back of their sheets. They could either decorate it to resemble a community that they belonged to, or in a pattern. We saw soccer and hockey teams, houses and forests, gardens and playgrounds. The next step was especially fun.

Each of the sheets were cut out by a leader, constructed into 3D houses, and mounted onto one of our bulletin boards with lights strung through it. When we turn the lights off in our room, we can see our community come to life. Even though we don’t get to see the messages that everyone wrote, we are still aware that each member has contributed to our OSC community. We each have values that we share. And we are all responsible for taking care of and growing our paper city, our program, and each other.

Until Next Time,

Keefer

STOP! And stay ZEN!

Konnichiwa (“Hello” in Japanese)

Traditional Japanese Zen Garden

In he 12^th century Ancient Kyoto, Japan, or the “Muromachi Period” was a start of Zen Buddhism to the Japanese people. Zen is a Japanese word that translates to “mediation” or “absorption.”  The Japanese people would have special rock gardens in Ancient Buddhist Temples that were called “Zen Gardens” would represent meditation, peace, and were intend to imitate the intimate essence of nature.

A Finished Zen Garden

Popsicle Stick and Cardboard borders

After all the craziness that the week of Valentines brought, Matt thought of an awesome Art Project to bring some peace and quiet into Senior OSC. Some of the kids joined us to create some beautiful Zen Gardens, hidden with messages of what they think their own definition of what life means for them. This project's goal was to find inner peace and relaxation in their own miniature sands of time and tranquility.

Hidden Messages of What Life Means

Addition of Sand and Designs

Hopefully, the calm nature of these cute gardens will resonate throughout OSC, so everyone can find a little peace in their lives.  Keep calm and stay cool!Sayonara (“Goodbye!” in Japanese)

 -Damian

Stealthy Crafts with Kevin and Sarah

Hello Sr OSC Families,

The highlight of the previous week was the crafting of paper roll ninjas. We, Sarah and Kevin, decided to go eco-friendly this week by creating art with paper card stock and toilet rolls. This was an amazingly simple and easy to make craft.

Tying together imagination with simple arts and craft designed for children of all ages, the children at Senior Out of School Care embarked on a journey of exploring the art of Japanese warriors by creating a one of a kind paper roll ninja.

Paper roll ninja provided the children an opportunity to explore and use their inner creative juices on a calm and quiet Friday afternoon. Masterpieces are not created overnight but, with these OSC minds, this was not the impossible.

Materials needed to make this  ninja can be found in a home setting such as toilet roll cores, card stock, straws, glue stick, black marker/felt pen.

Some excited children decided to use their talents to make their own unique creatures. A couple made octopus stretching their creativity to a whole new level.

Warmest Regards,

Kevin & Sarah

Blog Worthy Moments with Megan

Hi Senior OSC families!

I’m Megan, one of the assistant leaders here at West Richmond OSC and have had the opportunity to help plan and execute art/activities on Tuesdays at Senior OSC. This week we decided to try Popsicle Art as a fun project.  The kids first worked on creating their own canvas and moved onto finalizing their own master pieces.

This Popsicle Art was a simple project that provided each kid with a handful of popsicles, a hot glue gun and vibrant coloured paints that ranged from pastel blues to luscious greens. First they had to hot glue roughly 10 popsicle sticks together and then they could paint an image of their choice over the new canvas they’ve just created. With a photo example as a guideline the kids let their creativity and imagination flow as they painted and glued with excitement and laughter creating works of art that Van Gough would be proud to see.

This activity is interesting because of how it allows each of the kids here at OSC to interpret the craft as they choose and let their creativity be explored. Some chose to follow the specific structure shown in the photo example of the popsicles aligned side by side. Others created a frame like structure to paint over. Seeing each kid that created a popsicle art, every one of the artworks different from another, really showcased every child’s inner creativity and artistic ability in a fun way.

Here below are images of some of the finished products.

 

This was an extremely fun art project to be a part of and looking forward to the many that will continue to follow!

Until next time,

Megan

x

CIRCLE LOOMING... iiittt'sss bbbaaacckkk!!!

Hi everyone,

I've chosen to highlight one of the  afternoon activity that took place at Sr. OSC this week. Our crafty  leaders Brianna & Emily decided to try doing 'circle looming' with the children. Circle looming is a type of knitting that uses a round template that you wrap yarn around in a particular pattern to create hats, scarfs, bracelets and other accessories.



Several years ago, circle looming and traditional knitting was a big craze at OSC, and we are excited to see if this afternoon activity will take off in the same way it did some time ago.







This is such a neat activity because it focuses on fine motor development skills given the intricate nature of the hand movement. Additionally, the kids have the space to get creative and make something of their own choosing!





Shared below, is an example of one of the children's progression, as they work through the process of a making a hat.

To be continued... :) 

Warmest Regards,

Matt

A Day at Senior Out of School Care

Hi to all of our families from our OSC program. My name is Josh and I am one of the assistant leaders at Sr OSC.  I started at OSC as a volunteer and now I work at both Jr and Sr OSC. For this week I wanted to talk about what goes on in a day at Sr OSC and how all of the kids get along and have fun.

When the kids first come into the room the leaders have to make sure that all the kids are accounted for and the kids do their part by signing in as soon as they arrive. At this point I make sure to say hi to as many kids as I can. After everyone is signed in, children explore the room while we open snack.

Following snack we open up afternoon activities including the park.  Usually at this point I help with the tracking board which uses magnets to track the location of each kid. This is one of my favorite jobs because I get to watch and observe how the kids play together and I get to interact with the parents when they come in to pick up their son or daughter.

All in all working at OSC is my favorite job because I love not only working with kids, but also seeing them grow up into the great teens they will become.

Sincerely,

Josh