FCCC- Lancaster Connects with their Community and Host School

Here at FCCC- Lancaster we recognize the importance of staying connected to our community and host school. For the month of October we chose to participate in the Fall Food Drive with Lancaster Drive Public School.

Our preschool children took a field trip to the grocery store and had the wonderful experience of choosing selected items to donate to our food bank box. They learned the difference between non perishable items and perishable foods, where the food goes and why it is important to show support to other families. It allowed our children and families to feel a sense of belonging and a chance to give back to our community.

We are very thankful to all of our families who helped make this a successful experience.

Since April was Eco-month, on April 5th, we went to visit the Phytotron at Queen’s Biosciences. The manager, Dale Kristensen, warmly welcomed us and gave us a knowledge-filled tour of the place. It is interesting to learn the many uses of plants in our daily life. The food we eat; the house we live in; the medicine we take; the clothes we wear are all sourced from the wonderful plants living on this planet. We were delighted to see vanilla, cocoa, and banana trees there. How can we survive without these yummy fruits? The world-class facilities is also interesting to see. It is fun to see how university students are using these plants to do research. We also learned that like animals in danger, there are also plants facing extinction. Therefore, it is important to protect these plants and take good care of them.

Our group of preschoolers have been engaging in construction and deconstruction. We have seen bridges, towers, snow-people, and snow hills materialize through teamwork each day.     
 

The children have also been very interested in each other's families. They like to ask about middle and last names, and like to list the members of everyone's family.

Our friends love exploring art processes. it is so interesting to observe the different children and how they interpret the materials. Some children stay a long time and use many materials. Others are more minimalist in their approach.  The array of finished products is as fascinating and unique as the artists themselves.  

The curiosity of toddlers in making things move is endless. There are so many things that can be moved but we were mainly interested in the speed! We made different height ramps out of blocks to push toys down. We would watch to see which toys went the fastest and the farthest. For this experience we used cars, balls, a foam block and wooden pieces! The cars won most of the time. We noticed that the small cars went farther than the large cars and the ball went faster than the block. We also figured out that not all toys would roll down like the cars did. Some toys would slide down or not move at all. We wondered why? A child decided to help a wood piece that stopped sliding down the ramp by pushing it using her hands. She commented, "Go down!" By using many different resources we were able to explore movement and speed. 

Magnets can make things move too! Using them has been an exciting interest as well. We have used magnets to move paperclips inside a water bottle and on a cookie sheet. 

Did you know a magnets strength will increase in colder temperatures? It makes magnesium slightly stronger. I think we might have a new experiment with magnets around the corner.