In part two of my practicum I will be exploring more activities and engaging more with the children.
To begin, my new location for my second practicum will be out at the Bridge River Headstart Program.
My start date is April 14th, 2025, but unfortunately i wouldn’t start until a couple of days later due to illness.
With Easter around the corner I want to welcome the holiday with the kiddos with some Easter paintings on some river rock I have collected from the river called The Pitts. I will bring the rocks to the daycare and enjoy some painting with beautiful spring colors.
Day 1, April 16th, 2025
I arrive to the Bridge River Headstart Program at 7:45, (before anyone else) arrives.
7:57 a.m., Laurel (the leading ECE) arrives and opens the door, shortly after I am accompanied by Rupinder, the 2nd ECE, and my fellow classmate Willa, who was also doing her 2nd practicum, and almost complete by the time I had arrived.
8:30 a.m. the lovely Chenoa (almost 4) arrived, bright eyed and ready to begin her day. Although she didnt remember me from when I did my observation last year, but she was very welcoming, and very interested in the new person in her space.
8:34 a.m. Beeg showed up, and I spoke with his mother and informed her that I was goin to be there for the next couple of weeks for my 2nd practicum, and will be spending a lot of time with her son. Unfortunately, little Beeg didn’t like his big sister leaving.
8:43 the ever so adorable Ever-Lee showed up, and in the best of spirits. Cute as a button and ready to play.
9:11 a.m. all 3 children enjoyed having some fun time playing with a bin of marbles as the other ECE’s prepared breakfast.
9:15 a.m. the kids sat down with no fuss to a bowl of raisin bran with some blue berries, while Willa read to them, while they ate. Once they were finished, they washed their hands while I helped clean up the eating area.
9:45 a.m. it was time to go play outside.
At around 10:50 , we brought Chenoa and Ever-Lee to the local playground while Beeg stayed behind as he was not having a good late morning. The 2 girls however, had a great time playing at the park. It was a beautiful sunny day.
11:20 a.m. we brought the kids back and and they washed up in preparation for lunch.
11:25 a.m. on the menu, some spaghetti lunch and water.
At 11:30 Willa and I departed for TRU for our seminar.
That concludes for my first day.
Day 2, April 17th, 2025
I decided to arrive a tad later than the last time as i realize that everyone showed up pretty much on the button of 8a.m., so I arrived a few minutes before.
8:50 a.m. all 3 kids are here.
As it was one of Willa’s last days, she had prepared an arts and crafts activity for the Easter holiday, and we all helped make a wreath.
I noticed that Laurel and Rupinder have an alarm set for every half hour, in reminder to send Chenoa to the bathroom for potty breaks. A very good system to keep her out of pullups.
At 9:15 a.m. I had set out some pre washed rocks I had gathered from the river the evening before, and prepared some paint, brushes, and water to paint some easter rocks. It went beautifully.
At 9:30, Deb showed up for Observations on Willa’s behalf.
9:45 a.m., breakfast time, which consisted of a hashbrown patty and a cupcake. Quite personally, i didn’t agree with the choice of foods that Laurel prepares for the kids, I would expect wholesome nutritional foods.
10:20 a.m. We are ready to go outside and play.
11:30 a.m. We have gotten the kids washed up and ready for lunch.
LUNCH TIME
So lunch consisted of tortilla pizzas. However I felt the kids didn’t care too much for it as it had a lot of mozzarella cheese that was very thick, and I don’t think they cared for the non traditional aspect of the pizza. They also had a mini cucumber, which they loved. in fact, Chenoa, instead of eating her tortilla pizza she asked for another cucumber, and then managed to take Beej’s off his plate when he was done with his.
NAP TIME
As the kids went for a nap, with no issues, I wrote down my first half of my day in my booklet for WordPress purposes.
WAKE UP TIME
The kids one by one decided to wake up.
After bathroom and washing up, the children proceeded to have a little play time and wait for home time.
April 23, 2025
Today was a short day as we had seminar.
The day started with greeting of the children, and proceeded for some play time at the marble table until all was present, and then a small snack.
We then went outside for some run around time and some play until it was time to head back to town for our final seminar.
April 24, 2025
So today, we started off with making butterflies with the children, in honor of our beautiful and warmer spring weather. We gathered construction paper and glitters, and glued everything together.
The glue and glitter always makes a fun mess, and the children loved it.
We then had some risky play time inside on the big foam block things, while Laurel got some pancakes and frozen potato patties prepared.
I read a few stories while the kids attempted to eat. They just did not seem interested in the meal at all. I felt like it was as if they were in a hurry to get through the day.
We eventually went for some outdoor time as it was a beautiful morning. Rupinder had shown me some new babies in the birds nest in the shishken, and then we decided to walk on over to the park.
Playing in the park is always interesting with the children, because they find such fascination with the ants around the playground. The area is always crawling with them, so Beej and Ever-Lee try to find out where they go.
We eventually made our way back to the school for some much needed water.
After some lunch, the kids grabbed themselves a book, a stuffed animal, and they were off for their nap.
Their nap time lasted as I feel their outdoor time took a lot out of them.
Upon waking up, we had a little snack that consisted of yogurt and fruit (which I was slightly impressed with) and the children enjoyed it immensley.
Home time.
May 2nd, 2025
My early arrivals have turned into exactly 8 a.m. arrivals, as when I attempted to arrive early no one would be there and I was always left waiting in my jeep.
For art time I taped a giant piece of paper to the table and the kids enjoyed some coloring.
The feeling free to color anywhere and everywhere seemed so satisfying to the children it was wonderful to see them start their day off with big smiles.
FREE PLAY
Ever-Lee enjoyed some playing with dinosaurs, while Beeg enjoyed playing with the marbles. The marbles have gotten to the point that we only allowed him to take a hand full at a time when playing with the marbles because Beeg would gladly take them all out and they would end up all over the floor.
BUT, with some gentle tones, and positivity, the kids always helped clean up. Ever-Lee and Chenoa more so.
For todays breakfast, we had apples, pancakes, yogurt and water.
As the children ate, I read to them a book called “This is Gus”.
We then went out to the yard and checked on the new baby birds, who today is making a lot more noise. When the kids are too close the adult birds fly around and make noise, as if to distract the children and lure them in a different direction away from their babies.
Lunch time Laurel served the children some grilled cheese and fried up some frozen vegetables.
They didn’t seem to mind it.
I’ve learned to bring my own lunch, as it is difficult for me to stomach a lot of processed foods. When I am home I enjoy cooking and everything is made from scratch.
Nap time. Smooth sailing and the kids are happy to lay down.
The children slept a solid two hours today. It makes for time to slow right down, so i took this time to wipe things down and relax after.
Once the children were awake we decided to enjoy the sunshine and warm afternoon to some outside time and some bubbles while we waited for home time.
May 5th, 2025
With class starting back up, this only leaves me with Mondays and Fridays to be able to come to practicum.
So today, with summer around the corner, I have decided to do a paper plate sun with the children. I want to incorporate as much as i can with the children as the weather changes and gets hotter.
So after arts and crafts, we sat down to some breakfast, which was a bowl of cereal, grapes, and water.
I am getting a grasp of what the kids’ food preference is. They are less interest in processed food, they love their fruit, and smaller portions and less options seems to help.
Heading outside, we planted some things in the garden. However, discussing the summers with Laurel, and fire evacuations that could potentially happen, and water restrictions, chances are that anything planted doesn’t generally make it through a full summer.
NAP TIME
After nap time, the children have some quiet play and wait for their time to go home, Which pretty much raps up the day.
May 12th, 2025
When I arrived at the daycare, all three children were in such great spirits. Especially Beeg, who was all smiles and full of life. He has been gradually forming more words and expressing his communication a lot more with physical gestures. Today he helped with clean up, he ate a big snack, and ate his lunch, and then went down for his nap along with the other three children. The day went by like a breeze.
May 16th, 2025 A not so good day!
The day started off with a sour taste in my mouth as I walked in the door. It was only Beeg for the day, however he appeared very tired, and very grumpy. He refused to have his breakfast
The meltdown
As we were trying to continue with some free play, Beeg helped himself to some sort of cookie snack that was not put away, and easily accessible. As I seen him grabbing it, he was reminded that it was too early for those types of snacks and would be having lunch shortly.
Unfortunately, Beeg did not take to that very well. As we continued to try to tell him no and why he couldn’t have the snack, the angrier he got. He then decided to throw a tantrum and fall to the floor. Rupinder then tried to reason with him and bribe him to sit up and sit on the chair with a chocolate. As this was happening, I told Rupinder that it was no time for chocolate, and perhaps it was time to have some quiet time. I am not sure if she did not hear me, or if she chose not to hear me, but she proceeded to try to stand over him and bribe him, and tried to hand him the chocolate.
Eventually her efforts did not work and she finally brought him to the nap area and sat with him while he had his meltdown.
Once he calmed a little bit he came out for a little lunch and then went straight for a nap.
How this event made me feel…
I was definitely overwhelmed, and not with the screaming, but with the rewarding bad behavior, the bribing, and the not listening to his energy and what he truly needed, which I believed to be space and a calm and quiet area for him to gather himself.
Aftermath
After a long 2 hour nap, Beeg woke up in much better spirits.
It was to my understanding, his mother mentioned he was awake earlier than usual, and that upon him waking up she had given him sugary treats to keep him quiet.
Anyways he began to have some quiet play until his mother picked him up, and that was our day.
May 23rd,2025
Today we had all three of the children at the daycare. All in happy spirits and ready to have a fun day. We had a little arts and crafts with the kids, we made spring flowers with popsicle sticks and colored tissue. The delicate tissue didn’t go so well with the kids so we didn’t get through most of it, it was technically “make a mess day” time, which they still enjoyed.
For breakfast the children had some cereal and fruit mixed in, and they had their sippy cups of water.
No complaints here, they are very happy.
After we went outside and played. The kids explored their abilities to share, to play nice, and to even be careful and help keep each other safe. Where there is a 3 seater circle bike thing, Beeg was nice enough to make sure Chenoa and Ever-Lee had their helmets to ride this one. It was such a kind gesture and I told Beeg “thank you Beeg, you’re helping keep the kids safe”
Between the 3 seater and running around, the children burned off a lot of energy.
Lunch consisted of some potatoes and a grilled cheese sandwich. And what child doesn’t love a grilled cheese sandwich?
Afterwards, the kids were all rubbing their eyes and ready for some shut eye.
May 26th, 2025
As the days go on through the next 3 days of my practicum, I am please to tell that Beeg is talking a lot more now, Chenoa and Ever-Lee have taken a liking to me, and we have a couple new children that have joined our little team of children. Emmett (Nugget), she is 18 months old and cute as a button, and her sister Amaya (who I have yet to meet).
Getting to know Nugget so far, she is gentle, quiet, but not shy, and has adapted quickly to our headstart program.
June 10th, 2025
After some time off due to illness and loss, I am so pleased to be back with the children.
This months topic is “Insects and Bugs”.
So we started the day off with making some bumble bees with some construction paper and glue. Simple, yet in tune with the theme of this month.
For breakfast we had fruit, and yogurt and a slice of toast. (Now that’s what I’m talking about) and the children absolutely loved it.
Outside we were playing on the tricycle that has a seat on the back and Beeg absolutely loves sitting on the back while Chenoa does the navigating. I feel she takes on a big sister roll at the day care because she is the oldest.
LUNCH TIME BY WILLA
Lunch time was an especially great treat, because chef Willa, made some homemade pizzas for the lot of us. It being her first time preparing lunch in the kitchen, she happened to make my absolute favorite meal in the whole world. So I was particularly excited.
Two pizzas, one cheese, and one meat and mushroom. I think the children really appreciated the home made meal Willa presented them, as they gobbled it right up (as did I).
Nap time was a no issue zone, the kiddos went right to sleep.
Once the children were all awake, they had enough time for a small snack of veggies, and some free play on the foam blocks, and then home time.
JUNE 11th, 2025
Today is my last day of my 2nd practicum
and it is bitter sweet. I have grown to be so close to the children.
We started off with some morning greetings, and waited for all FOUR children were present. One by one the kids each gave me a big hug, and it melted my heart.
Once everyone was there, we sat down and made paper plate lady bugs.
For breakfast, we had some home made waffles with a delicious blueberry topping. I’m seeing some improvement with the food being served and the children are absolutely loving it.
After handwashing, and a potty break, we headed outside and the children enjoyed a little bit of everything. We had set up a kiddy pool that they enjoyed immensely as the weather is getting into the high heat temperatures.
As they played outside, we played a little tag, follow the leader, identify the shapes on the ground, (Beeg was showing me one and telling me it was a foot), and he and Nugget were in aw with the garbage truck right on the other side of the fence.
THE BIRDS NEST
As I’ve mentioned before, there was a nest of 5 baby birds in the shishken, I went to check on them, and the mother had laid 4 new eggs and I decided to take a picture….
As you can see two have hatched. I showed the children what was in the nest and their amazement was adorable.
After outdoor time, we all went inside, washed up as always, and sat down to some lunch, which consisted of a mix of hashbrowns and fries, and chicken tenders. (frozen processed food). I don’t know if we were starving or what, but it tasted amazing, to all of us haha
NAP TIME
With putting the children down for their naps, Nugget had some trouble going down to sleep, but eventually gave in, however as soon as she was asleep, Beeg didnt want to sleep. but, he fell asleep hard.
After two long hours, Nugget was the first to wake up, and demands after nap snuggles. And so Willa scooped her up and held her while I tended to Ever-Lee once she woke up up, and she was in a happy mood after a two plus hour long snooze.
After their nap, we set out some cucumbers, cheese strings and crackers for a snack. Nugget took hers to go as her parents arrived to pick her up.
Ever-Lee sat and ate hers while I read to her. She got a kick out of my happy and bouncy energy and laughed as I read to her. Not long after she was picked up and taken away by her mom.
Meanwhile, after three plus hours of napping, we HAD to wake Beeg from his snooze as it was after 3 p.m.
He woke right up and gave us a sleepy smile and sat and slowly enjoyed his snack.
He had plenty of time to eat, and then eventually his mother arrived to pick him up. After a hug and explanation that I may be back sooner than later, Beeg left.