March 25, 2025
C gathered a stack of magnatiles from the shelf and carried them to a quiet area where he and a peer could begin building together. They started by laying pieces on the floor then building upwards, creating walls. C and his peer communicated with one another, deciding where each piece would be placed, including windows and doors. C said, “This is a castle for our babies, right?!” The peer giggled as she agreed, saying, “Yeah! This is for our babies!” I asked, “Are your sisters princesses?” C and his peer both cheered, “Yeah!” The peer added, “My baby sister's Bell and C’s baby sister is Sleeping Beauty!” I asked, “And who are you two?” The peer added, “I’m Cinderella and C is the King of the castle!” C laughed as he wrapped his arms around himself and said, “Yup! I’m the king!” C then explained the layout of their castle, pointing to each area where everyone had their own rooms, the door to get in and the stairs in their castle. When the castle was finished, C and his peer went to the art centre to draw pictures for their baby sisters. As they completed their pieces of art, they excitedly showed me what they had made. C asked, “Now we can go to their room and give it to them?” I said, “I think your sisters would love that.” I walked C and his peer down the hall to our infant room. Their sisters' faces lit up with big smiles as C and his peer entered the room. C was very excited to show his sister the picture he drew, handing it to her teacher to hang on their wall. We said goodbye then headed back to our classroom.
Belonging: C collaborated with his peer to build creatively using the magnatiles to design a castle for themselves and their sisters. C moved on to the art centre, drawing a picture for R that he wanted to deliver and hang in her classroom. His desire to bring his art piece to his sister was honoured by the educators.
Well-Being: C used his fine motor skills to create a picture for his sister and showed pride in his finished artwork. He was eager to deliver it to his sister with a big hug and lots of excitement as he ran in to surprise her.
Expression: C communicated back and forth with his peer to build together and share their ideas, and with his educator by explaining the design of their castle using reciprocal language. As C made his way to the art centre, he expressed himself creatively through his drawing using a variety of bright coloured markers.
Engagement: C maintained focus as he built cooperatively with his peer to construct a castle for everyone to live in, explaining the layout to his educator and where everyone had their own rooms. C used the magnatiles to represent his ideas and engage in communication with his educator about his creations.
By Chelsea Kelly, RECE
February 19, 2025
L and a peer were playing together in the kitchen. They took turns putting their cup in the microwave then ran over to another peer who was colouring at the table. They delivered her the drink and the peer shouted, “Here’s your hot chocolate!” Their peer pretended to drink the hot chocolate and they all giggled together. L ran back to the kitchen and grabbed a basket. He began filling it with food then brought it back to his peer at the table. I sat down at the table with Levi and his peer and asked, “What are you guys eating?” L said, “I made C lots of food and she ate all of it!” I said, “She must’ve been hungry!” L added, “She was, she ate it all!” L started gathering the food back up and carried his basket of food to the other end of the table and said, “This is for me now.” The peer laughed and said, “No, I’m still hungry.” L let out a sigh as he handed her an ice-cream cone, then they laughed together as they pretended to eat the food.
Belonging: L was playing with a peer in the kitchen area. He then approached another peer colouring at the table and brought her hot chocolate and lots of food, bringing her into his play scenario.
Well-Being: L gathered lots of food from the kitchen to bring his peer, then explained to his educator, “I made C lots of food and she ate all of it!” and agreed that she was very hungry. When L collected the food for himself and his peer said she was still hungry he shared more of his food with her and handed her an ice-cream cone.
Expression: L approached his peer and started engaging in conversation. He explained the play to his educator and continued having a conversation back and forth with both his peer and educator, engaging in reciprocal language.
Engagement: L was heating up hot chocolate for his peer and he delivered it to her as well as bringing her food to eat. He explained to his educator that he made his peer lots of food because she was really hungry. Once she was done he said, “This is for me now,” communicating his ideas with his educator and peer.
By Chelsea Kelly, RECE
January 15, 2025
C and a peer gathered materials from the shelf and carried them to the table. They created two ramps and started racing each car down the ramps. They used the couch to elevate the start of the ramp. C and his peers gathered more ramps from the shelf to start building the road longer. As the ramps reached the end of the table, they started falling off. C said, “Our bridge won't stay up!” I said, “You might need something underneath to support your bridge.” W cheered, “Lets use a chair!” C and W grabbed chairs and placed them at the end of the table. M gathered the wooden pieces and began building the bridge. C and his peers worked cooperatively together to build and share their ideas. Once the roads were complete, they released their cars one at a time down the ramp, then drove their cars the rest of the way down the roads, making their way around the table and back to the start of the ramp.
Belonging: C participated in a shared experience with his peers; sharing ideas, building and racing their cars.
Well-Being: As C and his peers attempted to build a bridge, they quickly discovered that the wooden pieces couldn’t hang off the table without falling off. C asked their educator for assistance and they were able to come up with a solution on their own to support their bridge. C helped gather chairs and placed them at the end of the table while his peer placed the wooden pieces across.
Expression: C expressed himself creatively through the process of building the ramp, roads and bridge with his peers, by sharing ideas and building cooperatively.
Engagement: Using the couch to elevate their ramps, they raced two cars down to see which one was faster and went the farthest, experimenting with weight and speed. When their bridge continued to collapse off the table, C was able to problem solve with his peers and provide items to support underneath the bridge.
By Chelsea Kelly, RECE
December 10, 2024
A peer and T each collected a hockey stick up from the ground. Her peer backed themselves up into the hockey net while T went to the opposite side of the ice rink. She dropped the puck down by her feet. Taking her right arm, she held the hockey stick behind the puck. Her peer had then narrowed their eyes and bent her knees in preparation of the puck heading towards her. T slid her right foot while the opposite foot hung in the air. Speeding down the rink, she went back and forth, sliding her feet along the made up ice rink. Raising the hockey stick up into the air, she quickly slapped the puck forward. The puck slid across the floor and slid into the net. Immediately, her peer’s shoulders slumped forward and head bent down towards the ground. While T raised her hand in the air with her lips tugging up into a smile, she said, “I did it! I got the puck into the net!” Her peer raised her head and said, “let's do that again. I'm going to stop you next time.” The peer turned around to then bend down to retrieve the puck that was in the net. Holding the puck up, she extended her hand up with the object to give to T. The peer said, “here you go, go to the end of the rink.”
Belonging: She had been able to comfortably collaborate with her peers, by engaging in a game of hockey. They were able to set up rules, put themselves into positions on the rink and enjoyed one another’s company by jumping in right away to collect a stick off the ground.
Well-Being: She had been physically active throughout the game of hockey, using her entire body by pumping one leg up while the other was touching the rink and using her arm to extend and hit the puck with the hockey stick. She worked on her eye hand coordination skills by hitting the puck and slapping it into the net.
Expression: She had been able express her joy when shooting the puck into the net by raising her hand in the air and her lips lifting up into a smile. She was able to communicate with those around her, saying, “I did it, I got the puck into the net!”
Engagement: She was able to collaborate with her peer, by being the one who shot the puck into the net while her peer was the goalie. She expressed her joy when she scored a goal into the net.
By Jessica Martin, RECE
November 2024
The boy walked over to me with a large book in his hand. He said, “can you read this book to me, Ms. Jessica?” Nodding my head, I said, “sure we can, let's go to the carpet to read the story.” Sitting down at the bench, the boy used both hands to hand me the book, saying, “here you go, Ms.Jessica.” We opened the book called The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear. As I began to read, I would leave blanks for him to fill word gaps into the story. I would say, “Hello,” and point to the mouse in the picture. His lips would tilt into a smile before saying, “hello, mouse.” Turning to the next page, he had stuck his index finger into his mouth, as his eyes quickly focused on the pictures provided in the book. When I started filling in the next gap of the story, I said, “are you going to pick that red ripe…?” The boy looked up at me with his lips tilted into a smile before saying, “it’s a red ripe strawberry!” Laughing beside him, I said, “you are right, it is a red ripe strawberry.” As we continued through the story, he began to frown. I said, “what's wrong, [child]?” Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “where is this big hungry bear? I don't see him on the pages.” I said, “I don't know. I think because the mouse ate the entire strawberry, the bear couldn't find it.” The boy’s eyebrow pulled down before saying, “oh, the mouse just ate all the strawberry?” Nodding my head, I said, “yes, that's right [child].”
Belonging: By bringing the educator a book, the boy had wanted to read this story as a shared experience. By leaving word gaps in the story, he had been able to contribute his understanding of what word was next in the story.
Well-Being: He had been able to initiate his own learning by being able to process the protagonist being frightened of the bear eating his strawberry but the bear never appeared on the pages of the book. He used memory recall and visual discrimination to decipher what the word might be that he needed to use to fill in the gap.
Expression: Throughout the book, the boy had been able to fill in the word gaps of the story book that we had read together. He was able to express how he felt by reading the book by his lips frowning, shrugging his shoulders and his eyebrows pulling down.
Engagement: He had used his eyes to focus his attention on the details of the book which assisted him in being able to fill in the word gaps of the story that we had read together. By leaving word gaps open for him to fill in the blank spot, this supported a better understanding of early literacy.
By Jessica Martin, RECE
October 2024
At the the educator placed a pumpkin, a mallet, a few cookie cutters and a knife. As the educator held the pumpkin up for the children to see, she began to push the knife into the top of the pumpkin. As the knife went in and out of the top of the pumpkin, the child’s eyes widened with her mouth opening into an “o” form. Trying to get closer, she used both of her hands to pull the two garbage bags that were laid out on the table under the pumpkin. As the garbage bag moved, so did the pumpkin that the educator was cutting. The educator held the pumpkin steady and stopped cutting. She said, “Please do not pull the garbage bag, if we pull it, that moves the pumpkin to which I could miss and cut my finger.” Making eye contact with the children, the educator then said, “put your hands down behind your back to keep me safe, please and thank you.” Right away, the child lifted both her hands and placed them behind her back, saying, “I'm ready.” The child continued to demonstrate how to be safe by keeping her hands behind her back until the educator was done cutting the top of the pumpkin out.
Belonging: By placing her hands behind her back, the child showed concern for the educator’s well-being when she was cutting out the top of the pumpkin.
Well-Being: By making the decision to keep the educator safe, she placed both of her hands behind her back and used her communication skills to tell the educator that she was ready.
Expression: By listening to the educator, the child learned about consequences because if she were to keep pulling on the garbage bags that she could have pulled the pumpkin to which could have resulted in the educator getting cut.
Engagement: By focusing her attention on the educator, the child was able to follow through on what the educator had asked by placing her hands behind her back and saying “I'm ready.”
Written By Jessica Martin, RECE
September, 2024
The children gathered around the carpet, as I said, “come to the carpet, we are going to do an exciting activity.” A few of the children shouted, “what are we going to do?” I said, “we are going to look for animal footprints around the daycare. We have to look up high and look down low.” As the children began to look up at the walls, they began to spot the tracks. A boy ran up to one and used his right index finger to point to the tracks. He said “I found some tracks. Look, it's an animal.” Nodding, I said, “you found squirrel footprints, you can go take down the tracks from the wall.” Reaching up onto his tip toes, he used his thumb and forefinger to pull the squirrel tracks off the wall. Using both hands, he held the picture close to his face to see the outlines of the footprints, before turning the laminated paper over to see green tape. Using his thumb and forefinger, he pried the tape away from the paper and held it up to me. He said, “garbage? Can you take it?” Nodding my head, I placed the tape into my hand.
Belonging: The entire class had been invited to come join the activity, they were able to search and pull the laminated animal tracks off the wall. The boy was able to participate alongside his peers.
Well-Being: By looking up and down throughout the daycare, he had been able to tackle this new learning activity by being hyper-focused on searching for the hidden animal tracks.
Expression: By using his words, the boy had been able to formulate his responses on how he found some animal tracks and was able to listen to his educator on what animal tracks he had found in the daycare centre.
Engagement: By looking up and down around the walls of the daycare centre, he had been able to focus his attention on spotting the animal tracks. He was able to communicate his findings to the educator when he spotted the tracks.
By Jessica Martin, RECE
August 27, 2024
The child watched me as I folded and tore some paper into smaller pieces to add to our art shelf. After a few minutes she asked me very quietly, “can you make me a paper airplane?” She waited patiently as I folded the paper making a paper airplane. Once it was complete, I handed it to her. Off she went, gliding it through the air in every direction throughout the classroom. She told her friends that, “Miss Mandy made me a paper airplane.” After a few minutes, another child came to me and asked me to make them a paper airplane. Slowly, children came up one after the other asking me to make them a paper airplane. I saw the girl stand in one spot, watching all of her friends flying their paper airplanes. One of her friends did not have one yet. She then came to me and asked if I could make her friend an airplane. Once all of the children had their own paper airplane, I asked the girl, “how did you know about making a paper airplane?” She said to me, “Mommy and Daddy made me a paper airplane.” She then walked away and started throwing her plane with her friends. I watched as the girl climbed up on a new piece of stable furniture in our room to toss her plane from up higher. She then crouched down and tried to fly it through the center opening of the furniture, watching it come out the other side. She continued taking turns with her friends and moving around the room to find different places to throw their planes. They communicated with each other, talking about the different things they can do with their planes, saying things like, “Watch my plane go through the hole,” and “Watch it go up in the tree”, and “Watch it fly down”.
Belonging: The child is able to communicate with her educator and peers with ease. She is able to show me full participation. She shows a connection between home and daycare when we talk about how she knew about paper airplanes, telling me that her Mommy and Daddy have made them for her too.
Well-Being: She used her fine motor skills to grip her paper airplane with her thumb and pointer finger, flying the plane across the room. She uses her motor skills to navigate the room, finding other ways to watch her plane fly through the air. She experimented with climbing furniture to throw it up high and crouching down to throw it through spaces down low.
Engagement: The child tests out her plane in different ways around the room. She is able to stay engaged and focused in her play. She shows joy and excitement on her face as she plays alongside her peers, trying out different ways they can throw their planes together. They talk amongst themselves and show each other what they can do with their planes.
Expression: The child is able to express herself and interact with her peers and educators with meaning. She moves around the room, talking back and forth with her peers and her educators as she plays with her paper airplane.
Written By Mandy Bertling Beres, RECE
July 5, 2024
A child approached the building block shelf after arriving in the morning and picked up one block at a time, stacking them one on top of the other. I approached him and asked, “What are you building [child]?”. He looked up at me, smiling, and said, “I’m making a tower!” I stepped back for a few minutes as I observed him building his tower. I then approached him and asked, “How many blocks tall is your tower?” Pointing to one block at a time, he counted, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!” He was so excited as he counted and then knocked it down with his hands. He started laughing and said, “Now I have to make a new tower.” He continued again and a peer decided to join him. His peer ran over to the play kitchen and said, “You want to put some food in the tower?” The child said, “Yes! It can be a food tower.” They built the tower up high and the boy and his peer added the play food into the center of it. I then went to the boys and said, “Did you know that there are food towers in real life, and they’re called silos?” The boys looked at each other, smiled and kicked and pushed down their tower. They then picked everything up and started all over again.
Belonging: The child is comfortable in the classroom and uses his imagination while making creations with building blocks. He is showing confidence in building with his peers and communicating positively while building and accepting new ideas from his peers.
Well-Being: He showed that not only did he value the input of his peer but was also able to show that he was capable and competent to build a tower and count the blocks. The boy was able to self-regulate his emotions as they broke the tower and problem-solved as they rebuilt the tower.
Engagement: The boy and his peer interacted positively with the blocks, while making decisions together, adding blocks and pretend-play food to their tower. They accepted each other’s input on what they were making and were curious about what the outcome would be after breaking the tower and closely observing to see where the food would go.
Expression: The child is showing his ability to build relationships by engaging in a positive way and by collaborating with his peer in their food tower creation. He was inclusive by allowing his peer to join and accepting to add a different material to his tower that he wasn’t originally using. They problem-solved as they broke and re-built their tower.
June 3, 2024
A child was playing with the babies when she asked me, “Where did the blankies go?” I answered, “They should be in the basket with the babies, let's go check!” She ran back to the basket. As she looked inside she said, “Oh! Yeah, here it is!” After grabbing the blanket for her baby, she said, “Ms. Chelsea, my baby’s sick.” I said, “Oh no, what’s wrong with your baby?” She said, “She puked. She needs to go to the hospital in an ambulance.” I said, “Oh my, I hope your baby’s feeling better soon.” She responded, “Yeah, she just needs cuddles right now. And you know what? When I was a baby I had to go in an ambulance to the hospital, too.” I said, “I bet that was very scary for Mommy and Daddy.” She replied, “Yeah, I had to have medicine to make me feel better, so my baby needs some medicine, too.” The girl continued rocking her baby and said, “She needs to go to sleep now.” She walked over to the reading center and placed her baby in the egg chair with a fluffy blanket. She closed the covering on the chair so her baby could rest.
Belonging: The child felt a sense of belonging during this pretend play by caring for the needs of her baby and communicating with her educator about how her baby was feeling, what it needed and relating it to experiences she said she had as a baby.
Engagement: She cared for her baby by rocking it, cuddling, taking it to the hospital and administering medicine to help her baby feel better. She then laid her baby down on a soft blanket so it could rest.
Expression: The child communicated her thoughts and imaginative play to her educator and expressed concern and worry for her baby as she cared for its needs.
Well-Being: The child recognized that if her baby wasn’t feeling well it needed cuddles, a possible trip to the hospital, medicine and rest. She mentioned that this happened to her as a baby and is relating her own experiences that she’s heard about to her pretend play and what she needed to do to help make her baby feel better.
By Chelsea Kelly, RECE
May 23, 2024
The child was riding a bike around the path in the play yard. He stopped a friend running by and said, “Hey! Do you want to ride on the back of my bike?” The friend agreed in excitement and quickly hopped on the back of his bike. The friend stood on the back part of the bike and leaned forward onto the child to hold onto the handles. The boy held the outside of the handles and peddled himself and his friend as fast as he could. They laughed at the fun they were having as they steered the bike together, turning the handles to go around the bike path. As they drove past me, the boy laughed and said, “He’s riding on the back of my bike!” They continued riding around the path and steering their bike together.
Belonging: This supported the boy’s sense of belonging because he rode his bike with enthusiasm and excitement by pedalling as fast as he could and inviting a friend to ride along with him which also gave his friend a sense of belonging by being included and working as a team to steer their bike together.
Engagement: The child engaged in cooperative team work with a friend to ride their bike together. He expressed joy in his encounter with this friend and focused his attention on his hand placement on the handles, making sure there was room for both himself and his friend to hold on.
Expression: He communicated his idea to his friend and invited him to come and ride the bike together. He expressed joy and excitement by the way he laughed and rode around the path with his friend on the back, exclaiming to the educator, “He’s riding on the back of my bike!” as they rode past.
Well-Being: Riding the bike supported the boy's gross motor skills and with his friend riding on the back they experimented with balance and the way their weight shifts as they turn to go around the path. They practiced their coordination skills as they steered and controlled the front of the bike together and turned in the same direction.
By Chelsea Kelly, RECE
April 17, 2023
Today during our play in the gym, I picked up two tennis rackets. The child noticed it right away and asked, “What’s that?” I replied, “It’s a tennis racket. Do you want to play with me?” He nodded enthusiastically and we found a tennis ball. A few peers approached and tried to take the rackets from the boy and I, but I assisted the boy in telling them they needed to wait their turn by helping the boy tell them, “I’m playing now, you can try when I’m done.” I started and used my racket to hit the ball towards the child. I showed him the steps I was taking, explaining, “First, you hold the ball up and drop it. When you drop it, swing your racket.” I completed the action, sending the ball in his direction. The ball sailed past him and he chased it down, picked it up, and attempted to hit the ball with his racket. First, he held the ball on his racket. I said, “Try holding the ball up a bit.” He looked at me with a thoughtful expression, and I repeated the instruction. He then lifted the ball up, dropped it, and as it hit his racket and rolled forward he shouted out in excitement, “Yeah!” I said, “Look! You hit the ball!” He repeated, “I hit it!” and grabbed another ball to try. After a few tries, we moved on to me tossing the ball to him as he swung his racket, hitting the ball. The boy seemed very pleased with his abilities as he would smile and say, “Look! I did it!” after every hit. Once he was finished, he found a friend who wanted a turn and offered them his racket.
Belonging: The child approached me inquiring about the tennis racket and accepted my offer to play. With assistance, he was able to establish that his peers needed to wait their turn to play with the tennis racket. He continued to show enjoyment and enthusiasm as we played together, and when we were finished he sought out one of his friends who had asked for a turn earlier to offer them his racket.
Engagement: The child was able to use his hand-eye coordination to swing his racket and hit the ball. At first he was trying to work out how to hit the ball when he released it himself, but was able to follow the instructions given to him and make it work. He showed quick improvements to these skills as he got the hang of using the racket, often hitting the ball successfully.
Expression: The child needed a reminder of the language to use when his friends were trying to take the tennis racket that he had. In this scenario he started with using his hand to try and push them away but quickly resolved to use his words with my prompting. He expressed his joy and growing confidence when he exclaimed, “Look! I did it!” He used non-verbal communication through his facial expressions and body cues to show his determination and enjoyment during this play.
Well-Being: The child was able to use his hand-eye coordination to successfully hit the ball with his tennis racket, using cross-body motion. He experienced positive reinforcement and increased confidence through my praise and encouragement, as well as his own excitement over his triumph.
By Savannah LeBlanc, RECE
