Springdale Learning Centre

Summer is coming and we’re so excited for camp at Springdale Learning Centre ☀️

Our Summer Break Camp 2026 is all about giving children a fun, active, and welcoming space to just enjoy being kids. We will have weekly themes, hands on STEAM activities, creative arts and crafts, outdoor trips, and lots of play, including water days.

Summer camp is one of our favourite times of the year. We love seeing children build friendships, try new things, and grow in confidence while having fun every day.

Program Details:
📅 June 29 to August 14
🕗 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
👧👦 Ages 4 to 12

Spots are limited, so please reach out if you are interested or have any questions.

📞 905 790 6958
📧 [email protected]

🌸 SLC Spring Break Camp is coming! 🌸
Looking for a fun, active, and creative way for your child to spend Spring Break? Join us for a week packed with movement, STEAM, and arts & crafts in a safe and engaging environment!

📍 Location: Robert J. Lee Public School
📅 Dates: March 16–20, 2026
⏰ Time: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
👧🧒 Ages: 4–12 years

✨ Activities include:
• Movement & active play
• STEAM exploration
• Arts & crafts
• Team games & social fun

⚠️ Limited spots available!
📩 For more information email [email protected] or call 905-790-6958

🌈

Hello friends and families! Did you miss us? It has been a while, as we have been busy in our classroom learning something new everyday! Recently we have been focusing on our routine and structure of our classroom in the preschool room. With kindergarten just around the corner, we are starting to engage in table top activities a lot more! Here our friends are engaging in stationary play! Each table has an exciting new activity to try! Some times our friends enjoy a particular activity and we display more of it on the tables for everyone to engage!

Come station with us!

Our friends are in the holiday spirit, here at Springdale Learning Centre! Listening to joyful holiday songs while engaging in holiday activities!

Dancing drawings! Our Before & After School Program friends had a blast with this cool activity. They drew figures with dry erase markers in the bin as well as paper plates. Then they poured a little bit of water and began to observe. The drawings began dancing. This was a neat way for our friends to further their learning in terms of understanding how to hypothesize and take measurements!

It was a very interactive experience led by our friends while our educators stood back and observed as well as ask open-ended questions, such as “what do you think will happen?”

Farm Frenzie! From cow milking activities to pool noodle horse rides, our friends in the Toddler Program really enjoyed the farm experience. It started off with two of our friends picking up a book about farm animals. They began to make the sounds of the animals they pointed at such as cow. The next day our educators turned the dramatic play area into an animal farm hands-on experience. Children engaged in horse rides with pool noodles, milking a cow, playing with ducks in the farm house to rolling eggs down the chicken maze into nests. Our friends were actively engaged in the Springdale Animal Farm

While playing outside, one of our friends went to park the bike on the designated bike park spot in the playground. This spot was on a slant, so naturally the bike began to roll backwards. Our friend was so interested and asked our educator, “why it rolling?”. Our educators took the opportunity to introduce a rather challenging concept into the classroom, gravity. They set up the science centre with a ramp, balls and visuals posted on the wall. The children approached the centre by themselves and began to roll the ball down the slide. They seemed actively engaged because they were laughing and repeating this activity. That is when our educators stepped in to throw in words such as “hey the bike outside did the same thing”. One of the children even responded saying “ya”.

From there the connection was made. From the child’s genuine interest to child-directed play. This is how our educators work to create play-based learning environments.

Cause and Effect Play. We often wonder when a child (specifically a toddler) picks up a toy, why do they put it in their mouth or immediately throw it? They are not trying to be “bad”, they are simply exploring the item to figure out its purpose. This is known as cause and effect play. This type of play is crucial for children to be able to make connections between themselves and the environment around them. When our educators observed the children picking up balls in the classroom and placing them in a bin or throwing them, they decided to experiment. To further the interests, our educators placed masking tape on a mini fence, with the sticky part facing out. It was wonderful to see the toddler’s face when they picked up the ball and tried to throw it in between the lines of the fence, but then it ended up sticking to the tape. After that child discovered this, they continued to place the balls on the sticky tape. Then another child observed this and began to do the same. From an observation, to an experiment, to a meaningful learning opportunity. When providing open-ended materials and a safe and engaging environment, children begin to make connections during play. These connections are important to help children self-regulate and understand the environment around them.

During outdoor play, our educators in the Preschool room made an observation. The children were taking toy cars and trucks and racing them up and down. Each child had a car or truck in hand, and were racing each other. The educators incorporated this interest into their program plan to enhance children’s pattern, categorizing and number counting skills. They also brought this interest out in creative expression, while painting using toy cars. The children were actively engaged as they were enjoying utilizing the toy cars. While it may simply look like play from an outsiders perspective, we see fine motor grip skills, patterning skills, learning how to count and categorize. During this activity, educators engaged in meaningful conversations asking the children open-ended questions such as “what are you painting”, or “why are you placing the car here”? When children engage in conversation during play, they are enhancing communication skills amongst peers.

When you see your child racing a car around at home, ask them questions like “where are you going, what car is that, how far will you go?”.

Happy ECE appreciation day! SLC, is very grateful to all the staff members and colleagues that provide quality care to our community’s children! A huge shoutout and thanks to all the ECE’s out there for all that you do!

Hey families and friends!

We found a great resource for words of encouragement when your little one completes a task, accomplishes a goal or simply makes something to show you! Here are 25 alternatives to “Good Job”!