Hopscotch Early Learning & Child Care
250, 4 versailles avenue T8N 7V1 Saint Albert, AB, Canada

Our Seekers aka toddlers have been having a lot of fun picking apples and sorting leaves this fall. Our teachers have been busy creating a fantastic learning library of laminated materials which are easily cleaned and sanitized. All materials coming into our centre are cleaned and sanitized, or quarantined for 10 days before entering the classrooms. We clean and sanitize all our room materials regularly throughout the day and all high touch areas are sanitized hourly. #stalbertlife #stalbertkids #yeg #yegkids

Our inventors a.k.a preschoolers have been having lots of fun exploring colours and light this week! To learn more about our Interest Based Approach to Early Learning visit our website: https://www.hopscotchkids.ca/approach

At Hopscotch, teaching our Mighty Learners about Nutrition is a key part of our Early Learning Approach. All our meals, sauces, snacks and baked goods are made from scratch, in-house by our fantastic chef Paulette and follow the Canada food guide. Paulette is by far the children’s favourite person at our centre. A few of the children’s favourite meals are; fish nuggets served with homemade tartar dipping sauce, hidden veggie meatballs, baked salmon with fresh lemon and d...ill sauce, granola bars, carrot and zucchini loaf and an all time favourite oatmeal cookies! #stalbertlife #stalbertkids #yeg #yegkids

At Hopscotch, we subscribe to the belief that children are mighty learners - capable, resilient and resourceful! Our educators observe, adapt and adjust activities based on the children’s current interests! This leads to our educators creating custom made puzzles, dramatic play props, fun outdoor, science and literacy activities. For example, we have been building a large laminating library for all our classes to use, these materials are easily cleaned and sanitized and are created specific to the children’s current interests. #stalbertlife #stalbert #stalbertkids #yegkids #yeg

At Hopscotch, we greatly value getting outside and exploring the great outdoors in all seasons! In addition to our onsite outdoor play space, our teachers and children love adventuring to the nearby trails and playing in the large field right behind our centre. These quiet, safe, and traffic free areas are great for encouraging physical distancing while developing gross motor skills and learning all about the natural world! #stalbert #stalbertkids #yegkids @ Hopscotch Early Learning & Child Care

Our new normal since re-opening 6 weeks ago includes being very diligent with new COVID-19 health measures, while also sharing smiles, laughter and positivity. Here’s a sampling of some of our new health measures #stalbert #stalbertkids #yegkids @ Hopscotch Early Learning & Child Care

Our Mighty Learners have been really interested in summer plants and gardening recently. At Hopscotch, we subscribe to the belief that children are mighty learners capable, resilient, and resourceful. Accordingly, each child is listened to, treated with respect, and participates in daily decisions that affect him or her. This occurs through educators adopting a perspective of 'doing with' rather than 'doing to' so that they pick up on the interests and emerging passions of your mighty learner and adjust activities to suit. #interestbasedlearning #learningthroughplay @ Hopscotch Early Learning & Child Care

Our white flowers changed colour! Our Mighty Learners loved seeing how the flowers reacted and change based on the colours used in the liquid. This experiment is a simple and fun way to learn about how plants drink water. #learningthroughplay #intrestbasedlearning #exploratorylearning #hopscotchearlylearning @ Hopscotch Early Learning & Child Care

This month our Mighty Learners enjoyed watching their caterpillars grow, turn into chrysalis and then beautiful butterflies! This week they set them all free! #handsonlearning #learningthroughplay #lifecycleofabutterfly #earlychildhoodeducation @ Hopscotch Early Learning & Child Care

Our Mighty Learners have been having a lot of fun exploring spring this week; going on nature walks, hunting for bugs, planting seeds, watering our herb garden, exploring ant tracks and doing a bit of train spotting from our playground! #learningthroughplay #earlychildhoodeducation #natureplay #hopscotchearlylearning @ Hopscotch Early Learning & Child Care

We are so happy to be open! Last week our Mighty Learners enjoyed reuniting with their friends, enjoyed lots of nature walks, saw birds, ducks and ducklings, played shadow tag, made kites, created and had a lot of fun playing! #learningthroughplay #nature #friends #explore #create #hopscotchearlylearning @ Hopscotch Early Learning & Child Care

Hi hopscotch friends! After reading if you give a mouse a cookie (posted in our videos) it might be fun to bake with your little ones! Oatmeal cookie recipe - ... What you need: Cup Unsalted Butter Cup Brown Sugar Cup White Sugar 1 Egg tsp Vanilla 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour tsp Baking Soda tsp Cinnamon tsp Sea Salt 1 Cup Oats What to do: 1.Make sure to wash your hands before you begin. 2.Preheat oven to 375F. 3.Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. 4.Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the creamed butter mixture. Mix in the oats. 5.Cover and chill dough for at least an hour. 6.Grease or line a sheet pan with parchment paper. 7.Roll 1 Tbsp of dough into ball and place 2 inches apart on the sheet pan. 8.Bake for 10 minutes. 9.Allow cookie to cool completely on pan.

A favourite dish at Hopscotch is our butter chicken served with brown rice and peas. All meals are served with fresh fruit, milk/water and are all made from scratch by our amazing chef Paulette! _____________ What you need: ... 2 lbs Diced Chicken Cup Plain Yogurt 1 tsp Curry Powder 1 tsp Paprika 1 tsp Turmeric 1 tsp Chili Powder 1 tsp Garam Masala 2 Tbsp Minced Garlic 1 Tbsp Veggie Oil Cup Diced Onion 1 Cup Diced Tomato 1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter Cup Cream 1 Bay Leaf _______________ What to do: 1. Make sure to wash your hands before you begin. 2. Heat oil in a large skillet and cook onions until translucent. Add everything else; chicken, spices, diced tomatoes, butter, cream and yogurt. 3. Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce to medium heat and simmer until sauce thickens and the chicken is fully cooked, approximately 30 minutes. 4. Enjoy!

Learning with sticks! Building problem solving skills and creativity while engineering with sticks and play dough Learning shapes Learning the concept shortest to longest... Create a spiders web, nest or animal cave with sticks Create a magic superhero wand Number recognition and practicing counting Have a lovely day Hopscotch friends!

Axel Scheffler the Gruffalo illustrator has illustrated a digital book for Pre K and elementary school age children, free for anyone to read on screen or print out, about the coronavirus and the measures taken to control it. Published by Nosy Crow, and written by staff within the company, the book has had expert input: Professor Graham Medley of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine acted as a consultant, and the company also had advice from two head teachers and ...a child psychologist. The book answers key questions in simple language appropriate for 5 to 9 year olds: What is the coronavirus? How do you catch the coronavirus? What happens if you catch the coronavirus? Why are people worried about catching the coronavirus? Is there a cure for the coronavirus? Why are some places we normally go to closed? What can I do to help? What’s going to happen next? Download here: https://issuu.com/nosycrow/docs/coronavirus_ins/1

At Hopscotch we greatly value playing outdoors and connecting to the natural world, as this is one of the best places for a young mind to be free and happy while exploring. Here are a few of our favourite Nature Play activities: Explore light and shadows by setting up a shadow drawing area.... Collect nature and make a creation with it! Have an area in your yard with bins of natural loose parts for your children to collect, sort, create and play with. Toddlers love to collect and transport items from place to place so have a variety of empty containers with lids (empty mayo jars are a good size) and bowls/tubs for them to fill, transport and dump with. Make a mini teepee, car garage, fairy garden, or whatever your child imagines out of nature and bring their cars, animals or barbies outside to play in it! Why not use a tree trunk as an outdoor easel. A favourite activity of ours is to create a playdough and nature bird nest. For babies and toddlers this would be a nature printing activity with play dough. Nature name recognition activity; glueing nature onto your child’s name. You could also do a letter every couple of days to develop letter recognition. Fine motor and creative weaving nature activity. Make nature paint brushes: made with sticks, elastic bands and different textures collected from nature. For babies and young toddlers, let them use the nature and their hands, no need to make the brushes for the little ones. Have a lovely weekend!

Invitation to Play Inspired by the story Little Cloud. With all the fluffy clouds in the sky today here are a few fun cloud activities to do: Cloud and rain experiment using; water, shaving foam and food colouring. Absorption science play... Fold and rub cloud art Blue Water sensory bin, you can add cotton balls to the water bin to extend the play! To listen to the story Little Cloud, go to our videos

Our chef Paulette makes the best granola bars! They are a hit with all the children at Hopscotch! Recipe in photo attached @ Edmonton, Alberta

This is such a fun activity to do! It kept both my toddler and preschooler engaged for at least 30 mins! Let them crush chalk up into little crumbs or to dust. Then they can glue the chalk to cardboard Easter eggs! Thank you @cardboardfolk for this creative idea! #processart #create #fun #finemotorskills #easterfun #hopscotchearlylearning

A catchy 'Wave Hello Brain Dance from Intellidance for you all. These classes by Jessica are a lot of fun for your little ones!