Halloween Hijinx

Today was a big day in Dewson Afterschool-land. Like most Fridays, we ended up at Trinity Bellwoods for some outdoor play, but unlike most Fridays, we met up with not one, not two, but three other groups in our community (in costume, no less!).

While the teachers set up the multi-station Halloween activities, the children had free time to play in the playground. I was impressed at how well the older kids got along with the younger ones, inventing games like this monkey bar obstacle course seen above.

Leah and April introduced our activity, which involved splitting up into new teams (Hurricanes! Cyclones! Volcanoes! Earthquakes!) and visiting different Halloween-related stations in the park.

Art Installation in Osler Park

I had taken some pictures of yesterday's installation that included some beautiful smiley faces, but alas they disappeared into the digital ether. I dropped by the park again this afternoon to see if everything was still there.

The drawings were spinning and flapping in the wind, and really deserve to be seen in motion. Also in the video are some ghost sculptures that somebody else had left in the park (we had a sneaking suspicion that it was the Cycling Giants who were responsible for those).

 

Field Trip to Parkdale

I thought it would be fun to take the kids down to Parkdale to have a look at the art show I've had up all month at Shopgirls Gallery Boutique. This involved taking both a bus and a streetcar, and venturing in to new territory.

At first they thought the art was really strange, but after I explained to them some of the stories in the picture, they got really excited. I told them that there were no faces on a lot of the people in the pictures so that the person looking at the art could decide whether the drawings are happy or sad or funny.

Also exciting was the storefront display, that featured mannequins wearing jewellery and clothing sold at the store. The kids enjoyed posing in the window and surprising passers-by.

We also stopped by Gallery 1313 to look at some funny photos of lumberjacks and hunters.

In front of the Parkdale Library was a giant globe, and you could see through all the countries to the other side. Here the kids are peeking inside through South America. Later in the afternoon, this plaza was filled with a film crew shooting there, so we got a good look at what goes on behind the scenes.

Overall, it was pretty exciting to explore another neighbourhood in town! I'm looking forward to more adventures in the future.

Our Favourite Bus Stop

This bus shelter at the corner of College and Ossington is definitely the shelter of choice for the Pouncing Pumas. There's a nice bench, lots of people around, and an old-fashioned pay phone that is always fun to pick up. The kids are now experts at getting on the bus, and the rebels that they are, always choose to sit in the back.

Our Foray into Local Politics

One thing that's been on everybody's mind recently has been the Toronto civic election that's taking place this coming Monday. We made a visit to Councillor Adam Vaughan's campaign office yesterday afternoon for a behind-the-scenes look at the election, and to learn what exactly city council does.

But first, we discovered these great bike locks on Harbord St that were perfect for climbing.

We stopped in a park to run around, and then hopped on a bus (both examples of services that the city council makes decisions on), and arrived at Adam's office.

Adam gave the kids a history of Toronto and explained why we have wards.

The kids make signs in support of Adam to decorate the office.

Looking good!

We worked together to create some big signs for the office. It'll certainly be exciting to see how this election turns out!

Night of Dread

Today, we met up with the Twirly Birds to build props for the Night of Dread parade next week. The rink house at Dufferin Grove Park was full of enormous masks and puppets and shrines. We helped finish some shrines and thought about the things that we've lost and missed. Some of us thought about lost toys, and some of us were sad about all the trees that have been cut down, leaving sad little stumps behind.

If you're interested, the Night of Dread parade takes place on Saturday October 30. There will be homemade bread and bonfires, and much, much more. Here's a video of last year's event to pique your interest:



For more information, check out the Clay and Paper website.

Friday with the Wandering Hamsters

On Friday, like most Fridays, we headed down to Trinity Bellwoods park for some Phys Ed. We met up with Leah's group, the Wandering Hamsters,  for some fun and games.

We thought we'd teach them Squishy Ball Hot Potato, since we had so much fun last time.

... and then we tried some wheelbarrow races.

 ... while our special reporter interviewed our new friends.

Would you take a look at those leaves?

Baking cookies

Mmm! Look at these ingredients! Perfect for cookie-making. Sticking to our tradition of culinary experimentation, we decided to make cookies with an unknown result. In fact, we made three kinds of cookies (each child invented their own recipe) based on a simple recipe found in a cookbook.

...and voilà! Delicious banana-oatmeal-applesauce-chocolate-chip-and/or-Smarties-and/or-Reese's-Pieces-and/or-coconut-and/or-raisin-and/or-cinnamon cookies.

Could there be such thing as "too much fun"?

If so, that may have been the case on Friday.

When we last left off, we had a dish of Experimental Cornbread and plans to celebrate with our friends in the park. We raced down from Dewson and made it to Trinity Bellwoods even before the other kids did, which gave us the chance to invent a new game to teach to the Cycling Giants.

Materials: One pink Squishy Ball. Behold its gelatinous tentacles and stretchy-gooey-squishiness!

The game is a variation of the ever-popular "Hot Potato" (imagine a potato that resembles a squishy sea urchin). The ball is passed around from player to player, and a musical soundtrack sets the tone. Instead of staying in a circle, players dance around to the music, and make a silly dance move when they catch the ball. When the music stops...  everybody freezes!

So just as we'd invented THE BEST GAME EVER, and then made plans for food to cook for our upcoming potluck, our buddies The Cycling Giants appeared in the park with a shopping cart full of food. We had Piggy Bricks (their recipe), grapes, apples, pears, cookies, squash muffins, and of course, our Experimental Cornbread.

We gobbled down that food faster than an ostrich race, and then it was time for Musical Chairs. The twist to this game was that we had Henri, one of the other group's teachers, play the guitar, and every time a player was out, they had to join Henri's band to set the music.

 And just when you think the kids were having just enough fun, there was even MORE fun to be had, including:

a) Another rousing game of Squishy Ball Hot Potato

b) A three-legged race

and

c) a round of Tie-Your-Teacher-To-A-Tree (unfortunately, no teacher was available to photograph this game).

After putting up with that excessive fun on Friday, I hope the children had a restful long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Experimental Cornbread

With Thanksgiving coming up, we thought it would be a great idea to learn about some Indigenous Thanksgiving traditions. Tomorrow afternoon, we'll have a food exchange and powwow with our friends, The Cycling Giants.  Cornbread with beans is a delicious food made by the Mohawk people in our region, and when served with squash, makes use of the "Three Sisters" (corn, beans, and squash) that are often grown together. Here is the recipe we tried.

To make cornbread, you need the following:

 (a bowl, a can of beans, a bag of corn flour, a wooden spoon, salt, and water)

Some of the kids are crazy for beans, and some can't stand them! Here's an interpretation of the bean-gobblers and the bean-gaggers:

We mixed everything into a big bowl, but because we didn't have an exact water measurement, we added too much! It was impossible to boil them in the pot of water, so we fried the cornbread up. In the meantime, the kids played a rousing game of kitchen hockey.

When we got them out of the frying pan, the little cornbreads looked something like this.

Because we didn't quite follow the directions right, they were a bit rubbery and dry on the inside, but the kids seemed to like them with a bit of honey on top.  I took a bit of batter home to fix up a bit, but I guess we'll only know tomorrow (when we share them with our friends) whether they're a success or not.

Leaves and Sun oh My

This week we had a few schedule changes with the kids, including cross country meets and other extra curricular activities, so there were smaller groups. On Monday it was just myself and two of the grade two kids, so we took that opportunity to get to know eachother better. I continued the trend of Mondays the the library, and we looked at booked about the seasons as well as about Maurice Richard. Afterwards, since it began to rain, we went to a Portuguese bakery and had some hot chocolate and a treat and we talked about what they liked to do with themselves on the weekend. We have both creative and sports-crazy kids in this group. It's a fantastic mix. 

On Tuesday it was just myself and the two girls of the group, so it allowed us to do some quieter new games that sometimes get shunned for soccer. We learned some new hand-clapping games and we created new lyrics to a popular (but not the most inspiring) song. We played an invented game of "leaf tag" which involved a lot of spinning and running around chasing eachother. A lot of fun!

We ended the day by picking up some Hallowe'en stickers and incorporating them into some drawings in our sketchbooks.

Today, since it's so beautiful out, I am going to attempt to get them to collect leaves and then I'll iron them in wax paper to make some collages. Let's hope the rain holds out!

-kb