Published on Tuesday, February 6 2024
by Aline Fablet in Early childhood centres
At the start of this new year, we would like to take the time to reflect on the small pleasures of 2023, but above all to celebrate our successes and adventures! We would also like to remember how, together, we have risen to the challenges we have faced. Here is a retrospective that highlights the initiatives and efforts of the staff who, day after day, make the Carrefour francophone what it is today.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this year’s outdoor projects. Thanks to your support, we are ready for a new year.
The Scène des tout petits childcare center becomes one with nature exploration. Located in Sudbury’s Robinson Lake neighbourhood, the center has privileged access to a municipal forest behind the École Hélène Gravel.
2023 marks the first year that the center’s children have had access to this forest. The management of École Hélène Gravel and the Conseil Scolaire du Grand Nord agreed to the installation of a gate in the fence, allowing them to discover this, previously inaccessible, space. The support and determination of Daniel Barrette, a well-known community player and former director of the Rainbow Routes association, helped make this dream a reality for the center’s children.
Families at the center who live in the neighborhood also appreciate being able to pick up their children directly from the forest, avoiding the traffic and hustle and bustle of the street.
Every day is an excuse to take a walk in the forest!
With the collaboration of Collège Boréal and the child and nature alliance, the Carrefour francophone was able to host the first French-language training session in Ontario. The Nature School Practitioner program is becoming highly sought-after in the field, providing the skills and knowledge to feel confident in outdoor education.
The biggest dream of the Boréal des tout-petits team in 2020 was “to bring a car to the playground that would make the kids so happy!”
At Carrefour francophone, our mission is to make everyone’s dreams come true!
We pulled out our magic wand (and rolled up our sleeves a bit) and thanks to funding from the City of Greater Sudbury and the collaboration of Collège Boréal, this dream became a reality.
Pierre Harrison of PLAYLearnThink fitted out and secured the vehicle offered by Collège Boréal’s mechanics program. He kept some of the electrical circuits, such as the windshield wipers and turn signals, working, much to the children’s delight!
Learn more about adventure playgrounds here.
It is the sun’s ultraviolet rays that enable the human body to synthesize vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential for the proper functioning of the immune system and the absorption of calcium, as well as benefiting the nervous system, blood circulation and muscle strength. Exposure to the sun (face and hands) for around 15 minutes a day (without sun protection), 3 or 4 days a week would be sufficient, but 30 to 40 minutes for darker skins. Yet another good reason to face up to this winter’s chill and go for a walk in the forest or the great outdoors!
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In 2020, Carrefour francophone submitted a research project proposal to Employment and Social Development Canada aimed at documenting the benefits of an early childhood centre (E.C.C.) in the forest. ...
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In May and June, families from our centers with a Nature Daycare Program got together for a number of maintenance and landscaping chores. This convivial event brought together children, parents, grand...
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Since fall of 2019, the outdoors has taken on a more important place in the children’s routine at the Center Boréal des tout-petits. The different groups go out into the forest regularly, even dail...
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