Adrian Polidano

The classrooms at Campbell Children’s School have been busy learning during their last few weeks before summer vacation. Each classroom has been focusing on something different and the kids were incredibly excited to share what they’d been working on.

Explorer Room

The Explorer Room has been exploring a few things during the month of June, but lately the kids have been focused on learning about shapes. Throughout this classroom, you can see posters that highlight different types of shapes and the names of those shapes. The kids have been putting shapes together to create different items and have even been incorporating shapes into their artwork.

The Explorer Room has also been curious about beards! For fun, the kids made felt beards and were wearing them around the class. The teacher’s at Campbell’s always allow the students to explore what they’re curious about!

Curiosity Corner

Believe it or not, the curiosity corner has been getting curious about circuits and coding!

Travis, one of the students from Curiosity Corner, demonstrated his ability to complete a circuit. He was not only able to complete the circuit so music played, he was also able to alter it and make the song play on a loop.

Odin, on the other hand, was able to demonstrate how he had been working on coding using the Osmo tablet. The tablet sees what Odin does on the desk in front of him, following his sequence, which moves the character across the screen. Odin was so quick with the Osmo, it was hard to keep up!

The Windows of Opportunity

This classroom has taken the nice weather as an opportunity to explore nature.

In the far corner of the classroom, you can see that the classroom fish named Bill had recently acquired a few new friends.  The classroom has a small fish tank full of tadpoles at different stages of growing. Hunter was excited to share the life stages of a frog, pointing out one of the tadpoles who had already sprouted legs.

This classroom was also excited to show the chrysalis they had, getting ready to turn from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

Cozy Corner

The students of the Cozy Corner classroom have been spending time making pickles!

They learned about how this yummy snack is made and actually made some themselves. The students were excited to share that they helped to create these snacks and some even remembered the entire process and specific ingredients for next time.

A few of the kids decided to try them, making a couple sour faces, but ultimately decided they were tasty.

We love to see how much these kids love to learn!

At Grandview Kids, keeping up-to-date with new advancements in psychological and paediatric studies is critical in order to best work with and treat the children in our care. Our research team dedicates much time and effort into reading and fact checking these studies in order to confirm their legitimacy as educational tools. Our team has compiled a list of readings to keep you in the loop with our recent research. We hope you find them helpful!

What we’re reading now:

1. Measure of Processes of Care: a review of 20 years of research. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology. 445-452. Barbara J. Cunningham., Peter L. Rosenbaum (2013).
2. Parents’ perceptions of the services provided to children with cerebral palsy in the transition from preschool rehabilitation to school-based services. Child: care, health and development. 455-463. M. W. Alsem, M. Verhoef, J. W. Gorter, L. C. M. Langezaal, J. M. A. Visser-Meily and M. Ketelaar (2016).

Here is a list of their most recent readings:

Most of these studies and articles can be found with a simple google search!

Developing a classification system of social communication functioning of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 1-7. Di Rezze, B., Rosenbaum, P., Zwaigenbaum, L., Cooley Hidecker, M. J., Stratford, P., Cousins, M., et al. (2016).

Folinic acid improves verbal communication in children with autism and language impairment: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Molecular Psychiatry, 00, 1-10. Frye, R. E.,  Slattery, J., Delhey, L., Furgerson, B., Strickland, T., Tippett, M., et al., (2016).

Clinically relevant copy number variations detected in cerebral palsy. Nature Communications. Oskoui, M., Gazzellone, M. J., Thiruvahindrapuram, B., Zarrei, M., Andersen, J., & Wei, J., et al. (2015).

Parents’ adoption of social communication intervention strategies: families including children with autism spectrum disorder who are minimally verbal. Journal of Autism Developmental Disorders, 45, 1712-1724. Shire, S. Y., Goods, K., Shih, W., Distefano, C., Kaiser, A., Wright, C., et al.  (2015).

Prenatal exposure to acetaminophen and risk of adhd.  Pediatrics, 140(5), 1-11. Ystrom, E., Gustavson, K., Brandlistuen, R. E., Knudsen, G. P., Magnus, P., Susser, E., et al.  (2017).

Stay tuned for more reading materials in the future:

We hope that you find articles like these ones as informative and educational as we have, and can make use of the information provided in them. At the very least, maybe you learned something new and exciting, like we did.

This week, local father and police officer Nafis began his five-day journey by bicycle from Queens Park to Ottawa.

Officer Nafis decided to embark on this journey because of his son, who has been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy as well Autism. Nafis says that he aims to bring awareness to Autism and reduce the stigma that can surround a variety of special needs.

As a police officer, Nafis has seen a variety of family instances that has made him want to work towards further acceptance of all.

“What I’ve seen is during the calls that I’ve attended, is that there have been a lot of domestics where the husband blames the wife for the children having Autism or it’s the wife blaming the husband,” said Nafis.

Because of what he’s seen, Nafis thinks spreading awareness is incredibly important. He also hopes, though, to raise money for Grandview Kids.

“Even if I gained some money to reduce the wait times, I’m happy with that,” said Nafis. “A child shouldn’t have to wait to get treatment.”

As if riding his bike from Queens Park to Ottawa wasn’t challenging enough, Nafis has also decided to fast during the day.

“It’s the month of Ramadan and I’m a practicing Muslim. What I’ve done is for these five days of the bike ride, to show solidarity to the Muslims… I’m not eating meals during the daylight, but I am drinking fluids to keep hydrated,” said Nafis.

So far, his ride has been a success. He has met a variety of interesting and welcoming people.

“People in the small towns have been incredibly hospitable. They’ve offered for me to use their place to rest, or grab a meal or drink and always checked up on me to make sure I was okay whenever I stopped on my bike just to take a break,” said Nafis. “Canadians have been really hospitable, as they always are.”

What’s Next?

As of May 25th, Officer Nafis reached his final destination: Ottawa! Thanks for all your hard work, Nafis!

To support Nafis on his ride in support of Grandview Kids – visit his fundraising page.

After a long winter of playing in the snow, the kids at Campbell Children’s School are ready to embrace spring, with their teachers even bringing it into their learning curriculum.

Spring Gardens

In fact, April snow showers did indeed bring May flowers! The students are working on growing and caring for a variety of plants. From flowers, to vegetables and even grass, the students at Campbell’s have it all.

According to Janet Harper, the principal of Campbell Children’s School, “The gardens were part of the SCC (School Community Council) plan for last year, so we are continuing and growing the idea this year. We are also planting a medicine garden to support our Indigenous Studies.”

Walking into the classrooms over the last few weeks, students would be seen preparing their plants, learning about how they grow and watering them daily.

These gardens are another great example of the unique learning opportunities these kindergarten students receive. Around every corner, the teachers and early childhood educators at Campbell’s are coming up with new, fun and interactive ways for the kids to learn about day-to-day life.

Observing the Birds

Gardens aren’t the only way the students at Campbell’s are getting involved with nature, though.

Around the edges of the children’s accessible playground, soft wire cones full of material such as dryer lint, string and straw can be seen. What are these cones for? Building bird nests!

“Our School Community Council (SCC) created a plan at the beginning of the year to have bird nests that the students could observe,” said Janet. “The kits are incentive for the birds (to build their nests) and the bird houses will be attached to the classroom windows so the students can observe the building of the nests.”

These bird nest building kits will be a great way for the students to observe nature up-close in their school environment. We can’t wait to see what the birds build and if we’re lucky, see baby birds grow, too!

Want to keep up with Campbell’s?

Follow our Facebook for weekly updates, or sign up for our e-newsletter!

On May 2, McHappy Day took place at McDonald’s restaurants nationwide, raising money in support of Ronald McDonald Houses and other local children’s charities.

This year, in the Durham Region, McDonald’s Restaurants were raising money for Ronald McDonald Houses and Grandview Kids!

After Durham Region McDonald’s owners pledged to raise $500,000 to build and support the new Grandview, they decided McHappy Day’s donations would be the first big fundraising initiative towards this total.

Last year, eight Durham McDonald’s partnered with Grandview Kids for McHappy Day. This year, 22 McDonald’s restaurants in Durham participated. Next year, McDonald’s Durham Region restaurants will be supporting Grandview once again. This time, all locations across the region will be donating to Grandview.

During McHappy day the community rallied together, lining up the McDonald’s drive-thrus throughout the community, donating change and purchasing Big Macs, Happy Meals and hot McCafe beverages throughout the day. By the end of the day, $161,441 was raised for Grandview Kids.

An entire classroom visited the Bowmanville location at lunch during their lunch break to support Grandview.

“I decided to take my students to McHappy day to support Grandview. I have a child that goes to Grandview and they know and care for him,” said local teacher Darlene Lomax. “They have always been supportive and thought it was a good cause. I was so proud of my class as they were very polite, patient and donated generously. They even sought out the donation collectors when they couldn’t see them. Another customer commented on how well behaved and respectful they were. These are a group of grade eight students that felt good about being able to help in their own way. I am proud of these students and proud to be their teacher!”

It was incredible to see the outpouring of support from all corners of Durham.

Grandview is so thankful for this partnership with McDonald’s as well as the support and involvement demonstrated by our community.

We can’t see what’s in store for Grandview next!

Want more information?

For information on what locations participated, or our partnership with McDonald’s, visit our blog about it!

Spring has sprung and just in time for Grandview’s Spring Into Literacy conference.

On Saturday, April 21st, Grandview hosted their annual Spring Into Literacy conference at the Durham District School Board. This yearly event is a collaborative effort with EarlyON Child and Family Centres – Durham, Durham Catholic District School Board, Durham District School Board and Carea Community Health Centre.

Over 150 participants, vendors and volunteers took part in this year’s conference, enjoying an engaging keynote address by Jill Javelosa-Alvarez, an Early Literacy Specialist. Participants also attended two break-out sessions from a choice of five.

Two different sessions were actually presented by Grandview staff members, like the “We Can Read Too: Early Literacy for Children with Complex Needs” session and the “Occupational Therapy Tools for Learning” session.

Throughout the day, participants could be found listening to incredible speakers and involved in hands on activities.

Participants, including Registered Early Childhood Educators, other early years professionals and parents reported that they enjoyed the format and content of the conference, learning new strategies to support the early literacy development of children from birth to six years.

The entire day was packed full of hands-on learning opportunities and the workshops were well received by all participants.

Congratulations to the entire organizational team for coordinating a successful conference this year. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2019.

Featured photo courtesy of Snapd Whitby.