Celebrating creativity, community, and the unique perspectives of our children
As we welcome the colours of fall, September gives us a chance to pause and reflect on some of the meaningful learning that took place across our Kids & Company classrooms this summer.
In July, as part of our Celebrating Canada Curriculum, children across the country came together for Trees Across Canada, a collaborative process-art project inspired by one of Canada’s most recognizable symbols: the maple tree.
We invited each of our centres to create their own handmade maple tree using a variety of materials, encouraging children and educators to get creative and make their trees uniquely their own.
One maple. Many leaves. So much creativity!
The maple tree is a meaningful symbol of Canada, but it also gave us a beautiful way to explore diversity, individuality, and community. Just as no two maple trees are exactly alike, no two leaves are the same. Each child brought their own ideas, creativity, and perspective to their artwork, creating something that was uniquely theirs while contributing to something much bigger.
And that is what made this project so special.
Every centre created something different, and when brought together, the individual trees became one connected Kids & Company community spanning across Canada.
From summer into fall
There is something especially fitting about revisiting this project in September.
As we watch the leaves around us begin to change, our classrooms are also entering a new season , welcoming new beginnings, new friendships, new routines, and new opportunities to learn and grow.
The Trees Across Canada project reminds us that growth doesn’t look the same for every child. Each child develops at their own pace, brings their own strengths and interests, and adds something special to the communities they are part of.
Explore Our Trees Across Canada Project
We have brought the artwork from our centres together into one interactive maple tree!
Hover over each leaf to discover the centre it came from and see the artwork created by the children there.
One Maple, Many Leaves
We invited our children across our Kids & Company classrooms to design their own handmade maple tree.
The maple tree represents our national identity, and also our diversity. No two trees — or leaves — are ever the same: and you’ll see that every leaf here is a little different, a little unique. Just like the children that made them.
Click any leaf to see the children’s artwork.
Process Art
At the heart of this project was process art, giving children the freedom to explore materials, experiment with ideas, and create without needing a particular outcome. Whether a tree was made from paper, paint, natural materials, collage pieces, or something completely unexpected, the focus was on the experience of creating.
Through the activity, children had opportunities to develop fine-motor skills, explore colour and texture, express themselves creatively, and participate in a collaborative project that connected them to children and educators across the country.
