It's a Balancing Act!

This morning we made our regular Tuesday visit to Toddler Group. 'E' is usually a watcher, she sits back and observes other children for a long time before joining in. Often at Toddlers she chooses to watch for such a long time she get little play time!

Today though something clearly caught her eye and she dived right in!

I have to admit I have been after one of these Large Rainbow stackers for about a year!!

Seeing how it captures 'Es' attention has only increased my desire!

She explored the shapes with interest, it took a couple of attempts to get the first one balanced as it kept slipping off to one side but by testing the point of balance she got it in the end. Getting the hang of it she then chose a larger one to put on top

'E' spent a long time with the pieces of Rainbow, moving them around, balancing and watching them topple and building again

Characteristics of Effective Learning
'E' was engaged with this toy for a long time, building various structures and then laughing as they fell or were knocked down. She explored the points of balance, trying a placement and moving it over slightly if it began to fall.

St David's Day Painting!

Happy St David's Day!!

Today's activity is painting with leeks! A bit of fun doing a normal activity with unusual implements.

'E' and 'M' had a play with the leeks first. 'E' discovered she could peel back the layers....in fact she kept on peeling until there wasn't much left of hers!

 'M' was joining in for the sensory exploration but I don't expect her to have much awareness of what we were doing. She explored the leek too to start off with. She tried tasting it, it wasn't very nice!!

 

 Then the paints came out and off they went!

Dipping into the paint and making marks on the paper using gross motor movements

 'M' had discarded her leek soon after discovering she couldn't eat it so we went straight to finger painting!

I put some paint on the paper in front of her and encouraged her through demonstration to run her hands across it. She scratched at the paper a bit and wiped a bit with her hand but didn't make the conscious connection she was making marks, as expected.

 After a little time playing with the leeks 'E' got her hands in!!

 Does it smell??

 Great sensory exploration for her too!

We also did some resistance painting which was good fun. Pip and I cut out words from masking tape and the children could carry on their painting. For 'E' and 'R' we made their names and for 'M' we wrote one for her mum and dad!!

Characteristics of Effective Learning

This was a simple sensory exploration for 'M' as she is not yet connecting her movements with marks they leave on the paper. She was a bit dubious at first just scratching at the paper with one finger. She did eventually become more engaged wiping at the paint and feeling the paint in her fist but she quickly became bored.

'E' was much more engaged as she knows what painting is all about but the novelty of using different tools made it a bit more fun! She gave it a go with the leek before reverting to using her hands to get the full sensory experience smearing the paint all around, feeling it between her fingers and seeing the mix of colours.

Space Week!

Monday morning arrives and the first thing I am asked by 'W' is, "Is it Space Week?"

"Yes W, this week is SPACE WEEK!!"

Everyone was eager to explore the spaceship we had created in the space under the stairs. Little E was first up at the controls!

Little 'E' and 'L' looked out the window to see what planets they could spot "we're going to that planet!!" exclaimed W pointing to one of them.

Our after schoolers joined in the fun too, finding the dressing up clothes. It was a bit too small for him though so they shared the outfit between them

We worked very hard on a Jetpack, W spent a long time placing these flame stickers in the correct place so they looked like flames coming from the engines!

Little 'E' helped with some mark making of her own

W had the first turn, he was off! Exploring the galaxy!

Later in the week we had another visit from our neighbors at Worms Eye View. We make some Moon Sand to go in a Sensory Tray with all sorts of space themed bits to explore.

We spoke about the different planets, W recognised Earth straight away, looking closely "we don't live in that bit" he said pointing to the blue areas of the little model "That's right that blue part is the sea!" I replied.

All the children had lots of fun with the Moon Sand, scooping and tipping it into containers, hiding planets and stars under the sand

 After some focused time Little Astronaut E decided it was her turn with the Jetpack!

She enjoyed it so much we made another one later in the week so they could have one each!

E is still working on that pincer grasp, occasionally changing back to the full handed grasp but much less often!

A different Sensory Tray to explore later in the week. This time we used various beans, the stars, planets and containers. I found a couple of tubes and W had great fun grabbing handfuls of the beans and posting them down the tubes, listening to the sounds as they popped out the bottom and scattered back into the tray.

E was enjoying another opportunity to gather! I found her a couple more containers to fill and pour the beans between them.

We also spent some time watching Youtube clips of rockets taking off, I showed the after schoolers the webpage and pictures of an enormous crater in Arizona, that I visited as a child. Scientists believe this crater could be from the meteor which killed off the dinosaurs! I told them about the rock in the middle, you could just about see it in the pictures, "That rock is actually the size of a 4 bedroom house" I told them, "now can you imagine how big that crater actually is?!"

We have had great fun this week exploring aspects of space!

Bird Week!

This week was National Bird Nesting Week!

We spent lots of time in the garden looking for the birds that live nearby. W decided to bring out the binoculars so he could see them better "I'm a bird watcher man!" he called out

We tore up lots of seedy bread for them to eat. We made sure it was in small enough pieces so the bird could carry them off. "It would be very hard work for a little bird to carry a piece of bread that big" I said, so W helped his little sister E tear up her bits a little smaller.

I had found some good templates for birds online, we printed them out and decorated them. W wanted his bird to be completely coloured in "because birds are covered in colour"

Little E had a good go at making marks on hers too. I noticed she was occasionally changing her grip around from a full handed to a pincer grasp. Sometimes right at the top of the pen and other times close to the nib. She was exploring the different grips she could do, seeing which felt more comfortable but this does mean a pincer grasp is on it's way! We will make lots of time over the coming weeks for mark making so little E can practice her grasp.

We added some concertina wings and then it was time for our birds to have their first fly!

We returned to the garden to watch the birds for a bit. We spoke about needing to be still and quiet so we didn't scare the birds away. I drew the children's attention to the larger birds being on the feeding table...

....the smaller birds were more drawn to the coconuts with the fat mix in. We spoke about why this could be, do different birds like different foods like us?

We have enjoyed this week talking about the birds and other parts of nature, a lovely beginning to Spring which is *hopefully* just around the corner!!

Valentines Week Fun!

      'B' came to us for Valentines day morning. He made us all a breakfast of..... Pancakes!!

'B' dealing with the deathly food colouring which apparently dyes anything it touches (as we discovered from many red fingers!!)

Why food colouring??

It wouldn't be Valentines Day without hearts of course!!

Pancakes were greatly enjoyed by everyone, and we spoke about looking forward to official Pancake Day in a couple of weeks time.

Also out this week was a Valentines Sensory Tray, Little E has been really enjoying other sensory trays I have done. She is a little collector and as I suspected she spent ages scooping, pouring and mixing in various containers and with different spoons.

Little M joined in the exploring with some safer items! Lots of different textures, a beany bear, smooth rubber duck and a slightly rougher cup.

We played with Play-doh and heart shapes. As little E picked up each one I spoke to her about the material and their different textures and sizes, providing her with the beginnings of some mathematical language.

E spent lots of time with the cutters, cutting out heart shapes and then squishing them together and starting again. She had a little trouble rolling out the doh so I have her a bit of help with that.

L from over at Worms Eye View was here for a visit too, she enjoyed the heart shaped mirror. Her approach was to make lumps of the play-doh and stick the hearts into it the stand them up and make displays.

 Baby M had a play with the Play-doh too, another different texture to explore! She scratched at it with her nails causing little clumps to come off, she even had a taste of a little bit...it wasn't very nice!!

Next up I dug out some paper heart shapes. W had decided to come and do some activities with us by this point which was great timing as I had planned this activity with him in mind!

We had a chat about today being 'Valentines Day' and it's a special day we use to think about all the people in our lives that we love. As we spoke W told me about the people he loves, telling me the names of people in his family and friends who are special to him. As he spoke I wrote each name down on a heart so we could see visually all the people he loves and who love him back. W then asked to do some writing too!

He told me some of his writing was his name, he then also drew a picture of a snowman and told me he loves snowmen too!

Little E was with us too for this activity, I involved her in our conversation as much as possible, as W mentioned names I asked E "You know xxxx too? Do you love them?"

We have had a lovely Valentines week practicing lots of different skills and we will be using them again in the coming weeks.