Water Play

It wasn't really that warm today but the children chose to wonder off outside so off we went, with camera in hand to see what was chosen!

Earlier that morning I had filled up a big trug of water and after a bit of mixing in the mud kitchen 'S' noticed the water and headed over with some tools to investigate!

After lots of scooping, mixing, splashing and pouring...and even some tasting, 'S' then investigated the trug itself

Running her hands around the edge and then with spoon in hand she was banging on the side under the water; looking, feeling and listening on the outside of the trug. Feeling the resistance of the water in her other hand as she explored the sounds she could make.

When she was finished with that 'S' went back to the water, abandoning her tools, she wanted a really good look...

Supporting her weight with her hands to keep herself safe 'S' lowered her head down towards the water.

Seeing her breath causing ripples in the water 'S' began blowing harder and saw the ripples increasing across the water surface, leaning lower and lower, blowing as she went, until eventually her face dipped in the water at which point she pulled herself back up and looked up with a huge smile on her face!

At this point I took her cue she was finished, and everyone was really quite wet and getting cold so we headed inside to warm up and find some snack!

Characteristics of Effective Learning
'S' was provided with plenty of time to take her self-led learning where she wanted it to go. She kept her attention on this activity for quite some time, not distracted by another child playing around her, sometimes also in the water. She noticed the small details, such as the ripples in the water and tried to take this further, showing her obvious pleasure after her slight dip at the end!
'S' was somewhat aware of the risk of playing with water and knew how to keep herself safe, slowly and carefully exploring, managing her own safety but keen to have a go to extend her knowledge. She used many of her senses to explore the media and displayed curiosity of her tools and how they could be used.
'S' tested out her ideas of banging against the side of the trug and perhaps linked this to her existing knowledge of when she bangs things outside of water. She explored the cause and effect of splashing with different tools and her own hand/arm and decided in her own time when she had finished with her exploration and moved on to another activity.

Next Steps
Extend water play incorporating bubbles, water beads, items that sink/float
Extend scooping/pouring with wider range of containers, funnels, tubes
Transfer skills of scooping/pouring to mud, sand, baking activities
Extend knowledge of resistance to mud, shaving foam
Extend understanding of her breath blowing against the surface by repeating activity, provide straws to observe from a different point of view

Chalk Painting

We often have chalks out in the garden, I will draw out a road for the cars and extend it to include fields for our farm animals, or a zoo area too...sometimes even the Dinosaurs come join in!!

Today I got out the chalks, but added some water and black card. My idea was to do some mark making, perhaps finger painting too. But let see where the children took it!

 'J' began with some mark making following my example but he chose to draw straight on the patio as he has done previously.

 After a bit of drawing 'J' decided instead to do some transferring and poring of the coloured water and chalks

All together in one pot!

 So far 'S' had been sat back watching our play, but at this point she decided to come over and have a go herself! She tried some mark making first, seeming to connect her movements with the marks left on the patio

 Next 'S' tried combining her paint brush with the chalks. Perhaps this was exploring combining objects in a variety of ways; poking, stirring etc. Or perhaps she was transferring her knowledge of other painting experiences to what she had available to her today?

'J' came over to have a little look at the different colours and they had a little babbling chat between them, I do love their little interactions!

 'S' went back to her mark making, trying some different colours and looking closely at her work on the floor

When she was done 'S' spotted the little ride on toy which she then spent some time pushing back and forth through the 'paint' on the floor. Unintentionally making some great track marks and foot prints on some of the black paper which had previously been discarded for use in our arty activity.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

'S' made links from her previous experience and transferred her knowledge to this activity. Testing her theories (trying to use a paint brush) and then moving on to different approaches.

'S' began by observing 'J' and I to see our approach. She was keen to engage with 'J' when he came over, looking and babbling with each other to share the experience. I had begun with an idea for the activity but was keen to follow the children's ideas. 'S' knew she had plenty of time to explore the material at her own pace, pausing to interact with 'J' at his initiation, before then returning to what she was previously doing. I took their cue's when they were done and ready to move on.

Next Steps

Spend some more time mark making to ascertain if 'S' has an established knowledge connecting her movements with the marks she leaves.

Introduce some cars, balls, marbles etc with painting to roll through and see the different marks they leave

Sunny afternoon and Planting our first few seeds

The weather here has been beautiful this weekend!! I have heard a rumor more rain is on the way though so we are taking full advantage of the sun while we have it.

After doing the school run we headed straight outside to enjoy the sun.

Out came the bubbles

Baby 'M' joined us outside for some fresh air too! She was watching the bubbles float around her.

Baby 'M' got hold of a ribbon wand, I'll need to make a couple of smaller ones so she can play too!

Lots more Bubbles and ribbon wands being flapped around to catch the "Bubble Bees!!!!"

'W' and 'E' spent some time exploring the new messy play area. I did a bit of gardening over the weekend and it seemed such a waste to put everything in the garden waste bin, so we chopped bits up ready for the children to play with!

'E' spent a lot of time looking through the tins, emptying them out, feeling the textures of the smooth leaves. She then started moving them around (this is linked to her emerging transporting schema that we learn more about here), putting some in the wheelbarrow, putting some through the cage for the rabbit to munch on!

Then we got on with our potting!!

I gave the children a couple of pots each and placed some compost in a large tray so they could scoop their own. The older children filled their pots quickly but then came back and felt the compost, squishing large clumps in their hands to break them up.

'E' had a tight hold on her pot and so couldn't get much compost in to start off with

She changed her approach to gently hold the pot with one hand and grab handfuls of compost to transfer instead! Great problem solving!

When we had our pots all ready we came back to the table to choose our seeds!! I have 3 different types of sunflowers and a Giant Pumpkin!! We started off with the Pumpkin, I handed out one big seed each. 'W' knew what to do with it straight away, he pushed his finger into the pot to make a hole and then dropped the seed inside. 'E' was watching her big brother closely and soon followed suit, we then worked together to push the soil from the side of the pot over the hole to tuck our seeds into bed!!

Sunflowers next, each of the children pointed to the variety they wanted to grow and we started off the process again. Poking a hole in the soil with our fingers and dropping the seeds in.

Once those were done I was faced with a chorus of "can I do another one, can I do another one?"

Lucky I had a few spare pots so the children each chose another variety of sunflower!

I made sure to label them as we went so I knew what and who's all the pots were.

By this point the boys had had enough and decided to return to their game of football which left 'E' and I with the final job of giving them a good drink. 'E' knew this was an important step and had run off to get a watering can before I mentioned it!!

Our seeds are now sat comfortably on the windowsill next to the frogspawn, I'm sure we will be checking in with them regularly to spot the first signs of life!!!

First week back!

So many new beginnings!

I have moved house, into a lovely little village and very much enjoying country life once again. A house move has resulted in new children starting with me, including a few older ones after school, which is a change of pace!

Days are already going by so fast, I can't believe a whole week of work has passed already! You would think moving to the country would make life slow down but no! There is playbus and toddler group in the week, Bingo every fortnight, Zumba another night of the week (I do want to start getting out to that). We have had a power cut, for which the Mrs actually saw the powerline go up in flames as we were driving past. We've had the council cutting back fallen trees at 11pm. And we're now steaming ahead into another week exploring Chinese New Year.

I had so many things to share as this first week has been a busy one, unfortunately I have just discovered the majority of photos I have taken over the last week have been corrupted and so are worthless! Many cross words have been exchanged between my mobile and I. But lesson learnt; keep my camera with me, do not rely on my mobile!

None the less I thought I would share a few of the highlights from the week, and pictures where I have them!

 We went out on a very muddy walk! Up one of the lanes past the school, we went to find some sheep and horses, but mainly lots of mud and puddles.

 Little 'E' had a bit of trouble staying on her feet, so much slippery mud can make things tricky for little ones, but she did have fun splashing through the puddles anyway.

'W' is a bit bigger and was off ahead with the dogs, he was making big splashes in the puddles, to a point where we had to stop and empty his wellies!

I am discovering 'W' has the most amazing imagination. This week we have been shopping, been on a long train journey, run a restaurant, been firemen saving people from fires, pirates on a ship, we have been in a snow and ice covered land with crocodiles who might eat you, we have hidden in a snow cave, we have been good knights protecting our land from a dragon, we have been Witches, mummies and daddies, and I'm sure many others that I lost track of!!

This week we also enjoyed a sensory 'Winter' tray. This consisted of rice, wooden blocks, a few selected animals, some plastic snowflakes and various scoops and containers.

'E' became engrossed in collecting up the rice, she started out trying some of the scoops but resorted to just grabbing handfuls of rice. She filled containers, poured them into each other, emptied them out and then started all over again.
I have already noticed 'E' is a bit of a collector, a number of occasions this week I have seen her collecting up little bits of toys, finding a bag to put them in or just making a pile. A potential Schema uncovering itself?? This most definitely calls for some exploring in the coming weeks.

'W' was just as intrigued with the sensory tray, his ever present imagination creating a dialog for the Polar Bears and Reindeer. The Reindeer in particular was enjoying rice being poured over it's back. 'W' commented "he likes the feel of that".

With Burns Night on Friday we also spent some time this week exploring Scotland. We looked at the flag and a book on Scotland that talked about castles and the Loch Ness Monster. 'W' and I spoke for some time about why there were no knights in the castles, I explained that we don't really have knights any more, we just have Soldiers and Policemen now. He didn't really like that concept though!

We finished off the week by making some yummy shortbread together and paying a trip to the park to collect some logs to put in the garden.

Crafty Monday

Happy October!!

Another beautiful Autumn day and as is becoming our routine we headed straight out for a walk.

After some fresh air we headed home and Little 'A' headed off for a sleep and I could have a sneaky cuppa. I have a new starter Little 'O' who arrived after lunch and we had a bit of quiet play time with animals and cars. Once 'A' had woken up and had some late lunch we decided to finish off some of the crafty bits we started last week.

I don't often do organised 'Arts and Crafts' with very young children as it's so easy to get caught up in making something to send home. Which is of course a lovely thing for families to have, but it becomes an exercise in leading children to make something you want rather than what they want to do. Which is often simply exploring the media, feeling textures with their hands and just practicing control with various tools.

At the end of last week however I did do a bit of painting with Little 'A', took a print of his hand and arm and he also painted a couple of empty toilet rolls brown

Something Little 'A' is really enjoying at the moment is making sticker pictures. I put a bowl of stickers down on the floor and 'A' sits and picks out the sticker he wants and then puts it on the picture.

I then have to pick it back up again and tell him "peal the back" and then hold it out for him and say "stick" for him to place it back where he wants it. He hasn't yet started trying to get the backing off himself, but I'm sure that will come in time!

A lovely Autumn tree!

Next we finished off our toilet rolls, the idea was to make some owls so I drew on some marks for wings and then asked Little 'A' to put on some googly eyes (more sticking!) and then gave him a pen so he could do some more 'detailing' for the owl.

Little 'O' had said he didn't want to join in any of this so far and was happy playing by himself. He has only been here a few days and has had a lot of changes to his routine in the last couple of weeks so we're taking things nice and slow. He had however come over to the kitchen gate by this point and had started watching with a bit more interest so I asked again if he wanted to join in. He said yes but he didn't want to make owls, but did want to make a monkey and an elephant instead!

So I gave 'A' some paints and a brush to play around with and a quick improvise, (and a google search) we found some paper in the right colours and started cutting out arms, legs, trunks, tusks and tails and 'O' stuck them all on with some more googly eyes and even drew on some banana's for the monkey!

'A' had a lovely time with the paint, using the brush and then watching the marks his fingers make and then wiping with his whole hand. I took a couple of prints in some lovely autumn colours

After all this crafting there was just enough time for the boys to help me set up the Guinea Pig cage again. We got a bit covered in hay but it was good fun!

Our previous baby boys went to their forever home about a week ago so we've been waiting for our next foster piggies to arrive which I am off to collect tonight. We are having a pregnant mum this time so that will be lovely for the boys to see mum alone and then a few new ones 'appear'!! We don't know exactly when the babies will arrive as mum came to the rehoming place just pregnant so some time in the next 10 days is the estimate but we shall see....