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

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.

One Garden Project Completed.....Almost

I'm so so so happy with the *nearly* finished article!

Last September I blogged (http://www.lookingoutforthelittlepeople.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/garden-improvements.html) about the beginnings of the children's corner emerging in the garden, well I got offered some willow from a friend of my mother-in-law to start filling in the sides of the den, although I need LOTS more to get it filled in completely.

We had lots of help from my father-in-law this weekend to finish taking up the grass, we made the area a lot bigger than I had first intended but I think it needs to be this big, we made a little hill at the back from some of the grass sods for the children to climb/sit/roll down, I'm going to scatter some wild flower seeds back there too so this summer there will be lots of sensory sights and smells!

We then dug over the ground to make it a bit more even, lay down some wet newspapers as I had read somewhere this was good for deterring weeds etc, and then spread bark chips out. I think I need to get a couple more bags though as it's a pretty thin covering in some areas.

Also managed to get my hands on some big logs (in-laws again, they cut down their big Eucalyptus tree last autumn) for a seating area. And I have to say again I'm so loving it I wish I was a child again, I'd be out there playing all day!!

I've got lots of sweet peas and some mange tout starting off which I think I'll have growing up the den for some camouflage (and a healthy snack) this summer!

Still to do
- More bark chips for a thicker floor covering
- Find some more willow to fill in the walls
- Oh and I also need to finish painting my chalk boards for some outdoor mark making!!
- OH!! I also want to make a bug pile somewhere, as Eucalyptus doesn't support bug life I'll need to pick another spot to make them a little home

Bring on the Summer!!!!!

Space Week - Part 2

We had a visit from http://wormseye-view.blogspot.com/ later in the week to join in on the fun!
It's summer holidays at the moment so my nephews Brendan and Kenzie came along too, we had quite a house full!

We found another box to put together a third spaceship....but it actually ended up being Geoff from top year...lol the pair of them do make me laugh. Baby 'R' even climbed in for a ride!

Next we needed to finish making the laminated planets for the window display

Some writing practice for the names!

All finished!! It's a bit hard to see in this picture but we also put up some glow in the dark stars, it looks amazing when the sun has gone down in the evenings, unfortunately all the children have gone home by then so it's just for me!

My new space set was a big hit with everyone, even baby 'R' couldn't wait for her turn to have a play!

Another play with the sensory tray, 'C' used the spaceship arm to pick up the beans, great for fine motor skills!

Next we made some space scenes with card rockets on lollypop sticks!

With a little detour to decorate each other....

hehehe

So that was our space week!  I had so much fun planning all these activities and loved watching the children all really get into it. I'm already planning our my next big theme!!

Space Week!! - Part 1

It's was my Birthday week this week, and my partner Georgia has taken the week off work (she works very long days) to be at home with me, unfortunately I was not able to have time off too but I'm planning as much fun as possible with the children so she'll never want to go back to work!

Recently I bought a little 99p book about space and the solar system from a local shop, just because I saw it and thought we didn't really have anything spacey yet! So it was a bit of a surprise when the kids found it and just fell in love with it!
It got to a point in fact that it was comming out everyday and I was being asked questions about the planets and the sun, 'can we go there can we go there?', and was having to sort out squables out about who had it first and whos turn it was!

So following the childrens interests I decided to devote the week to all things SPACE!!

We started off with making some tissue paper laminated planets, 'C' wanted to make the Sun and Earth, and 'I' wanted blues and greens so we made them Neptune and Uranus. These planets became the base to my new window display which was a wok in progress through the week. The children were fascinated watching the sheets go through the laminator and were asking all about how it works!

Next up, was making some of our very own spaceships! I just happened to have a couple of boxes around the house, we drew on the basic spaceship design and then handed them over for the finishing touches!

Once they were all decorated we were ready for a space race around the garden, on your marks....

After that spurt of energy we came back inside to have a look what else there was to do!

I had been getting some ideas together from other blogs on a space sensory tub, mine consists of black eyed beans, marbles, some glow in the dark stars, some pots and scoops for pouring practice, some jigsaw pieces and a globe to have a look at where we are. Theres also a jigsaw book, a 'Pepper Pig' space rocket and the solar system book which started it all off!!
Both 'C' and 'I' had a fantastic time looking through all these bits. 'C' is a bit older and got straight into the jigsaws as he does love a good puzzle, 'I' at just 2 years old was fascinated by the little stars and pots I had put in there and spent ages scooping the beans and digging around.

We finished the day by cooking some 'Planet Cookies' and 'C' spent some time practicing his writing, asking for spacey words which we dot out first. We also had a look on YouTube and found some footage of some real spaceships taking off.

By the end of day one I was very tired and the children were very excited about what I had in mind for the next day!!