Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

We like to have plenty of imaginative and sensory play areas for the children and this week we combined the two.

By tipping buckets of sand into last weeks water play, we created a dinosaur swamp using some mini dinosaur skeletons and a few large rocks.

The children had a very messy but delightful time burying and digging up the dinos.

They said it was a bit like being a pirate finding hidden treasure.

Water and sand went everywhere and we realised that placing the tub next to the board displaying our treasure maps …

wasn’t a smart idea!! … splish, splosh, splash!

This naturally led onto a discussion about archeology and fossils, so the next step was for the children to create their own fossils.

They used a variety of objects …

like shells, bones, coral and plastic dinosaurs.

They pressed them into clay …

leaving nice deep imprints …

then we mixed up the plaster and scooped it on top.

By the end of the session the plaster was dry enough to be taken off.

Uncovering the fossils was very exciting!

and ta-raa their very own ‘fossils’ to take home!

In the words of our friend Aiden to his Mum at the end of kinder today …

“Hey look what we found today … dinosaur fossils”

We are playing a few different memory games with the children, in small and large groups.

We thought a great large group game would be the one where items are placed on a tray and covered.

One or two things are removed without the children looking (yeah, right!) and they tell us what has gone.

A pirate-themed one seemed obvious to us and amongst other things we had a mini pirate hat, like the children made with the newspaper.

Some children thought it was a sail boat so we all decided it would be great to see if we could make and float them.

We have to admit it wasn’t a great success – the boats just sogged up and sank. (Cover paper works a lot better).

It could perhaps be because we used a cut up street directory and the paper was way too thin.

Needless to say, the children gathered up other other floating objects from around the kinder …

as well as objects that didn’t float …

and had a heap of fun in the water, so all was not lost!

We chatted to the children about how the melway paper boats didn’t work and what we could use another time.

One bright spark came up with the idea of using corks to make boats, so that will become our next project.

One of our boys bounced into kinder and told everyone that he was going on a holiday to “Pirate Bay”, which got the whole group talking about pirates and what they do.

The children decided they wanted to make pirate hats. Fortunately we have plenty of newspaper available, so we set up a table.

We showed the children how to fold an old favourite, simple style, triangular pirate hat …

and off they went.

They managed extremely well to follow the instructions and we were very impressed!

They folded, stuck and decorated their hats.

They did a wonderful job and they looked fantastic!

Pirates of course hunt for treasure, so many of the children went off and made their own maps.

This was very exciting!

One child even made the “X to mark the spot”!

Then they headed outside armed with their maps.

They hid treasure!

They searched for treasure  …

and they dug for treasure!

Large groups of children spent the whole morning in the sandpit digging up a large assortment of treasures.

Uncovering all sorts of things from cars, boats and spades to old shells and stones. Some children even uncovered what must have been … dinosaur bones!

While others preferred to collected ‘clean treasure’ from around the kinder.

We finished off the day with the whole group creating a map of our playground …

… all drawn by the children!

Then we went en masse, following the instructions on the map, through the playground until …

we found the treasure hidden in the ‘pirate boat’!

Naturally all the children were very excited to be able to take a piece of the precious treasure home!

Considering the early stage of the year, the children were amazingly cooperative and worked extremely well together as a group.

By the way, we changed a well known song, “A sailor went to sea, sea, sea” to “A pirate went to sea, sea, sea”! The children loved it!

In this hot weather our thoughts turn to the beach.

We have popped up long lengths of blue material through the playroom which are reminiscent of waves and we thought we would add to the summery, beachlike feeling.

One of the children’s favourite books is “Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister, and after reading it to the children this week, we provided them with materials which they could turn into creatures from under the sea.

Using paper plates as a basis and lots of cellophane, streamers, felt tip pens and sticky dots, we were amazed at the variety of sea animals they invented.

Hanging them down amongst our ‘waves’ makes us feel as if we are under the sea.

And as they are under the spinning fans, they are creating some exciting movement!

As we’ve mentioned before Reverse Art in Ringwood  is a wonderful recycling depot you can visit and pick up the most incredibly useful stuff.

Small off cuts of dressed pine is always something we seek out …

… as the children love to use the big hammers and nails.

Some of the children have very specific ideas about the things they want to make but mostly it’s just about the nails, the wood and the banging!

It’s great for the children’s hand eye co-ordination and although occasionally they do miss the nail and bang their fingers … it’s important for them to learn limitations. They very quickly learn how hard to hit the nails for them to penetrate the timber and to watch what they are doing at all times or … ooooouch!

The children like to jazz up their creations with different bits and pieces they collect from the invention table.

A group of children asked if they could hammer things onto a small log they found in the garden. They often go back to the log and add more decorations to it. We love to see the children working co-operatively together on projects.

We decided a number of years ago that it would be nice to have the children create group projects we could display for everybody to enjoy.

Once, after we had read the delightful story of elmer by David McKee the children began creating beautiful patchwork pictures by cutting up squares of brightly coloured paper and pasting them to pictures they had drawn themselves.  This gave us the idea of having the children create a group mosaic picture for display, so we introduce them to the basics of mosaic art.

We have lots of bits and pieces in tubs we have collected over the years so the children set out to gather up objects to use for our project. Sorting through everything was great for their fine motor skills as they found items like corks, bottle tops, tiles and glass stones as well as some very tiny beads, buttons and sequins.

We had two pieces of ‘mdf’ given to us by one of our crafty mums which was perfect for the project. We used PVA glue to stick the decorations onto the timber as it is strong and dries colourless.  Some children preferred to use a small brush or cotton bud for the glue while others enjoyed the sensation of using their fingers, and what fun they had in peeling the dried glue off their hands and fingers afterwards.

We explained to the children the idea was to position the objects close to each other, covering as much of the board as they could and boy they did a fantastic job!

Every body got involved and the result was absolutely beautiful. The children really enjoyed being part of a team and took great pride in what they had achieved together as a group. The mosaics are now on permanent display in our room.

Following the success of our mosaic project we invited to children to create a series of mosaic pavers.

You can see how we used the pavers in our ‘make it irresistible – with a hush garden‘ post on January 11th.

Our invention table is one of our most popular play areas, where the children are free to create whatever their hearts desire!

We keep it well stocked with recycled bits and pieces we’ve collect over time like cardboard, boxes, assorted papers, various types of containers, timber, ribbons and wool etc… as well as things our wonderful families and friends collect and send along for us to use. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure and all that jazz….so true, so true!

The area has a large table at which the children can create and they are encouraged to explore the invention table whenever they need supplies to add to any of our other activities throughout the day.

We have found through experience that by keeping the supplies in easily accessible tubs, in a locker we designed, the children are able to choose the tubs they need, use their contents and return them to the shelves when finished … Okay! well, that is what we encourage them to do anyway!

We are constantly adding to and changing the items in the tubs …

… depending on what we have available.

The children are encouraged to ask an adult for help when they need us to use things like the guillotine, stanley knife or large scissors but they always have access to tools and supplies like the following:

And of course if what they want or need isn’t there, all they have to do is ask and we will endeavour to get it for them or come up with a suitable replacement.

Here’s a look at another delightful Christmas decoration the children had fun making.

Using styrene Christmas shape with pins and sequins …

… was a great fine motor exercise …

… and creative too …

… with beautiful results!

And our Christmas hangers are looking amazing!

We like to make our Christmas activities pretty simple and child oriented. We tend to pop lots of glitz out on the table and let them go for it!

In this case they could make wreaths if they wanted, so we put out paper plates, glue, patty pans, bells, recycled Christmas cards,  pipe cleaners, pom-poms, hole punches and curling ribbon and off they went. Naturally they were free to source other bits and pieces to use as well.

They came up with many and varied wreaths – some simple and others more complex.

They had a lovely time exercising both mind and body …

…  glueing …

… sticking …

… punching …

… attaching …

… twisting …

… threading …

… tying …

… and displaying. All so very unique … and …

… our first ever Christmas whale … TOO CUTE!

All throughout the year we compile a portfolio for each child. We call them “Memory Books“. They consist of our observations, parent’s contributions, children’s art work and stories, photos of them in action and the different incursions and excursions we do together.

At the end of the year they are given to the families as a very special present from their kindergarten children.

They are completed now and the children have had their final look through them…

… decorated the covers using posca pens and wrapped them up.

For their wrapping paper, we placed a mixture of bright edicol-coloured water by the easel and big sheets of paper.

The variety of beautiful paintings …

… with their incredible colours …

… took our breath away!!

Spectacular!

We didn’t worry about naming them as the children understood that we would be sharing the paper around, so they simply choose a sheet they liked when the time came to wrap.

::: make it irresistible :::

We love to have our easels set up outside and we find that the children love it too. In fact we’ve noticed that many more children are drawn to the painting experience when the easels are outside.

Using edicol-coloured water like we did here, can create a real mess under the easel (then again can’t all paint!)…

… so we have a large piece on lino on the ground …

… so we can easily mop up any spills.

Of course this would be a great advantage on the floor inside as well!