Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

We have assorted umbrellas which we use in different areas around our kindergarten.

Laying on it’s side on the platform this canvas umbrella …

makes an ideal quiet spot.

While we like to use this umbrella inside to add irresistible colour to the room, and we are able to hang things off it as added decoration if we so choose. That’s not to say we never use it in the great outdoors as well … ‘cos we do!

This beautiful earthy, timber, outdoor umbrella frame was a curbside find during a hard rubbish collection (and yes we did ask the owners for permission before we took it away!). All that was wrong with it was the canvas cover had gone a little mouldy, so we took the cover off and now it is a real feature at kinder and we use it all year round, sometimes outside, sometimes in …we just love it! See our Disco C.D. post on November 9th 2009, to see hoe we jazzed it up in the hush garden.

Sometimes we drape fabric or netting over it and sometimes we leave in natural, in time something always end up hanging off it, even if it is just a friendly snake or two!

Here we’ve hung an old umbrella upside down with the nylon cover removed to display things the children have threaded.

This is an old golf umbrella some body left at kinder years ago, so we have put it to good use as a prop. It has a straight handle so we can pop it straight into the umbrella stand or, as we have here, cushion it inside a terracotta pipe for stability ….

This mini umbrella came with an insulated wine cooler and made it’s way to kinder. (The umbrella … not the wine cooler!) It is the perfect size to use in imaginary play and is particularly cute in our sand trays or as seen here in our bush box.

Musical instruments are fairly expensive and sometimes we want plenty of the same sort so that everyone has one. When we wanted a set of drums, we asked our mums who used formula to feed their babies if we could have the empty tins with lids.

It didn’t take long before we had enough for a group of children and any adults who were with us for the session.

All we did was cover them with bright paper and they are fine for little hands. We have a few favourite pieces we play them with such as Little Drum (Feel the Beat – Kids Music Company), All of a sudden (Teddy Jumps – Kids Music Company) and before we pop them back into their storage box, we usually like to play Pass the drum (Echo Fred – Kids Music Company).

We have to beat the drum to different tempos and speeds, then pass the drums around the circle. The music gets faster and faster and the children just love it!

It took a while to have the passing of the drums happening smoothly – we started off with a few drums, then every second person had one, until finally the whole group managed to pass them on with some sort of consistency. It was well worth persisting with.

Any body who has been following our blog since it began last September will know our mantra is “make it irresistible”  and that every day we strive to make our center and activities as irresistible as we can in order to attract our students to experience all they can! Well, a little while ago, Jenny from over at “Progressive Early Childhood Education” (see link) left us a comment saying:

“I’d love to see what your table looks like at the end of an activity! They always look so inviting and pleasing at the beginning but I can’t imagine that the hive of activity they must inspire would leave them that way.“

Well Jenny you are absolutely right, lots of play means lots of ‘mess’, so here are the before and after snap shots of some of the activities our children really enjoyed during week one, 2010.

Invention Table … before.

and  … after!

Playdough … before.

and playdough … after!

(The yellow playdough only lasted a couple of days and the blue is looking pretty shoddy already!)

Dinosaur play .. before.

dinosaurs … after!

Puzzle area .. before.

and … after!

Bush box, fishing game … before.

… after!

Colour matching game … before.

Colour matching game … after!

Block play … before.

whoaaaa! … and after!

Well Jenny there you have it! Lots and lots of busy play naturally means lots and lots of busy mess. So you know what happens next … we set it all up again and wait for more busy, busy play!

Thanks for you comment Jenny. If any body else has anything they would like to see or hear about, please feel free to ‘Contact Us‘ we’d be very happy to share with you!!

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.

We love music – listening, moving and dancing to it, singing along with it, relaxing by it, playing instruments to accompany it, and in particular we love to make our own music.

An instrument we made with the children last year has been in constant use in our music corner and the children never tire of playing with it.

It began as a science experiment when we were talking to the children about the way sound travels through air.  We filled four identical bottle with different levels of water.

The result being, the more water the bottle contained, the less air it held and the deeper the sound it resonated, less water in the bottle means more air, resulting in a higher pitch being produced. We use a wooden drumstick to tap out the different sounds.

The children commented on how similar the sounds of the musical bottles are to the sounds made by our very popular  marimba, a wonderful instrument Sherry’s Uncle Bill made for his grandchildren some years ago and has (fortunately) made its way to us at kinder!

Some children found it quite difficult to determine which bottles created the higher and deeper pitches but older children might be better able to distinguish the difference and line them up from deepest pitch to highest.

Due to its constant use we have had to replace the liquid in the bottles over time and using different coloured water simply adds a new dimension to a favourite instrument.

We like to provide the children with a selection of bottles, glasses or jars, a tub of water and a funnel, and allow them to make their own music by filling the containers with as much or as little water as they want. The more containers they have the greater the variety of pitch they can create.

Simple science is music to the ears!

Over the years we’ve set our room up in many different and interesting ways.

Big changes are made before the children start the year however despite this, we try not to change the look so much that the children returning from last year don’t recognise the place.

The children’s lockers are kept in the same place each year and although the activities may be in a slightly different space we always have our core play stations such as the invention table, writing area, puzzles, library, snack table, block play, sensory play, creative activities and lots and lots of dramatic and imaginary play areas.  Changes made throughout the year are more of an extension to the play space than a total change.

By adding things like umbrellas and hanging curtains …

or netting …

we can enhance the look of the area …

and create lovely little play spaces …

where one …

or a group of children can play.

Children love private, cosy places to play so positioning trolleys on angles is great for creating little cubby effects …

and quiet out of the way spots.

Low partitions are also a great idea .

Don’t forget to use the top of the block trolley as a play surface.

It’s the ideas size and height for imaginary play!

Including plenty of natural materials to the play area is really important…

and positioning the play on low surfaces …

including the floor is ideal.

By simply brightening up a wall with seasonal and interesting pictures we are able to create some really irresistible visual areas …

while large posters …

and murals …

are wonderful enhancements!

::: make it irresistible

One thing we don’t do is create clutter!!!!  The kindergarten room is already full of stimulation with adults and children forever creating noise and being constantly on the move, so something you’ll notice about our room is that we don’t clutter it up with lots and lots of unnecessary stuff hanging from windows walls and ceilings.

While striving to create an exciting, irresistible space which reflects a friendly and inviting atmosphere we believe it is very important to leave areas free from distraction … places where the children can rest their eyes, and their minds!!!

How many times have you successfully asked your children to sit or stand in a circle on your square mat?  Chances are it often creates confusion and muddle … right?

For years we struggled with making circles on a square mat and then one day it occurred to us … either we should sit and stand in a square or … get a round mat.  So! we got a round mat!

We had it made it two halves, in different colours to add a bit of interest, which means we can split it in half if we so choose and we are able to instruct the children to sit or stand in one half when the need arises. The line down the middle has also come in handy at different times during action songs, mat play, games etc.,

The colours are great, the shape is great and it’s ever so practical … we love it!

Here’s a project you might like to do in the holidays.

These miniature wooden houses are made from scraps of pine timber which we picked up from Reverse Art in Ringwood.

We painted them with craft paint, each side a different colour, and using a small brush dabbed roof tiles on the sloped top.  We painted a variety of shapes for the windows and doors with the black detail being added later with permanent markers.

The children enjoy these little houses everywhere at kinder …

in all kinds of imaginative play spaces  …

… where ever their imaginations take them.

We also use them to jazz up other areas around the room.

They make terrific little props!

Ask builder parents for ‘dressed pine timber’ off cuts then sand the rough edges to avoid splinters!

A brand new year is upon us and it’s time to prepare for another exciting year of play based learning.  Over the holiday break we like to think of ways to jazz up the kinder making it new and exciting for the children and their families who are returning for another great year with us.

We love to add colour and interest to our yard at kinder so when we came across these delightful little flags at the ‘Produce Store‘ in Mansfield Victoria for just $8.oo each we knew they would be perfect for brightening the place up.

We bought some to put up at our front gate in the colours of our kinder and pre-kinder groups; red, blue, green and purple. They make the entrance look really inviting for our families and visitors.

Four more have been perched  near the platform in our playground.

They look so enticing as they invite you into our ‘Hush Garden’ which you’ll discover through our old squeaky farm gate in our recycled paling fence!

A friend of ours owns a bread supplies business and loves using her bread machine.

She has sent us a recipe for making playdough in the bread machine which is quick and easy and great for those people who don’t want to get their hands mucky!

Pop the following into the machine:

1 and 1/4  cups water

2 tablespoons olive oil

squirt food colouring

3 cups of plain flour

Set the machine to the dough setting -

it only needs 5 minutes to make a nice pliable dough.

This keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks or in an airtight container for 4-5 days. As there isn’t any salt in it, it’s OK if the children eat it!

::: make it irresisitible :::

We like to enhance the sensory experience by adding different textures such as sand, the treasure stones, and of course at this time of the year …

… glitter is always a goer!

By using vibrant colours such as the reds and greens and yellows it makes it all the more irresistible on the eye and don’t forget the sense of smell by adding a variety of essences such as peppermint, lemon, eucalyptus etc… Of course by popping on some Christmas music in the background, most sensory bases are covered!