Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

As the children are just settling in to the new year, we like to sing old familiar songs which the children are comfortable with, but with a twist so they feel a bit more ‘grown up’. An example is the well known favourite, “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes”.

This is the way we sing it with a jazzier tune than the regular one:

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes,

knees and toes.

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes,

knees and toes

and eyes and ears and mouth and nose.

Heads, shoulder, knees and toes, knees and toes.

We sing it through as it should be, then each time after that we touch all body parts mentioned in the song but one by one leave out their names.

….. , shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes etc

….. , ………, knees and toes, knees and toes etc.

….. , ……… , …..  and toes, ….. and toes etc.

….. , ……… , …..  … …., ….. … …. etc.

In the end, the whole song is totally quiet with us all just moving our hands up and down our bodies. We find the children are very proud of themselves when they can do this altogether and without prompting from the teachers.

At the end of the year we have a mini concert for our parents. We like it to be a reflection of our year – no big deal!!! We sit down with the children and discuss with them what songs they would like to perform for their families. When we come up with a list, we go over them a couple of times over a few weeks and do one run through in our positions. We do tend to teach them a couple of new songs - Australian Christmas songs to finish off the grand finale.

All the children know “Jingle Bells” so “Aussie Jingle Bells” is easy to teach, particularly with our faithful song cards to help us.

Dashing through the bush

In a rusty Holden ute, kicking up the dust, Esky in the boot.

Kelpie by my side, singing Christmas songs,

It’s Summer time and I am in my singlet, shorts and thongs!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.

Christmas in Australia on a scorching Summer’s day, hey!

Jingle bells, jingle bells Christmas time is beaut,

Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden ute, hey!

And of course we can’t forget another favourite Christmas song – We wish you a merry Christmas, only once again we like to put an Aussie spin on it by singing,

We wish you a ripper Christmas,

We wish you a ripper Christmas,

We wish you a ripper Christmas,

and a snappy New Year.

May the kids have a hoot.

May the pressies be beaut.

We wish you a ripper Christmas…….and a snappy New Year!

As the children are really enjoying our ant farm, we thought it would be a good time to introduce some ant stories onto their library shelves. One playful story they are enjoying is ….

I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Prince

When switchman Jack, while eating his lunch by his shack, spies an ant walking along the railroad track he gets worried and knows he has to do something to help …

… before the little guy gets run over by the approaching train.

It’s a nice story with delightful language and illustrations and a happy ending!

Once we discoverd the collective nouns for ants were;

an army of ants – a colony of ants – a swarm of ants

It made us think of that great song, ‘The ants went (go) marching‘. So here are the words as we sing them -

The ants went marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching one by one,

the little one stopped to suck his thumb.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching two by two,

the little one stopped to do up his shoe.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching three by three,

the little one stopped to climb up a tree.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching four by four, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching four by four, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching four by four,

the little one stopped to shut the door.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching five by five, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching five by five, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching five by five,

the little one cheered HOORAY I’M ALIVE!

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching six by six, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching six by six, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching six by six,

the little one stopped to pick up some sticks.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching seven by seven, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching seven by seven, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching seven by seven,

the little one stopped to look up to heaven.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching eight by eight. Hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching eight by eight. Hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching eight by eight,

the little one stopped to shut the gate.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching nine by nine, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching nine by nine, hurrah, hurrah!

he ants went marching nine by nine,

the little one stopped to check the time.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

The ants went marching ten by ten, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching ten by ten, hurrah, hurrah!

The ants went marching ten by ten,

the little one stopped to say “THE END”.

And they all went marching down to get out of the rain.

Collective nouns can be beautiful and evocative, even poetic!

Like the collective noun for snails …

… ‘an ascargatoire’ of snails!  How magnificent is that?!

Then there is also a rout of snails and a walk of snails

Here’s an nice, simple poem we taught the children about snails.

If you get excited about collective nouns like we do, or simply enjoy learning new and interesting language, visit our ‘collective nouns’ link, and like us you may just discover a whole new language!

A song which the children enjoy doing in a large group is the old favourite, “Bingo” – you know the one -

There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o,

B-I-N-G-O,    B-I-N-G-O,    B-I-N-G-O,

and Bingo was his name-o!

Five children hold prop cards which Sherry made with the letters on them and gradually turn them around …

… as the sounds are replaced by claps (adding an extra clap into each verse).

clap - I – N – G – O,    clap – I – N – G – O,    clap – I – N – G – O

and B – I – N – G – O was his name-o!

clap – clap - N – G – O

clap – clap – clap - G – O

clap – clap – clap – clap - O

clap – clap – clap – clap – clap

The children picked up the idea of turning the cards around very, very quickly!

At this time of year, with the children being a little older we can give them the letters in the wrong order.

Either the children with the cards sort themselves out, or other members of the group soon call out the correct order.

Not only good for literacy, but also great group cooperation!

Most years as a follow up to our Wild Action incursion, we take the children to the Healesville Sanctuary on an excursion. It is a wonderful place to see and learn about our unique Australian animals.

One year we bought a set of Aussie animals from the Sanctuary shop and we pop them into all sorts of imaginary play areas, sometimes by themselves and sometimes with other creatures. Here we have used sand as a basis. The sand is great as it can be dry as we have it here, or wet so that the children can sculpt it however they like. Add a few logs, plants and rocks and there you have it!

In keeping with our current interest in Australian animals we taught the children a new version (one we made up ourselves) of an old favorite song.

The original is:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,

merry, merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh kookaburra laugh kookaburra,

Gay your life must be!

Our new version sung to the same tune is:

Crocodile sits in the muddy swamp,

Eating all the children – chomp, chomp, chomp.

Snap crocodile snap crocodile,

Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp!

One day one of the children brought in a case moth he had found in his garden.

He had been following this little creature around his garden for about a week, finding it in a different place each day.  The children were totally fascinated by the way it crawled around carrying its home along with it as it looked for food.

We explained to the children that the process a caterpillar goes through to become a moth or butterfly is called metamorphosis and we used the story of The very hungry caterpillar to explain it in a language they could understand. The very ordinary caterpillar is another lovely book they enjoyed.

They also had a great time acting out the story with The very hungry caterpillar felt board.

Metamorphosis is a fascinating concept for children so we pulled out a couple of metamorphosis puzzles on the life cycles of the butterfly and the frog.

In keeping with the tadpole / frog interest we are currently experiencing at kinder we set up a frog bog using lots of natural materials, frogs (the odd crocodile or two …  naturally) and our frog metamorphosis set.

Including materials like rocks and logs from our garden the water soon resembled a muddy frog bog. It was spectacular!

We have a wonderful frogbog CD which we played (hidden behind a fern) in the background, which made the play space sound and feel like we really were exploring a natural frog bog.

This CD doesn’t contain music just incredible Australian frog calls. It’s so amazing and the children were fascinated by the sounds real frogs make….not one single gribbet to be heard let alone a gulumph!

We have a great song we taught the children about metamorphosis and Sherry made some fabulous prop cards which the children use to act out the song.

Here are the words to the song – METAMORPHOSIS

Kittens look like cats,

and puppies look like dogs,

so why don’t little tadpoles, look like little frogs.

Bear cubs look like bears,

and little sloths like sloths,

so why don’t caterpillars look like little moths.

Kittens, puppies and other things don’t need a special process.

But caterpillars and tadpoles do.

They go through MET – A – MOR – PHO – SIS!

PS. The case moth was returned to the garden and a few weeks later our young friend discovered the empty case … how wonderful!

You can see some amazing photos of case moths and other incredible insects  through our ‘Moths & Butterflies’ link.

After learning some fascinating facts about green tree frogs at our recent incursion, we seem to have gone into a bit of a frog frenzy.

Did you know they drink water through their skin? Did you know they peel off and eat their skin weekly? Did you know they catch flies, pop them into their mouths and roll their eyes around and around pushing the food down to their tummies? We didn’t – fabulous stuff!

We have pulled out the old favourite songs such as “Mr Frog jumped out of his pond one day“.

And a couple of the children’s favourite books, “Picasso the Green Tree Frog” and “Frog Friends“.

We popped out some coloured card, scissors, felt pens and staplers for the children to make their own frogs.

We took the opportunity to have a skill session and reminded them how to do fan folding.

They could make the frogs legs this way if they wished.

Some preferred straight legs.

They were all individual!

Another green tree frog fact: He can change colour to blend into his environment!

The other day one of our kinder children asked if we could get “The old lady who ate all the animals” down from the shelf.

We have the funniest cloth doll depicting the old lady who swallowed the fly, complete with all the insects and animals which go with her story.

The children really enjoy drama, so a small group of children soon gathered around and Donna explained the story to them. It was delightful to see the children’s faces as they realized the impossible task which lay ahead for the old lady!

Each of the children then chose a character to feed her ; fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, goat, cow and a horse of course!

Donna sang the story to the children, as this was how she learnt it as a young girl. Each child waited with anticipation for their turn to feed the old woman, taking great delight in stuffing their insect or animal into her mouth and pushing it well down into her belly!

After several groups of children had taken part in acting out the story with Donna, she brought out the book of the same title and the children helped her to read the story aloud.

The children then went on to ‘read’ the story from the book themselves and using the puppet they continued to act out the story over and over again.

.

Some of the children even sang the story!

Helping each other out and following the pictures in the book, they had memorised the story really well and between them they didn’t miss a line.

It was delightful co-operative fun, incorporating great language, literacy, music and drama as well as numeracy and imaginary play … perfect play based learning!

Of course if you don’t have an old lady puppet, any hand puppet could be used in her place, even a sock puppet would work really well, and any number of different types of animals could be substituted for the characters she ate.

Older children could make up their own characters and lyrics … they don’t have to rhyme … they could draw pictures and write down their stories and make a book. Perhaps they could even go so far as to make their own puppet and characters!

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.

I don’t know why she swallowed a fly … perhaps she’ll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a spider … which wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her … She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.

I don’t know why she swallowed a fly … perhaps she’ll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a bird … How absurd to swallow a bird!

She swallowed the bird to catch the spider … which wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her … She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.

I don’t know why she swallowed a fly … perhaps she’ll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a cat … Fancy that, she swallowed a cat!

She swallowed the cat to catch the bird … She swallowed the bird to catch the spider, which wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her … She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.

I don’t know why she swallowed a fly … perhaps she’ll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a dog … what a hog to swallow a dog!

She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider … which wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her … She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.

I don’t know why she swallowed a fly … perhaps she’ll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a goat … what a joke to swallow a goat!

She swallowed the goat to catch the dog, she swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider … which wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her … She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.

I don’t know why she swallowed a fly … perhaps she’ll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow … I don’t know how she swallowed a cow!

She swallowed the cow to catch the goat, she swallowed the goat to catch the dog, she swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider … which wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her … She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.

I don’t know why she swallowed a fly … perhaps she’ll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a horse … she’s dead of course!

When we were watching a snake from Wild Action crawl back into its bag, the children noticed how it curled itself around and around. After a bit of discussion they decided he had made a spiral shape. As a large group we held hands in a line and made a spiral with our bodies. As we had had a think about where we find spirals in nature, the children were aware that snails have a spiral shell, so we sang this little song as we went around -

“Snail, snail, snail, snail, goes around and round and round.”

We gave the children the opportunity to create their own spirals as a precursor to a science activity we will be doing soon.

It is a lot of cutting which needs to be fairly exact and we were excited at how well they did.

They were very pleased with the end results.

We brought in a big basket of apples and the apple peeler/slicer which most schools seem to have in their classrooms, or are available for about $25 in shops like “House”.

The machine peels off the skin …

… slices the apple into a spiral and decores it.

Besides the obvious gross motor activity, what a lot of maths language we heard – put the apple on, wind it forwards/backwards, it’s cutting around, is it finished, look at the spiral peel/apple …

A wonderful by product of this discovery of spirals is that the children start seeing them all around them …

… eg; a shell which is at the play dough table …

… having fun with magnetic play …

… in the finger paint …

… and how you can make beautiful spirals in slime!