Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

Like many kindergartens and schools …

we have a supply of the old faithful indoor building blocks.

The children still use them nearly every day, but a couple of years ago we wanted to jazz up the block scene a bit and get in some new ones.

We didn’t want more of the same old thing, so managed to find these magnificent blocks through a company called ‘Mahkupu’ ( who we believe have since changed their name to ‘Block Play’).

Due to a very supportive committee we were able to purchase the full set of ‘plantation timber’ blocks which included a huge variety of wonderfully shaped blocks which mix and match beautifully with each other …

as well as a set of people and animals, and a castle set.

We also designed the shelving unit and were able to get one of our cabinet maker dads to build it to our specifications …

so the children can have access to them at any time.

Not a day goes by that they aren’t taken out to play ..

The shapes, designs and beautiful natural coloured timber makes the look and feel of the blocks irresistible to the children.

It is a bit hard to see what this started out as, but what wonderful team work and imagination was used to get it to this!

Pardon the pun’ but children are attracted to magnets!

Another great use of our segmented picture frame is using it with interesting, magnetic and non-magnetic objects. We set it up in an area for one person to experiment with, to determine which items had magnetic attraction and which ones didn’t. However as often happens in children’s play, more than one child was interesting in having a go…

… resulting in us having to dive into the cupboard to bring out more supplies of magnets, while the children scouted around to find various objects they wanted to put on the trays.

We had magnets inside and out, on floors and tables and they kept the children interested for ages as they experimented, discovered and played co-operatively together.

One child discovered just how powerful  magnets can be.

Naturally every one else wanted to perform magic tricks too!

When we ran out of trays we put out a couple old shirt boxes with pins, and magnetic discs inside and showed the children how they could make the contents move around by running the magnets underneath or across the clear top of the box – more magic.

Of course we didn’t think to stick the lids down …

and soon they were off and all the contents mixed up which made for a new activity … sorting the pins from the discs, and what a wonderful fine motor activity that one proved to be!

At this early stage of the year, we seem to have a bit of a focus on colours, such as our colour matching game in one of our recent posts. A great large group game the children enjoy playing is called “This my spot”.

Each child sits behind a spot of their choice. We used four colours: red, blue green and yellow.

Together we hit our spots chanting,

“This is my spot, my spot, my spot.

This is my spot, my spot, my spot.”

Then repeat.

Simple, but fun and even our reluctant boys do this with gusto!

The teacher chooses a colour and the children with that spot stand up and do an action: green spots clapped hands three times .

Those children sit back down and we all chant the rhyme again. The next colour is chosen and the children with that spot stand up for their turn: yellow spots patted their head three times .

In between each colour we sit down and repeat the song: blue spots turned around three times .

This is repeated until all colours have been selected to do a different action: red spots did three star jumps!

We round it off by chanting one last time, then all colours are selected to stand up and put all actions together.

At the end of the game we sing the colours to be returned to the basket. Great colour recognition, counting, and turn taking.

::: make it irresistible

The children really enjoy repeating new songs and games, so as a follow up the next day when we played ‘this is my spot,’ as we selected colours to stand up, we invited one child from each colour group to choose the action their colour would do, as well as how many times they would do it. The children came up with some terrific actions – red spots did 4 star jumps, blue spots did 5 wiggles, green spots did 6 hand claps and yellow spots did 5 hand rolls.

The children take great pride in making simple decisions like choosing an action to perform and as we’ve often said before, they usually come up with the best ideas … after all … 5 wiggles … how devine is that!

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 all know how important fine motor construction is for childrens fine motor skills, but we find it is also great for their social skills.

We keep all of our construction materials in a set of lockers, where the children can access them at any time.

They are clearly marked with photos, so the children can identify the contents and know which tub to return the construction to when they have finished playing.

The children like nothing better than to bring boxes of construction down onto the mat to play with their friends.

We have learned through experience that if things aren’t in view of the children, chances are they won’t think about it…like they say “you can’t miss what you haven’t got”.  So if you’ve got it, let them know by making it available for them to choose when ever they please.

Children can’t have enough of this type of play… it’s physical, cognitive, social, fun, play based learning!

The children really enjoy hitting a ball with a bat, it’s a great gross motor exercise as well as being good for their hand-eye co-ordination, but as a hitting partner is not always available, we came up with a partner who just loves hanging around!

As we find that the balls tend to end up over the fence fairly often, we decided that a ball that couldn’t go anywhere would be a really good idea.

We found an old sock and tied it to some strong cord then hung it from a tree where it is always ready for play.

The children can either play by themselves or with a friend.

This pink ball is a actually a swing but only when we attach it to our swing frame.

When it hangs above the decking from the tree the children understand it is not to be sat on but is for pushing and catching. Again it is great to play with on your own or with a group of friends.

Sometimes we hang up a large leather ball which they can kick or punch instead!

Every body needs a Hush Garden! You know the space … it’s quiet and tucked away from the hustle and bustle of busy playground activities like running and chasing and very loud voices.

Well … over in the corner of the yard, through the gate in the paling fence, along side the pirate ship, venturing around behind the platform …

… beneath the coloured flags and under the weeping willow tree …

is where you’ll find ours.

It’s quiet and serene and in the summer the old weeping willow tree gives the most wonderful shade. It’s a place where the children can go to discover things they might miss in the more hectic spaces in the playground.

It’s a great place …

to make new discoveries.

When you look up …

new discoveries!

When you look down …

new discoveries!

When you garden …

new discoveries!

When you play …

new discoveries!

The perfect space …

for play based learning …

::: make it irresistible

The beauty of the Hush Garden is that it recieved a face lift recently with native trees, shrubs, grasses and large rocks so it’s an ongoing project which will evolve over time, sometimes to a plan and other times mysteriously. The mosaic pavers were created by the kinder children a couple of years ago and positioned around our new flowering gum tree. While in 2009 the children decorated the old umbrella with colourful C.D mobiles (their idea) and this year our plan is to invite the children to create a series of painted totem poles to take up position in the garden … unless of course they come up with other ideas of their own!!

With the weather heating up in Melbourne, we try to find activities that are fun but not too strenuous and can be enjoyed in the shade. You can’t go past bubbles!

Donna used some metal coat hangers to make dippers in different sizes, and as it is difficult to make perfect circles, naturally we ended up with odd shapes.

We popped the dippers and bubble mix outside in the shade …

… and off the children went!

Some children wondered if the bubbles would be different shapes if the dipper was not round and were interested to see how they blew out in an odd shape, but became round.

We soon had bubbles flying in all directions around the playground. We were impressed by the number of children who commented “We’re blowing the bubbles up with air from our lungs” as well as “When the bubble pops the air comes out”!

They soon discovered that chasing and catching the bubbles was as much fun as blowing them.

It wasn’t long before the children were challenging each other to catch the best bubbles.

WHOA!  … I think we have a winner!

As a finale in December we like to celebrate with a reflective concert of our year. This entails sitting down with the children and having a brainstorm about their favourite songs, poems and rhymes that we’ve enjoyed together throughout the year.

So that we have some cohesiveness as a group (and look extra special) clothes-wise, the children are invited to bring in a T-shirt each to dye which they will wear on the “concert” day.

We set out the eye droppers, as we did recently with coloured water, (see our eye dropper fun post on November 25th) but this time we used clothing dye in the water.

Plain coloured T-shirts without colourful logos work best and it also makes quite a difference to the end result if the T-shirt is old or new and still has quite a bit of dressing in it or not.

The children were very keen to create their own masterpiece and soon set up a queuing system!

Depending on the enthusiasm of the different children, many interesting results flowed from their eager fingers.

Sometimes the dye soaked into the fabric straight away  …

… and other times it sat on top for a while before soaking in …

… and sometimes it just ran over the surface and we needed to dribble the excess dye off.

With our current hot Melbourne weather the T-shirts dried in no time at all!

Either way, they look interesting, original and very beautiful. On the day of our reflection concert, they will wear their own unique T-shirt, perhaps with some sort of Christmassy head gear. All-in-all the children will look spectacular!!

One inexpensive and easily obtainable, or made prop that we use is the good old scarf.

We find it has many uses during dancing and play including as a music prop, such as in Boa Constrictor (see post on parachute fun on October 6th), or Calypso by Susie Davies and Phil Splitter from their Razzamajazz CD.

When one of our boys fell awkwardly and broke his arm recently we popped a sling on him (we were very thankful for our regular first aid training), then he was whisked off to hospital by his mum.

When he left about half of the group of children went out in sympathy and asked to have a sling on too. As we didn’t have enough proper slings for them all, out came the scarves!

The bright colours looked fabulous and it certainly helped everyone cope with the trauma.

The children thought it was fun for a while.

But once reality kicked in and they realized how hard it is to play using one arm…

…they soon ditched their slings!

Coincidentally, another one of our children had broken his arm, falling off his bike at home just two days earlier. Both boys have now returned to kinder and are coping really well … fortunately they are able to play without using slings!