Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

Following our Wild Action incursion, we enlarged some photos of the animals we saw.

We then laminated them and put a velcro dot on the back so we could use them on a felt board.

By adding Australian bush props, the children could make up their own scenarios.

The children then made their own animals …

… popped the dots on the back and used mini felt boards which we had obtained from Reverse Art.

We also used these animals for a “Who am I?” game.

One at a time the children would choose an animal and pop it on the felt board out of sight of the others. They then described the creatures features, such as, “I am cold blooded, I have scoot scales on my tail, I have 66 teeth etc … Who am I?”

The children were so great at this game. They clearly took in a lot of information during our Wild Action visit!

When our Pre-kinder children arrived …

… they replaced the Aussie animals with a bucketload of felt characters and farm animals …

… and had a great time creating their own stories and play scenarios.

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!

We have had a great incursion to our kindergarten called “Wild Action – the zoo comes to you“. A very animated presenter shows and talks about a selection of Australian animals, reptiles in particular, with a lot of hands on action by the children.

It is a great starting off point for many aspects of the curriculum. There is the obvious discussion about Australian animals and comparison of the different species – mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians  – and what sets them apart from each other. Our first follow up was putting together a book about the show, the animals we saw and what we were told about them. Reading and discussing it together was a fabulous large group activity, and then the children referred to it individually.

Following that the children drew a picture of their favourite animal (not always the one they held) and labelled it themselves. In most instances the children copied the names, but some are at the stage they can write words by themselves or with a little prompting. School children would probably be able to write more extensively and descriptively.

We added their photos of when they held the animals, then everyone came to the front of the group and read out their own stories.

The children really enjoy story writing and being able to read their stories aloud to their friends.