Sherry’s Uncle Bill is a very handy chap who has all sorts of interesting stuff hidden away! He found an old light box which he didn’t need any more and donated it to our cause – thanks Uncle Bill!

We had it sitting on the bench as we had recently fixed it up, when the children spotted it and wanted to have a play with it.

We had some solid glass paper weights which they placed along the top edge – they looked gorgeous with the light shining through them!

They added quite an assortment of bits and pieces we had around including glow in the dark dinosaurs and sea creatures …

which unfortunately didn’t hold their glow when we turned the lights out but looked gorgeous with the light on!

It is surprising how great basic things look with the light as the background.

Paper objects, plastics, cellophane, rubber bands …

even these cocktail umbrellas looked awesome!

It’s a good reminder that you don’t really need specialist equipment to make the light box a useful and exciting tool.

If you want to make your own light box check out this post by Deborah over at Teach Preschool where she shows you how she made a mini light box or this post, where she makes a bigger one and this post where she tweaks it!

We have enjoyed doing casting of objects using clay and plaster in the past …

particularly when the children have been on a bit of a fossil and dinosaur kick.

We have found lately that using damp sand as the base instead of clay is really effective, simple, and always available.

It produces a lovely rough finish to the plaster cast.

You could go large, or on a smaller scale like we did at our Messy Play workshop.

Place some sand into your container, adding water if it is too dry.

Press your object firmly into it. Damp sand means the sand won’t fall into the impression as you remove your object.

Mix up some Plaster of Paris with water, like you would icing sugar, until it is thick …

pour it into the impression and spread it on top of the sand.

Leave it to dry before carefully lifting it off to see the gorgeous detail in your new plaster shape!

We were having a bit of a sort through our imaginative play props this week, getting sorted for our ‘engaging boys workshop‘ and had them scattered all around Sherry’s kitchen – so quite a mix of things.

Her grandson was over for a visit and naturally, just started having a play.

We love how children go for it without standing back and waiting to be ‘invited’.

They see it and before you know it they’re just doing it!

He combined army guys, skeletons, farm animals, bird cages, cars, spiders and jungle animals and played very happily, talking busily away to himself in his own little world for ages – what a joy!

Anyway, it was a great reminder to us that imaginative play doesn’t have to have a ‘theme’ such as dinosaurs, the beach, insects etc.

Ahhh – The beauty of a free play …

where children are left to just … play!

What is it about children and dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs is one topic that interested many of our children throughout all of last year . In fact they’re a constant hit every year.

One of the children’s favourite learning experiences last year revolved around dinosaurs.

You can view the entire post right here!

We have a box full of bits from old board games such as chess and checkers where pieces have gone missing so the games aren’t being used any more.

The children find this little treasure box a handy adjunct to their construction activities and imaginative play.

This week we found the children spreading out on the mat under the ceiling fans trying to get some relief from the heat.

What better thing to do than empty out the block shelves and create wonderful constructions all over the place?

Then out came the dinosaurs, insects, farm animals, people etc…

and also the board games bits and pieces.

How gorgeous do these constructions look?

What fun on a hot day!

We don’t have a kiln at our kindergarten so when we want the children’s creations to be a bit more permanent we need to use alternatives to fired clay such as salt ceramic or dough.

After the fun they had last week making their favorite Aussie animals out of plasticine, following our Wild Action Animals incursion, we bought a product called ‘Das’ which hardens by itself in the air.

We thought the children might like to make themselves some jewellery using the Das. It became an extension of our plasticine stamp activity, and reminded the children of the time we were exploring being paleontologists creating our fossils earlier this year.

Das is pliable enough for the children to mould into shapes …

or flatten …

to imprint shapes into. They could choose anything they liked to make their design.

After using a straw or match stick to create a hole …

the children simply threaded on a piece of string …

and set their pendants aside to dry.

We saw lots of very cute designs with shells, sea creatures and dinosaurs prints being most popular by far!

Twenty-four hours later the ‘Das” had dried hard and the children proudly wore their jewellery on their return to kinder!

When we recreated the Hush Garden, Donna brought along her old wheelbarrow to help with the job of shifting pebbles and gravel.

As it was on its last legs (wheel) she decided to leave it at kinder.

We put in some soil and plants, rocks and logs

and created a lovely little playscape.

Over time the children seem to have lost interest in the little garden so we decided to move it to another place in the playground to see if we could spark their interest. Just like we moved our construction set last term

We have placed it down near the Hush Garden and next to our  magnificent climbing tree.

It is a wonderful place for some imaginative play for one …

or more children.

It does seem to cry out for dinosaurs!

You can even stand up while you are playing …

or drag over our gnarly log and play on the ground.

Hmmm … looks like the move was a good idea!

Dinosaur set ups are one of those imaginative play spaces you could have going all year round … both inside and out!

We find there is always somebody wanting to play with dinosaurs so luckily we have bucket loads of them …

big …

medium …

small …

even skeletal!

indoors …

outdoors …

everywhere dinosaurs!

We like to add plenty of natural material like textured fabrics, tanbark and sand, logs, twigs, rocks, stones and pebbles along with our irresistible lifelike tree fern and grass plants for some lovely colour…

You can even add salt to create a dinosaur haven!

Following on from the children’s enjoyment of doing charcoal drawings of Punchinello, we continued our big discussion about the different sorts of art works that we can do.

We discussed paintings and drawings of still lifes, landscapes and portraits and the children thought they would like to try another sort of still life …

flowers this time.

We set up our table top easels with white paper and colourful oil pastels next to our flower arrangement.

We were blown away by the care …

and detail …

that went into so many …

of their drawings.

We love the detail Ben included here in the shape of the vase!

The next day the children selected from a variety of different objects to draw …

and once again …

we were very impressed …

with their attention to detail …

and gorgeous results!

As you can see by these beautiful heart and rainbow versions of our Australian flag, we might just take a look at “interpretive art” next!

When we started discussing fossils last week, what they are, how they are found and who does the finding, the children loved the thought of being a paleontologist. So we thought, “OK, let’s give it a go!!”

After reading the story ‘Amanda’s Dinosaur’ by Wendy Orr we thought it would be fun for the children to create their own fossilized eggs.

We supplied balls of tacky clay  …

along with a variety of mini dinos, shells, stones and other small articles of interest.

The children buried their selected item deep into the middle of the clay…

and molded it into an egg shapes.

To make them more rock-like, we popped the finished balls out on the window ledge in the sun to dry out.

The next day, armed with hammers, large nails and brushes, we explained to the children how carefully the fossils needed to be uncovered to prevent them being destroyed …

then they chipped …

ever so carefully …

and brushed away …

still so carefully until …

they discovered …

their fossils!!

Most children chose to chip all the clay away …

and clean up their fossil …

while a few preferred to leave a little of the clay behind …

like the fossils they’d seen pictures of in our science books!

Of course we expected some children would be a little enthusiastic, causing their fossils to be damaged or destroyed, however, to the great delight of all of us, our budding paleontologists did such a careful job that 100% of fossils were successfully uncovered with out any damage!

And of course the fun didn’t end with the discovery of the fossils …

there was still plenty of fun to be had with the left over clay …

pounding it into dust!

What excitement … and so much FUN!