A Ladder for Our Fire Truck

After our tour of the fire station and learning about the different equipment

needed we began to build.

We started with the ladder.

 I was given a railway track that was a wall decor in a child's room.

It is really long, so today we measured our fire truck and cut the track down to size.

The children took turns using the saw 

sometimes needing help from their grown up.

Once it was the right size we used zap straps to attach it to the truck.

It is meant for a decoration not to be used.

Equipment for our Fire Truck

Last week I shared that we started to build a fire truck.

But we needed to decide what colour to paint it.

The children decided by voting when they signed in.

They put their picture beside the coloured fire truck they wanted.

Each colour truck is from fire stations in our community.

Over three days voting it was a close race but red won. 

Last Friday we had tours of one of the local fire stations.

Our focus was learning about fire safety but also what equipment is needed

on a fire truck.

The children were given a work bag that contained a clipboard with

an outline of a fire truck.

After listening to firefighter Greg they were to draw in the missing equipment.

I think they did a great job recording what they saw.

Fairy Lane Refreshed

Today we visited Fairy Lane to clean it up after our big snow fall.

The heavy, wet snow did a lot of damage to the little homes.

We cleaned away two grocery bags of bits and pieces.

Since we cleared doors away we came prepared to add new ones.

 After Fairy Lane we walked to the tree where we left our scarecrow

from a StoryWalk last October.

We found the clothes!

The hat and shoes were in front of the tree where we left them.

Walking around the tree we found the shirt and gloves

and a bit farther way we found the pants.

What I found exciting was finding a little bit of the pumpkin left.

Another great day outdoors.

Does It Fit?

I created another activity I thought toddlers would enjoy.

 I taped different size tubes around the outside edge of this table.

On the table there were lots of things to drop into the tubes;

pom poms, balls, and corks.

I noticed that most toddlers started at one tube 

and dropped as much as they could through it.

Until they found a ball that wouldn't fit.

Sometimes they would force it in till it became stuck.

I spotted this child trying to stick her hand down into the tube 

to get the ball.

So we found a tool (a yardstick) that she could use to poke until

everything came out the bottom.

When an older child found a ball that didn't fit they

walked around the table trying all the tubes

till they found one that it would drop

through.

The tubs, baskets and cans underneath the tubes were an attraction too.

They were placed to catch everything but sometimes

they would get kicked out of the way.

Or purposefully picked up to be dumped

like this child did.

Making Colours

Instead of filling jars with paint for the easel myself,

I encouraged the children to create their own colours.

They loved mixing the colours.

I predicted we would have a lot of grayish brown colours

but instead there were many shades of purple.

After mixing they moved the jar to the easel to paint.

When it was empty someone brought it back and created their own colour

then repeated the process.