Cups and Beads

I was given these coloured plastic cups so I put them on a table 

curious what, if anything, the children would do with them.

It didn't take long before they were being pulled apart 

then restacked.

Then I notice this family had added a container of wooden

beads that were handy on the shelf beside them.

The child matched one bead into each cup.

Soon others were using the beads with the cups too.

 I love getting ideas from the families that attend

so at the end of the morning I left the beads out with the cups.

 I was able to observe children stretch the play

and find a way to make it a fun learning experience for themselves.

I couldn't have planned these activities as well as the children

created them.

Did you notice that all the children were toddlers?

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.

Putting Out the Fire

This morning at school this little guy came up to me and asked for something 

that looked like water.  As he stood there he twiddled with his fire helmet.

At first I didn't understand what he was after until I looked over to 

where his mom sat by our fake fireplace.

She held up the black hose and pointed to the end of it.

Ah, he needed water for his fire hose.

We found a piece of tissue paper and he stuck it in the hose and

proceeded to put out the fire.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him putting it out

but when he was done he left the hose there.

A little later another child came along and 

pretended the same thing.

Our fireplace has provided quite a variety of imaginative play.

Milk Carton Gingerbread Houses

Our interest in gingerbread is going strong so I put out some small milk cartons,

brown paper and glue for the children to make their own play

gingerbread houses.

 We used glue and tape to attach the paper.

The children learned how to cover each side and fold a piece

over top for the roof.

The children love using the tape dispenser.

 Over on the glue gun table I put a container of trim

that they could use for the decorations.

As the day passed children started looking farther for decorations.

They used buttons, cupcake liners and more colourful tape.

Next week we will use some of them, that didn't go home,

for a small world play.

Cottonball Painting

I'm always looking for new methods of painting and while browsing Pinterest

I found, on various sites, cottonball painting.

Over at Domestic Mommyhood I liked how they set it up in muffin tins

and used clothespins as handles.

The cottonballs work really well to hold the paint and they don't fall apart,

which I thought they would.

This is some of the children's work.

With just a few tins of paint the children created a lot of paintings.