Scooping Rice

A very simple provocation.

Rice, spoons and a variety of little containers.

The children loved it.

It was a bit messy but easily swept up.

It worked for a variety of ages.

Above are pictures of a toddler and a preschooler,

brother and sister.

They used spoons to scoop and shared with their parents.

Or they got right in there digging with their hands.

It was a busy table all the week.

Pumpkin Faces

I had a lot of pumpkin shapes left over from our Comparing Sizes with our big buddies.

So this week I set up an invitation to paint pumpkin faces.

The jack o'lanterns on the table were prompts to think

will my pumpkin be happy, sad, scary or?

While most of the children loved the painting,

 the toddlers wanted 

to explore the jack o'lanterns up close.

The first few faces that were painted were taped to our big

pumpkin in the middle of the table.

They started conversations about pumpkins at home,

where they got their pumpkins and if they have carved it yet.

Introducing Horse Play - Our First Project

Our first project of the year is around horses.  

Some children showed an interest in horses last year but we didn't have

time to explore it.

Since we are a drop in program and new children are attending I wanted to see 

if there was still interest so I set up a small world play.

As the children played I encouraged the grown ups to ask them what they

know about horses and what they want to know.

We kept a list for future parts of our project.

It is very apparent that horses are still an interest 

as I watched the very young to the oldest children play.

At the end of each day I would find different scenarios,

evidence of the children's imaginations.

Little Eruptions

I found this idea at Buggy and Buddy and I loved it.

I set up four trays on the table.

Each tray has baking soda on it with a small cube

tray with coloured vinegar.

An eye dropper was used to transfer the vinegar 

to the baking soda.

I used just one box of baking soda for the four trays.

This is what it looked like when they finished 

making it fizz.

But for some children they took it a bit further.

Exploring the feeling, the texture.

Each day I would reset the trays and vinegar.

It's an inexpensive science experiment you can do at home.

Airport Project

It's that time of year when families are traveling or planning on traveling.

It's a time that we focus on the airport and flying.

 This year we started with asking the children what they know 

and what they wonder about airport and airplanes.

It took us about a week to get a good list of ideas.

In the meantime I contacted our local airport to arrange a tour.

As we waited for our field trip date, we got busy building a model of an airport.

This allowed us to visualize what they told me they know.

They told me they needed a runway and that it was dark so

needed lights.  We used star stickers down the runway for lights.

Simple cardboard boxes turned inside out worked as the buildings.

End of day one and this is what our model looked like.

The next day we drew parking lines and a helicopter pad.

I dug out a toy gas pump and some pylons.

The white jug, in the bottom left hand corner of the photo, is our control tower.

It's often foggy at our airport so there is a light in the top.

Next post I'll share the beginning of building our dramatic play airport.