Funny Fish

We have new a book about counting and animals that the oldest one really likes.

The last page has 10 funny fish.

I noticed that the fish had heart shapes for the fins and lips.

It inspired this craft.

The little one has been drawing for sometime and really enjoys it.

Today I showed her, hand over hand, how to make a circle.

She picked up on it fairly quickly and we ended up with 6 fish, 4 of them were her circles.

She was excited to use the glue stick to attach the hearts.

Great focus and concentration.

Book Play - Brown Rabbit's Shape Book

 It is so much fun exploring books with this little one.

She loves books and I love bringing them to life, a perfect match.

 There have been lots of birthdays lately so I thought this would be a fun book as it has a present to open.

The present is a square box with a container in it.  The container has a circle lid and it is full of balloons.

 A big red round balloon, like a circle.

I had fun letting the balloons fly around, she didn't like it so much.

There is a purple pear shaped balloon, an orange oval balloon, a long rectangle shaped balloon and a multicoloured balloon that we thought looked like a caterpillar.

But she did like trying to blow up the balloons.

 After playing with them for a while, and letting the air escape, we finally left them expanded and tied them closed.

What is your favourite book to share with little ones?

Curler Can

Here's another simple toy to make that your child will LOVE!

All you need is an old coffee can with the lid.

I used the larger size can so I can make several holes.

You will need hair curlers, I find the bristly ones work best as they give an added traction and a neat sound when pushed into the hole.

And this time I also used playing cards to challenge our Little One.

I have made this before at StrongStart using fat, medium and skinny curlers.

First, take the lid off the can and trace around the curler.  

Then cut out the hole.

Do that as many times as you like.

I made two holes.

Next do the same for the playing card.

It will look like a long slit.  After she tried it once I made the slit a bit longer.

I loved watching her try putting the card in the round hole then trying the slit after realizing it wouldn't fit in the circle shape.

Her favourite part of this activity is taking the lid off and on.

 A very simple homemade toy that offers opportunity for trial and error, shape recognition, eye to hand coordination, fine motor and solving a problem.

Make it for your little one!

Monet

Last week we had a closer look at a painting by Monet.

Various activities were set up throughout the program,

throughout the week focusing on shapes, colour and bridges.

We started the week painting with blocks.

Feeling the shapes in our hands.

Creating pictures, building on each shape, mixing colours.

We experimented building bridges using materials from our block corner.

Next we explored the colour purple.

How can we make purple by mixing colours?

Using plastic wrap gave us a different feel for the paint

and allowed some children, whom do not like their fingers dirty,

to paint.

And finally we spent a morning drawing Monet's Waterloo Bridge 

using chalk pastels.

Our student artists.

And our parent artists.

Which artist shall we discover next?

Shape Patterns

Last week I set up this provocation for the children to explore shapes.

They created a variety of designs from simple to complex.

They were encouraged to label their design.

Then document it with the camera.

A favourite activity.

It encouraged them to make more and more designs.

I printed their photos and left them on the table and encouraged 

others to try to copy the designs.

This became a child driven activity rather than teacher.