Fun with Our Grandfriends

During our visit with grandfriends this morning I heard these comments from the seniors. “This has been the most fun morning I’ve had.”  “I haven’t giggled this much in years.”
                                          
This morning we tried finger painting with our grand friends but we didn’t use paint.  We mixed up a box of caramel pudding and gave each person a big spoonful.  The grandfriends looked at it and said “what do we do with it?”
                             
It took a few minutes for them to touch it.  One little girl was enthusiastic and inspired the grandfriend beside her to try it.  That’s when the laughing started. 
                                  
The gentleman at the table, when asked if he wanted to finger paint, said he doesn’t like his hands being sticky.  When we checked back with him he had cleverly put a second piece of paper on top of his and was squishing it together. 

I brought some tools to the table to use instead of their hands.  I encouraged them to talk about what their painting looked like.  His looked like the sun or when I said it looked like a lion he was quite impressed and laughed.

From there the fun continued.
     
                                 
We brought over some play trays.  The seniors are very expressive with the children telling them what they see happening.  That motivates the children to show their grandfriend more.
           
This week we visited the extended care wing and met new grandfriends.  We sang songs and moved our bodies and we played with the parachute meant more laughter.
                
We showed them our song “Knife, Fork, Spoon, Spatula – Cha Cha Cha”  and some of the grandfriends really enjoyed to cha cha.
                  
It surprised all of us when this grandfriend sat down on the floor for story time but she was just that involved with the children that she followed what they were doing.
                    
Normally after songs and story we say bye and head back to the activity room for our snack but today these two grand friends didn’t want their time together to end and joined us.  As they sat and shared cookies and juice I heard one of them say “I’ve never had a friend this young.  It’s quite lovely.”
                                       
A fabulous morning sharing simple activities but bringing much joy and laughter
             among the generations.  We are so lucky to have special friends.

Measuring Dinosaurs

             
Wanting to add more math to the program I set up this invitation to measure some of our dinosaurs.  It has lots of dinosaurs in the middle, among the greenery and four trays each holding different counting tools; corks, cubes, blocks and people.
   
I noticed the first day that some children had a difficult time seeing the beginning and the end of the dinosaur so I add a stick for the dino to stand on and that helped.
         
Some children measured the length of the dinosaurs while others measured
                                                the height.
       
Or they used one of the tools, like the people, and measured with them standing on top of each other or they laid them down from head to foot.  She didn't want to
                            stop so added more dinosaurs in the row.
               
To encourage measuring both length and height and to record the findings
                                    I created this data sheet.
              
                       The pure pleasure of building was evident.

Dino Antics Day 10

It was a busy morning.  The plan was to be open for an hour before we head on a field trip to our local museum to check out the fossils.  But before I opened I wanted to make some fossil cookies to surprise the children.
             
I prepped the dough in the school kitchen then went in to the classroom to find
               something to use to make fossil impressions in each ball.
                 
When I returned I was surprised to see the silly dinosaurs leaving their own
                                impressions in the dough.
                          
      Of course T-Rex couldn’t help himself and needed to take a bite.

A New Ramp

Yesterday I posted on our StrongStart Facilitators Facebook page about the children’s interest in ramps and asked for suggestions on how to extend their interest.
                     
One facilitator suggested using a slide in a kiddie’s pool at the art table.  I may try that one day but for now I set it up by our other ramp.
                    
We started with the balls that we used last week on our other ramps.  Then I had the children look around the room for other things to test to see if they would roll.
       
These two girls were the first to try it out and were very excited about sending anything and everything down the slide.  They really enjoyed sending the animals down, we learned that they don’t roll.
                        
          
Using the toddler size slide makes it very accessible to our smaller children.  In the background, of this picture, you can see our cardboard slide, it is a lot higher and the cardboard moves about.  This slide stays in one place and is easy for them to reach the top.
                   
                       Also fun to climb into the pool to clean up.
                        
New language was introduced with this ramp, predicting.  Will it roll or will it slide?
                            We'll look for other things to predict.

Dino Antics Day 9

              
This morning we found that the Dinos had pulled down jars of crayons and left
                              some art work for us to find.
              
            Oh oh triceratops was wearing a mask.  Who was the artist?
                  
      Reactions from the children varied from “hmm what are they doing?”   
 
                     to “let’s draw with them” or “I’ll clean up”.
                
                               The artist left their signature.

Dino Antics Day 8

             
           The Dinos discovered our ramp in the block corner this morning. 
              
It looks like Brachiosaurus was having a difficult time getting up the steeper part.
  
The smaller Dinos tied one of our measuring tapes around the long neck and were
                                         trying to pull him up.
           
The children weren’t too impressed but figured the dinosaurs could be helpful
                                                anyways.

An Interest in Ramps

During September and October I noticed the children building ramps using different materials that we have available in the classroom. 
 

Looking for a way to add on the children’s interest I borrowed a kit, from our Learning Resource centre, specifically for exploring ramps.
          
The kit included birch stands that can be stacked in a different ways, heavy PVC half tubes and balls.

The children loved it and promptly started sending the balls down.  The balls were rolling all around the room so we grab some of the big tin cans and baskets to use as collectors.
    
Each day it was built up in a different way with assorted amounts of ramps.
        
The balls varied in what they were made of, their size and their shape.  Some would roll easier and farther then others.  They would roll faster if the ramp was steeper versus flat.
                 
I spotted some children using the birch stands with our hot wheel tracks to build their own ramps for cars.  I wish we could have kept the kit longer but we will continue building using what we have.  I wonder where else in the room we could use ramps?