Nature Inspires Play

At the end of June a fellow teacher showed me a book called Inspiring Spaces for Young Children.
I found the photos of the environments so inspiring that I created a new play space.

The new play area provides material from nature to explore, discover and create.
It took the children about a week being back at school, exploring other areas of the rooms before they settled into this one.

It has been a pleasure watching the children use this area in very different ways.

Pay It Forward

Remember this is the final week of the Pay It forward opportunity.  Check out the past post to find out how to enter.

sign of the week - duck

This week's sign is 'duck'.
Using your right open hand, bend down the fingers till they meet the thumb.
Place at side of chin and open and close hand.
Resembles the duck's beak.

Our song this week is "Six Little Ducks".  I found duck puppets and the words on the blog Picklebums.
Can't wait to try it with our families.

Six Little Ducks the I Once Knew.

Six little ducks that I once knew,
Fat ones, fair ones, skinny ones too.
But the one little duck with the feather on his back,
He led the others with a Quack Quack Quack!

Quack Quack Quack!
Quack Quack Quack!
He led the others with a Quack Quack Quack!

Down to the river they would go,
Wibble wobble, wibble wobble too and fro.
But the one little duck with the feather on his back,
He led the others with a Quack Quack Quack!

Quack Quack Quack!
Quack Quack Quack!
He led the others with a Quack Quack Quack!

Home from the river they would come,
Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, ho hum hum
But the one little duck with the feather on his back,
He led the others with a Quack Quack Quack!

Quack Quack Quack!
Quack Quack Quack!
He led the others with a Quack Quack Quack!

Pete's Philosophy

We've been sending Pete out on adventures with families for just over a week.  He has come back with great pictures and stories to share with us.
One story demonstrated Pete's philosophy, "no matter what you step in just keep walking along singing your song".
Pete went home with a family on the weekend and I received this email from the mom...
"M told A that Pete's whiskers were bothering him, and she asked A to cut them off...So Pete the Cat is missing the whiskers on the right side of his face...It was really hard not to laugh, as M was certain she was doing him a great service by removing the bothersome whiskers...A feels terrible...

Can Pete carry on his duties as is, or should we shop for a new Pete? hehehe..he doesnt seem bothered by the change :)"

My response was "keep Pete going on his adventure - it's all good and oh did you get any pictures because it's sounds like a great story".

Making our Hands Strong

When I plan art or craft activities for the program I keep in mind the extended benefits that the activity might have.  Cutting, ripping paper, gluing, painting and more all strengthen the muscles in their hands which prepares them for gripping a pencil, for turning pages in a book and more.

Today we practiced a few of those skills.  

Squeezing glue from the bottles takes a lot of work and usually two hands.

 Spreading the glue.

Ripping paper.

Picking up and placing little pieces of popcorn or paper.

Those are just a few we practiced to make our popcorn on the cob.

Busy Pete

Pete the Cat has been very busy since school started.
He has gone on several adventures with families and came back with lots of photos and stories.
He shared both his books with us.
And now he is on the light table so the children can colour match his shoes.

Corn Cob Painting

We experimented with corn on the cob today.

We painted with them.

There was fresh corn and an empty cob of corn.

Indian corn.

And a cob that hadn't been husked yet.

 

Using the fresh corn was the preferred choice.