A New Toy

I got a new toy for my centre. 
My daughter’s partner, Phil, is a carpenter and for some time
I’ve been hinting that I would love a toy made of wood.

I’ve been sending him pictures from different blogs like Childhood 101
and Pink and Green Mama that have created fantastic wooden toy structures.
      
This is what he created.  I love it.  I loved hearing how he came to this design. 
He first found the bottom piece of wood that is shaped like a wedge near his work
and then the curve branch.  With those two pieces his creativity took over and the rest
fell into place.  To finish it off is a great piece of driftwood as the back wall on the top.
Plus he didn’t use any nails.  It’s held together with wooden dowels. 
It's a fabulous inspiration for the children to play with.

    
         I set it close to the cars, trucks and blocks.
 
It didn’t take long for the children to be including it in their play. 
These two boys in particular have spent quite a bit of time playing with it. 
Deciding one day that it was an airship.
 
Another day it became a structure for ramps to send cars and planes from.
 
        But then it became an ark for all the animals.
           
I also like that it is large enough for several bodies to play around it.

Thanks Phil for sharing your creativity.  Can’t wait to see what you will next create.

Watching Colours Move

Since school started we’ve been playing with colours.  Here are a few
experiments I saw on Pinterest and decided to try at school.
             
Fill three clear jars with water and add blue colouring to one,
red to another and yellow to the last.
 
Fold paper towel into long strips and place one strip half way
in one jar and half way in the other.
       
          Do the same for the other two jars.
 
During the morning we watched, talked and predicted what would happen. 
We saw the water creep up the towel and where the two towels touched a
new colour was created.

 
A couple of days later we started again but added three empty jars. 
Setting an empty jar between each of the coloured water filled jars.
      
The same thing happened as in the first experiment, the colour crept
up the towel and down in to the empty jars.
 
But the liquid continued on to drip into each empty jar as a new colour.
          
We created orange, green and purple and a strong interest in colour mixing.

      
                  It continues at the art area.

Five Little Pirates

We are fully in to pirates now at our centre.
 
       The ship is set to sail or row.
   
Pirates are in the crows nest keeping an eye out for treasure.
       
And we learned a new song, thanks to Colleen from a neighbouring StrongStart.

Five Little Pirates

5 little pirates went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 4 little pirates came back home.

4 little pirates went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 3 little pirates came back home.

3 little pirates went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 2 little pirates came back home.

2 little pirates went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 1 little pirates came back home.

1 little pirate went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 0 little pirates came back

Old sad captain went out one day over the seas and far away.
Old sad captain said "YOHOHOHO!"
And all 5 pirates came back home.

Another Pom Pom Play

   
These round bowl type toys are for stacking and the holes in the middle
make it easy for the little ones to pick up. 

But I wondered, couldn’t we use them for another use?  Say for
identifying and sorting colours?
      
I painted little paper plates to match each bowl and placed them out
with a basket of pom poms. 
      
The age that was most interested in this new play toy was under 2s. 

Was it the colours that attracted them? 
Or that they enjoy hiding items out of sight and playing a peek-a-boo game? 

I saw the children experimenting by pushing the pom poms through the holes,
even larger pom poms which they had to give a whack to make them fit.  

I challenge you to look around your room and find different ways to use
some of the toys.  Let me know what you found.

Flower Watercolours

Over the summer I spent sometime browsing the net and finding
great ideas to try at the art table.  You can check out my Art Pinterest
board to see what ideas caught my attention.

One idea was from Learn~Play~Imagine.  She made watercolour
paint from flowers.  I’ve dyed eggs using different vegetables and
liked the idea of trying flowers.
         
I’m not much of a flower gardener and have only weeded my flower
beds once this summer so I asked families to bring flowers in for this
art activity.
 
We started by picking the blossoms off the stems and putting them
into ziplock bags.
      
They really enjoyed that step, I think having the opportunity to pull
flowers apart when they are usually told to be gentle was liberating.

     
A bonus while picking apart the blossoms was finding this little slug. 
He eventually escaped, I hope it's okay.

    
Back to the baggies, we added hot water to the bag and squeezed the air
out before sealing.  The children used rollers or their hands to squish
and squeeze the colour out of the blossoms.
 
We had some success.  If I had read her blog again last night I would have
learned that if we had left the flowers to soak for a period of time our
success may have been greater.

The flower that did create the best paint was a purple Dahlia.

              
Regardless of the colour (or lack of it) we created, the families enjoyed
the whole process.

     
   We’ve talked about trying it again with vegetables.

The Day I Went to Sea

During the month of September there are fun days that are celebrated
internationally.  One of them is Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th. 
It’s one of my favourites.

All the StrongStart centres in the district will be taking part
and we have the perfect setting living by the ocean.

Old shipwrecks maybe from pirates?

We have started getting ready for the day by learning a new song, 
"The Day I Went to Sea".

Here are the words for the song...

When I was one I stuck out me thumb
the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."

When I was two I tapped my shoe
the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."

When I was three I slapped my knee
 the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."

When I was four I shut the door
the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."

When I was five I took a dive (in the water)
the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."