Construction Work in Oatmeal

Continuing to play with our construction toys but added a sensory component.  Oatmeal!

She was excited to see the tray set out on the kitchen floor and quickly sat down to explore.

I think she was a little taken a back by the feel of the oatmeal on her hands, at first.

 Part of the fun of playing with a sensory material, like oatmeal, is to see how they interact with it and their responses when it does something they don't expect, like sprinkling on the floor.

 A bridge was added as a new concept for her to experience.

Drive the big machine over, from one side to the other.

She spent some time playing with the dump truck.

Was she figuring out how it works, or how it can move the oatmeal?

Or how it moves and what it sounds like?

 And what about the other machines?

How can they move around in the oatmeal ?

My favourite part of this play time was watching her enjoy the feel of the oatmeal.

Clean up time is always fun and not always helpful.

April's Treasure Basket - Construction

The little one has been interested in vehicles lately,

especially the sounds.

So for her April Treasure basket I decided to make it 'construction' oriented.

The basket had blocks, road signs and construction vehicles.

When she got the basket she and her dad set up a road and played on the bed.

The next day I converted her sensory table by adding a piece of cardboard

and cut two holes in to it to sink pot holes.

I painted a quick background,

then set up some of the pieces from the basket.

All ready for her to see after her nap.

She took a bit of time exploring the different pieces

but what she liked most was discovering that the pot holes could pop out!

After Dad got home from work she showed him the set up.

A plastic bin was put underneath to hold more blocks

and she enjoyed pulling it out and adding more to the table.

We started to take more time to stop and watch big machines wherever we could.

She soon learned the sign for digger.

Back at the play table she started hauling some of her little animals in the truck.

She loves making the sounds of the truck.

Dad reads a great book that is all about the sounds that big machines make.

Ready for tomorrow's work.

Snap Blocks

                    
A few months ago I shared the snap blocks I had made with a fellow StrongStart facilitator.  I finally had a chance to put them out for the children to play.

Once they figured out how they went together they started to build.

The fact that the blocks spin once they are together was a lot of fun.

Enjoyed watching these two working side by side then smoothly start working together.

Hammering

One of the most popular activities at our centre is hammering.
When I set up at the beginning of a school year I keep in mind that the children have grown, interests may have changed,  and new families are arriving.  But from the first day of school I have had children ask "Where are the hammers?"

This week I brought out the hammers, golf tees, safety goggles and prepped some styrofoam.  I cover the styrofoam with cardboard to lessen the mess.  Broken pieces of styrofoam are fussy to clean up.
One year I put out real nails but a few parents were quite concerned, remember that our program is open for children birth to 5.

A couple of days of listening to the hammering echoing off the wooden table we put carpet squares under it to dampen the sound.

The goggles were suggested by a parent who is an optometrist - safety first, also developing good practice.

The children that have never used a hammer before are learning how.  That the back part of the hammer is to help you remove the tee if it went in crooked or in the wrong place.

What I enjoy observing about this activity is that all ages give it a try and the grownups are always involved.  They lend a hand with using the tools, they encourage a calmness and sharing but most of all they talk about experiences.  Experiences that the child might have with hammering or talking about someone that the child knows that uses the same tools.  Making connection between play and real life.

Baggage Ramp Converted

The Mom and little boy that created our airport's baggage ramp were back to play today and Poppa was with them.  I'm not sure who started this play, I only saw the little one carrying a dryer hose over his shoulder walking from one of our rooms to the other collecting what he needed.  He was looking for balls and he knew that there was a toy boat that had balls in our main room.  We convinced him to leave those balls for the boat (a toddler was playing with them) and use some others.  He gathered them up and headed back to the second room.

By the time I got there with my camera he was busy with his Momma and Poppa converting the baggage ramp into a ball ramp.

But the balls kept getting stuck in the dryer hose.  There wasn't enough of a slant. And the dryer hose wouldn't connect with the eavestrough and the balls wouldn't go all the way through.

So blocks were used to build up the slant and poppa cut a cardboard tube in half to fix the connection problem.  They were ready to try it again.

Another problem arose when sending the balls down the ramp too fast.  They became stuck again.

 I was impressed with the parent's patience with letting the little guy use his own methods to discover where the balls were stuck and how to get them out.  He didn't say a word just set to work.

After a couple of more adjustments, finally success.
Their ramp play inspired others to give it a try.

The excitement of learning.