Book - Doggies

Sandra Boynton is one of our favourite children's authors at the moment.

"Doggies" is one of my granddaughter's go-to books because she loves dogs.

To enhance the book I gathered ten toy dogs and one cat to set up as a play invitation.

My son in-law introduced the toy dogs with the book.

They decided which dogs would make which kind of bark.

If you haven't read the book then each dog has a distinctive bark

from woof to yip to n-n-n and more.

She loved all the dogs and playing with her dad.

Another day we moved them back into the bin with other props

and the play ideas grew.

It has been a fun way to introduce counting, size and build her vocabulary,

such as; big, little, long legs, running, sitting, same, different, etc.

New StrongStart, New Fairy News

My granddaughter and I have been visiting a few StrongStart centres

in the Vancouver and Coquitlam school districts.

              

For me it has been very interesting being on the other side of the child as a visitor.

For my granddaughter it is opening the door to socialization and new play experiences.

We really like a few of the centres because their facilitators are very welcoming

and the environment is calm and inviting.

Our favourite centre so far has a fairy corner.

I was thrilled to see my granddaughter was attracted to it.

Back at my house, her interest in fairies inspired me to do something 

with one of my fairy doors.

I asked my husband to build a room behind the door.

He used hinges so it will open and it has a latch to lock.

I decided that it needed some interior decorating so pulled out

scrapbooking paper to use as wallpaper,

plus some paper for flooring.

I'm leaving it as it is till my grand daughter visits and shows

interest in playing with it.

If it was your fairy house, what else would you add?

Cups and Beads

I was given these coloured plastic cups so I put them on a table 

curious what, if anything, the children would do with them.

It didn't take long before they were being pulled apart 

then restacked.

Then I notice this family had added a container of wooden

beads that were handy on the shelf beside them.

The child matched one bead into each cup.

Soon others were using the beads with the cups too.

 I love getting ideas from the families that attend

so at the end of the morning I left the beads out with the cups.

 I was able to observe children stretch the play

and find a way to make it a fun learning experience for themselves.

I couldn't have planned these activities as well as the children

created them.

Did you notice that all the children were toddlers?

Chinese New Year Play

The children entered the classroom this week with an invitation

around Chinese New Year.

In the house area they found chopsticks with 

a steamer full of dumplings.

A little decoration on our snack table.

But the most fun was at the play dough table.

Painting Leaves

We have been playing with leaves.

Shaking them from the tree and raking them up

into baskets.

An invitation to paint leaves the same colours as the ones we are seeing outside.

Watercolour paints and leaf shaped paper invited them to paint.

Mixing the paint and water was a side bonus for the toddlers.

I noticed calmness and focus.

The children really enjoyed this activity and we had so many leaves

that we used them as a border on our bulletin board.