Tray Play Week #4

This week's trays:

 Pom poms, tray with indents and tongs.

 You have to squeeze the handle to make the tongs open.

Then match one pom pom to one indent.

For a younger child that didn't quite have the grasping hold,

matching the pom poms to the indents was still great pleasure.

 Moon sand and tools.

The children love the feel of the moon sand,

and that it will pack together.

Marbles and what I call a 'marble tree'. 

I found it a thrift store and there are no markings on it 

of where or who made it.

But the children love it.

 You can drop a marble into any hole and listen to it drop,

watching for it to come out.

 It sounds like a rain stick.

From a drip with one marble to a shower with many marbles

dropping.

Some children prefer starting at the very top 

while others tried in the middle.

The tray sitting on the table was too high for some of the little ones

so we placed it on a stool for easier access.

Sorting cats and dogs into their baskets.

Not as popular as the other three trays.

Therapy Dog Visits

We've been talking and playing with animals at StrongStart.

Today we invited a Therapy Dog, Samara, into visit.

We learned a lot about how Therapy Dogs help people;

seniors, people in hospitals and children who have difficulty reading.

We learned how to approach a dog.

First by letting her smell our hand before petting her.

 And she got lots of pats,

 and strokes.

 She felt very soft.

We had a chance to ask questions too.

And Samara sat patiently the whole time.

She can count to 5 and 10.

Samara also loves to give hugs.

Children who have never had an opportunity to pet a dog did today.

Their parents were quite happy to see that their reactions were very

positive.

Painted Toast

Interesting reactions at the snack table this morning.

We painted bread before toasting it.

 The children were very willing to paint the bread,

pop it in the toaster, 

even to cut it with a cookie cutter.

By what I saw in the garbage can, many didn't like the taste.

 Or maybe it was just to soggy in texture.

Next time I'll provide smaller, thinner paint brushes

What Started as This Ended Like That

This morning the art table was set with paint, paper, crumpled tin foil, waxed paper and plastic wrap.

A few children had fun experimenting with this method of painting.

But as the morning progressed a child was interested 

in making Chinese Lanterns.

A grandmother and her little one, who had already visited the table, 

decided to use their painting to make their lantern.

What a great idea!

So others started to make theirs that way.

That's how I imagine the art table working everyday.

Chinese New Year

Welcome to a couple activities that were available today

to celebrate Chinese New Year.

 We had tea with fortune cookies.

The fortune cookies are made from felt circles with a pipe cleaner

glued inside so they can bend.

 

It was fun to watch the children play with chop sticks.

One little boy came dressed in his finery.

It is beautiful.

At the art table there were materials to make dragon puppets.

Red cups and plates, googly eyes, wooden dowels and crepe streamers.

The children's dragons were creative and unique to themselves.

 It looks like chaos,

 but was very producive

 and cooperative.

Here are a few finished dragons.

 

 

 

 

I was quick to snap a picture as this little one was leaving

making her dragon puppet fly.