Play Trays This Week

       
Peg and rings that I made myself.  The rings were another thrift store find that I painted red, yellow and blue but left the base of each peg stand plain.  I had the dowel at home and glued them into the rings.
          
          This tray was a favourite tray with toddlers.
    
I watched this child match the rings to the same colour.  His first attempt was on the yellow but then he changed his mind and put it on the blue.

       
    Setting the table by matching the dishes to their drawing.
             
It wasn’t very popular.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe if all four spots at the table had a placemat to set.  We may try that sometime.

        
Make a snowman by filling a glass jar with white cotton balls.  I saw this idea on Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails blog.  The snowman’s face is drawn on the jar which could be seen clearly when the jar was full.
      
We used tongs to grab the cotton balls and transfer them to the empty jar.
   
      But emptying the jar was the most fun.


     Number matching from Childcareland. 
Clip a clothespin onto the number that matches the one on the shirt.
  
This was the least used tray this week.  Even the parents didn’t know what could be done.  More parents may have encouraged their child if I had a card with instructions with it.

2014 First Visit to Fairy Lane

                       
The weather is dreary and no lovely white snow to brighten the day so this morning we made sparkly dangles to hang in Fairy Lane.
                   
  
We closed early and drove to the Lerwick Woods which is home to our Fairy Lane.
 
 I handed out our nature bags that held clip board and crayons and each
        child had a dangle to hang somewhere in the woods.
   
There were shouts of glee as they spotted a door and they were off and running.
 
Other fairy supporters have been leaving doors, houses, treasures and more
              so we made sure to search behind every tree and log.
  
                    We found a group of fairies having a party.
           It looked like they had been celebrating the new year.
       
The children chose their spot to hang the dangle and were off to find more doors.

            Some time was spent drawing and creating stories.
  
A bonus to our visit today was to check the pumpkins that we left
                      after Halloween last October.
               
This painted jack o’lantern was knocked to the ground and is very
                         rotten.  It looks very flat now.

     Some of the whole pumpkins have nibble marks and others were
                 smashed with their seeds spilled about. 
    I wonder if new pumpkins will grow in Fairy Lane this coming summer?

Banana Snowmen

Our latest Build-a-Snack was to build a snowman.
           
Bananas for the snowball body, cheerios and raisins interchangeable for eyes and mouth (buttons too), carrots for the nose and pretzels for arms.
                  
Some of the children have participated in our Build-a-Snacks for sometime and I was so impressed when I saw this child reading the recipe before starting.
 
  
   After reading the recipe he was able to build his snowman independently.
               
This recipe offered the opportunity to talk about facial and some body parts.

Using simple ingredients made it a very appealing snack to most of the children.

Penguin Shuffle

                  
Story time today started with the book Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice by Steve Metzger.  It’s a version of Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.
         
After the story I handed each child ‘penguin feet’ (paper plates, the cheap kind) and we waddled around.  The paper plates allow us to slide easier on the carpet.
  
I introduced a short little song that I found on CanTeach, called Penguin Shuffle.
           
“Penguins shuffle, shuffle, shuffle to the left, left, left.  
Penguins shuffle, shuffle, shuffle to the right, right, right.  
They give a little wiggle, 
they give a little hop.  
Then they waddle around the iceberg till its time to stop.”

Here’s a little video showing us doing the Penguin Shuffle.

I also put together this version to use on the felt board.
      
The penguins are attached with velcro so they can come off as we say it.

Laundry Time

I was busy over the holidays making a new toy, a washing machine.
It's simply made from a cardboard box, a basket, milk jug caps and tape.
I really enjoy making toys from recyclables and cardboard boxes are easy
                             to get and very versatile.
I was inspired to make the washing machine from this post at Craftster.

         
One corner of our classroom has been transformed into a laundry room. 
                  It has clothes to sort into bins,
          
                a rack to hang the clothes to dry,
            
                      and a ironing board.

The children spent a lot of time this morning figuring out how to use it.
   The lid was too floppy so I added the ribbon this afternoon.
   
    
             
The washing machine will probably find a permanent spot in our
         house play area in a couple of weeks. 

Have you used a cardboard box to make something in your program? 
Do you have a favourite blog that recycles boxes into toys that you can share?