Dino Antics Day 6

It’s been over a week since the Dinos have been causing mischief in our classroom.  Each day as families arrive I hear a few more talking about the Dinos.  Wondering where they might be today.

They were well hid this morning.
                                 
               We found them inside the big box that holds our light table.
                             
                 They were being silly trying to wear our see through blocks.
                             
    
           We decided to help them build a castle and some towers.

Plastercine and the Dinosaurs

              
Last week as dinosaurs were introduced I set up an invitation to mould dinosaurs with plastercine.  Play dough is always available but I like to add other materials, such as plastercine, that can provide opportunities to strengthen their hands.
          
The first day the children did pinch and shape dinosaurs using the green and yellow
                                             plastercine.
       
         I noticed, too, that the children started to use the dinosaurs as tools. 
         
Pressing them into the plastercine they could make footprints.  Or press it on other
                      parts of the body and see what impression was left.
           
But the favourite, that I saw over and over, was to add the plastercine to the
                      dinosaurs, as clothing, skin, necklaces and more.

So it didn’t matter what they were doing they were having fun and still working
                             those important muscles in their fingers.

Dino Antics Day 5

                    
This morning we found the silly dinosaurs in the tub with the marble tree.    
                       
          Brachiosaurus is tall enough to reach the top of the tree.
 
The other three stuck their tails and horns in the holes to block the marbles from
                               falling all the way down.
                     
                      They stayed and played the rest of the morning.

Infants and Seniors

               Yesterday was our morning with our grand friends. 
It started out with just one family but that one family drew in the seniors.
       
                               The attraction was twins.
             
  Word spread and more and more people came in to see, staff included.
That made the twins a little cautious and they stayed fairly close to mom.
                 
In the hopes of encouraging interaction between the two generations I pulled
                              out a toy with stuffed animals.
                
It worked.  It helped that the girls have the same toy that they have played with
                            with their grandmother at home.
                               
Soon the girls were exploring farther away from mom feeling a bit more at ease
                             with the many adults staring at them.
                
During the visit the grand friends asked questions about the twins, offered compliments and words of encouragement AND they smiled the whole time.

Dino Antics Day 4

             
I saw the dinosaurs, before the children arrived, measuring themselves with our
                                    magnetic wooden blocks.
          
           
I didn’t know they were into math.  We’ll have to challenge them another day.
                       
Unfortunately it was very busy this morning so I didn’t see how the children
             discovered them but they did get some play time.
                  
I’ve made up this sign to post tomorrow to encourage the children to let me
                         know when they find the dinosaurs.

Play to Learn

This little boy found two balls on the carpeted area.  I watched him suck on the balls, drop them, crawl after them, put them in his mouth again and crawl some more until he came across this tube.
   
Once he got to the tube he sat up and dropped the ball into the tube.  No one was around him, he was on his own and focused on what he was doing.  After putting both balls in he would lean over and peer inside then try to get them out by sticking his hand in.
     
I showed him once to turn it over to get the balls out.  He promptly put the balls back in and tried again to get them out.  This time he picked it up and shook it.  It wasn’t till he dropped the pipe that the balls rolled out.
                                   
                          One rolled out and across the floor.
   
                      He followed and brought it back to the pipe.
      
      And started all over again.  Simple toy but so much learning.

Dino Antics Day #3

It’s Wednesday and we spend the whole morning with our grand friends at their seniors home.  Well I was surprised, when I opened my traveling bin, to see the dinosaurs inside.
                       
I think they were attracted to the bird’s nest that I had in there because in the nest
                                         there was an egg.
               
                       And it looked like the egg was ready to hatch.
                 
I carefully moved them all on to the floor and left them for the children to discover.
                 
                 This child was very interested and had lot to say.
 
“Where did the egg come from?  How does the egg hatch?  Is there a dinosaur inside?”  She picked it up and figured out how to open the egg.
  
“Which are the parents?”  She picked up the two blue dinosaurs and said the baby
                             didn’t have it’s stripes yet.
             
               Do dinosaurs sit on their eggs to help them hatch?