Puffy Paint Cone Trees

I've seen a craft like this before but most time it was done with icing. And most times the children end up with more in them then on the cone tree. So today I opted to use puff paint instead of icing.
The puff paint is easy to make - equal parts of shaving cream and white glue, plus a few drops of green food colouring. I don't have an electric mixer at work so we use a whisk to fluff it as much as possible. I hot glued the ice cream cones on to old, used greeting cards (so they'd be easy to carry home).

Then paint, paint, paint to cover the cone.

The children then could decorate their trees with sparkles and shaped confetti.

The sparkles fell like snow onto the trees.

And sometimes fell all over the place but we could still use it.So pretty to look at.

Our forest of Christmas trees.

Christmas Activities

At the light table this week I cut different shapes from coloured transparent film.

In the sensory tub there are green and silver tinsel with Christmas shaped erasers to dig, find and match.

And Christmas tree decorating.

Jingle Bell Bracelets

Yesterday I read a post at Not Just Cute about Intention Deficit Disorder and it made think about how I communicate my goals and reasons for the variety of activities planned in the centre with the families that attend. I haven't been except one-to-one or when a parent asked.
And I've been frustrated when parents take over an art activity when their child finds it too hard instead of helping them learn how to do it.
So today I took a new approach and wrote down what learning could happen for each child.

The craft table was really busy.

I saw lots of learning and patience. Children trying and grown-ups encouraging.

And I heard of lots of jingling.

Thanks to Lisa for sharing this idea with me.

Seriation Toy

I found these little cans at a dollar store. Three round tins and three square tins.
Inside the smallest ones I placed a round toy cookie and a square toy cookie.
The language I overheard parents using included small, medium and large, put it in, take it out, which one is next, different shape.
It was fun to watch them experimenting with stacking. They enjoyed when the tins tumbled down.

Christmas Tree Decorations

Christmas tree decorations using the hole punch.
I try to provide crafts that really work on children's fine motor skills and a hole punch is a great pre-writing tool.
Same with using a glue stick.
And it takes alot of finger pinching to pick up the little pieces of tissue paper.

Welcome to My StrongStart Centre

I thought I would give you a photo tour of my centre.


Adult's perspective when you enter the main room.






The snack area. Snack is available all morning. We use to eat as a group but last year we really tried to cut down on the number of transitions that happened. Also we took in to account that children need to listen to their bodies and eat when they are hungry. It works very well for us.




A multi-purpose area. Available for puzzles, fine motor, overflow from the snack table, etc. I've really stretched my comfort zone and realized that children need the freedom to move from one area to another with any toy at any given time to explore different and new ways to play.





The floor area with blocks, trees, shells, rocks, people, cars, ramps, houses, different textured mats. Plus the riser allows for children (our range is from birth to 5) to comfortably sit, stand or kneel to play. Also allows parents a comfortable place to sit rather than on the floor. Since adding the riser I've seen more of the grown-ups participating in the play than before.














The story/infant area. With big book stand, comfy chairs, books, and some infant/toddler toys.




A small play area for play dough, having a pretend cup or tea or hammering. There is a shelf that hold science and observation materials. Plus our fish tank is there which the children enjoy feeding everyday.

















The craft area. Last year this was a very small space and I found not many children used it. So after expanding and making it feel more open it has become a well used area of the room.

And that is the end of our main room.

Across the hall I'm lucky to have a second room.

This room provides more open space for larger movement. It has our larger cars and trucks.

It has our dramatic play area, which in this picture is a vet centre.

A different shot of the room standing at the entrance.

And the house area, plus at the time of this photo we had a second dramatic play area going on - a hair salon.

Reindeer Shaped Snack

We had fun at the snack table making reindeer to eat.
On our snack table we have menus of choice for the day. Another way to incorporate literacy (written word in this case) into the day.
How to make a reindeer for snack.