Tropical Destination

Our Airport/airplane dramatic play continues with wonderful role playing.

  flight attendant serving snacks




  fire fighters in case of a crash

Part of our original plans were to have a baggage conveyor belt.  

Well neither my husband or myself could figure out how to make one but one of our families could.

This mom used a piece of eavestrough that was in the corner to make a luggage ramp.  She told me that her son talks about last years fieldtrip to the airport and how they watched the pink suitcase come down the ramp.

Today we made it more permanent.

For our tropical destination we had moved all the sand from the sandbox in to a wading pool. Placed a palm tree beside it and added shovels with pails.

It is busy everyday.  I enjoy watching how many children can fit comfortably around the sandpool plus their grown ups.

Big trucks and little trucks came and went.

And the construction and deconstruction of sand castles happened.

 By everyone!

Squeeze Bottle Painting

I was thrilled to find a recipe for salt dough painting at Family Fun website.  A couple of weeks ago when I was on the main land for a conference I was shopping at Daiso (a huge $2 store) and found some squeeze bottles with multiple tips.
 
So today we mixed up a batch of the Drawing Dough and gave it a try.

The recipe is so easy.  Equal parts of salt, flour and water (2/3 cups of each) and then add paint for colour.  Although we did find with those measurements that the dough was way too thick for the little ones to be able to squeeze out of the bottles so we added more water.

Everything made and gathered we were set to go.

 Look how hard he's trying - love the focus.

And the grown ups were amazing.  I've been focusing on having my goals for the crafts available to them and they definitely responded today.  The big goal for this activity was to build the fine motor muscles in their child's finger.  Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze!  It was a really hands off activity until a child asked for help.

 Can you see the blue streaming from the bottle.  So much fun.

Once the squeezing was done we brought out some tools and sparkles.

Even the littlest ones were given an opportunity to squeeze.

But he preferred to put it in his mouth, luckily it was the bottom and not the tips.

National Flag Day Canada

Today in Canada it is National Flag Day - not a day that most would celebrate but I felt it fit right in with Valentines Day, love and the colour red.
So at the craft table were materials to make a Canadian flag but with a twist.  I mixed cherry jello powder with a little water and then blended it into the red paint in hopes that when the flags dry they will still have the fragrance

A few children, instead of making a the flag, were quite happy to put paint anywhere on the paper, so I pulled a poster "Flags of the World"  and pointed out other flags that had red on them.  That started a conversation with families who have moved to Canada and what their birth country flag looks like.

Our flag has only existed since 1965, not very old in comparison to the world.

This craft provoked good conversations between parent and child and between families.  Where do we see flags?  What colours are they?  Why does it smell like cherry? (I hadn't mentioned at the beginning that I had added jello powder).  What do they feel llike?

This little guy wandered over to the light table and found coloured transparent squares and started to look through them - interesting that he chose red.

And of course flags are great for waving.

Secret Messages

What a busy Valentines day we had.  At the art table we made secret messages. 

The parents were encouraged to draw or write 
on white paper with a white crayon.

Then their child used watercolours to paint over it.

 At the snack table we decorated sugar cookies to eat and made a special marshmallow treat (marshmallows dipping in water than rolled in sprinkles) for our neighbouring grade 2 class. 

Plus families brought in a piece of fruit to add to our friendship salad.

And there was a lot of red and pink being worn.

We kept track. 

Hope you had a fun Valentines Day at your place.