Playdough Flower Garden

Welcome to our playdough flower garden.

I used ice tea mix to make the brown coloured playdough.

Put out little plastic flower pots and garden tools.

Also found flower shaped eraser pencil tops that fit onto little dowel rods.

Tiny coloured square beads, toothpicks and long skewers with butterlies on one end, 

worked great for fine motor skills.

I found it interesting that most children bypassed the sensory table with similar items; dirt, flowerpots and flowers and went to the playdough table instead.  

What attracted them?  Or what didn't they care for in the sensory table?

I'll have to watch over the next few days to see if the trend continues or if they'll be lured to the dirt.

Ramps, Castles, Or??

 

Last week I found these mini finger skateboards at a dollar store.

Placed them out with blocks, ramps and tubes.
Watched and waited to see what would happen.

The first day most children went for what I thought was the obvious and built ramps to send the skateboards down.

Although one or two children built castles.  They also found little people figurines to add to their play.

Each day the play changed and the children would explore further with the materials to...
create a variety of scenes,

experiment,

 

and tell stories.
 
This little boy even had the parrot voice while telling his whole story - it was great to observe.

But my favourite was to watch this little one build and destroy with great delight.

 He's giggling and checking to see who's watching.

Sign of the Week - bean, grow

This week we are reading the story Jack and the Beanstalk so the signs we will be focusing on are bean and grow.

Little Bean in the Ground

Little bean in the ground  (children curl up on floor)
Sitting oh so still.    (with hands wrapped around head)
Little bean, will you sprout?
Yes, I will!       (jump up, arms stretch up high)

Story - My Grandfather Talks to Frogs

I was asked to tell a story to our grade 1 class a couple of weeks ago.  They are raising frogs so I thought they would enjoy the story of My Grandfather Talks to Frogs.

Grandfather had an interesting way to talk to the frogs but the children listening to my story were able to figure out what he meant.
One little boy asked the teacher to write the story down for him so he could tell his parents.  Then he spent the rest of the afternoon saying "Howdeepisit?"

What is it? A Guessing Game

Last year I made this guessing game using mini file folders and pictures from magazines.
The idea originated at Childcareland.

Inside is the picture.

A little window is cut on the front so you have a glimpse of the picture.

Clues are there for the grown ups to ask the children.

 Something that I would add, looking at it with fresh eyes, is the answer on the inside so they can see the word.

Colour Walk

Today the weather was beautiful.  

We haven't had many days like this so far this spring and we

didn't want to miss the sunshine so we spent gym time outside plus a little longer.

We went on a colour walk.

I saw the idea on Frugal Family Fun blog.

I went to the local hardware store and picked out a variety of colour sample cards.

Punched a flower shaped hole in them and laminated them.

The children picked out two colours and went hunting.

Sometimes it was hard to find our colours or the right shade.

Until we spotted colours on ourselves,

or on other things.

The children and grown ups enjoyed it far more than I anticipated.

Chrysalides

We have been watching our caterpillars eat and grow for the past 3 weeks, much longer than it should have been.  Generally it takes a Painted Lady caterpillar 7 to 10 days to go from egg to chrysalis but it has been colder than average here and that is why we think it has taken them much longer.

 

We've been active at the art table making many caterpillar and butterfly arts and crafts.  This one is a traditional egg carton caterpillar.  When they were dry I put them in brown paper bags and hung them in our room by our caterpillar display.  Now that the real caterpillars are in their chrysalis our paper ones will start to break open and previously made butterflies will emerge.

 I created this play invitation for the children to experience caterpillars going in and butterflies coming out.

 The felt chrysalis also found their way into our bug play.

We are excited to continue to watch the chrysalis to see signs of the butterflies ready to emerge.