A Little ABC Fun

We've been having fun with our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree.

Reading the book, matching the letters 

and making them climb the tree.

 The tree is a great size for the little ones to discover;

looking up, reaching up and then standing up.

Oh and the guessing games have been fun.

Our Chicken Play

For the past couple of weeks the children have been playing in our 

chicken coop.

To see the beginning of this project visit Chicken Coop Research.

The day after we painted the coop we added nesting boxes.

Shoe boxes that the children brought in.

We filled them with chicken, duck and rooster stuffies.

There were a few baby chicks too.

Then we added eggs, lots of eggs.

A few baskets were needed for collecting the eggs.

And a bale of hay finished off the feeling of being in a barn.

As the children collected the eggs I thought of a way to extend the play

and interest toddlers in the play.

I brought out the silo we had use for a farm play last year.

The tube was used for feeding the animals

but today it became an egg production tube.

So much fun to send the eggs through the tube

and collect them on the other side.

And repeat, again and again and again.

One day I noticed that someone had taken the coloured rice from the sensory table

and dumped it on the bale of hay.

A mom told me that her little one wanted to feed the chickens.

So I brought out some bird seed and let them take care of that chore.

Next week our real chickens eggs arrive.

I Spy at the Pond

We have had so much rain this spring that

during our visit to the pond this morning we noticed that the water level has

dropped

but not very much compared to last year.

The highlight this morning was the release of several of our

tadpoles.

Three of our tadpoles have their rear legs so I decided 

to release them.

The water in our tank is warmer then the pond

so we set the bucket in the water to balance the temperature.

As I tilted the bucket they were very slow at swimming out.

They finally did and they were so easily camouflaged that we had a hard time spotting them.

On to our focus of the visit - to use binoculars

to spy around the pond.

It took a bit of patience and direction to show them how to use the binoculars.

 Once they understood they were spotting things on the other side of the water.

Next step was to record what they saw.

Part of recording what we saw is for the grown up to add print

and then for the child to share it with someone else.

We also used the binoculars to look at something very small right in front of us.

I found this tiny spider

and we were able to spy on it and count it's legs.

It is very calming and relaxing visiting the pond.

So much fun to share it with friends.

Ball Roll Painting

I was given this huge box and my first thought was marble painting.

But I thought, it's too big for our little ones to use

so we needed help from our big buddies.

After giving a bit of instruction, asking the big buddies to kneel so

they would be at the same level as their little buddy,

they enthusiastically started rolling.

Look at the concentration and focus on their faces.

They were encouraged to move the box up and down,

side to side.

Gripping the box and using their muscles to control where the ball will roll

was a new experience for some.

Getting a closer look at the ball then adding more paint

 then painting continued.

We also set up smaller boxes for one or two buddy pairs to try.

We used a variety of balls.

My favourite was this prickly ball and the design it left on the paper.

All done and time to take our art work inside

and get cleaned up.

It's great when we can share are buddy work with the whole school.

I snapped this photo of a group of big buddies enjoying the painting process.

Very cool!