Reaching New Heights

The last few weeks, I have been observing the toddlers explore during free play.  Everyday I would find the children trying to drive toy cars on the high wooden ledges.  They would stretch out their arms as far as they could and proudly smile as the reached the top with their cars.  Soon after, the children began to take all their toys on the high ledges.  I began to reflect on what I was observing.  I asked myself “why are the children doing this?"  Everyone will find a different reason as to why these children enjoy this experience.  I concluded with…. taking risks, it is challenging to keep toys on the small ledge.  I also concluded with the ability to reach new heights through play.  That's how this experience began…

One afternoon I brought out the colourful pegs and we began to stack them, attaching each peg to the previous one. 

Each child took a turn adding a few pegs.

I sat with the children and held onto the peg tower that we were creating.

Taking turns can be difficult but the children showed patience and excitement when it was their turn.

Holding the tower made it easier to add the next peg.

I added a challenge as I moved the tower to a horizontal position creating more difficulty to reach the top.  The child smiles proudly as he recognizes his accomplishment. 

We problem solved as we watched the tower wobble. 

One child makes a small tower and connects it to the large tower.

After a few more pegs we take a look at the final project. 

The tall tower was created, we all worked together and we were proud of our creation. 

Written by Miss Sousa

Development and enhancement of skills

Today, our group discovered some new, exciting ways to play with yogurt containers and plastic balls.

Even simple objects can create such enlightening experiences!


Our children developed some new fine motor skills as they placed the containers together, dropped the balls (from a distance) into each container and spun the containers around so the balls inside of them would spin.

A child carries two different colored balls.

The children select balls to sort out.

He sorts all of the white balls into one container!

 

Many children also developed memory skills by having someone else place a ball into a container and letting them choose between 2 containers to decide which one the ball was in.

This experience also allowed the children to enhance many of the skills they have already acquired. A couple examples of this include: enhancing depth perception by throwing the balls from a distance into a container (just like basketball) and enhancing organizational skills by sorting each type of ball into a different container.

He removes the white balls as he adds the green ones!

When the group was done with the balls, we decided to take a trip to a place we haven't been in awhile; the gym.

Stomping around on the mats!

 

"We play so well together!"

Play in the gym is not only exciting and fun, but it also plays a part in developing skills and physical development!

We worked on mostly gross motor skills while in the gym; throwing around balls and rolling on mats!

1...

 

2...

 

3!!!

 



                                                          We love rolling on the mats!

However, we had a couple children test their coordination and balance by rolling around hula hoops on the floor as well!

 

We all prepare to roll our hoops!

So cool!

 

Despite the weather outside, it's been a wonderful day!!



-Mr.Freeman

Bird Watch

One morning when we were outside, some of the children were looking up for a long period of time.  I wondered what they were looking at, then I spotted a bird which was sitting on a branch. I said, "Oh, you saw a bird. What is he doing up there?" One child replied "bird".

Children are very observant about their surroundings.  They spotted even the smallest things from far away.  They are curious about things around them. This creates new ideas and thoughts for us.We learn so much from exploring and observing!

Written by Ms. Wong

Pumpkin

For the past few weeks the children have been playing with the pumpkins in the room.  Several children thought of different ways to use them.  The children were rolling, tapping and sitting on the big orange pumpkin.  On Wednesday November 2, the children watched as I cut the pumpkin open.  

The children work together to pull the top part of the pumpkin apart.

The child stops to take notice of the small piece of pumpkin that was left on his hand.

Once the lid is off the children look inside of the pumpkin.  The children look closely for several minutes.

After some thinking and observing, one child points at the seeds.

One child's curiousity and learning takes place as she reaches inside.  A few new discoveries take place.  She discovers that the seeds are attached, and they feel slimy.

She pulls one seed and squishes it in her fingers.  Then she shows us her idea...

She pulls off one seed at a time and then places it inside the pumpkin.  As she is reaching to place one of the seeds in the pumpkin it falls beside of it.  The other child noticed it and states "Oh No!"  Mr. Blatz joins in the excitement. As he talks, the child listens very closely.

 One by one the child continued to pull each seed and places it back into the pumpkin.

She begins to smile proudly as she holds the top of the pumpkin.  All that hard work was recognized as she took notice of the missing seeds.

Written by Miss Sousa

More and more sensory play!

Over the past couple of weeks, our group has been quite eager about exploring our senses through play and simple activities!

 

First, we explored our sense of touch when we discovered that when you take soapy water and mix it really well, the result is a frothy mixture that is unique in texture and is fun to play with.

 

Everybody gets a turn to try, as the children explore their sense of touch by squeezing the mixture.

 

Everybody is so excited to feel the texture of the mixture...

 

...and when it's time to clean up, they still want to play!

The following week, one of our teachers made rain sticks, each covered in a different material, so we could explore our senses of touch and sound simultaneously!

The children found many ways to play with the rain sticks, including: setting them up and knocking them down, tilting them, rolling them on the ground and shaking them!

 

 

Three sticks, one tinfoil, one felt, one duct tape.

 

 

Knocking the sticks down makes a loud noise!

 

 

Tilting the sticks makes a "rain" noise!

 

 

We find new, creative ways to use our toys every day!

 

Later this week, we also made "flavored" finger paints out of kool aid and cornstarch! This allowed to the children to not only explore their sense of smell, taste (although many did not enjoy this kind of taste.) and touch, but hearing as well when we squished the paints between our fingers it made a pretty interesting crackling noise.

Just before making them, we thought, why not have others join in the fun? So we had a couple preschool children from another program help us out in making the paints!

 

 

Adding water to the cornstarch thickens the mixture!

 

We stir the water and cornstarch together.

 

Then we add kool aid for color and scent!

 

The finished product, 4 different textures of paint!

 

Our children can explore many senses at a time!

 

Mixing the colors will make new ones!

 

Some did not want to paint, but had other uses for our creation!

 

Our hands always find a way to get messy!

That same night, we cooled our paints in the fridge so they would harden. We placed them in bags so our children could focus on their sense of touch and their creativity. We couldn't wait to see the ideas they would come up with.

 

 

We shook the bags!

 

Squeezed the goo in our hands!

 

Pressed it against ourselves to feel the cold temperature!

 

Used it as a hat!

 

Felt the cold on our bare feet!

 

 

And just kneaded it around to feel all of the different textures!

 

All in all, it's been a blast these last couple of weeks exploring each of our senses and watching the children come up with all kinds of ideas and ways to play!

 

-Mr.Freeman