It’s that time of the year again – all our paleontologists are in full swing! We spent the week exploring plenty of small world play, digging for fossils, baking, volcano experiments and plenty of fun art…
Interest corner with plenty of books…
A dinosaur cave…
Digging for fossils…
Fun dinosaur baking…
A volcano experiment…
And plenty of fun messy art!
In and amongst school and toy orders I’ve had some time to come up with new packaging and make a few new wooden toys…
Just love packing up a special gift and sending it to its new home!
We’ve had fun on Safari this week! The children have had a great time learning about different animals, their food, sounds and families!
Enjoying the Safari play provocations and activities…
And of course lots of fun messy art!
The space rocket was a huge hit this past week and super simple to make!
Things you need: old tins in different sizes; spray paint; plastic lids in different colours; magnetic strip; glue
I took some old tins in different sizes so they could fit on top of each other and be “stacked”. Gave them a good wash and spray paint in silver. I had a tub of plastic lids that I’ve collected over some time and just glued a piece of magnetic strip to the back.
The children spent ages arranging the colours and tins or just seeing how many colours they could fit onto a rocket!
Our school is filled with budding astronauts! The children’s interest and enthusiasm for space always amazes me! No lack of song and movement for this week and many trips to space! The real hits this week were gloopy sparkly space dough and our rocket building activity.
Amongst other activities around the class were astronaut emergent reading boards and felt board.
And of course plenty of fun art!
This week we are exploring shopping at school. We made a little shop in the corner of our class and the children have shopped till they dropped! Great fun fitting all their items into baskets and weighing and paying! A little corner cafe also provided a quiet spot to relax and watch all the happenings in the shop!
Great excitement taking turns to be shop keeper!
And lots of counting and sorting activities…
We’ve been having fun on the farm this week! Apart from all the animals the children loved learning about windmills, tractors and where our food comes from!
An interest corner with pictures, books and a pond of little ducklings!
Wooden animals, fences and blocks to create the perfect farm!
And of course lots of fun art…
More wintry weather and great fun to create our own insect and spider play provocations indoors! Always a hit with the children and plenty to talk, sing, play and create about!
We’ve been chatting about life cycles and I love these safariology life cycle sets – the children are fascinated by them and love to handle and play with them. Some simple hand painted lady birds to sort and count and loads of books to keep us busy!
Inspecting our little creatures…
And of course some OHP fun playing with light and shadows!
And plenty of creative art!
A few pics of my scroll saw creations!
Above are some teethers for little ones…
Some medium play sets…
Some larger play sets…
Some stackers and fences…
And some playful foxes for the playroom!
At the beginning of our school holiday I was super excited to have some time to search for new wooden toys and resources for our school. Nothing was going to stop me finding the perfect wooden animals, caves and scenes for us to use in play provocations and small worlds this coming term! After spending the first few days searching for local suppliers and following up on all sorts of leads I realised I wasn’t going to find what I was looking for. There are so many beautiful wooden toys out there drooollll but it seems I’d have to import them and this just isn’t a practical solution for me. I am passionate about beautiful wooden toys that are natural and sustainable. The natural wood textures stimulate our littlies senses inviting them to touch, feel and explore. Besides their durability and safety, wooden toys are ideal for encouraging creative and imaginative play. The only solution was to make them myself! I’m incredibly fortunate that my neighbour and his brother own and operate a sawmill that I could source not only local but sustainable wood for my toys. I found a second hand scroll saw online a little workshop corner at home and started playing around!
Ive had so much fun and want to recommend that if I can do this you can do it too!! The end product takes time and muscle to sand and finish properly and safely but totally do able and such fun!
More on these projects to follow!
sharing ideas on early childhood play provocations and learning environments
sharing ideas on early childhood play provocations and learning environments
sharing ideas on early childhood play provocations and learning environments
sharing ideas on early childhood play provocations and learning environments
sharing ideas on early childhood play provocations and learning environments
Ideas and Reflections from a Project Based Preschool
Inquiry-based Learning / Outdoor Learning / All Things Play
Documenting life without school and free childhood.
sharing ideas on early childhood play provocations and learning environments
sharing ideas on early childhood play provocations and learning environments
sharing ideas on early childhood play provocations and learning environments
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