Making simple play mats is a useful way to use up all your odd size felt bits. I have a number of mats that I’ve made for different play scenes that I bring out during the year.
The children love to get creative with the different textures provided and often end up creating their whole own unique environments for their animals!
If you have animal counters a great activity is to find similar animal silhouettes to make a template sheet and let the children match up the animals.
Every now and then someone passes on a nice chunky piece of polystyrene packaging to us. All we do is add some children’s hammers and golfing T’s and create a fantastic hammering activity for the children to enjoy. They spend ages enjoying the satisfying feeling of hammering their “nails” into the “wood”.
As the last few days before holidays have been steadily getting colder we have spent time exploring all things cold and Wintery! It has also provided some fun art opportunities that the children have had great fun making!
Tooo many lovely nursery rhymes and too little time! Another theme filled with so many different ideas and opportunities to create lovely provocations for the children… I was given a very special book that was great inspiration and provided a great selection of well known and not so well known nursery rhymes to share with the children.
This year I made a set of nursery rhyme felt characters for the felt board – the children loved them and I’d often overhear them singing the nursery rhymes and enacting the rhymes amongst themselves.
On the table we had a few small provocations of various nursery rhymes – the children had great fun playing with these during the week. Towards the end of the week I created a sensory basin filled with the items together with large shred sawdust – they adored this!
On the other side of the classroom a “little miss muffit” play scene with picnic basket, cushion and of course spider on elasticated thread hanging from the ceiling! The children had an absolute ball with the spider – every time they pulled it it would shoot up into the air – too much fun!
A great week filled with so many creative play based activities and loads of fun!
I don’t know about any one else but we have a number of very dedicated oceanographers at play school! I love our sea theme and can’t get enough of the delight, interest and observation the little ones show in exploring the ocean and it’s creatures…
Of course for sensory displays we have water, shells, sand and … water! And lots of it! I have a wonderful collection of beautiful shells that I let the children handle and play with in and out of the water.
They will spend ages pouring the water out of shells and comparing all the different sizes and types. Swishing, sploshing and splashing…
More water, boats and sea creatures…
Of course it would not be the ocean without the beach…
There are so many wonderful ideas to put out on the tables to inspire creative thinking… and some simple ideas for emergent counting the children just cant resist!
Evolving collaborative artwork left on the walls for the week have the children adding their own creative touches as the mood takes them…
Discussion is endless and sensory opportunities everywhere!
I found a little “tree/branch” on a base in the second hand shop a few months ago and turned it into a “who is here to play today” tree. The tree would be pretty easy to make – just finding a nicely shaped branch and fixing it onto a base, light sand and varnish would do the trick. For the picture discs I printed and laminated a picture of everyone and fixed them to wooden curtain rings from the hardware shop.
Every morning the children never loose excitement to go and find their picture and hang it on the tree! During circle time its a great tool to use to count how many friends are at school, discuss who is not at school and why and generally get everyone participating. Even the quietest child is happy to find their picture and join in the discussion and action.
I even find the children playing with the tree during the morning – identifying all their friends and chatting away to each other – turning it into a great social tool and even a fine motor exercise!
Practicing motor skills with other children and having interested adults participate are great learning opportunities for children. Patient husband made a set of simple obstacle materials for the children to use for their movement. They were easy to make and provide the children with a great opportunity to explore and discuss all the different things they can do with them. Even though the children figured out the original movements intended for them they even invented a few of their own creative uses and had a great time experimenting and eventually making their own obstacle courses.
Items we used: piece of wood cut into various sizes; drill and screws; sander.
Once the various pieces of wood were cut to size we just drilled all the bits together and sanded. We made 2 x balance beams and 2 x hoop holders. They are sturdy and provide a great platform for the children to create their own creative obstacle courses!
FREE MOVEMENT RESOURCES:
free movement card resources 01
free movement card resources 02
free movement card resources 03
Below are a few Easter resources you are welcome to use. If you are interested in any other resources I may have available you are welcome to email me at: smallschoollove@gmail.com
easter resource free download colouring01 easter resources free download colouring02 easter resources free download colouring03 easter resources free download colouring04 easter resource free download emergent numeracy01 easter resource free download emergent numeracy02 easter resource free download emergent reading01 easter resource free download emergent reading02 easter resource free download emergent reading03 easter resource free download emergent reading04 easter resource free download emergent reading05 easter resources free download silhouette match black easter resources free download silhouette match colour
This week we’ve had a great time with our Easter theme! Beside the usual easter hunt and bunny excitement we had fun exploring texture, colour, music and plenty of movement…
The children had great fun with the easter templates on our felt board – there were bunnies, chicks, mother hen and plenty of easter eggs! As an easter provocation there was an easter landscape filled with basket nests and wooden eggs, scarves, “hidey” holes for eggs, easter bunny, spring animals and assorted loose parts. They spent hours hiding the eggs, sorting them, counting them and re-arranging the items creating their own space.
On the shelves there were plenty of little baskets with lids and wooden eggs and pebble owls to sort, count and explore. I made some felt “eggs” to manipulate the scarves inside – great for fine motor co-ordination. On the tables plenty of sorting trays and plastic eggs to fill with an assortment of different textured pom-poms.
Great bustle and creativity for all before the holidays filled with plenty of open-ended art opportunities, play and general easter excitement!
We had a few days at the end of a term last year when I decided to surprise the children with some frozen fun! It’s not the type of theme or provocation we’d normally have out – but it was the end of term and just suited the general holiday anticipation in the air!
Instead of buying the figurines I found some good frozen pictures I printed and laminated – it actually worked out perfectly as each child could have their own set of each character. I would have never afforded to buy them each a set of actual figurines!
Items I used: white sheet; white tissue paper; white doilies; foil; glass pebbles; wood discs; wood branches; christmas tree branches; shells; christmas baubles; pinecones; tinsel; wooden tree; wooden cave; cotton wool balls; recycled plastic; penguins; bear; laminated characters
Basically I threw together a lot of white, silver, blue and loose parts of different textures and the children had an absolute ball…They re-arranged and built their own frozen landscape together for ages. Interacting with the different creatures and characters – organising the various bits and pieces.
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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