Feel the rain!

Sometimes going outside doesn't quite go as you plan... as we were getting ready to go out in the rain (the children had chosen themselves who wanted to play out and who wanted to play inside - the majority wanted to go out) I knew exactly where we were going - to the square to splash in the puddles. BUT when we got outside the rain began to tell us a different story.  We could hear how the rain fell onto the ground, we could see how it ran like a river down towards the underground station (which is overground in this area) - so instead of going to the square we followed the water...
It lead us to the tunnel that goes under the train tracks - and we stopped and wondered why the ground was not wet in the tunnel... it didn't take long to work it out when we stepped into the tunnel - it was not raining in there... It was great fun running in and out of the rain...

Towards the other end, the water had begun to flow river like through the tunnel - we splashed and splashed together (yes me too - got a few sniggers from onlookers - but I think they were only jealous...). The children noticed the patterns being made by the splashes and their footprints and began to run round and round until they created a circle of wet...

water can make the most amazing sounds - the rain pattering on the ground - and of course dripping, dropping and gurgling down the drain... it not only sounded enticing it was mesmerising to watch

It is always interesting to see how children inspire each other. As you saw on the previous photo child one started at the drain - listening and inspecting it closely; along came another child to check out what was happening and sat down on the curb. Child one saw that sitting at the curb made it easier to look into the drain and promptly walked across the drain to sit there too. The two of them sat there for at least ten minutes just looking - with their eyes, fingers and ears!

next to the tunnel is a small garden with small paths running through. We went to have a look - and noticed how the leaves collected the raindrops - 3 of the children went round to see how the balls of water rolled around in the leaves getting bigger and bigger until they splashed out...

the rain also brought out a snail...

Rain can also be experienced on a variety of surfaces - and it collects differently  on each one - for example on the bench the children could swoosh their hands back and forth to join the small droplets together... the rain was a full on sensory experience - sight, sound, feeling, smell (everything smelled differently in the rain) and taste - rain ended up in the mouth as wet hands were just so tempting to lick...

Do templates kill creativity?

I am no fan of templates - I would much rather encourage the children to create from scratch - in much the same way I would much prefer to provide home-made food cooked from scratch than prefabricated food...

BUT, instead of thinking as an adult about children's creativity and what they need from my adult view - I decided to go back to my own childhood, to root around in my own memories and how templates influenced my creativity - are templates the opposite of creativity?

to read the complete and edited/updated version of this post
please go to my new website
https://www.interactionimagination.com/single-post/2018/12/21/Do-templates-kill-creativity

Getting them into Bed

If you are like me you have struggled to get your child/ren into bed then maybe this could be an idea for you.
My son had always hated going to bed (once he is there he gets tired and falls asleep - and if he doesn't get enough sleep he is grumpy big time) - but getting him to bed has been a struggle (and still can be sometimes).

What I noticed is that he HATED losing control - he was being told it was bedtime, when what he wanted to do was play. He was being TOLD to put on his pyjamas and brush his teeth etc and it seemed as if he did not like that he had lost control over his day.

So we sat down and made a chart. He drew the pictures of the things that NEED to be done before sleep - toilet, teeth brushing, pyjamas and reading a book on four small pieces of paper ... then I said he could stick them on the back card in any order he wanted - but that he needed to think about what order he wanted to do things before bed. I helped him spell out the words to make it more clear what each picture represented (and also to sneak in some writing) and he was also made sure that the words and pictures connected with little arrows.

When it came to bedtime it was simply to refer him to HIS chart and he got going... and when he got distracted (as he frequently does) it was just to ask him how far he had got and what was next on the list. It made things soo much easier.
It also made things easier because there was no more need for 2 step instructions which he found very hard and would stress him - blurting "I am not a squid" (I think he meant that since squids have many arms they can do many things at the same time - and no matter how I tried to articulate and explain he just could not understand that brush your teeth and THEN put on your pyjamas did not mean brush your teeth and put on your pyjamas at the same time - but no wonder he felt stressed). All I ever needed to say was "what comes next" and he could go and check - often looking at the whole sequence and in this way learning more about two step instructions - we are not quite there with more than that yet!!

The chart is not in use anymore - but it did make two appearances. The first time it was up for 3 months - and then I asked if he felt he still needed it - he shook his head and for a year it was fine but then there came a time when he needed it again - to give him the feeling of control and to take away the aggravation around bedtime... I hate nagging - but I know that sleep is essential and if its the only way I will be on his case... but if I can find a better way - I am all for it...

Fafu... time to play...

not able to wait - I had to try on a hat or two and a cape etc, before the children...

Lots of thoughts went around our heads as to how to how to present the new Fafu clothes - should we just put them in the box of dress up clothes - or should we allow the children to discover them with the opportunity for us to listen to their ideas about what they believed they were...

the children were eager to test everything out - Feet? Hands? Dinosaurs, ducks, claws.....

opportunities to help each other

a chance to explore together, to wonder together - why so many holes - are they volcanoes, a cape for  an octopus, or a monster or a princess - to marvel together that it's one colour on one side and another on the other

a chance to practice fine motor skills as well as finger strength...

I love the fact that the clothes are not gender coded in any way - they are totally open to interpretation for boys and girls - and for all sorts of play.
I enjoyed watching the children try on the clothes and then start to play - even when they returned to playing with their usual things at the preschool, they started to play with them in a different way - the clothes sort of transformed them allowing the children to approach their play in a new way...

I am looking forward to taking the clothes out to the forest with us - will it transform how they see the forest...?

Power-point Song meeting

Rather happy about how the song meeting went this morning

There are 32 children at the preschool in total - the vast majority of them being 1 and 2 year olds - and a few 3 year olds, and so far just one four year old - there are 4 other's that will turn four during the year. We are a new preschool, as you can see!

So I was really interested to see how they would react to BIG images of their songs being projected onto the wall while we sang.

As colleagues we wondered whether to keep the lights on or not, but in the end we switched them off keeping a few lamps on - it made it feel special.

The energy was amazing.

I had images of snails, spiders, trees, owls, hares and tomtes and of course Pippi Longstocking (amongst others) - the children pointed and got excited over what they saw, they danced and clapped and called for more.

No photos - too busy singing and waving my arms around to the actions.

Afterwards we let the children explore the images for a while - and I got the chance to observe a just turned 2 year old come close to the projector and look at the beam of light coming out (and the dust dancing) - after a short while he tried to grab hold of the light, looked at his empty hand and then tried again and again - probably about 8-10 times (and I was wishing I had my camera with me then!!).

In the afternoon just after snack time we set up the projector again for the children to explore the images - this time I lowered the projector so that the images started from the floor. Lots of high positive energy, laughing and singing along. About halfway through one of the children made the observation that her shadow was bigger when she was closer to the projector and smaller when she was clo

Breakfast-inspired sensory table

oats and shells - the plastic cups just did not look right - somehow the oats demanded a more natural scooping material - and luckily the shells worked great as not only scoops but as containers too. Also if you let the oats rain down onto the shells it sounded like music - each shell having its own unique sound. I also saw how the one year olds were really picking up handfuls and squeezing it and then releasing. It DID have a nice bouncy sort of feel as you squeezed it.

next to the oats was semolina in it uncooked powdery form - very much like sand on a beach. More scooping and pouring and feeling how it poured between fingers.

This time I placed the two sensory table next to each other - indicating that these materials may be mixed with each other. The two previous sensory tables (blue/green rice with frogs etc and lentils with tubes) got so mixed up - despite the fact that they were placed apart from each other to offer separate kinds of play - the moon-sand from the opposite side of the room was also getting mixed in. So instead of going into nag-mode I changed the sensory tables to something that would encourage them to be mixed - letting them know that when the tables are TOGETHER mixing is encouraged... when they are apart then there is to be no mixing... I am hoping that this might work (so that role play at one sensory table can continue for a bit longer before it all just looks the same - the lentils did give the frog pond a polluted look and the role play stopped then) - I am also hoping that it means there will not be quite SO MUCH sensory material on the floor - and I am also sort of hoping that when the tables are apart and they want to mix they move the tables together themselves... (did I just say that?)

Anyway back to the oats - I'll leave them dry tomorrow and over the weekend - but I am interested in adding a small jug of water next to the table next week to see what sort of goo they would make - dough-like, sloppy or soup-like? Maybe even colours and glitter could be added, possibly aroma too - I think because my own sense of smell has vanished with the flu I had the other week I have become even more fascinated with smell/aroma/scent...
Looking forward to getting gooey next week...

But tomorrow is song meeting - ALL the children in the whole preschool meet and we sing together - and I have put a powerpoint presentation together - so BIG pictures connected to the songs we are singing will be projected onto the wall... I have no idea how this will work or how the children will react...

herb art

I went to the supermarket and bought a variety of herbs - red basil, thai basil, sage, tarragon, oregano - with the idea of bashing them to make art and at the same time it being a sensory experience for the nose!

we also tried out a variety of materials to bash it onto - paper serviettes, ordinary paper and denim. First it was to lay out the leaves and create a design - and of course nibble on some of the herbs at the same time... 

the napkin was folded back into its original square and my girls got banging (I have done this with 2-4 year olds too without any problems)

the result was great - although it does require some fine motor skills to carefully peel of the mushed leaves

we tried it with ordinary A4 paper in the middle of the serviette - and it was very clear that it did not work as well, the surface was simple too smooth for the pigments to imprint. Sophia took a pencil to create a flower shape around the print...

this is how the same flower looked on the serviette

intrigued by the huge difference between the serviette and the paper I took some a piece of denim remnant and banged the leaves... the detail was so much better, as you can see. So we are thinking about creating our own t-shirts this summer...
It was very noisy banging, we had a wooden chopping board underneath - but this would be so much better done outside. I would also like to use carrot tops and ferns - I reckon the dark pigment would transfer really well - looking forward to testing more ...