Placement - Creating Environments Part 5

Hello!

Keeping with the children's interest in the home corner, imaginary play and the letter of the week theme, I began to look for some environment ideas during my full control week. After perusing Pinterest, I came up with the idea of creating a felt board pizza!

After a trip to my local Spotlight, a large chain craft store, where I purchased an A4 multi-coloured felt set, an A3 piece of stiff brown felt, I returned home and looked at what exactly goes into a pizza.

I found this pin, which also has some great ideas for other felt board designs, and decided to include the following toppings:

• cheese
• ham
• pepperoni
• mushroom
• capsicum
• chicken 
• olives 

It was painstakingly difficult to cut out some of the shapes on the felt and because I traced the shapes on the felt with permanent marker you can see the outline where my cutting was a little off but the end result was pretty good...

I thought the pizza box would add a nice touch so imagine the face of our local pizza hut guy when I asked if I could have a clean empty box alongside my thin and crispy super supreme! I added picture and word labels to the toppings box and besides the large mirror sign and sectioned container of toppings, I also added a small notepad and pen so the children could 'take orders'. During their play, one child suggested we add in a phone so people could call and tell us while another suggested we get a car so we could deliver!

From the pictures and observations, it looks like they had a lot of fun...

This set up encouraged the children to talk about what they wanted to have on their pizza, to consider others as they completed order and encouraged them to use letters and words to symbolise any orders on the note pad. They became very adept at sectioning and sorting the ingredients during pack up time and were quick to tell each other how to take care of their new toy.

It was so cheap and easy to make, minor my small embarrassment at Pizza Hut, and the quality of play that occurred as a result was amazing!

Felt and felt boards is definitely something I want to further play around with and experiment with in the future so stay tuned for any new developments!

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Creating Environments Part 4

The Doctors Office

The home corner at placement is a little dated. While the furniture is neutral in color and in good condition, the play items in there are no longer extending the children's interests and so I set about looking at how we can change it. I took this photo as part of one of my observations...

The children who usually prefer to play in the home corner moved all the chairs and lined them up against the mirror to make a bed. One girl, E, tucked L into the new bed, using the tablecloth as a blanket and put her hand against her head to check her temperature. She then brought a cup up to L's lips and let her sip. This type of play could have been inspired by the doctor's office some other educators have set up in the 2-3 year old room, where these children spend family grouping in the morning.

Upon watching this, I asked the children if they could change the home corner, what would they put there instead? It was no surprise when they suggested a doctor's office or hospital. If you follow this Pinterest board of mine, you might have noticed a slew of pins awhile back around medical play as I looked online for inspiration. This was the final result...

Using what I could find in the storeroom, what my AT had from their last hospital play area and moving around some furniture, the area began to take shape. A small table with an old desktop computer, a screensaver printed and tacked on, made the reception area while two chairs made up our waiting room. Including the height chart, eye test, light-box and scales made the area seem more authentic. The bookcase which previously housed utensils and cookware, is now labelled (using this font) and displaying the medical equipment of the Whales Kinder Hospital.

The instruments included some from a store bought doctors kits, and three identical jars filled with cotton balls, cotton buds and Popsicle sticks.

The band aids were made with paper cutouts but you can download print the template below onto cardboard or poster paper for the same result.

The bandages are large pieces of beige/cream ribbon cut to size. I would suggest measuring the ribbon around one of the children to see how much is adequate to tie a knot as our ones were only able to be tied around toys.

The patient forms can be downloaded from here, they are a great literacy tool and the pictures make this template perfect for early childhood. Print out about 20 and attach them a clipboard, don't forget to have a cup of pens or pencils handy like we did near our reception desk.

The stethoscope we used was a real medical one and worked, however if you cant find one or are hesitant to use one in the room, there are plenty available in play doctor kits.

The doctor's bag was made using an old cosmetic case and simply painted it black with a large red cross on top.

The blood pressure cuff was made using a recycled plastic screw-top container. On the top, I attached some cord and a cardboard arm cuff with a red cross glued on and from the left/right side, a cord attached ti a partially blown balloon. This was one of the most played with item as the children had seen it at the doctor's but never had the opportunity to see it in use.

The x-rays that we used in this environment came from a set of animal x-rays purchased through Educational Experience and were stored on a clipboard in this cubby when not on display on the light-box.  

This new area of the room was well received by the children, who continued to surprise me with how they chose to play...

DOWNLOAD BANDAID TEMPLATE HERE

Miss Tracy xx  

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 4

Wishy Washing

Remember how the ice cream play dough parlour went? Remember the sweet, sweet children who helped me to wash up the dishes? Remember how I told you how much these kids love water play? Link them all together and what experience do you have? A washing up station!

I put together a wooden dish rack, a crate of soapy water, some dishes from our home corner and four brightly coloured cloths and this was the product. Again, I set this up in the morning, outside, before the children could spend anytime outside. I find this presentation of play gives the children more freedom and flexible in what they could can do as opposed to when they watch me interact with the materials and what do with them.

At first, the children were content washing up the cutlery I brought out from the home corner. When these were deemed clean, the children began to bring toys from their sandbox and mud kitchen to clean. When these no longer fit on the drying rack, L brought out a large crate to place the clean and dried items.

The fact that these children so promptly and effectively solved the problems they encountered within the play reminds me of why I love this field and why i continue to do what I do. What surprised me even more was the engagement of the boys in the room.

Many of them came by and had a look at the activity and it wasn't until they saw L and the other girls splashing the water that they took interest in something they usually walk by when playing indoors.

This activity was super simple and yet the children had so much fun. By the end of the day, all of our sand and mud toys were squeaky clean. Ah...the planning cycle in action!

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Creating Environments Part 2

What's the Scoop?

Following the success of the play dough ice cream, I thought about adding something a little more permanent to the centre's home corner.  Following the find of this pin on Pinterest, I found a way to use the utensils I had bought for the play dough and further extend on the previous sensory experience. After collecting the materials, I set to work. You will need ping pong balls and some appropriately coloured wool or yarn.

They are so simple to make, simply sticky tape a piece of coloured wool to the ping pong balls and wind the string around until you have can't see any of the ping pong ball colour. I used a total of 24 balls but feel free to make more or less depending on numbers in your room. I would suggest wrapping the wool super tight and tying it off really well as some of the children managed to unravel the wool or break the knot I had used when trying to pull the ball out of the cones.

Besides these, you can find everything else in-store. I picked up the ice cream scoops from Kmart for only $2 and the porcelain cones from Typo, $3 for 4. If you can make it to the Southern Cross Station DFO, Melbourne, there are currently sitting on the sale shelf!

I set the environment up before the children could arrive, so they arrived to this scene...  

Plenty of play ensured...

This was one of the best environments I have had the pleasure of setting up. It was so easy and simple and yet the children found such joy and happiness when they were engaging with it. The staff were equally impressed, at the set up and the materials used to create this set up.

This is definitely one I will be saving to use again, in my own classroom!

Miss Tracy xx