Weekly Planning

Hello!

With full control in full swing, it was expected during my placement that I plan for one week and implement for two days. I had seen my AT's weekly plan up every week I was at placement so I knew the expected format and sat down with her to discuss what the expectations for the week were.

As you may have noticed, many of the environments and experiences I have been writing about on here have focused on the letter P, this being because during my full control week, the focus letter was P. The following was my plan for the week...

I accounted for weekly activities, such as sport and yoga, some activities that my AT had in mind and some general planning included every week. The focus on Literacy and Numeracy was part of my AT's original format. It's not how I would probably set out my plan but it was interested to use these as a focus.

The hardest part of constructing this was having all these great ideas for the children and the room but having to find somewhere to link it and aligning these with the children's interests. The research that went into coming up with this plan was so fun and one of my favourite parts of the job. Using other blogs, Pinterest, Tumblr I found heaps of ideas incorporating the letter P and the children's current interests and favourite experiences and then planned these around the routine and timetable of the room.

As the week progressed, I wrote little notes onto the plan, which is displayed above the children's cubbies for parents to view. I wrote the date they were implemented, whether or not it was sucessful and whether I would be doing an observation or learning story for the experience. These annotations helped the parents see what was happening throughout the week and my AT see how I was progressing and following up on my planning and programming.

As a result of this planning, my full control was successful and I learned heaps of new things and really began to see myself as an early childhood educator rather than just a visitor or student.

Keep your eyes peeled for more about my time in full control!

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 7

Hello!

The letter theme is a big help when it comes to structured planning at this centre and during my full control time, the letter of the week was P. Sensory play has so many benefits and purposes  and the children absolutely love it! With this is mind I went with making play dough with them, with some added extras…

I made the play dough with the children during their quiet time, with each having a turn at pouring and mixing the ingredients. I had arranged the invitation to play in the morning, selecting the following items; pom poms, patty pans, pipe cleaners and paddle pops and decided to dye the dough pink. Are you seeing a reoccurring theme yet?

I never made this theme obvious to the children, I never mentioned why it was pink, the link between the additional items, not once. But they were quick to observe. One child mentioned that we should make it purple because purple starts with P. Another suggested earlier in the week that play dough was a p word so we should play with it soon.

The children had a great time making and exploring with the dough with this being the result…

The end result = a fun play dough experience with strong links to the children's interests and learning goals!

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 6

Making Bread

Following some of our group time discussions and the success of the whole grain play dough, I decided to bake some bread with the children. I chose to do it on the Friday, when the children celebrated their 100 days at kinder and make fairy bread out of the final product for them to enjoy at the party.

I bought a Laucke bread mix from my local Woolworths which was only around $1.50 and contained the flour, yeast and instructions on whether you wanted to make it from hand or with the bread maker. I decided to forgo the bread maker so the children could see how the dough changed.

We sat in a large circle during our morning group time and talked about what we could cook in the oven during the Morning Minutes. We then took turns putting the flour into the mixing bowl. Since the pack asked to use hot water, I drew on the measuring cup with a whiteboard marker and the children told me when to stop pouring the water from the kettle. 

After I initially kneaded it, the children each had a feel of the dough and looked for a place in the room to put it so we could watch as the yeast worked its magic. We kept checking back every hour to see how much the dough had grown and it did not disappoint! They loved poking the dough and hearing the air hiss out and comparing it to what it looked like the last hour.

We put it into the oven, it hardly looked any time to cook, and we took in the lovely smell wafting down the hall. During this time, mt AT also baked the rainbow cake she had made with the children.

After cutting up the loaf, buttering and sprinkling the bread, we all sat down together to enjoy the yummy fairy bread we had made together...

This experience incorporated many science concepts and encouraged the children to hypothesis and be curious about what they were seeing. Being able to see the dough change, bake and then eat the final product fostered such a sense of accomplishment within the group. The timing was perfect, since they celebrated 100 days at kinder and the finished product tasted good! Will definitely be one to try out again, perhaps paired with the story of the Little Red Hen.

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 5

Making Bread

The first week of my block placement and was nothing like I expected! The requirements were very different compared to the last. In the first week, I had to prepare 4 observations per focus child (I have four), four planned experiences or environments and a group experience. I also had the parent communication strategy to tackle but you can read all about it in last weeks post, Parent Postcards.

I decided on the theme of baking for my planning for the week. The children in the room love cooking together and food play. Cooking provides an opportunity to explore rich science and mathematical concepts as well as genuine and authentic literacy opportunities. In knowing this, i used the following recipe to make a batch of wholegrain play dough, or bread dough:

Wholemeal Play Dough    

2 tablespoons cooking oil

4 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 cups wholemeal flour

1 cup salt

2 cups water

Mix allthe ingredients together and stir over a medium heat for 3 - 5 minutes or until the mixture congeals. Remove from the heat and turn onto a floured bench and knead until soft. store in an airthight container for up to 6 months. 

I set up an invitation to play during our afternoon quiet time session. I placed the ready made dough, patty pans, cutters, rolling pins and brushes out (dip platters make excellent play trays for play dough, you can pick up cheap ones from $2 shops).

This was the result...

The children made pancakes, pizzas, cupcakes, bread rolls, sandwiches...the list goes on!

The dough turned out to be so soft and malleable. The wholegrain flour gave it such a unique look, it was like actually looking at freshly made dough. The dough withstood the play time and I brought it out over the next few days as well due to its popularity with the group.

I thought I may have a few problems with the sesame seeds, with things like allergies, food restrictions and NQf standards. However, after the children added it to their dough, it mixed in really well and added some texture to the already amazing dough. After play, I stored the dough in an airtight container and it should keep for about 6 months.

I was really happy with this experience and how it went with the children, come back to see how the rest of the week's planning went!

Miss Tracy xx
  

The Letter Theme

My lovely readers!

It's been so hectic lately but with the semester over,  my exam done and block placement coming up, there will only be new posts from here on in! So let's get on with it...

As noted in some other posts, my AT plans her room and set up based on the letter of the week. We create a letter chart, with common words and the words we know at the beginning of the week and group discussions and planned activities often revolve around said letter. At the end of the week, the poster goes up on wall. 

I have discussed this with some other pre-service teachers and it seems to be a common focus at this level of early childhood however each centre does it differently. For some, they only make the letter poster and talk about the words they know but my AT really goes above and beyond. Let's take a look at the letter L week...

The Letter L Poster

At the beginning of the week, the children create this letter poster. The picture are pulled out of a hat and they all take turns to guess what they are as they all start with L. At the end, the children can list all the words they know with the featured letter. The last step is counting and underlining all the Ls in the words that we write onto the poster.

The Lovely Letter L

At the start of the week, my AT played this song. On the first watch, the children simply watched what was happening.When they asked to play it again, they got up and dance, clapped and stomped their feet. For the rest of the week, they asked to dance to the robot song!

Ladybug Land 

Early in the week, the children each collected a stone from outside and painted it with similar patterns to a ladybug. When dried, my AT took these painted rocks and added them to the tray above. This then sat at the project table, where the children are free to engage with it whenever they please.  

Words with L

Every morning during group time, my AT does her morning minutes. This is her way of encouraging group discussion and the social behaviours expected during these discussion. It is also a way that she intends to prepare the children for what is expected of them when they go to school next year. Above is a copy of the morning minutes sheet, where they were asked, 'What words  do you know that start with the letter L?' Their responses are recorded and the transcript is displayed near the sign in sheets for parents to view at the end of the day. This procedure provides some consistency for the children in the morning and ideas for planning, specifically based in the children's current interests.

Lemon Scented Play Dough

Dough Recipe

2 tablespoons cooking oil
4 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 cups of flour
1 cup salt
2 cups boiling water
bottled lemon juice
lemon extract
yellow food dye

Simply mix all the ingredients together until combined and knead until you get a consistent texture. Add extra essence or juice as necessary.

A member of staff and myself made the play dough with the children, giving them the ingredients to take turns to pour into the bowl. Since we used hot water, the other staff member mixed the dough. when ready, the dough was placed on the table with some wooden pegs and beads. The photos above show what play followed. 

Conclusion - Rather than just focus on the letter in isolation, my AT really looks to provide a wholesome literacy experience which is not didactic or overstated. The linking to the letter L is so well distributed throughout the week and all the activities are so subtlety linked. I love the fact that the learning takes place without the children being denied their unstructured play time, something that will become more restricted as they move into primary school.

This form of planning is definitely something I will be coming back if I decide to become a kindergarten educator. 

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

Placement - Creating Environments Part 1

Creek Explorers

If there is one thing I have noticed about the children in this kinder room, it is their love of exploring and how much they love playing with water. Last week, after days of rain, a large puddle formed over part of our playground. While did this pose a safety threat due to its size and depth, the educators cornered it off and allowed play provided that the children didn't put their hands or feet in the water.

One of my focus children, W, used a garden rake to play with this new attraction. He skimmed it across the water and watched the patterns it made. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me his was fishing, and that all the fish went into the bucket, the large bin we use to store the sand and water toys in.

I pondered over this observation throughout the week and used what I had seen as the basis for my next implementation; a creek environment where the children could explore a small ecosystem. 

After filling the bottom of the container with various sized pebbles and filling in one-third full of water, i began to arrange the elements of this environment. I purchased the frogs from my local dollar shop, along with the lizard. I foraged the park across from my house, and the kinder store room, for the large logs and twigs. After attaching some twine and a hook shaped paperclip to the long twigs, I had two fishing rods.

Accompanying the creek were some small fish! I printed and laminated images of trout and attached them to paperclips, so that the children could link the hook and the paperclip to catch the fish. Below is a link to the document that you can laminate to create your own fishing experience! In the end, I added a total of 8 fish.

The children were so excited to watch me put this together! By the time I had finished, they had already picked up the frogs, experimenting with how stretchy they are and who was too scared to even attempt touching them. The fishing rods worked great, however I wished I had made more so that more children could fish simultaneously with out too much conflict. Had I the money, I would have acquired a container which looked more natural, but I made do with what the centre already had.  

Some images of the little explorers...

DOWNLOAD FISH TEMPLATE HERE

UPDATE 28/05/2014 - The water, if not changed regularly, begins to smell and can be dangerous if accidentally ingested. If you plan on having this environment active for longer than 7 days, ensure you change the water as soon as you notice any changes.

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 3

Play Dough Ice Cream Parlour

The girl:boy ration in my kinder room is little off on Wednesdays, with only 3 girls to about 8-9 boy, While I don't mind hearing about the coolest Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles and having cars flying around the room, it does mean that sometimes the home corner is left a little empty and lonely.

Taking this information and my observations of L, one of my focus children, I searched for a play experience which draw some more attention to this area of the room and yet still be of interest to all of the children. And what do all children love...ICE CREAM!

I was inspired by this pin from Play Create Explore. After consulting my AT about the ingredients, as some centres have strict no food planning policies, we both came to an understanding this activity would be great! I also received some important information about certain children in the room who had a love of eating play-dough and began to prepare accordingly...

Dough Recipe

2 parts cornflour

1 part hair conditioner (any brand will work, I used a cheap brand brought in bulk)

Mix together in large bowl until they form a sticky kind of dough. Remove it from the bowl and begin to knead an work it on a lightly dusted table until its smooth and dry to touch. 

For the separate flavours, split your prepared dough into three (or make another two batches depending on how much you want) add the following ingredients:

Vanilla - 1 cap vanilla essence 

Strawberry - 1 cap pink/rose food colouring (or a few drops of red), 1 cap of strawberry essence.

Chocolate - 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 cap chocolate essence

For the play experience, I prepared the dough the night before, placed it in some loaf tins and added ice cream scoops. By using the scoop a few times over the prepared dough, it begins to look more like ice cream than when you roll in out smooth. I also added some toilet rolls for ice cream cones, red wishing stones for cherries and fine wood wool as sprinkles. I would have loved to have made some rainbow coloured rice for sprinkles instead but there's a no food policy!

This was the result...

When it came time pack up, since all the flavours had "melted" together, I collected the remaining dough. The test batch I made on 3/5/14 is still going strong.

I found wrapping the dough in plastic wrap and storing in an air tight container works best. When you're ready to use it again, knead it until smooth and if it seems a little dry or brittle, add conditioner 1 table spoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency. 

I was so thankful to have some lovely volunteers help me to do the washing up as well!

The experience was well received by the children, as shown by some of their responses:

"Look at this rainbow ice cream!"

"Can I have another cone?"

"I made a super fat ice cream!"

"Look at my ginormous one!"

"This one smells like chocolate...I need sprinkles. Can we make it pink again?"

It's a rainbow ice cream; it has white, brown and pink!"

It's definitely one to keep and try with your kids, let me know how it all turns out!

Miss Tracy xx 

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 2

Garden Sensory Box

Every week in our kinder room, we have a letter focus and last week's was the letter 'G'. We listed all the words we knew which started G and my AT set up a grass growing station where the children could see mustard and fennel seeds grow. We have also been changing the vegetable patch outside and planting some flowers in the barrels.

To support these changes, I thought a garden sensory bin would complement what the learning environment and the current interests of the room. After discussing this, I began working on putting the environment together. 

I got the inspiration for this environment from this post and began collecting the materials: 

• Two 6 egg cartons 
• Green pipe cleaners
• Paints
• Envelopes
• Coloured paper
• Popsicle sticks
• Got glue gun and sticks
• Pebbles 
• Laminator and sheets 

First step was cutting up the carton, by the end of it you should have 12 little 'cups' and make sure you save the lid for a seedling box. I cut up 2 pipe cleaners to make 12 little pieces, folded in half to make the 'V'.  You can paint the cups whatever colours you like, I chose these because they matched the colours of the vegetables I picked. 

Once the paint has dried, cut a little slit into the tops of the cups so you can poke the pipe cleaners through. To make them look a little cuter, I curled the tops on a pencil. And there you have it, little vegetable seedlings!

Next up is the planters. Introducing the first LMST freebie, which can be downloaded below, just print out the page, laminate it if not printing on card stock, and glue them to the popsicle sticks.


To make the seed packets, you can download the labels below and print onto coloured paper. Then glue to the envelopes. I filled mine with pebbles and glued it shut but depending on the age group of the children in your care, you can use bigger/smaller articles and chose whether to glue it shut or not.

Add a couple of child sized gloves, a watering can, some small gardening tools and there you have it - garden sensory box! Don't forget to grab some small pebbles or coloured sand for your 'dirt'.

The final product looked great in the room and the children loved it! It was super easy to put together and was an opportunity to recycle some of our household waste. It was a perfect opportunity to link to my AT's learning focus and I am so happy with how it all turned out.

As for the children; loved it! Bringing the dirt and nature into the classroom really opened up the chance for them to get excited  about planting our veggie garden and adding some greenery to our playground. The biggest hit has been the gloves but since there is two chairs at the table and to gloves, some opportunities here to practice their sharing skills. The amount of collaborative work that happens at this station is phenomenal!

As promised, you can download the templates below, the very first LMST free download with only more to come!

DOWNLOAD SEED LABELS HERE

DOWNLOAD PLANTER LABELS HERE

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 1

Dinosaur Fossils 

The children in the kindergarten room absolutely love dinosaurs at the moment! We were lucky enough to have an incursion from Dinosaur Diggers (will hear more in a future post!) which has only served to increase their interest and so my associate teacher included the following environment to the room. By adding the sifter and the plastic fossils, the children are now able to dig for their own fossil but I thought we could peak their interest just a little bit further.

I read this post while perusing Pinterest and thought it would be perfect to implement in the afternoon. The children love to bake cakes and cupcakes so experiencing these concepts with the idea of dinosaur fossils worked really well. I followed the recipe for the salt dough featured on RainyDayMum:

Salt Dough

1/2 Cup of Salt

1/2 Cup of water

1 Cup all purpose (plain Flour)

Mix the above ingredients together and knead to a smooth dough and leave in a cool place for around 15 minutes. This will make it easier to roll and create a good imprint in the dough. To cure and harden the dough, bake for one hour at 100 degrees Celsius.

Following us making the dough together, we rolled the dough and pressed our fossils imprints in. After labeling and wrapping the dough, I took it home to bake. It turned out great; the brown colour and grainy texture has them looking like real fossils, straight out of the ground!

I haven't decided yet whether we should paint them due to the unique texture and colour but following the return to their creators, we will see what they want to do. 

This was such a fun experience which had so many different forms of learning and play happening that I hope you choose to share this with the children in your care.

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 3

Me again!

Can you believe I am posting once a week now? The holidays have left me with a lot of spare time, much of which is dedicated to this blog. This will be the last installment for the Planned Experience series so here we go...

Heuristic Play Baskets

The EDCU 101 unit that I took in my first semester of uni was the first in a series of early childhood curriculum units. My tutor had some very firm beliefs on a variety of topics however one that stood out was heuristic play. Heuristic play refers to the type of play which involves discovering the properties of objects, such as the feel of aged leather or the sound of a whisk as it hits the floor.

We learnt about various types of  play but one task set for us was to set up  a heuristic play basket as present our collection to the class. I used the basket I had set up for this class as a planned activity during this placement. Some items I choose to include in my basket:

• small wooden spoon
• silicone baking tray
• leather samples
• wooden bangles 
• pine-cones
• shells
• stainless steel strainer

The children enjoyed the experience however some became very attached to particular items which did test the groups sharing abilities. I had split all the items into two felt basket from IKEA but ideally I would have liked to use round wicker baskets.

Story Time

C loves to read, both by herself and with an educator so to build on this love of books, I planned a one-on-one story time. I picked up these Beatrix Potter style board books from a local school fete and paid $2 for a set of 12. I also managed to find a squirrel/wombat puppet to complement this experience.

The one-on-one aspect of this experience worked extremely well, we were able to make our way through the book at a comfortable pace so that C should take her time appreciating the illustrations and the motions of reading a book. The puppet added to the interactive nature of reading a story and C even had a turn at managing the puppet.

Paint Stamping

If there is one thing that the children at my placement centre love to do, it is PAINTING! But there are only so many times that the educators can put out the paper and a paint brush. So to spice things up on the craft table, I found some Christmas themes paint stampers for the children and C to enjoy.

The end result was... amusing!

The children started using the stampers as you usually would, pressing them into the paint and then onto the paper. But then they ran out of space on the paper and decided to experiment. As you can see in the picture above, C experimented by sweeping the stamper through the paint on her paper, while others choose to paint with their hands as stampers and some even decided to paint on others bodies!

But all in all, all the children involved loved it! And thank god the paint is washable!

This ends the Planned Experiences series for this placement but never fear, I will be back sometime i March as I kick off my 3-5 year old placement in a sessional kindergarten.

Miss Tracy xx 

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 2

Hello there,

Here comes part 2 of the planned experiences I implemented whilst on placement. The experiences in this series focused on sensory play, primarily implemented for C.

Moon Sand

I had this idea locked up for some time and when staff told me how interested C was in play dough plus my observations on their play with sand, I knew I could use this resource. Moon Sand is this crazy dough that is basically sand which sticks to its self and has the properties of a liquid and a solid. The recipe is as follows:

4 parts sand

2 parts cornflour

1 part water

Mix all the ingredients together, adding cornflour and/or water until the desired consistency is reached.

The final product was amazing! When you held it gently, it flowed through your fingers but roll it like dough and suddenly, it becomes solid and resists! I added some cookie cutters for the children to experiment with and placed the mixture in a tray to minimise the mess. 

When the mixture dried out a little too much, a squirt of water on the hands of the children playing restores a more liquid consistency to the mixture.  The clean up was surprisingly easy; even though I lay down a mat the mixture still spread everywhere but since we were outside, the heat of the sun dried the water up and I just used a broom to sweep the excess back into the sandpit.

Ice Ice Baby

I implemented this activity for one simple reason; the expected temperature was 38 degrees Celsius and I knew the children were going to have a very hot, inside day. Materials are as follows:

Food colouring

Clean water

Ice cube trays

Freezer 

Large trough
Cups, scoops, water play equipment 

It's as simple as mixing the food colouring with the water, pouring it into the trays and freezing it, Transfer the final product to the trough you plan to use and add lukewarm water plus the play equipment.

I would recommend boiling the water before freezing and adding the colour. If you don't, the colour tends to pool in the usually cloudy spots of the ice cube however if boiled, the whole cube becomes a brilliantly coloured shape.

Due to the weather, this activity was very well received by the participants! Staff members were concerned about the water staying in the trough, which is understandable since we still have some unsteady walkers in the room, but other than that...no complaints what so ever.

Bubble Dough

On the third day, I implemented my last activity for the week; bubble dough. Again, this activity was found online during a study/procrastination session and it's contents took me by surprise:

2 parts cornflour/plain flour

1 part dishwashing liquid

2 table spoons baby/cooking oil

Combine all the ingredients, kneading until well combined. If too sticky, add more flour; if too dry, add more dish washing liquid and for more malleability, add more oil.

I set this experience up during a nappy change time, when children are moving in and out of the room. They were free to engage in it when it suited them. Some stayed for 5-10 mins but C and another child lingering for the entirety of the dough's life's span. 

It was a good alternative to play dough, offering different properties than usually with the dish washing liquid giving the material a pleasantly fresh smell that lingering around the room. I made the dough ahead of time and only needed to add oil and liquid on the day. At the time of writing this post, the dough was still usable after some oil, dish washing liquid and plenty of kneading. 

I had plenty of fun discovering and creating these experiences and am so glad that the children enjoyed themselves. I cannot wait to share part three with you all! 

Miss Tracy xx

Placement - Planned Experiences Part 1

Hello everyone!

As I am sure you all know by know, I have finished my first placement in the 0-2 setting at a local childcare centre. Part of my responsibilities during this included developing an introductory poster, keeping a reflective journal, dated entries on how I have meet the learning outcomes expected, observations on my focus child, planning experiences based in these observations, collecting resources and completing daily tasks.

For the first ten weeks I only came in on a Wednesday and my tasks were limited to observations, of staff and children, and making myself a presence in the centre. It wasn't until week eight that I had the opportunity to implement some planned experiences for C, my focus child.

Week Eight

This week, I collected natural items from my local park, such as pine cone buds and prickly things, and placed them in a large trough filled with dry sand. I placed some sifters in there and waited for C to show some interest. While the other children loved it, C didn't spend a lot of time at the experience. Unfortuntely, I did not capture a picture of this activity.

Week Nine

Using the same natural resources from the previous week, I designed an individual experience for C; a variation of marble painting. C could not get enough of it and spent almost half an hour rolling her tray around, asking for more and more paper. C also was excited about taking the buds out of the paint and plopping them in the paper, with her mouth making a little 'o' when the colours mixed and changed.

Week Ten 

This week, I moved away from the gross motor skill development and focused on the fine. I set up a threading activity for C, using wooden blocks from another activity. As there was no string attached to the activity, I had to use a wool. This ended up being a bad idea, since the wool began to fray, but C and I worked together to thread the beads on. Again, her and the other children enjoyed themselves and weren't to fazed by the little hiccough. During my time in the toddler room, I was able to locate another threading activity using cotton reels, so if i decide to replicate this one, I will definitely be using this set!

And at this time, I had a three week break until I began my block placement. Stay tuned for the experiences implemented during my block placement, to be featured later on LMST!

Miss Tracy xx