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 - 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
  

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 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

SNEAK PEEK: Planned Experiences and Creating Environments

Just a little taste of what's to come, prepare for some great ideas, recipes and tutorials!

                    

Miss Tracy xx