On a recent outdoor day I was completely surprised by Hans curiosity when he discovered a puddle. During the 30 minutes we were outside Hans continued to play by the puddle. When he jumped into the puddle, was it the ripples in the water that attracted him or was it the sound of the water splashing?  At times Hans was planning on making the puddle go away by kicking the water out of the puddle.

I find this to be interesting because inside the classroom Hans does not like getting his hands wet or messy yet here we are outdoor and he is not bothered about getting his hands and maybe his feet wet.

Playing in puddles is a great sensory learning and physical experience for children to learn concepts of floating, sinking, and measuring depth and width. And not to forget the physical workout children receive form playing in something as simple as a puddle!

 

Hans dropping a stone into the water, watching the ripples the water is making 

Hans dropping a stone into the water, watching the ripples the water is making 

Another friend runs into the puddle while Hans watches. Is he watching to copy his classmate or is he wondering where will the puddle go?   

 

Back in the classroom we walk on a large piece of brown paper to see our footprints.

Until the next post.



 

 

 

The children in our 4-year-old class were provided with multicoloured permanent markers, and blocks of various shapes for tracing. They were encouraged to create either an abstract design or a specific drawing of their choice.

 

When the drawings were complete, glue and tissue were then provided as an additional element to the drawings. The children tore small pieces of tissue and glued diligently. The effect was quite beautiful and a number of children spent a very long while on their creations.

There's no better way to brighten up the Preschool than with children's artwork!

Daniela traced almost every shape available on the table (a challenging task) and then chose to fill the shapes in with coloured tissue...

 

Around the classroom we put out some simple activities and watched the benefits children gained from them and how simplicity can progress into many learning opportunities that happen along the way. The benefits of giving children simple and less, helps in development of creating their own ideas.  And by transferring the creation into something, helps foster a proud child to be confident in their future development and learning.   

Fine Motor Development

The malleable properties of playdough make it fun for investigation and exploration as well as secretly building up strength in all their tiny hands muscles and tendons.  With strong hands, children are ready for pencil and scissors holding.  Below is a picture of Sofie, carefully cutting her cake creation.

 

As part of a simple tactile play, it can be squashed, squeezed, rolled, flattened, chopped, cut, and punctured.  As you can see in the picture of Jeffery, Jun, and Connor, the benefits of these actions provide fine motor development in different ways, not to mention hand eye coordination and general concentration.  Just by adding another element, a simple muffin tray, helped inspired some new creative play possibilities.     

On another occasion, I provided the children with another “simple’ inspiration, three different colored apples. It is interesting to see how and what they paint.                                   

Sofie has her own creation of an apple tree with her name at the top and apples in a basket.

Before Jun began to paint, she holds one of the apples in her hands. I wonder if this was helping her imagine how to paint a picture of them.

 

Ethan began by focusing on writing his name before painting. When he began painting, Ethan added details to his apples by painting the apple stems. 

Here’s another example of how simplicity worked in the classroom. I provided Jack with some “simple” materials on the projector. With these materials Jack was able to create a fence for the animals.

 

Until the next post!

Jess