Introducing Elmer (ish)!!!!

My littlest girl spent the night being sick so I had to cancel my mindees today. Although we're both tired, we've had a lovely day at home together just the three of us. I had wondered what we'd do but after we played this Elmer colours bingo (see it on the middle shelf of the book cart behind Faith!) it just flowed that we made this paper Elmer from scrunched up newspaper and paper packing tape that needs to be wetted on one side to activate the glue. It isn't going to be as durable as paper mache but it's less messy and faster. He is getting plenty of love already and he isn't even painted yet (that's on tomorrow's flight plan!). Just a note about the bingo game....... it comes with the colours written in words to match to the colours but I printed out extra sheets of the cards and cut the colours out to match colours to colours for my non-readers. I made this last night for one of my little mindees who is really into matching games at the moment..... she can try it out on Monday!!

We don't actually have any Elmer books...... I think a library trip tomorrow is in order!

Please Take Your Seats....

Last week one of the older children introduced Eve to the idea of putting on a show.... between us we conjured up a little theatre made from the hollow wooden blocks, and then they were off..... after a bit of practice Eve felt confident enough to strike out on her own..... this was the show she put on for her Grandparents on Saturday!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, please take your seats, the show is about to begin!"

We all took our seats and waited for the curtain to go up!

There followed a wonderful story about all the characters (lots of them) and a robber that crept in in the night..... cue some hysterically funny pantomime lines like

"Where is that robber?"

"He's behind you"

"Oh, no he isn't"

Oh, yes he is!"

We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves..... I suggested an interval after a while and provided ice creams.  Eve was so entrenched in the world of make believe by then that she didn't realise that I was actually offering REAL ice creams!!

When she announced that there were five parts to the show in total I muttered something to my dad about the length and it was compared to Macbeth.... my Dad said "Act 1, Scene 2" and Faith replied "That makes three"..... cue more laughter..... it was laughter that was good for the soul!

I'm really delighted that Eve is exploring dramatic play in this way..... It's not an area that I'm entirely comfortable with.... I never was at school and I'm definitely not now, so it's great to see her emjoying it so much and it has emboldened me to try some more dramatic play idea, especially as all of my childminding 'holiday family' seem to be into shows too!!

The book Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years by Bernadette Duffy has some fantastic and interesting ideas for dramatic play, not the cheapest book but well worth it as it is one to dip into again and again!

Now That's What I Call a Sandpit!

We have been 'planning' to do this for ages but it didn't really get off the ground until this week!!  The first picture is one of our raised vegetable patches that has had most of the soil removed and then been used as a dumping ground for roots and branches as they were dug up.  I should point out that this is in the 'supervised only' end of my garden, that is gated off from the 'free-flow' end!!

The story begins on Monday...... knowing that I had a not very nice headache that was here to stay, I sent my husband out to buy a bag of play sand as I'd thrown out the last lot after it was used in potion making and went green and manky!  To cut a long story short, there were no bags of play sand to be had, so he ordered 1.6 tonnes of it to be delivered..... yes, really.... 1.6 TONNES!!!!!!  Cue him having to sort out the designated sandpit and line it before hand!!

This is the sand arriving, not on a grab truck to be neatly dropped over the garden fence as we had expected, but in a lorry on a hopelessly inadequate pallet truck that dug into my drive and pulled the tarmac up!!  The children were highly entertained by the process of bucketing the sand through the house and down our long garden to the sand pit, my husband less so!!

And here is the finished product, 8' by 6' of beachy heaven!!  The children were hardly out of it all afternoon..... it is big enough to roll around in and do sand angels in.... wonderful!!  The children have only played at surface level so far, they haven't worked out that it is nearly 1' deep and they can dig big holes.... I'll save that joy for next week!

Sensory Play With Foam

I have to confess something here..... I have always considered sensory play with foam as a bit of a cliche....... until I was cleaning down the builder's tray on Wednesday and the children were a little restless and I suddenly decided to go for it. And it was well worth going for!!! It was great; the children loved it, in particular one little girl whose hands are in the pictures and who until a short while ago wouldn't touch anything wet and messy!!!

She first explored how the foam felt on her hands, then swirled it around on the tray, making ever larger and more expressive arm and hand movements.  She then watched another child use a finger tip to draw in the foam so she tried that (see the top picture).  The two children started walking then running around the tray with the fingers of one hand making a circular track in the foam around the edge.  Some time later I added plastic balls to the tray and here is the little girl smoothing foam over the ball; it flipped out of her hands a few times and she adjusted her grip to keep hold of it, then the pushed it across the tray.  She ran round to push it again and a game began between the two children; they pushed the balls to each other.  This little girl is 21 months and she used trial and error to perfect her pushes to get the balls just across to the other child.  After the game had ended she went back to swirling the foam, putting her nose almost on the tray to look very closely; she put some on her cheek and felt it, then on her cardigan and looked at the pattern it made.  She was absorbed with the foam for nearly thirty minutes..... it was amazing to watch and guess what? Foam will be on the play menu again next week with some new twists to extend her learning!

Try marble pictures - good for a bit of primary colour mixing fun!

Another great one to try is mixing one part PVA glue to three parts shaving foam (I sprayed it into cups to measure it out). Mix the two together until the foam glistens, you could add food colour also.  Spread the foam thickly onto card and allow it to dry - it will stay magically puffy after it has dried!

Have fun!! Jenni x

Battling Demons with Junk Models!

I looked after some school aged children last summer and I found it really hard to keep them occupied.  I used to dread the days that I had them because it required mountains of preparation and they just swished through all the activities in minutes and by the end of the day I was so tired I could have cried!!  It really put me off having school children in the holidays but when I was asked to have a little girl that I have had for a few weeks before I couldn't say no so here I am battling my school holiday demons!

I have to say..... day one has been a breeze!!!  She arrived this morning ans settled in as if she'd never been away for nine months!! I had planned to spend most of the week out and about but the heavy and persistent rain thought otherwise so we settled down for a good old junk modelling session and it was great fun!  I was amazed by how adept a three year old was at this.  I thought that making a figure out of boxes ans such was quite an abstract idea to grasp but the little one had it pegged straight away and had set up the boxes you see in the picture immediately, then asked for help to stick them together! She then set about hunting for eyes and a nose.... I was amazed!  We all got thoroughly filthy covering them in paper mache after that but well worth it for a busy morning buzzing with happy activity! My garage is full of drippy models drying out ready to be painted now!!

The weather man promises sunshine tomorrow so off to the park for a picnic I hope!

Saturday's Selection!!!!

Well, you might have noticed that Friday's favourites passed me by this week; it probably had something to do with having had a manky sore throat and falling asleep whilst putting my children to bed last night (and waking up with a dead arm hours later!!).  I thought that I would do Saturday's selection instead as I have kept a few links to pass on to you!

• Making puzzles from felt for children to learn the parts of a tree and parts of a flower.
• Silhouette cards of vegetables and fruit for a matching game with a twist! (Thanks to Hayley for this link!!).
• Making solar night lights...... this type of jar is 69p in Ikea if you have one near to you...... I think this is such a pretty way of using quite an ugly lamp!

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend enjoying this weather..... I'll be posting again tomorrow!

Nature's Palette

Today we made paints from natural materials.  We tried three.  This is dandelion yellow in progress.  We crushed the petals with a pestle and mortar then added some patio chalk and crushed that up, then added some water.  We also did brown (mud) and green (mint leaves so it smelt nice too).  This is the painting in progress......

 

The brown and green worked the best.  Dandelion yellow was a bit pale, but then maybe we are just too used to gaudy bright manufactured paints!!  They left a nice texture on the card we painted on and definitely provided a sensory experience.  I want to continue exploring this with the children. I wonder if something could be made with cornstarch?

Here is suggests using paprika, chili powder, turmeric and ginger from dried ground spices.  It suggests using gum arabic from art shops to make a cake of paint that can be used like those palettes you can buy for children to use.  I've ordered some from e-bay tonight and we'll give it a go!

How do Plants Grow?

I am doing a Montessori Early Years Teaching Qualification and my latest assignment requires that I write a planning web for a topic before choosing one of the 'cultural activities' and doing it with the children.  As it is currently a 'hot topic' with the children here, I decided to plan for 'How do Plants Grow?'I thought of lots of things to extend children's knowledge about plants and their growth and decided to share them here as I'd like to do lots of them and post about them and then you will all know what I am talking about!  I have combined Montessori curriculum headings with EYFS to suit all interested parties!!

Literacy (Communication, Language and Literacy)

• Booklets or spinning books (i-dials) on the life cycles of seeds.
• Sequencing cards on stages of growth.
• Books and stories
• Language tray with initial sounds that relate to seeds and plants (b-bean, p-pot, c-compost, s-sun, w-water, g-grow, l-leaf)
• Word wall - new vocabulary relating

Mathematics (Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy)

• Measuring the plants as they grow.
• Ordering seeds and beans from largest to smallest.
• Making bird cake from seeds - following a recipe card.
• Volumes of compost in pots.
• Measuring rainfall.

Creative (Creative Development)

• Make bean collages.
• Sunflowers - Van Goch painting, pallet of colours mixed to match and paint sunflowers.
• Natural paints using mud, dandelions, other flowers, leaves.
• Maracas with dried beans/rainmakers.
• Music and Movement - growing as plants grow.
• Songs and poems about growing.

Activities of daily living (Physical Development - fine motor)

• Sorting beans.
• Transferring with tweezers or tongs.
• Spooning beans/seeds.
• Pouring dried beans and seeds.
• Matching seed packets to seeds.

Cultural (Knowledge and Understanding of the World)

• Cooking and tasting recipes from around the world that use beans.
• Biology - set up a wormery and put leftovers from the children's fruit into it.
• Botany - parts of a plant/ what parts of a plant do we eat?/ life cycle of a bean
• Science - what plants need to grow/ celery stalks and food colouring/ dark box for plant to grow to the light.
• Leaf shapes/types.

Sensorial (CD, PSRN)

• Paint colour swatches in green to match to leaves of plants as they grow.
• Matching herbs by their smell.
• Leaf skeletons in the nature basket.
• Matching shapes to plant related items - cone (pot) seed(ovoid) etc.

Although Montessori curricula don't specifically have a section for Personal, Social and Emotional Development, by the approach that Montessori setting take, PSED is supported through all other activities, so you can look for aspects of this as the children take part in activities, just as you would normally.  I'm hoping to post about these activities as we go along, and will link them back to this plan as I go to make it easier to find them.  I'm anticipating that we will spend all summer investigating the way things grow though, so don't be disappointed if it isn't all here in the next couple of weeks.... if you want more information about any of these activities now, please leave a comment and ask and i will do my best to help you out!

Water Play

This is a photograph of the exploration that went on in the water tray recently.  We had been to the Sealife Centre and I bought small figures of a seahorse, starfish, ray and crab.  These were the creatures that the children had been most interested in whilst we were there.  I put an inch of water in the tray, along with some smooth pebbles and shells; in this picture the children were covering all the creatures in the shells and pebbles to camouflage them as they had seen the rays doing at the centre!  The water tray is a very simple and low-cost set-up of an under bed storage box placed on two upturned milk crates.  It is easy to store, easy to clean, easy to use for something different, and with a lid to put on to keep it clean!

I later added some clear plastic fruit boxes that utterly absorbed one of the little ones as the water flowed in and out.  She made piles of stones then covered them with an upturned box, then pressed her face to the base to look as she could still see the stones and usually when something is covered with an upturned box she can't see it!  I would like to introduce clear plastic bags to extend her investigation next week (under very close supervision of course!!)

Another very simple idea that has been a bit recently is placing a deep box of water under the end of the guttering system with some cups and jugs.  All of the children experimented with pouring the water at different parts of the guttering and trying to catch it at the bottom as it trickled back into the box.  When they weren't looking I added green food colouring and the children brought out another piece of guttering so there were two tubes then flowing into the builder's tray.  Add some cardboard packing and dinosaurs and another half hours messy play was created!

Some other ideas that I would like to try are:

• Clear tubes wound round some upside down wire baskets, complemented by funnels and jugs, and coloured water so the children can see how the water moves through the tubing depending on how much they put in and where etc.
• A pump such as the ones you empty fish tanks with where you squidge the bulb in the middle and it starts the flow of water to transfer it one from place to another.
• I would also dearly love a concrete water channel in my garden with a hand-pump at one end!!!!
• For babies I have put just half a centimetre of water in a builder's tray and allowed them to crawl through it to experience it with their hands and feet, either in a nappy/nothing in warm weather or an all-in-one waterproof in colder weather!

This article has ideas for linking water play to the EYFS as a core experience and part of your continuous provision planning.  To extend children's thinking about water there is Water Splash from the charity Wateraid. The on-line booklet 'Learning Through Play in the Early Years' has a great resource list for waterplay along with what ideas the tools and materials can support children to learn.

Telling the Time

I picked up this clock box in a second hand sale for a pound a few months ago but it has been irritating me a little as it never really 'fitted' anywhere..... too big for the bookcase and too enticing for the littlest ones to take them in and out and carry them round.... all very well but I have books for them to do that with if they wish and I wanted these to be used to explore the passing of time!!  So I re-purposed them into an activity box that can be used independently or with support from an adult.  This is what I added to the box:

• Blank clock faces printed and laminated with a whiteboard pen to draw in the hands.
• A larger clock with moving hands - make your own from here!
• Quarter past and quarter to cards from here (fourth down in the right hand column)
• Half past cards from the same site (fourth down in the left hand column!)
• Days of the week sequencing cards based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar story - these help children to put them in order by themselves as the number of fruits the caterpillar eats through increases as the days go on..... they also encourage children to expand into literacy!
• I made this simple activity to introduce the months.
• Ordinal numbers showing 1st to the 31st.
• The Seasons of a tree.
• I have also made a card for each child with their photograph and birthday on it.
• These resources from twinkl also look great
• I'd like to add one or two of these large sand timers when I can.

Cinco de Mayo!

This is a Mexican festival marking the day that an important battle was won.  The celebrations are not about the battle, but about the patriotism, love and bravery shown by the soldiers for their township.  Now round here we love a good theme day and are looking forwards to all things Mexican tomorrow!! 

 

Some books to set the scene:

• Colours of Mexico
• Cuckoo/cucu: A Mexican Folktale
• Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story
• M Is for Mexico
• Mexico! 40 Activities to Experience Mexico Past and Present

Some crafty activities:

• Dolly peg Mexican dolls - the idea here is to make dancers but I'm planning on looking in our children of the world book and making some with traditional dress.
• Simple weaving to make a 'God's Eye'.
• Mexican maracas.
• Mini sombrero
• Paper plate pottery

If you want to make a display or book of your celebrations, have a look at these colouring pages with the flag, map and other cultural pictures.  Try some Spanish words for things the children are familiar with, like colours (two pages here and here) or numbers 1-10.

And last but not least some recipes to whet your appetite!

• Guacamole - serve with taco shells or tortillas and vegetable sticks with the salsa too!
• Easy Salsa - except I'm not using three jalapeno peppers in mine, and am taking a tip from 'Katy cooks' and will get the children to chop up fresh tomatoes in a bowl with clean scissors instead of blending tinned tomatoes!
• Charro beans.
• Polvorones (sugar biscuits with cinnamon)

Have fun!!!!

Herons are Huge!!!!

This was our impromptu life size heron painted this afternoon; we did this to help the children understand about the bird that they had seen on a nest high up in a tree at the nature reserve!

And this is the heron through a zoom lens!  We had gone to the nature reserve to look for signs of shrews; we didn't find any!!!! But when we investigated the persistent chuckling sound, we found huge nests containing heron hatchlings and the parents flying in and out at regular intervals to feed them.  They are big birds (up to 104cm tall) and make an impressive sight soaring out of the tree tops above!

With the help of a bird book, some cardboard, and enthusiastic painting from the children (including R who painted practically everything in his sight grey!!) our heron was born.  It is now cut out and wrapped in clingfilm in the wild area of my friend's garden, awaiting a nest to be built on Friday!!

having re-discovered my artistic side today, I might do some garden birds for my garden with the children.  fancy a go? This book has beautiful illustrations easy to copy and is a great first book for bird spotting with children:

• RSPB My First Book of Garden Birds

Making Paper with Children

We tried this out last week and it worked really well, the children were fascinated with the process and because it took time and we did it outside, they drifted in and out of the activity as it suited them.  One of the youngest at 18 months old stood still at the edge of the table with her chin on her hands and observed very closely as three children made thier paper sheets.  When it came to her turn, she knew the steps to take and did so well!  I had never seen her concentrate like that before.

To make your own paper you will need:

1. A picture frame with the glass, back and any sharp bits removed.
2. A pair of finely woven tights.
3. A rectangular washing up bowl or plastic storage box that will easily fit the frame you have.
4. A blender.
5. Scrap paper (a mix of different types of paper is great.... if you want to make coloured paper, use some tissue paper that bleeds its colour when wet!)
6. A bucket and spoon.
7. Dry sheets of newspaper cut slightly bigger than your frame.
8. A rolling pin.
9. A sponge.

Follow these steps:

1. Tear the paper into very small pieces about 2cm/2cm maximum, put them ina  bucket full of warm water, mix round and let them sit..... overnight is preferable but a few hours will do, just keep topped up with hot water from a kettle if you do it over a few hours.
2. Take two cups of the paper to one cup of the water and blend it in a food mixer until it is a pulp. If the blender is working very ahrd, add a bit more water.
3. Tip the half-blender-full of mix into the storage box/washing up bowl.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.
5. Add 2 inches of water to the storage box/bowl and swirl it around until all of the pulp is suspended in the water.
6. Put the tights carefully over the frame, taking special acre that the corners do not snag. Tie a knot in each end close to the frame and cut the extra bits off.
7. Lower the frame into the mixed up pulp, and then gently and slowly lift it out of the box.

8. Lay a few pieces of newspaper over the top, place your hand flat in the middle, flip the frame over and lay it down on the newspaper.
9. Use the sponge to press over all of the frame (don't rub or you will wrinkle the paper!) until you have sponged away as much of the excess water as you can.

10. Slowly and gently peel up the frame and use your fingers to tease away from it any edges that stick.  this will leave the paper open side up on the newspaper.
11. Put a few more sheets on top and use the roling pin to squeeze more water out to be absorbed by the paper.
12. peel the newspaper up carefully, and leave the exposed paper to dry in the sun or in a warm place.  it will peel off its newpaper base when dry!

Experiment with different amounts of pulp, different types of paper to shred, essential oils to make scented paper, adding dired leaves and petals to the pulp, and see what you can create!

Core Experiences

Core experiences is one of the 'buzzwords' that is popping up more and more lately.  I see it as a version of 'continuous provision' which different early years settings use for their EYFS planning.  If grey is the new black, then continuous provision is the new long term planning!  I think it is particularly suited to child minders because of the number of daily routines or activities that can be linked to all of the areas for learning and development within the EYFS.  As well as considering the core experiences in your continuous provision, you can put in mealtimes, going to the shops, walking to school etc. 

It sounds like just another load of paperwork to create but I think it needn't be like that!!  I am planning to create mine gradually as I go, I have already made a start when I considered how baking linked to all of the areas of the early years foundation stage.  Once written I am going to put them in a folder and parents can see what is on offer, as well using it to aid evaluation of observations and planning of next steps.  It provides a way of reflecting on the resources that you already have and how you might use them, as well as what you would like to add in or remove.  If you don't know the six areas of learning and development well already then you will by the end of your continuous provision planning!!

Some key points about core experiences:

• Officially there are fourteen of them but you can adapt them to your early years provision.
• The ideas is that they are areas that the children can access every day or regularly, rather than one-offs.
• It isn't about making sure that the children use all of the resources and cover all of the fourteen core experiences, but that they can follow their own individual pathway, becoming more skilled and advanced as they go.
• Children know that the resources will be there and can plan in advance what they would like to do.  This brings children into the planning.
• It is important that the children can return to their model/picture the next day if they want to, so think about some space to put things so that they can return to it; this shows that you value what they are doing and encourages concentration and perseverance.

Some core experiences to consider:

• Book area.
• Cookery.
• Role-play.
• Gardening.
• Outdoor play.
• Malleable materials (dough etc).
• Music, dance and movement.
• Emergent writing and book-making.
• Painting and colour-mixing.
• Craft.
• Sand and water.
• Construction and block play.
• Woodwork, modelling and making.
• Sewing.
• Small world play.
• Treasure baskets and heuristic play.
• Trips and educational visits.

Creative conversations in the Early Years

I have recently read a book entitled 'Supporting Children's Creativity Through Music, Dance, Drama and Art' edited by Fleur Griffiths and I want to tell you about it!

Before I start I should tell you about me and books; everyone has to have a treat or something they look forwards to and my treat is a book.  I love a crisp new book and the possibilities of the ideas inside!  I especially love the journeys they take me on from one book to another! I know within the first few pages, or just by flicking through whether I am going to like it or not, and pictures are important to me!  I often pick books that are on a topic I know a little of and want to learn more about, but sometimes I make a leap in the dark based on a reccommendation or a hunch and I am rarely disaapointed when I do!!  I thought it would be nice to review the books that I read to help you decide whether you are interested in reading them too!

I am sometimes wary of books that are by a number of contributors and edited to make one volume but this book really works becuase it reads in a very conversational way.  So much of what we do and learn is based upon discussion and it is a refreshing way to read about the contributors ideas.  the anecdotes and interviews convey the enthusiasm and passion of the practitioners involved.

I found it a book to dip in and out of, pencil at the ready to mark passages and topics that I wanted to come back to!  There is so much to gain from this book; just one interview offered inspiration whether you were\looking for ideas for including children in planning, pondering on the nature of wall displays to put up or considering how you use the space that you have.

The practitioners are clearly very knowledgeable and experienced but they openly state that it takes time to build that up; the whole tone of the book makes you feel like a colleague rather than an underling!!  For me, that boosted my confidence to follow the children more closely than I do now, rather than trying to tick all the EYFS boxes at once!

It challenged my current practice on a couple of areas in particular, such as making the room look 'pretty' at the expense of what the children actually WANT in there, and my reliance on books and resources for 'activity ideas' (ahem, guilty as charged!!) and I'm sure that next time I dip into it, it will spark off some more reflection in other areas too!

All in all, a thoroughly worthwhile read and one I will come back to regularly!

Friday's Favourites!

This week has been sunny and cold in equal measures but we have had a fabulous week; exploring the woods learning about badgers and marking Baisakhi with dancing and cooking and sharing samosas.  Even the children who don't normally try new things ate more samosas and wanted the recipe to take home!!

The new room arrangement in my home is working really well - the abundance of floor space is amazing and the children have used it wonderfully.  None of the resources that I removed have been missed, the children have concentrated attention instead on things that are flexible and open-ended.

This weeks best picks are very crafty, I fancy trying a few of these this weekend myself:

• I'll be digging in the recycling for bottle caps to make these ladybirds.
• These sensory bottles have some good ideas contained inside them!
• How about a paper plate tambourine? genius!!

Next week we will be celebrating Earth Day by making our own paper from scrap paper.  Look out for a planning post this weekend, as well as some extensions for the float and sink activity!!

Have a great weekend!!

Science in the Early Years - Sink or Float?

I have been planning to extend some of the Montessori cultural ideas into my setting for a while now and organised myself to do it last night!  The Montessori cultural curriculum has some lovely suggestions for science activities that early years children can learn from in a hands-on, child-led way, supporting their knowledge and understanding of the world, amongst other things.

To set up an activity for exploring objects that sink or float,  you need:

• A tray that will hold a glass bowl/vase (glass because you can see through it and observe the objects that have sunk); fill the bowl three quarters full of water. 
• Next to it you need a plastic tray, box or basket that holds eight small objects that vary in size and material. 
• Objects made from different materials; on the tray above I have a light plastic ball, a plastic dinosaur, a small pebble and a marble (inside the small copper pot on this picture), a cork, a piece of bark, a shell and a small copper pot.
• A cloth to dry the objects and their tray with afterwards.

You can also have a laminated piece of card or paper that has the words 'float' and 'sink' on it including a simple diagram of an object below the water line and on the waterline for non-readers.

I like to get the child to make a hypothesis about what will happen such as "Do you think the shell will float or sink?" - you could also ask why they think that, giving you an amazing insight into their reasoning and knowledge (see sustained shared thinking for more tips on asking questions open-ended questions!)

Some of the thinking that came out using this activity was:

• That the dinosaur looked bigger at the bottom of the water because the water reflects it.
• That the shell was nice and thin like the pot so it would float (it sank of course).
• If you drop the pot from a low height it would float but when you drop it from a high height it sinks because it fills with water and goes heavier then.

Not all of the thinking is scientifically accurate but the children are making close observations of the materials and what is happeneing and using creative thinking to apply that knowledge to the other objects.  By exploring this themselves and actually experiencing it, it has more value than being told or reading about it in a book.

Here there is an attempt to balance the dinosaur on the bark to make it float instead of sink. Good Thinking!!

To make this suitable for toddler/baby exploration, put the objects into a wide necked plastic bottle or tub and fill half full with water and screw the lid on tight.  Every way they turn this up, the floating objects wil float and the sinkers will sink!  Differentiation in a nutshell!!

Making Books With Children

I first realised the power of making books with children when I made some laminated pages with photographs of the farm visit we had made and the words of 'Old Macdonald' linked to them, with the children's writing and marks and pictures alongside.  Bound with wool this book is now dog-eared and well-loved, having been looked at every day since we made it!  I used to think it was difficult but it isn't - you can make a book about anything, or just notebooks to write in.  I have gathered together lots of inspiration and ideas here, as well as step-by step instructions for you to jump in and have a go!

So why make books with children? Well...... you can:

• capture and record meaningful experiences
• demonstrate that you value their thoughts, ideas and abilities
• provide opportunities for children to express themselves
• provide a way for the child to use many fine motor skills
• provide thechild with many opportunities for problem solving
• all contribute to a shared effort 

What can we write books about? Well....... you could write about:

• A trip to the shops and what happens there.
• What the children do at the park.
• A special trip out to the zoo or farm.
• A favourite recipe.
• What we do during the day as a welcome book for new children.

And now we've decided what to write about, how do we set it out? Here are some ideas

• Once upon a time… stories
• Repetitive stories (I was walking down the road. Then I saw a….)
• Cumulative stories (On Monday I…On Tuesday I)
• Rhyme/Rhythm (change the words of songs and nursery rhymes )
• Opposites (In and Out; Up and Down)
• Counting Books
• Alphabet Books (My Food Alphabet, An Alphabet of Pets)
• Time Sequence (time of day, days of the week, months of the year)

Information taken from this Canadian resource.


I have so far bound my books very simply with ribbon or wool, but you don't have to make books that open in the traditional way; try this fold out version for an 'all about me' book.

This tactile book from http://www.alljoinin.net/ is absolutely stunning and would be such fun to make!

Another of Bea's creations "We Went for a Walk" is a golden idea too!

How about making a fabric book that represents you setting? This resource talks you through the process; a big time investment to be sure but worth the effort!

On a simpler note, I have found downloadable books to complete with the children that have worked very successfully as a collaborative effort that is well-used afterwards, a couple of examples are this 'sing a rainbow' colours book and a version of 'The Mitten'.

'Lapbooks' are popular with some home educating families; the idea is that a simple cardboard folder is adorned with many little 'books' containing information about a topic or theme that the children are learning about.  This idea lends itself to a childminding setting beautifully as each child can make a little book at her/his level and add them together to make a collection. Find a big collection of 'folds' for lapbooks here and try some yourself!


I hope that you have found this inspiring and make some books yourself, please let me know how you get on!!

 

 

Friday's Favourites!

Hello..... I hope you've all had a good week....... I've only worked one day as I took some time off over Easter to spend with my family and we've had a lovely time!  And hasn't the end of this week been beautiful?? We're soaking up the sunshine and I feel really enthusiastic.  I dived into re-organising the children's space (again... cue rolling eyes for those that know me and how often I move furniture around!!).  I am going back to basics and culling some equipment and toys that have crept in over time that are not adding anything positive, just cluttering..... more on that another day I think!!  The late evening sunshine is calling to me to bring a cup of tea and my pile of new books outdoors so I'll get on with a few links for the week!

• This simple idea for creating a spring forsythia picture is perfect for bringing children to look more closely at the natural world; bring some branches of the blossoms indoors if you like or take the art outdoors!
• A new blog called Simple Organic that I came accross this week has a post about using cloth instead of paper products in the home, now re-useable loo paper is a step too far for me but the idea of using napkins really appeals to me as part of mealtimes with the children!
• Make an aqua-scope to get a closer look at the tadpoles!
• Loving all the yellow over at the Crafty Crow!!

Whatever you are up to, have a lovely weekend, the sunny weather has made me want to go boot saling this Sunday...... just to window shop y'know, I'm not buying, I'm. not. buying, I'm not, I'm not!!!!!

Rainbow planning!

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My theme this last couple of weeks has been colours of the rainbow - for no particular reason other than it offered some nice sensory play and other ideas, so for those that follow regularly and like the links, we have been playing with the rainbow stacker:

and exploring some rainbow rice; labour of love to set up, and just seconds to mix together!!

 

There were feet as well as hands in this - it is so lovely to play with, just falling through your fingers!

Instructions to be found here.

I also laminated a rainbow array of paint chip cards and bound them with a book ring,

and we coloured some rainbow pictures to go on the cupboard door.

We loved the book 'What Makes a Rainbow?'

This book is lovely too!