Holidays :-)

Will be quiet on here for a few weeks! Will post when I get back :-)

Waldorf style playscapes

These amazing wool/felt playscapes have been made for my class by Cheryl from Soft n Woolly (http://www.etsy.com/shop/softnwoolly) - I received them this week and am so excited to find bits and pieces to go with them to create inspiring small worlds for my new class to explore in September. I asked her to create four different ones - river, beach, roads and woodlands and think they are all gorgeous. My absolute favourite is the last one - the detail is stunning and I can just imagine little fairies hiding in the caves! I cannot wait for little hands to play with them! Thank you Cheryl :-)

Building in circles!

My class often choose to play with the wooden blocks and the number of different ways they come up with to use them never ceases to amaze me. Last week, I simply offered them on top of one of our tuff spots and placed a single triangular brick in the middle as an invitation to continue. After nearly 2 hours of play (returning to it after short breaks each time), a group of 4/5 children had created an amazing circular city of symmetry. They worked together to ensure they didn't leave any bits out of their pattern and it was a pleasure to listen to their conversations as they worked - I love this time of year when the children are able to put all their creativity, sharing and team working skills together to create something fabulous. Sadly I didn't get a photo of the completely finished build but the process was the most important part and I was lucky to watch it from start to finish :-)

The jealous car....

The children had been engrossed in their play for some time when one child called me over and asked if he could tell me the story they had been working on. Here it is...

Once upon a time there was a car factory. It had lots of workers and all the cars lined up carefully when they needed fixing or upgrading.

One day, the queue of cars waiting to be seen was so long that some of them had to be turned away for the day and were asked to return the next day.

The large green truck was mad. He did not want to wait. He thought it was unfair so he did something bad.

He drove as fast as he could into the factory so nobody else could use the factory that day either. Everyone was very sad but luckily noone was hurt. The police came straight away and took him away.

He felt really bad and said sorry. Then he helped to rebuild the factory but a bigger one so more people could be seen at once. Then they were all friends and he was good from then on!!!

THE END

I loved all the dinosaurs standing watching in the second picture!!! All the children had a little part in remembering the story and they were very pleased that it had such a happy ending!!!! :-) 

 

Homemade Dancing Rings!

Have you seen those beautiful ribbon rings that you can buy? Gorgeous but on the pricey side....

Soooo....we had a go at making our own today! They definitely will not last as long but we had a blast making them and even more fun using them outside - running with them, throwing them like parachutes, playing tag with them etc etc!!!

We used some plastic wheels from our DT area that had been around for a while and threaded them with thin ribbon before setting them out for the kids to experiment threading with....

It was also great for fine motor practice - we encouraged the children to have a go at tying their own strips of crepe paper - and they were so proud of themselves when they achieved it!

Under the Sea block exploration!

What happens when you add wooden blocks and sea creatures?? An unlikely combination I hear you say! We did just that today, along with a blue fleece and some fabulous Playmobil Mer people and the children came up with some fabulous ideas as per usual.

We had a zoo aquarium with a sunken underwater castle....

 A shark collection tank....

 A coral reef area where the fish could hide...

And a keep fit centre!!!! :-D