Light and shadow play

The light exploration corner in my class has become very popular in the last few weeks, especially with those children who do not have English as their first language. 

In the first few days, there was a lot of awe and wonder, looking at colours, shapes and the children were fascinated to discover that moving objects on the OHP meant that the objects on the curtain also moved.

 Then one child discovered that shadows were created on the curtain for everyone to see. 

"Look, look! It's me!"

We cut out some shapes together and the two paper children had a 'conversation' together. It was lovely to watch how some of my English native speakers took the lead here and the EAL learners were able to copy new language structures and have a go themselves. These paper children were in a magical fairy land and they were off to visit the rainbow....!

Making Circles!!

We moved the small natural materials from the inside construction area to the outside area this week. 

 These 3 children spent half an hour working together, talking about which layer should go next and who was going to do what.

The wooden 'spikes' were then added as hair for this extra-terrestrial character!!! :-D I love children's imaginations!

Den Building....

One day last week, we started the morning off with an invitation to explore some of out outdoor equipment by placing a sheet over the top.

 This led to many a discussion about whether it was a castle or stables. The children settled on it being a castle for horses...perfect solution...! The same group of children then asked for more material and started exploring the boxes we had been saving up that were stacked in the playground.

 This little den got a sheet over the top and was a great 'hidey' hole for the morning session...until the strong wind kept blowing it apart....no amount of stones or securing seemed to help....! Was a good learning experience for the children though - they tried balancing boxes in all different directions and on different surfaces to see if it helped...the wind was just too strong on that day though!

At the weekend, I discovered this fab construction material (Crazy Forts), which the children have spent the last two days exploring and building with. The first day required lots of adult help, but today, two children were able to build a den for themselves almost unaided - great cooperation and fine motor skills!!

This 'house' is on fire so we are very lucky that our Fireman is already on hand and dealing with the situation, walkie talkie in hand... :-)

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 :-)

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!!!! :-) 

 

Dinosaur block construction!

We have had the Ipad blocks for about a year now (the free packaging that sandwiches each IPad when it is bought) and they are still as popular now as they were when we first introduced them. And with relatively few casualties despite them being trodden on from time to time! We have had them out every day this week and what I love is that the play and constructions change each time they are out :-)
On the first day the dinosaurs were in a multi-storey car park...in the next session they were at a theme park and mixed the long wooden blocks in with them to make slides. There has also been a castle this week and a mountain leading up to a volcano... Fab imaginative play for next to no money (well aside from someone having bought the IPads of course, but you get what I mean!!!)
I love the precision with which the blocks have been aligned in the top picture and the dinosaurs peeking out in between in the second!