Yesterday I participated in a workshop hosted by Joanne Marie Babalis "100 language of children" in St. Catherine. That was really amazing time. Through this workshop many of ECE teachers were interested to learn about old toys. At this time I would like to share a master class of Zoya Pinigina
How to make a Bunny on the finger.
It is really necessary for child to participate in a process of the creation this toy. Bunny could be used in the home and in kindergartens in the music classroom. Playing with finger Bunny on the finger develops coordination, sense of rhythm, gives the joy of communication and positive emotions from the game. You can make bunnies in a different colours and create a story, poems, fairy tales, hide bunny in a hand and encourage child to catch it. Use your imagination and develop play!
Harvest theme is good to learn shapes, colours and names of fruit and vegetables.
Once upon a time....
there was a little moose Mussi. He was born last spring and just discover the forest confidentially. He was travelling around and explore plants in the forest. He loved berries, but there wasn't berries in the forest any more. And Mammy still did not come.... UUhu!!! cried Mussi. Suddenly he heard quiet noise in the bush.
Hey! Who is there? asked Mussi.
That was me! - two little grey ears appear above the bush.and two bright black eyes looked through the branches. - Why are you crying?- that was little Bunny.
I am hungry!!!!!!!! cried Mussi what I should eat for dinner?
Ok, Let's think... you are moose, you have for legs, you have two ears, you have two horns, you have two eyes and one tail.... Tail is short, but in fact I can tell you that you are a cow...So, you should eat as a cow!- was wondering Bunny
What are you talking about??? Who is a cow? I am not cow!!!- Mussi stopped crying and looked on Bunny.
I think, I know where we can get food for you! But...there is somebody Tall who is waving his arms... so scary...-whispered Bunny
Let's go, I am not scary, let's go get food!!! said Mussi and they moved forward.
Where do you think they came?
Guess who was waving arms there?
Can Mussi find food there?
Where growing vegetables and fruit?
Understanding concept "on"and "in",
Sing and dance together!
Children create circle and walking in one direction. When its starts about veggies, child, who present that vegetable comes inside the circle and dancing. now he or she choose another child who present next vegetable and coming back to the circle. children change direction.
Almost one year past since my last post. Sorry, I did not share anything with you but I am really need to tell you a lot! So, let's start new year with new post! I would like to introduce to you a wonderful poem of
Michael Rosen - We're Going On A Bear Hunt
That was real bear hunt for me! Once I heard this poem in Child Care where I had a placement and never could find out who wrote this wonderful game! For my Russian friend - I found that there is a book called "Идем ловить медведя" but in fact it does not sound so good. In couple days through our play we created with my little friend a new poem - in Russian (if you want that just call me)! That was wonderful time for dramatic play and amazing literacy activity!
We learn a lot of new Russian words and....
Don't forget fine motor!We created amazing bears with coffee play-dough!
OMG!!!!!
Mammy and Daddy gonna love them! They smell so good!
Do you know why do Americans play a football all three days of Thanksgiving?
Look at this guy! I think he is very good player! I feel he wants to score, no.... knock out the bird!
Guess which? Sure, turkey! That was surprise for me when I found somewhere in internet this information. Look at this picture!(source Wikipedia)
So? Why we can not play on Thanksgiving? No, we are not going to play football... we will play "Turkeyball"!
You will need at least 10 children who want to play this game;
Easy template to draw a turkey;
Crayons or paint to colour it;
Plastic bottle with water (water makes it stable);
Two pumpkins medium size;
Tape - sticky and any tape to make a line.
Draw the turkey and color it.
Cut out and tape on the bottle.
Go out and find nice flat field with grass.( You can play also on pavement but game will finish fast because you will crack the pumpkin. At list you will have another science project to explore what is inside the pumpkin...)
Ok, you can play in classroom if you children will not throw the pumpkin as a player on the picture!
Make two teams and put them on the line. Put turkeys in from of children.
Let children shoot the turkeys in pairs and count haunted turkeys.
Hurray! I got a pet!
Now Jelly fish flying in my room!
Yesterday was my daughter's Birth Day and she got a few balloons which were flying in the air.
I was thinking non stop about my new "Under Sea" lesson plan and suddenly I got an insight - "That is what I am looking for!" This is my idea, how to make a Jelly fish with the balloon.
You will need;
a balloon with helium, tape (duck tape is better)
One plastic bag (I had recycling blue bag, but I think it may be colourful crepe paper - ribbons)
What to do
Gently remove stick or ribbon and fix with the tape a nipple.
Attach ribbons with the small pieces of duck tape to the balloon!
You can improve my project by adding eyes and mouth!
This is, in my opinion very good tool to teach children about weight. If there is one extra piece of duck tape at the bottom of jelly fish it slowly goes down, may stop in few inches above the floor. My idea is to "feed"
our jelly fish with paper fishes by attaching them with tape to the bottom.
Jelly fish prepared for "Under Sea" lesson plan but I think I will use it much broader!
Уже несколько лет, да, да вы не ослышались, несколько лет горю желанием пошить парашют. Да не собираюсь я прыгать с заоблачных высот!)))Парашют в Канаде - явление весьма распрастраннное, а посему необходимости шить собственный вроде как и не возникало - в каждой школе или детской программе таковой имеется. Стоит недешево, но оно того стоит. Так зачем же морочить себе голову? А вот зачем. Я работаю также в маленьких чатных детсада от 5 до 10 деток, им конечно такой парашут покупать дорого да и размеры помещения и площадки не позволяют такой парашют развернуть. На днях меня занесло в долларовый магазин - аналог русского " все по 30 рублей" (говорят такие имеются) и о чудо! Вот он мой парашют!!!!!!конечно я не удержалась и тут же стала счастливой обладательницей!
Дело за малым - в том же магазине куплено два моточка ленты, вытащена машинка, которая без дела стояла уже несколько лет
и вот, я таки получила свой собственный небольшой около 2 м в диаметре парашют!
Для игры нужны мячи разного диаметра и веса ( но не тяжелые) или любые мягкие игрушки.
Петли я сделала большие: во первых чтобы все таки увеличить расстояние между детками, во вторых - чтобы была возможность захватить покрепче. Вот так:
а я на ходу пока шила парашют придумала такой стишок:
Мы играем в парашют (дети растягивают П)
Красный ЗДЕСь (Ребенок у красной части поднимает руки вверх)
А синий ТУТ (Ребенок у синей части поднимает руки вверх)
Желтый ЗДЕСь
Зеленый ТУТ( ну и т.д.)
Парашют мы поднимаем
И тихонько опускаем
НУ давай(тихонько) давай (громче) ДАВАЙ!
Парашют опять BЗЛЕТАЙ! (поднимаем резко парашют - он взлетает вверх и отускается до уровня рук)
После этого дети могут передвинуться на одну-две петли по кругу и начинаем играть опять.
А вы играете с парашютом?
Похвастаюсь у Лизы Арье здесь в следующем месяце))
This weekend we were celebrating 146 Anniversary Confederation of three colonies into a single country called Canada, named Canada Day. It is actually Birthday of our wonderful country. So, we decided to discover more about Canada and were talking about what did happen in Northern North America many years ago, who did live here, what did do first people, how they were looked like, why does Canada have a red maple leaf on the flag. So many questions....we decided to explore many of them during the Summer and Fall up to Thanks Giving Day!!! So, let's start!
The red stripes on the Canadian flag symbolize the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, between which is Canada. White square recalls the Arctic snows in the north of the country, and the Maple Leaf, Canada's long-standing emblem - on its vast forests. Canada named the country of Red Maple Leaves, because here is a lot of special kind maple trees which have really red leaves and in spring people make Maple syrup.
Most common for Canada animals are Moose, Beaver, Raccoon and Skunk. Last one, but not least one presented only in North America, and nowhere else around the world.
May be, I will tell you something interesting about beavers....
They have very sharp teeth, so they can break huge trees and build the beaver dam; Beavers build Dams for food storage and protection. They build a dam to make an artificial lake, and then they proceed to build their lodge nearby.
The deeper water in a dam allows the beaver to travel near its home protected from other animals and predators. After the dam is built, the beaver will also dig channels leading away from the new dam, to create safe transport channels for when it is gathering more wood to continue building its dam and lodge. Beavers usually use their tail as a paddle when they are swimming, but beaver use their tails to communicate!!!! by using there tails to tell other beavers that they are there or to tell them where the food is or even if there in danger they just slap there tail in water!
Hey! let's try to be beavers! We clapped with our hands different pattern on the floor and tried to repeat it again! Children even guess that different pattern might have different meaning!!!
First people.... How did they look like? Where did they live?
What is North American Indians Totem Pole?
What is Dream Catcher?
Can we build a Tepee?
There were so many questions...
We solved the puzzle "Red Maple Leaf"
But most interesting was play with rocks. Some rocks I collected during year in stores, but some of they I made by myself in special shape with Air Dry Clay. I needed a few flat rocks...
Who is Inuksuk?
Imagine walking across the vast tundra, and coming across a human-sized stone structure. Inukshuk (plural: inuksuit) means “likeness of a person” in Inuktitut (the Inuit language), and is a pile of (unworked) stones arranged by the Inuit into the shape of a human being. They are sometimes seen as representing the strength and determination of the Inuit people, who live in one of the Earth’s harshest climates and terrains.Used for thousands of years, the Inuit make Inuksuit to identifying routes, to warn people of impending danger, to mark a place of respect, or to remember a good hunting or fishing spot. Most every Inuit constructs his own stone figure at some point, and they are a distinct feature in the Arctic region. They usually are around the height of a human being (5-7 feet tall).
Ok, Summer is rainy this year.... If it is rainy day we still can walk to different places!
Today we are going to make a trip to grassland!
Our lessons usually start with reminding what we learn last time. So, we were talking about clothes which we have to wear when we going in very sunny place. I have one child who is allergic to sun screen, so we decided that Don should wear very white and thin parka and hat with large fields, everyone should remember about bottle with water and sun glasses. Ready? Follow the leader!
At this point we learning walking in line or pairing (older children help younger to walk properly and we usually doing one or two circles around the class room)
Look at this green carpet! What do you think is it? Sure, grass!
We discussed flowers, bugs, insects which we can meet in field.
That is how we started:
Unfortunately, we had very busy time and I did'n have an opportunities to take a picture.
So, just look at my collection of toys which we use to play "grass country".
In our Journey we created it step by step with discussion which insects are living in the field, why, how they linked to each other.( Bee is collecting honey from meadow flowers, grass hopper is green because he has a lot of enemies, flowers are bright and big because there is a lot of sun, lady bug is not green because she has a protection from her enemies) Oh... that was amazing story about field)
Some activities covered Math: comparing sizes of flowers, making pattern,learning colours, counting flowers and lady bug dots.
Also we were listening a sounds of our meadow valley and we also heard COW, SHEEP and GOATS! Why????Because... Discuss it with children! They will be happy to tell you everything they know!!!
Our trip to the grass country happened before Father's day. So we decided to make for our Dads Paper holder "Lady Bug"
Lady Bug has a rock inside , so it is pretty heavy and certainly can protect papers from the wind!
Next time we planned to go to the forest! Hey, you are scared to meet a wolf, aren't you?
So, See you next time!
Some very interesting activities you can find here and here
Join us!
A few years ago my daughter brought this game from her Summer camp. I found it interesting, but there wan no occasions to play at that time. Suddenly I remembered this game a few day ago. We tried it with my co-worker and just got fun. So, on those sunny days outside my children had a competition with elastic bands.
You will need a few shoe laces, few elastic bands and couple blocks, ( that might be and cans, containers, block and anything also, what you can grab with the elastic band).
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