Leap Day Mud Pies

"Mud-pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure."

Charles Dudley Warner

Just a pictorial journal of how we spent our leap day.

Old Man Winter is Just Not Ready to Leave

Over the weekend we experienced some INTENSE windstorms, and the bits and pieces in our backyard got 'involuntarily relocated'. So today we found our water-tables overturned which added to an interesting discovery. You see, with those windstorms came every sort of weather imaginable... rain, snow, hail, and even sun, and it's that rain that got trapped in the neat crevices the underside of our water-tables, that caught our attention.

Over the course of last night that rain froze and made some rather interesting patterns of ice. 

I was overly excited about this discovery of these patterns, and so were the children... in a much different sense. When we made the discovery I wondered what exciting questions the children would conjure up. My brain was reeling with visions of ice sculptures, science projects... etc, etc, etc. But our adult minds tend to over think everything. Of course the children had other things in mind.

Before I could even blink the pieces were smashed to smithereens, and the pieces were then collected into buckets and carted away. Of course, part of the thrill of discovering ice is breaking it! Once again, the children remind me that not everything is a project, but rather an opportunity for FUN!!!

A Shadow That Never Leaves

Around 3:30pm every afternoon we are blessed with the powerful sun streaming through the window. We love the sun, and love to soak it up! BUT, it's all a bit bittersweet. It likes to shine directly in all our eyes!!! Of course we are happy to see that Mr. Sun, but we can't appreciate it too much when we can't see much of anything. So a solution needed to be found!

We came across some canvass curtains on the weekend, and we gave them a go. They served their purpose, but we were excited when they turned into a bit of a game!

As soon as those curtains were up we noticed a few neat shadows. It became quite a fun game to find out what was making the interesting shadows. Who knew that hanging simple curtains laid the foundation to a fun little game!

Supplies, Supplies, Supplies!

I have had a great number of requests asking me 'what do you need' I have loved that everyone is so excited to help us out. We've welcomed generous donations of toys, and we're are ever so grateful, but now it's time to start thinking outside of the box. 

I am a great promoter of open-ended play, and play with loose parts. What does that mean? You ask a very interesting question. I have always wanted to incorporate this type of play in my program, and it's rather easy, and inexpensive, and ever so valuable. Open ended play involves things that have unlimited use. The are not necessarily 'toys', they are materials that seem perhaps out of place in a childcare facility, but promote interest and curiosity. They some with no directions, and can be used in many different ways and combined with other items of play. Loose parts have a similar purpose, and they are items that are not constructed together, but rather 'parts' that the children can put together, whether it be permanently or temporary. They are items that can be dragged or carried, taken apart, put together in an extensive amount of ways.  All these materials lead to open ended, curious play. Did you see the post on our blog where the children reenacted the ''Grinch Who Stole Christmas'? That is a great example of loose part and open ended play. Those parts, separately, could have lead to some entirely different play, but together as a whole they created a beautiful basis to an amazing insight into the children's imagination. 

So I am including a list of things that you and your family may want to start thinking about. We do not need it all at once, or right away, but if you are looking to get rid of anything like what is on our list, please send it our way, we would love it! Of course the loose parts are not limited to this list, and the list is by no means extensive, but rather to help you get an idea of where we are heading. 

Nature items:

• Plants

• Plant cuttings

• Pieces of wood ie: Twigs, Logs, Stumps, Tree Cookies (Tree Stumps cut into one inch 'cookies')

• Driftwood

• Branches cut into rounds to serve as blocks

• Beautiful pebbles, stones, rocks, geodes

• Shells

- Seed Pods

- Pallets

- Stumps

- Sand

- Gravel

- Balls

- Buckets

- Crates

- Rope

- Boxes

- Tires

Toward a Homey Environment

• Rocking chairs

• Big soft rugs

• Pillows

• Lamps

• Mirrors

• Small couch

• Children's chairs

• Children's books

• Fabric

• Curtains

• Beaded curtains

• Room dividers

• Cloth or paper fans

• Artifacts from other cultures and decades

• Boombox 

- Baskets

Materials for Creating

• Magazines with beautiful photos 

• Toilet and paper towel rolls

• Baby food jars, jam jars, canning jars

• Coffee cans 

- Fabric

- Tiles

- Wood Scraps

- Containers

- Wrapping paper 

- Old CD's (we may as well get these while we still can... they seem to becoming obsolete)

- old sewing patterns

- Ribbon

- Yarn

(there is also a great little store downtown that is my favourite place to shop called Urban Source http://www.urbansource.bc.ca/ if you're ever downtown and feel the need to pop in and pick up a bag of material for us, i'll reimburse you!!)

For Documentation

• Cameras

• Photo paper 

Of course all these items will need to have a home, so if one day you happen to spot a shed on the side of the road, or even a shelf or two (it's getting to be 'spring cleanup' time, and these might be on the curb), please feel free to call me and we'll jet out there with my dad's truck and pick it up. 

A Little Dirt Never Hurt!

Do you know what we discovered? We discovered the difference between sinking and floating. The children found some baby food jar lids just sitting there, waiting to be discovered. I was interested to see what they would do, and right away they went to work looking at what they would do once they were placed in the water.

Suddenly, they fun puddle that was the basis of our floating and sinking experiment became the medium for painting. 

We were happy to discover that the mud paintings washed right off with a bucket of water. What child (or adult for that matter) can resist a bucket of water?

It's a Jungle out there

We've added a little greenery in our centre, and it reminds us of the jungle. If you look closely, you can spot a rare sight... a striped youngster who uses his talented grasp to build his other jungle friends a little step ladder.

That talented striped youngster constructed this amazing tower. Shortly after this it suffered it's demise, after it's creator sat right on top of it, amid so much laughter!

We're pretty excited about the doll house redecorating. No more plain white, and after some co-operative efforts this was the outcome. I especially love the animal print throw rugs!

It was a little chilly out today, so we broke out the hot chocolate maker, and enjoyed some tasty treats. 

Of course, who could resist a little class?

Only one of the teacup suffered a fall, and subsequently a trip to the trash can. But we're practicing being careful and using two hands. The concentration it took to carry these teacups to the sink was amazing to watch. And yes, some tongues were sticking out to add to that concentration!

Things Fleeting... the Value of 'Temporary Art'

I'm forever touched and amazed by what you might call "temporary art." From the mystical beauty of Sand painting to the fragile spectacle of Ice Sculpture. -Jim Victor

As with all brilliant ideas this was discovered by accident, and boy what fun it was!

The children were creating up a storm, as usual, and those fun bingo dabbers were a part of the fun! Although those bingo dabbers are lots of fun, it tends to be a bit limiting. So, when one of the children drew a bit 'off the paper' I wondered what it would be like to draw on the floor. So after a bit of a test, to see if it washed off... and it did so we went to town! 

 I love the illustrations that were exhibited in this process. They were very purposeful, and thought out. It was as though the children realized that they were engaging in a special moment. One that was fleeting, and one that needed to be savoured.

 The children were involved in the cleanup process, and that seemed to be as crucial to the creativity as the actual drawing. We loved using the spray mop that was full of vinegar, helping the bingo ink to wipe right off.

 This was my own personal illustration that started the process. The child is erasing it, telling me it 'isn't good enough'. This was a reminder that the children wanted this to be their own creations, and that's fine with me.

We did discuss that our school floor was the special floor that we could create on, we did notice that it was different than that of our floors at home, so there was a definite distinction between the things we do at school and the things we do at home, so no worries moms and dads, there shouldn't be any illustrations on your floors at home.

These 'whole body arts' or 'big arts' is another unique was to incorporate Gross Motor play into our art, plus it was so much fun! 

I also wanted to share this lovely selection about the value of 'temporary art'. 

'Children begin exploring their creativity at a very young age. You can give a one year old a chunky crayon and he will discover that he can make marks with it, and that his actions determine what the marks will look like. From these earliest scribblings until about age five or six, and sometimes beyond, children's art is process oriented. This means they are more interested in the creative process, than in the eventual product of their work. A young child may spend 30 or more minutes at an easel with different colors of paint, and end up with what looks to an adult like a field of mud. Don't think the time was wasted. The child has been experiencing the feel of the brush and learning how different strokes look on paper.'

Margaret Christy 

Achieving Great Things

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.
Orison Swett Marden

Last week we put old CD's on the background of our light table, and this is what we discovered it does!

In response to Teacher Tom's post last week about tree climbing, I did think it was rather fitting to share this photo. This used to be a fig tree. I was rather disappointed that it came to this, but this tree attracted WAY too many wasps and hornets to our yard, (I try not to let this affect how I work with the children, but I am highly allergic to wasp stings) and it was decided to cut it down. I'm only trying to justify this decision to myself, so bear with me... you see, one could not even get within ten feet of this tree without having wasps fly at your face, plus they were literally drunk off the fig nectar. It became just too much. Ahhh, that's better. Anyhow, Teacher Tom was expressing his disdain over the city park trees having their lower branches cut off, leaving tree climbing out of the question. So isn't it fitting that the children here have discovered the 'low branches' of our fig tree and have chosen to climb them, now to move on to a tree that has the higher branches as well!

'Look we can see the wind'

This little Christmas tree sparked a extended enactment of the 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas'. It looks very 'who-like' doesn't it? The search was on for more items needed to tell the story. 

This was when the Grinch took Christmas away. The little tree is in there, along with all the 'presents' all pulled on a sleigh (crazy carpet), all this was done by some Grinches with Santa hats. 

This play led to the need to climb on the roof of our playhouse to go down the chimney. It took a few tries and failures learning opportunities before a major breakthrough. Now it's the favourite hangout. I have yet to get up there myself, but I have been informed that the children can see Africa!

Sensory experience in process. All this was on 'mackTack' and is now happily displayed on our window!