Changing things up... again!

Okay children, your voices have been heard! The photo below is one of the very few times that the children actually played in the 'block room'. 

Before

The children tend to gravitate to the constructing materials, and really enjoy building and creating with the blocks and the cars, but quite often the entire room of materials gravitate towards the 'big room'. The children are most welcome to blend the materials together. The play that the children engage in when this happens is wonderful to see, and explodes into creative, open-ended, imaginative play. I love seeing the lightbulbs click, and the whole group engaging in play that was created right from their imaginations! So on that note, over the last few weeks I had been mulling over a major change in the environment. I had been observing, more and more, the children taking nearly every piece out of the block room into the big room and I wondered why. I had my theories, I thought it had something to do with the lack of natural light, and the lack of space. I asked the children in a group meeting last week, and I wasn't too far off the track. The children told me that they like playing near the windows (lack of natural light). They also told me that they didn't like it when others knocked over their towers (lack of space). SO, on Friday morning the children helped me move the block room into the big room. Since Friday, the centre has continued to transform to where it is now. I cannot wait to see the reaction of the children tomorrow! I'm interested to see how it flows and how it functions!

After- the block room is now an atelier (workshop of an artist), with a little more softened lighting. 

a little inspiration from Van Gogh and Monet, with space for the 'real artists' down below!

Before- this was our art space/ sensory/ eating area

after- Tinkering table

Block area (this was where our eating tables used to be). Lots of space to create, build, plan, and construct!

Murals hanging from the ceiling (it's double sided- well... two murals hung back to back), and some flowy material hanging from the ceiling.

Display shelf for all our creations

A table for illustrating plans/ clay table!

The environment has gone through changes over the last few months. It's important to listen to the children's voices, and to understand their needs. Because the children in this program are really into constructing and building, it is important for them to have the space to create! It is also important to give the children a change of scenery every once in a while. Our environment has undergone quite a few changes over the last few months, we are still new, so we still have bugs to work out! It's been a wonderful learning experience to learn from the children. The layout of the environment may work for the here and now because of the dynamics of the children, but come a few years down the road the dynamics of the children may change the environment again. It's all about listening to the children's needs!

Now it's time for bed... need to be ready to play!

Green Tubes

I can't get over how easily everyone has taken to our loose part program, and we have been donated some truly neat items. The green tubes are no exception to the things that, otherwise would be thrown away and we have made use of them. A few months ago when a friend of mine gave me six boxes of these green tubes I was so eager to see what we could do with them. They have been used in a variety of ways over the last few months, including the base for a carnival game for my church, but not really in the ways I thought they would be used, they mostly were mostly being used to throw around, and as little cups in the playhouse. I'll be honest in saying, I really was starting to think that maybe I had taken more than we could handle, but they still remained outside ready for a lightbulb moment. Today that happened!

We had a new child start today, and interestingly she gravitated immediately to these tubes, and pretty quickly all the children's eyes were open to the possibility of discovery!

Look at all the things that happened with these green tubes, it was awesome! It was everything from binoculars, to waterwings, to giant muscles, to socks, to a castle, all the way to a giant tunnel!

Sticky Wall and Volcanoes

Right now as I sit down to type this I can hear a possessed dinosaur toy, that has been roaring non-stop, after a little trip to the water table. I ended up stuffing it in the dryer (it's not running), just so that we don't have to hear it anymore. It's been making us laugh, but we've had quite enough. I didn't even know it made noise!

Back to the post! I've been eagerly wanting to make a contact paper wall in the centre the moment I came across it on pinterest. So here's our first attempt at it. We used our foam blocks on it, for right now the children seemed to be rather fascinated with the possibilities, so the blocks are placed on it in a random fashion. Give it time, and we'll start to see patterns emerge. 

At first the children did not even notice anything there, they really thought that there was just random strips on the wall, because even though you can see the contact paper in this picture, it's really not that obvious. So the first child that discovered that the wall was indeed sticky was a little taken aback! The border in itself is neat to get a close up of (i'll try to remember to take a picture of it), it's a reel from the local newspaper. I'm not sure if it's what they used to print from, or if it's for a projection machine.. it's just really quite neat.

We discovered something else our sticky wall was for.... it's great to stick our feel on....

.... which in turn leaves neat little prints.

To be completely random. We made a volcano! Our old playdough became a nice mold for the volcano. The children were anticipating the explosion! I will tell you that I, like the children, love a good explosion. I'm just not feeling the baking soda and vinegar deal, so i'd like to do this again with the neat recipe I found on pinterest. But the children screamed with delight every time the volcano 'spewed'

A little vinegar...

Kaboom!!!

I'm not sure why it turned yellow... there was both red and yellow food colouring in the volcano, I guess that yellow was the more dominant colour!!! 

It was really fun, and always a hit!

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!

Barns, who needs Barns?

Our tree block are fast becoming the critical item in our play. This was creative play in motion that I came across this morning. It was so neat to see the different levels of the animals, I love that some of the animals are on pedestals! It reminded me of the hills that one might find on a farm! 

This was concentration at work. This took a great deal of patience and trial and error. Look at the symmetry! Those coloured blocks are counter top samples that I picked up at Urban Source a few weeks back, and at closer inspection I discovered that the supplier is from the company my brother used to work for... how did I miss out on that years ago!

The children are encouraged to develop their own designs and creations, but for those times that we're having a 'creativity block' (because even children get stuck), this is some inspiration pieces. I love that we've had a big discussion about Buckingham Palace (because we've sent the Queen an invitation to join us for snack), and that we were able to see a picture of the Tower Bridge, and that's where the Golden Jubilee Celebration will kick off!

 I love the interpretations that these blocks take on. This horse is clearly jumping the fence! The child even kindly placed a block on the other side, to make the jump a little easier! 

Did you know that some of our tree blocks make perfect stoppers for our cardboard tubes? Now you know!