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!

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!

The Environment is Always the Other Teacher!

This is something that I am constantly needing to remind myself. When the children arrive in the morning, often the toys and materials a neatly tucked away in their spots. BUT, I have noticed over the last few months the benefits of setting up the environment in a way that is inviting to the children. This often means that things look as though play has already begun. By setting up scenes, like the one below we are welcoming children to an area that is inviting and perhaps initiating creativity. I said it before that even children can experience a 'creativity block' and by setting up the environment in such a way, it can lead to some interesting play, and often takes it in a direction that we may not have anticipated! 

What do you think this set up turned into? 

(if you guessed an animal train ride, you guessed right!... see those glass beads lined up, that's the train, and the animals are at the stations.)

Over the weekend my friends had brought their girls by, and they rearranged our glass jars. Initially the jars were just placed in random order, but to an eight and nine year old brain, they needed to be arranged in the colour spectrum. This was noticed this morning by the children. The comment was, 'look a rainbow!' 

These jars are wonderful additions to our environment... again they are part of the 'other teacher'. The children look through them when they look out the window... the neat thing is that they are in almost a prism shape, so everything (in addition to being different colours) is distorted. They also make some neat colour designs on our walls if the sun hits them just right. 

Speaking of reflections and light. A few months back I came across this blog  http://casamarias.blogspot.com/ and spotted her use of those old CD's. Since I had a large stack of them, I became inspired, so this is our background to our light table. I just need to hunt down a few more, but that shouldn't be too hard!

These wonderful things are my new favourite 'things'. They are little LED tealight candles. What a neat ambiance they create. We've used them in a variety of ways... block corner, housekeeping, in our rocketship, in our cozy book corner, and today we used them to cast a 'romantic' atmosphere at snack time... why not, it's almost Valentine's Day!

A little un-glamorous with the cutlery holder and garbage basket in the middle of the table. But we made an attempt to jazz it up by placing it on our grass mat, which for convenience sake, is on top of a 'lazy susan'. We're still working on jazzing it up more, but that's what we get for now!

The way we set up our environments is so important, whether at home or in a group centre setting. It shows to the children that we care about them and we value them enough to let them touch and play with the items in the centre. It is important to remember not only is it set up in a 'beautiful way' but also in a practical way. We are allowing the children to explore and create and see the materials provided for them. We are not hiding the items from their sight, or putting things too high, but showing them what is there, and inviting them to enjoy their environment!