We have been spending a lot of time exploring some of the new play areas in the classroom! I wanted to share some of the other winter fun we have had besides just melting ice!
Sensory Play:
They have enjoyed the winter tub filled with rocky, white snow, arctic animals, and lot of fun scoops!
I also made a batch of play dough using Hair Conditioner and cornstarch! It is a really soft dough, with a mint scent, perfect for a penguin playground!
We also had a new tub, called the “Tinker Tub”. It was filled with styrofoam, rubber bands, golf tees, and pipe cleaners. They enjoyed pushing the golf tees into the foam, making “candles” attaching rubber bands, making “medicine droppers” and all sorts of other creative things!
I saved some white Gak from December and we used it with letter tiles to find letters and make our names.
Once we found all of the letters in our name, we squished up the Gak and tried to find the letters inside the giant ball of Gak. The last challenge was to put our names back in order after finding the letters!
Process Art:
We got to explore print making with a large plastic sheet and a brayer! We spread out paint on top of the plexiglass and then the children used different materials to make marks in the paint. Lastly, we pressed a piece of paper onto the paint to see what image showed up on the paper!
Some of us simply made marks in the paint…
While other children drew letters in the paint…
And some children drew images of themselves or their family…
Each child’s piece turned out very different and so unique!
We also got out the watercolor paints and painted some beautiful paper! The paper had the outlines of Matrushka dolls.
Preschool Literacy:
All throughout the week we did different lessons with our Handwriting Without Tears ABCs! It was a great way to jump back into school after our break! In the picture below three children are working together to put a small portion of the alphabet in order. The HWT cards have a puzzle on the front to connect the letters in order, and then when the child flips the card there is a sandpaper letter to touch and feel.
I loved seeing three children, all different ages, and all working together to put the alphabet in the correct order. Older children were helping the younger children, and so much learning was taking place from all of the groups.
We worked on this project over a series of different days so the children got mixed into many different learning groups by the end of the week. You can tell by the multiple photos of children working with different partners!
Lastly, I don’t have any great photos of our Vet Clinic, but here are some videos of the children playing “vet” last week:
More winter fun will be coming soon!
Crozet Play School 