St Patricks Day activities

 It's not St Patricks Day without leprechauns, and these little fellows were fun to make with help from my favourite book, Forest Fairy Crafts (see link on right).  The following are some learning experiences that I have created to help celebrate St Patricks Day this week.  I haven't really celebrated St Patricks Day in the past with children, but I have a couple of children who are part Irish, so I have been coming up with ideas to celebrate it.

This rainbow was easy to make using craft foam.  Craft foam is great to work with, a pack is just $2 at the $2 shop, and comes in rainbow colours, plus black and white - perfect for making a rainbow! Craft foam is pretty durable, doesn't rip or tear, and is easy to cut and draw on.  I created a stencil to figure out what size to make the shapes, and just cut out semicircles in the different colours that decreased in size.  It is an easy, self-correcting way for children to learn the order of colours of a rainbow, plus you can use the shapes to create circular patterns.

 Small World Play & Numeracy  

 This simply consists of a green fabric base, laminated black pots with numbers written on one side (I use these for Halloween as well), circles of yellow card for gold coins (I used my cuttlebug and a circle tag punch because that's what I have, but I would love to get a circular punch), green pom-poms, rainbows, and leprechauns.  I am wondering about adding green ribbons and other green bits and pieces, but the ribbon is likely to disappear into handbags very quickly.

Children can count out gold coins and put them in the pot, they can line the pots up in numerical order, and they can make up their own stories. 

 Felt Rainbow

This rainbow is simply cut from the different colours of felt and placed together to create a rainbow.  It is best to make a stencil to do this and give your rainbow some overlap.  As it is made of felt, it is great to use with a flannel board or that other stuff that schools often have on the wall that is easy to Velcro - felt sticks to it.  (I can't remember what it is called but it is great for felt!) If you have off-cuts, cut them up into rectangular boards to use for story-telling or for children to use with scraps of felt and felt shapes.

 Colour Mixing on the Lightbox

 I created this rainbow for the lightbox.  It uses red, yellow and blue transparent paper, with the aim of teaching children how the rainbow is made up of the primary colours, and their overlapping creates the secondary colours.

I had red and yellow transparent paper (Chromatico paper is great to use and is tear resistant) but I didn't have blue, so I used blue tissue paper and covered one side in clear contact paper to make it durable. Hence you don't see the green and the purple in the photo, but once you put it on the light table, you will be able to see it.

These things will be set up all week, but we will also have a Green Day on the 17th where everyone can come dressed in green. We will have green playdough with mint leaves available to put in it, green water in the water trough, green slime, blue and yellow paint...  The last time I put mint leaves in our drinking water, children exclaimed "What are all these leaves doing in the water!" so I am yet to decide whether to do that again. 
I have a heart punch, and 3 hearts put together makes a clover, so I will get the children punching hearts out of green paper and creating their own clovers.  Craft punches are great for developing children's strength in their fingers and hands.

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Insect and Bugs and theme

 Insects and bugs seem to be a recurring interest with 4 year olds, and as you continue to teach over a number of years, you often see the same theme or interest emerging in your room.  It is worthwhile spending a bit of time and effort making resources that link with children's various interests, as you will use them and re-use them in years to come.  And I find that games and activities that directly link into children's interests are more likely to be used and played with, and facilitate learning and conversations.

 These insects are a simple number identification game.  I drew 6 different insects (two are yet to be coloured in), with the numbers 1-12 on them.  Children spin a spinner (numbered 1-12) and place a counter on the corresponding number.  The idea is to be the first to cover up your numbers from 1-12.  I did think you could use two dice with this, but then you would never get number 1.  But you could make using two dice optional, and children choose whether to throw one dice or two.

 You could number the insects 1-10, but I chose to do 1-12.

 I used soft pastels to colour in the various insects.  I find soft pastels are an effective way to fill in colour, they fill in space quickly, can be blended easily, and are forgiving. They come in lots of beautiful bright shades, and I really like the soft effect that they provide.

Simple Board games

 These are simple board games I created using stickers and a hole punch.  They are dice and counter games, that allow 4 people to play at once.  Each child puts a counter on their butterfly/insect at the top.  They take turns to throw a dice, and move their counter that amount of spaces.  First to reach the end is the winner.  Encourages number identification, recognising patterns (on dice), 1-1 counting as they move along the board, taking turns, waiting for their turn, and following rules.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This was a favourite story of mine as a child.  I have created it out of felt for use as a mat time resource.  I painted/drew the details onto the fruit and food items using fabric paint and fabric markers. You can also use permanent markers on felt.  The life cycle of the caterpillar is needlefelted, however, so it is 3D and will not stick onto a board, but you could replicate it in felt.  The children also like to retell the story using the felt pieces.

Paper Butterflies

These butterflies are super simple to make by folding paper in a concertina fashion.  Find out how to make them in this tutorial here.

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Sensory play ideas

Sensory play is such a crucial part of children's development.  According to Rudolf Steiner, the development of the lower senses (sight, taste, touch, sound, smell, and balance) affects the development of the higher senses.  The lower senses are developed during the early years, so it is important that we provide children with lots of different sensory experiences. 

 Water play. 

This was a water play activity that I set up today.  A selection of containers (large and small, tall and shallow), syringes, eye droppers, sponges, and icecube trays.  A couple of tubs filled with coloured water - blue, yellow, red.  I like to use primary colours with young children, so children can see the effect of using these colours and the multitude of colours that children can create using them.

One of the children started using the syringe and dropping coloured water into the icecube trays. By gradually mixing colours they were able to create a beautiful range of colours in their tray.  The child even said "Look at my beautiful colours that I'm making". They worked carefully and purposefully, to create colours and to explore what colours they could create.  One comment from the children was "We are doing science experiments". 

This was a popular table throughout the day, and to prevent the floor getting soaking wet and slippery, I brought the table outside. 

Lavender Scented Water Beads
I bought the water crystals at the $2 shop, and soaked them at home in water with a few drops of pure lavender oil.  The beads soaked up the the oil and had a really strong scent of lavender. I chose lavender because of its calming, soothing effect. You could also use roman chamomile, or a blend of calming essential oils.  I poured the lavender beads into the sensory tub at school, along with scoops, spoons and jars, and the children filled up the jars and then emptied them out, sometimes from one jar to another, or sometimes pouring them straight into the tub.  This was popular throughout the day.  You do need to watch out for water beads and crystals getting spilt on the floor, as it does make it slippery. We did it on the vinyl floor, and kept a dustpan and brush handy to sweep up the spills, and children also helped to pick up their beads that they dropped.


Bubble Blowing
A really simple but fun activity we did this week was simply containers of tap water with dishwashing liquid in it, and straws. The children blew through the straws to try to create bubbles.  And it was awesome! The bubbles rose really high and children tried to connect their containers of bubbles to other containers of bubbles.  Bubbles were all over the table, and you could actually see the water drip off the bubbles onto the floor, which looked really cool.  I put a towel down on the floor to catch the water.  Children worked together, and one bowl had 3 children blowing bubbles all at the same time, which created great big bubbles rising up over the top.  You do have to remind children to blow, not suck.  I get them to practice blowing first before giving them a tub of water.

Sand Play

 I mixed a tub of sand with cornflour, and provided a variety of containers, scoops (the scoops from tins of Baby Formula are great), tweezers, shells, pebbles and acorns.  I love mixing cornflour with sand, as it gives the sand a really light, fine texture and feels nice running through the fingers. This table was really popular throughout the week, and you do need to keep the dustpan and brush handy!

Flour and Glitter

 

I used a combination of flour and glitter, and strawberry-lime herbal tea to make it smell lovely. The herbal tea was about to be thrown out, so I grabbed it to utilise in our sensory play.  I added scoops, tweezers, containers, trays and dishes to fill up.

At the end of the week, I added warm water to give a completely different sensory experience. 

Rice 

 This was rice mixed with strawberry-lime tea, and filled with treasure.  Children were given tweezers and trays to fill with their treasure (The treasure was a mix of buttons, broken jewellery, pebbles, wooden bits, stars, beads, glass nuggets, and pom-poms).   One day the rice was filled with alphabet magnets and children found the letters of their names.  The strawberry-lime herbal tea added a really nice dimension to this as you could smell it every time you sat down at the table.

Oh, Lovely Mud!

This was a Mrs Wishy Washy provocation to allow children to retell the story themselves - I modelled using the tubs at mat time as I told the story (I adapted it slightly using the farm animals that we had), and then kept it at the sensory table for the children to play and engage with.  I filled the tub with a mix of bark and dirt from the garden and a bit of water.  I added farm animals, a tub of warm soapy water and an apron for children to wear and pretend to be Mrs Wishy Washy.  This table even got the most resistant, unwilling and unsettled child to engage and begin to enjoy themselves.

Cornflour Playdough

I really like using cornflour to make play dough with, as it is a pure white colour and is able to take other colours easily. I find when making playdough with flour, it is a creamy-grey colour, and  if you add red colouring, it goes pink, and black playdough turns grey.  But somehow the playdough made from cornflour allows the colours to keep its true colour - black playdough is black, and red is red.  

I wear gloves when making this so that I don't scold my hands, and the gloves also help prevent my hands changing colours when I add the colouring.

Cornflour dough also has a neutral smell, so it is perfect for adding herbal teas, scents, spices or essential oils to.  Playdough made with flour has a really strong smell that I find is quite overpowering when trying to add other scents - it doesn't work so nicely.

Ingredients:

3 cups Cornflour

1 - 1 1/2 cups Salt (experiment a bit to find out your preference)

3 teaspoons Cream of Tartar

about 2-3 Tablespoons oil

2 cups boiling water

Put all ingredients in a bowl.

Mix together.

Tip out onto table.

Knead and mix thoroughly with your hands - this takes time.  Knead, push, roll, pull, drop onto the table like making bread. You may want to add 1/2 cup more water - just add a little at a time.  

Add colouring and scents and knead through again.

When making playdough with flour, I find one cup of water to one cup of flour is perfect, as the flour absorbs the water, but the cornflour reacts differently, so experiment a bit to find out what works.  With the cornflour dough, you might need to add water during the week as it does start to dry out.  

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Zen Sand Trays

These Zen Sand Trays were inspired by Rachel's Stimulating Learning Blog, where she uses Zen sand trays in her classroom.

I like to mix sand with cornflour to give it a light, soft texture.  The above sand was painted: mix sand with blue paint; spread out on a tray and let dry.  I then mixed it with cornflour.  I don't use measurements, but perhaps 2 cups cornflour to 4-5 cups sand?  I don't know, I just chuck some in.  


Make sure your dishes that you use for sand trays have high edges, otherwise the sand falls out pretty quickly.

I scoured the room and second hand shops for appropriate trays and containers.  I used a pretty cardboard box; the above picture uses a screw-top lid; baking tins; and plastic trays.

I scour second hand shops for spoons and scoops; and I collect the scoops from tins of baby milk formula.  If you can find miniature rakes and forks, they are perfect too.  When putting out the Zen sand trays, I set out a little dish of spoons and scoops for children to use.

I like to set out a plate of pebbles and shells for children to decorate their sand trays with.  Other things you can use for decoration include:
leaves
petals
glass nuggets
bottle tops
miniature ornaments and figurines, such as the dragon above
sticks
branch slices

I also like to set out glass jars with lids, so that children learn to unscrew lids, which helps to develop strength in their hands (which they will need for writing).  The children love using the scoops to fill up the jars - which requires hand-eye co-ordination, control, fine motor skills, and grip.

Be aware that this is a table that does get messy, especially if there are younger children in the room.  Sand gets everywhere! Have a dustpan and brush handy to sweep it up; I put it back on the table.

I do find that as a table gets messy, children will be less likely to play there.  But once I tidy up the table, sweep it, re-sort the pebbles and shells, and distribute the sand amongst the trays again, the children flock to it.  It is a lovely way to let them explore ways to make patterns, decorate, and make little sand gardens.


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Oh The Places You'll Go... Transport

Our children are currently interested in transport, so I just wanted to share some ideas that I have been doing in my classroom related to transport.

Small World Play

We made this construction site last year after some children started talking about building, construction sites, and creating their own building sites in the sand trays.  I first saw this construction site idea on Facebook.

I cut up a box as above, and the children helped to paint it.  We painted the sky blue both inside and outside. The children then drew cloud shapes on white paper, cut them out and glued them in (great pre-writing skills).  We then chose some pictures from the internet that we printed off, cut out, and glued in.  We put a layer of sand in the bottom, and I added some pebbles and small stones.  A parent had also given us these toy construction site items which were in storage, so I brought them out and they were perfect for our little construction site!  I also bought some construction site vehicles from the $2 shop to add to our play area. These very quickly made their way out of the room, never to be seen again!

Small World Play

We painted the tables with a road and set up the construction site, vehicles, toy cars, and railway.

Airport

We are lucky to be given offcuts of matboard from the local picture framers down the road.  I used matboard to create an airport and control tower, complete with Departure Gate, and Arrivals Gate.  I also made some aeroplanes out of matboard, but I haven't seen them since the day I made them!

Our children had been bringing in toy cars from home from Show & Tell, so I drew a road on the carpet for them to drive their cars on.  I put the airport on the side of the road, and also drew a carpark for cars to park in. 


I use chalk to draw on the carpet, and it vacuums off easily. I do have a rule that only teachers draw on the carpet - children can draw with chalk outside or on the blackboards.

 Literacy Activity

I created this literacy activity to go along with the children's interest in transport.  It consists of a variety of images of different types of transport (aeroplane, hot air balloons, race car, motorbike, police car, ambulance, bus, train, etc) with the words underneath.  (You can see the pictures of the aeroplane, firetruck and police car being used in the above photo of the airport).

I copied all the letters used in the words, laminated them, and cut them out. The children match the letter and place it on their word.  It leads to conversations with children about initial letters and sounds, individual letters,  spaces between words ("Teacher, there is a letter missing".  "Oh - it's not missing a letter, that is a space to show where one word ends and a new word begins."), how words are made up of letters, alphabet recognition, positioning ("Is the letter 'a' facing the same way as the 'a' on the picture?"), matching ("This is a letter 'B'.  Does your letter look like this?") and capital letters and lower case letters.

We also use the images to play games such as "Guess My Vehicle" where I give out clues and children have to guess the vehicle I am describing.  The children then imitate the teacher and play this game during their play.  

Number Train

This is made out of felt so is great to use with flannel boards for mat time.  I created the train stencil by placing clear acetate over my iPad, and tracing a picture of a train and carriage.  I then drew around the template onto different coloured felt, and glued felt numbers on to the carriage.  You can use this for ordering numbers, sequencing, counting forwards and backwards, and number identification. This could also be a table-top activity where children can play with the train, order the carriages, or get some little counters or objects and children can put the corresponding number of objects on each carriage.

Parents have been sharing photos of their children on and in different types of transport, which are printed out and put on our wall.

We have created an Airport in our family corner, with a Check In Desk (an old computer desk); a baggage xray machine (a cardboard box with 2 sides cut out at either end, covered in a black plastic rubbish bag with strips cut at each end); a Travel Agent with old calendar pictures of NZ on display, a large map of NZ and a large World Map on the wall, and a children's Book of the World on display.  

Both the Travel Agent and the Check In Desk had clipboards and pencils, and I printed off Tickets and Boarding Passes from Sparklebox.  The children wrote their names and random letters and numbers on their tickets and boarding passes (although some just scribbled but that's ok too). 

The Check In Desk had a stamp pad and stamp, to stamp boarding passes.  I did notice at one point the stamp pad lying on the ground and black footprints leading to the toilet! (It wasn't difficult to identify the culprit!)

The blackboard easel was used to display the travel agent's pictures on one side, and Departures, Destinations and ETD's on the other side.

Chairs were lined up along the mat to be the seats on the plane, and after making their way through 'Security', children have been stowing their bags under their seats, sitting down and reading various reading material that they have picked up from the travel agent!

Our airport also had a cafe, and children chose the items on the menu and decided how much they would cost (with a little support from me! I wanted to keep it simple but also teach number identification, initial sounds, and initial letters. 

This is an Airline Identification game.  I downloaded images of various airlines that come into Auckland Airport (or that represent countries where our children are from), so we can learn to identify different airlines, and find out which country they come from.

We have also been playing a game I call Destination where I have printed off images of 4 destinations:  China, Australia, Fiji, and Queenstown.  The destinations are put on different walls around the classroom.  I call out a destination and children go to that destination.

Late snack has been a fun time where we watch the various Air New Zealand safety videos on Youtube, then I pretend to be cabin crew when I give out their sandwiches.

We made passports, and the children wrote their names (or I wrote their names) and they drew a picture of themselves as their photo.  I will take individual photos of all of the children as well, and then they can cut out their photo and glue it on to the front of their passport. 

Our airport roleplay has only just begun, and it has been such fun.  Next I will brainstorm other ideas such as bus stops and train stations. Over the past month we have been roleplaying Speedway (as requested by one of our children who often goes to Speedway) which is a great way to release energy, increase stamina and fitness (as they run around and around the sandpit) but they also make their own tickets using a ruler and scissors, which helps develop the essential skill of cutting with scissors.

We also made paper-copters, which are heaps of fun and you can find the instructions to make them here.

I have created a Spotify playlist of appropriate songs about transport:

Yello - The Race
Cake - The Distance
Peter, Paul and Mary - Leaving on a Jet Plane
The Wiggles - Do The Bus Stop
Playsongs People - We all go travelling by
The Wiggles - Toot, toot, chugga chugga, big red car
The Wiggles - Do the Propeller!
Dave Rawlings Machine - Monkey and the Engineer
Kidsongs - Down By The Station
Susie Tallman - I've been working on the railroad
Susie Tallman - Wheels On The Bus
Susie Tallman - She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain
Babyjazz Family Band - Train Is A Coming
Bear Tracks - This Train is Bound for Glory
Gracie Lou - Chugga Chugga Choo Choo
Kylie Minogue - Locomotion
Kidzone - Down At The Bus Stop
Dance X Winners - Driving in My Car
Madness - Driving in my car
The Devil Makes Three - Uncle Harvey's Plane
They Might Be Giants - Choo Choo Express

This by no means is exhaustive, but is a start to a Transport based playlist.

I hope these ideas help to inspire you when your children show an interest in transport.

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Light Table Ideas

 I saw a post on Facebook about one family who were using strips of tissue paper on their lightbox to create patterns, weaving, colour mixing, etc.  This then inspired me, and I was off rummaging through my craft room looking for various papers suitable for the Light Table.  Tissue paper tears really easily, so I stuck a sheet of tissue paper onto Clear Contact Paper to help protect it (the clear adhesive contact paper that you use for covering schoolbooks with).  I only put the Contact Paper on one side of the tissue paper, as I like children to be able to feel the texture of paper rather than the plastic.  I then cut the tissue paper into shapes and strips.

Transparent papers (available from stationery stores and art stores, eg. Gordon Harris) are great for the light table, and they are not as fragile as paper, although they can still tear. 

Printed plastic bags are a great source for the light table.  The rectangle of purple and white polkadots below is a cut-up plastic bag.

 I cut out heart shapes for Valentines Day, to inspire transient art.  The pale pink hearts are cut from the paper that comes from florists, that flowers are wrapped in.  This paper is transparent but also waterproof and very sturdy and resilient.  I am one of those people who saves everything, even wrapping paper, so of course I had some florists wrapping paper lurking around!   I had never thought of it before in relation to the light table, but it is perfect material.  Next time you get given a bunch of flowers, save the wrapping for your light table!

The purple hearts are cut from tissue paper covered in contact paper, and the dark pink hearts are cut out of plastic packaging that a Royal Albert china ornament came in.  The packaging was wonderful - plastic with a velvet coating on it, and it had a transparent quality to it.  I cut it up into various shapes.

Coloured plastic plates and cups are perfect for the light table, and so is the cupcake packaging when you buy a pack of cupcakes in the supermarket.  The mini cupcake containers are great for sorting transparent counters.

A variety of items in use on the light table: transparent papers, plastic plates, cut up plastic bags, plastic cake packaging.

A cheap plastic tray. This tray had been sitting in my garage for quite some time and was about to be thrown out, when I thought it would be great for sand trays and making zen sand gardens.  It is also great on the light table because it lets the light through.  The tray pictured above has a mixture of sand and cornflour in it, and children can draw shapes and patterns, using their fingers, sticks, feathers... I had a few different items available on the light table to use to decorate the sand tray, including glass nuggets, pebbles, shells and branch slices.


I like to mix sand and cornflour (called Cornstarch in America) together, as the cornflour gives a nice soft texture to the sand and makes it light and smooth to work with.  I don't use specific measurements, maybe 2-3 cups cornflour to 5-6 cups of sand? I just usually chuck a pile of cornflour into a bowl and fill it up with sand from the sandpit and get the kids to help mix it.  You could add glitter to it as well.

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Maths games and activities for new entrants

I am sharing some of the games and resources I created for teaching maths to 5 year olds. The initial purpose of sharing this was to help out a friend who is doing her Bachelors of Education in Primary teaching, but sharing is caring, and hopefully some of these ideas will inspire other teachers.  These ideas are not new, and some of them I created after going on courses for BT's, and I am sure other teachers have many more ideas.  I am only sharing games that I have created myself, not downloaded from other sites. You can find literacy resources and games that I have created here.

Some great sites for maths ideas, downloads and printables are: http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/

 

Maths Tumble

These are some of the choices I gave my children on the Tumble Board. These were changed each day.  The Tumble Board lets children know what they should be doing when working independently.  They included games such as Ludo and Dominoes, card games, board games that I created, addition games, number recognition and one-one counting; and making tens.

Numbers

 I created these numbers by gluing felt numbers onto sheets of foam, both available at $2 shops.  Children use them for ordering from 1-10, playing Snap, and 1-1 counting (place numbers in order, then get that many objects (counters, bears, etc) and line them up underneath each number. I also use them for many other simple games.

Kiwis

I made these kiwis out of scrapbooking paper and laminated them.  They can be used for counting, sorting (eg by colours or patterns). My classroom had a box of plastic bugs and worms, which were used for patterning and counting.  The children played games where they would throw a dice and feed that many bugs to their kiwi.  We would play addition and subtraction games using dice and bugs and kiwis.  We would also get out 10 bugs each and then make them into patterns or group them according to colour, type, size, etc.  You could also make up Kiwi counting songs and use them at mat time. Their uses are just limited to your imagination! 

Tens Frames

My children were into animals and frogs, so I created these cards accordingly.  The cards feature frogs from 1-10.  Children pick up a card, count how many frogs and put that many counters on their Tens Frame.

This takes the above Tens Frames activity a little further. Children pick up a card, count how many frogs, and write down the number in the space provided.  They then colour in the Tens Frame accordingly.

Addition Crosswords

These are laminated, so children can use a whiteboard marker on them, then they wipe off and can be re-used.  These are Crosswords with addition problems on them.  Children fill in the missing numbers.  There are some blank ones, so children who are capable can make up their own.  I used these with intermediate aged children as an independent activity.  Some are addition problems to 10, some are addition to 20, and some are to 30. You can adapt these according to the needs of your children.

Multiplication Crosswords

Similar to above, but these are multiplication problems rather than addition.

Around The World: Numbers 0 - 10

 This is a number identification and listening game that reinforces before and after numbers to 10.  It starts with number 1.  Deal out the cards to the children - you might do it with 11 children and they have one card each, or you might do it with a small group and give them 2 cards each.

The person with Number One starts. They stand up and say: "I have 1.  Who has the number after 7?"  

The number after 7 is 8, so the person with number 8 stands up and says "I have 8.  Who has...?"

and so it continues until every number has been called.

I also made this game using 'Before Numbers' to 10.

Around The World: Numbers 10-20

This game is an extension of the above game, but using numbers 10-20.  The game pictured uses 'Before Numbers', but I also created the same game using 'After Numbers' from 10-20.

Number 10 starts in both games.

Bingo

This Bingo game can be used either to reinforce multiplication, or to reinforce number identification to 100.  The Bingo Cards consist of numbers 1 - 100.  The Calling Cards consist of a multiplication sum on one side, and on the other side is the answer.  You can either call out the sum or the answer, and children put a counter on the correct number if it is on their Bingo card.  The reason the answer is on the other side of the multiplication sum, is to provide a quick and easy reference when checking off children's answers.

 Unfortunately I can't provide links to download, as I created these a number of years ago on different computers, both of which are no longer in use, and I don't currently have the documents.  I also don't yet know how to attach documents to download.  Still getting used to blogging!  Still, I hope that this doesn't deter you from making your own, which is why I provided photos of multiple cards and things that you can copy.

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