Our tamariki are looking really good at junior dance club.
Thursday 30 March 2017
Fort building in the Play Zone
By their very nature, home forts are DIY. Children channel their inner decorations, or perhaps their inner hunter-gatherers; Sofa, blankets, comforters and boxes are all fair game. If nothing else, a fort is an escape to another world that reaches into the depths of a child's imagination.
Today I looked up from play with a group of children and saw another group of children rearranging the furniture, they had gathered lots of resources from all corners of the room and were dragging them to our castle corner. I watched as Charlie quietly had taken on the team leader role and was over seeing where everyone was putting everything. Daniel was doing the hard yacker for the team and dragged the coat hanger over. Oscar was a great team playing and was supporting Daniel but he also had worries about how the fort was going to work. He felt confident enough to state his worries to the rest of the team. Lily took a hands on approach and was making sure everything was straight, she also stated that she has prior knowledge of building. Finn was the quick fingers of them team and ran around tidying up getting everything ready. Koby was extremely interested in what was happening but he didnt have a role and you can see him looking to the teacher as to what he can help with.
This team of children worked together to plan, gather, problem solve and create a fort for TKW.
Benefits of Indoor fort building for children:
- planning: deciding the materials to use and a plan for how to build the fort.
- Problem solving skills are required to build the fort and fix it if it falls apart.
- Teamwork if made with friends
- Facilitates creative and imaginary play
- Small spaces can facilitate a calming/regulating effect for some children
- Improves core and upper extremity strength by creating an obstacle course through the fort or playing a game/reading a story while laying on their stomach inside the fort.
Goal setting evening
Thank you to the families that were able to make it to our goal setting evening. It was awesome to see our tamariki get so excited having their whānau playing and looking around our Play Zone and Workshop Zone. We hope you got something from this evening and we have enjoyed hearing all of your feedback.
Sorry if I missed a photo of you and your whānau :(
Wednesday 29 March 2017
Learning about force with cars
We recently had the cardboard out during our police play to create a police car. We had left the cardboard in the classroom hoping that it would be a trigger for children to use it in their play. Today Mason and Dylan placed the cardboard over a chair to create ramps for their mobilo.
At first, they gave the cars a really heavy push, a large amount of force, to send them over the jump and down the other side. Then I heard them talking about how far they went and what would happen if they pushed the cars lighter, less force. Both children made a prediction, by now there were more children coming over to join in. The boys went back and tried it again with a little less force to test if their predictions of the car making it to the other ramp were correct.
Their mobilo was still not making it. So they decided to test different shaped and weight cars. The boys went back to the creation table to adapt their mobilo. They went back to the testing. Instantly they discovered that the lightweight cars went further with a small push and the heavier cars needed a bigger push to go the same distance. But still no car had landed on the other side.
Lastly the group thought maybe if they pushed the ramps further apart.....BINGO!!!! Dylan's next car went up the first ramp and down the next one. It was so exciting to watch this group of children plan, test, reflect and modify their play to get the outcome they wanted.
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