Sunday, December 18, 2011

The Christmas celebrations went great


We celebrated with:
face painting ( see photo)
bubbles, which children always enjoy
sometimes food: translation: chips, fairy bread, lollies and cupcakes.
We also had strawberries, frozen oranges and watermelon ( it is summer here)
Songs and dances which were the favourite: jingle bells with bell shakers, silent night with chimes played softly and the hokey pokey with lots of jumping and shouting and laughing.
We gave each child an Australian animal hand puppet which they chose as a lucky dip.

Some of the parents were sad to say goodbye as their children are going to 'big school' next year.
All the children were happy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you
we are taking a break from blogging
...
Possum hand puppet
from Fizzics Education

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Are you having a Christmas party?


We are having a Christmas party with the families this Friday. We will have a Christmas CD, party food and sing some Christmas songs with musical bells. As they are leaving each child will be given a small gift.
Can you think of anything else we could do to make the morning fun for young children and special rather than the normal playgroup? I would love any suggestions please.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Why craft is loved at playgroup

Playgroup is different than preschool or family day care because we have lots of parents and other carers that stay for the morning. We do lots of craft, that may not be child directed, and we also do finger painting and easel painting and other more free creative activities.
We do craft for a few different reasons at playgroup:
  • children love doing an activity with their mum, dad or grandparent and craft provides lots of opportunity for this to happen.
  • parents can see what their child is capable of and help them learn the next age appropriate steps e.g. in learning to cut simple shapes.
  • some adults may find it difficult to join in more active play, for a variety of reasons, and craft allows them to sit and join in.
  • following instructions whether written or verbal teaches us skills e.g. reading is a useful thing; listening helps us learn.
  • the craft produced can be a great, inexpensive gift for a relative.
  • many children do not use scissors at home and do not develop skills needed to use them unless they are exposed to them.
  • many children do not use glue and other things at home that may make a mess.
I'm sure there are more reasons why craft is an excellent activity.
There are many great craft ideas for littlies at craft chronicles including Christmas and Easter craft

Sunday, November 20, 2011

We read Flutter By, Butterfly


Flutter By, Butterfly is a small sized board book with words and illustrations by Petr Horacek.
The children liked it's bright and simple crayon illustrations on bright backgrounds.  As we turned each page they called out the name of the one animal drawn there: "Bee!" or "Beetle!" or "Lady bug!" and waited to hear the simple words, with repetition of sounds, that I asked them to repeat back to me;"Can you say Busy, buzzing bee?", "Flutterby, Butterfly?"
It is a short book which tied into our mini beast theme and is also good for a group of children which included 1 to 4 year olds.
It went really well after doing our butterfly craft and looking for things that fly in the garden and believe it or not we found 2 bees and 2 birds!
Now we just need to find a song about a butterfly. Do you know one?

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Butterflies were made

This is a simple craft but all the children enjoyed it.
It continues our spring animals and mini beasts theme.
We have done:
  • tadpoles and frogs
  • spiders
  • bees
  • caterpillers
  • and now butterflies
The parents cut out the different shapes that make up the butterfly in cardboard. We had:
  1.  a body shape as long as an adults finger
  2.  a large wing and
  3. a small wing



We used as many different coloured cardboards as we could find.
The children then glued whatever wings they chose onto the butterfly body and decorated it with pencils, stickers and glitter.

The idea came from an Usborne book called Summer Things to make and do.

We had fun all sitting and talking about butterflies and colours and wings as we made our creations ( the grown ups made them too) and we hope you do to.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

We changed our plan

We have a wide age range of children at playgroup from 3 months to 5 year olds. Today we had Christmas craft organised but none of the older children turned up. We had a room of 1 year olds, babies and 1 two year old so we had to rethink our craft ideas. So we did finger painting on the table and then pressed white paper on top to make prints and all the children had aturn (Except the  babies)
This need, to be suitable to many ages and stages, is why many playgroups stick to the tried and true activities that can be enjoyed by all.

We do:
  • playdough everyweek, putting out different implements each time
  • beanbags
  • balls
  • painting on easels
  • blocks and duplo
  • obstacle course
  • puzzles for different stages
  • board books
  • musical instruments
  • singing
  • parachute games
  • kitchen
  • tea set
  • large plastic animals
  • chalk
  • crayons
Photo thanks to souldestine

Do you have any suggestions for play activities that work with lots of different ages?
We would love to hear them.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

We have a Link Party


A chance to link up something you have done this week at play with kids! Art and craft, a walk, a field trip, outdoor games, a recipe, a celebration, whatever you like.
Make sure your post has a picture and add your link here. Then, we can all come and visit.
This party goes all year so you can call back and post each week if you like. Also grab the button or mention on your post that you linked up here so more people can come and visit. Thanks.


Friday, October 28, 2011

We used scissors

All the children were attracted to the new colourful scissors in there stand.
Even the 2 year olds had a turn at cutting pieces of paper with a grown ups help.
Some parents said "my child is not old enough to cut" and did not realize that they would not one day pick up the scissors and magically cut unless they had been having a turn with scissors before.

So the simple steps are
1. Holding scissors
2. Opening and closing the scissors.
3. Snipping along the edges of paper.
4. Free cutting of blank paper
5. Cutting of simple shapes
Cutting is a useful skill in itself but also in preparation for writing as using fingers in activities like finger rhymes, playdough, chalk drawing or cutting helps to strengthen fingers and hands. 
Every child will acquire the fine-motor skills needed for handwriting at a different age but exposure to these activities will help them master these skills.

Friday, October 21, 2011

We used the Healthy Morning Tea checklist



Today at Play we ate:
A dairy or high calcium food of cheese spread
A cereal based food of savoury biscuits
For a fruit or vegetable we ate cucumber, strawberries and bananas
A good or moderate source of iron of raisins and the biscuits were wholemeal
A drink of water

These guidelines are from our favourite CHECKLIST FOR PLANNING HEALTHY SNACKS AND DRINKS AT PLAYGROUP (PDF) as it ensures simply that you are providing a complete healthy snack and gives coordinators and parents an easy tick guideline
 
"The best time to promote healthy eating is when children are young and developing habits that last a life time." This is an excellent publication, specific to playgroups, that can be used by anyone providing food for young children. Best of all it is available to download for free.

Monday, October 17, 2011

We played with balls

There is so much fun that can be had with a ball. All children like them from babies, who enjoy watching them, up to the avid sports person.  If you only had a bag of balls and nothing else you could keep a group of children amused for a long while.
We played with the balls at the end of playgroup in a big empty room when everything else had been packed away. It was interesting to see the children negotiating the rolling game of sharing the ball and who they would roll to next and the happiness when it was their turn to catch and decide who to roll to. It looked like a simple activity but everyone was learning so much, even the parents were observing how their child shared, cooperated and expressed joy.
(I wish I had taken photos but I was to busy having fun)
Read B is for Ball at Early Play

Monday, October 10, 2011

we enjoyed chalk drawing

Some children started drawing on the concrete with crayons so we got out the chalk instead. All the walking children, from 1 year olds up, enjoyed this activity.
Drawing on the ground lets children experience scribbling with the whole body instead of just with the fingers or arm.

Monday, October 3, 2011

We sang lots of songs



We always like to sing lots of favourites as the parents know them and everyone can join in which seems to create a calm atmosphere. Our favourite recently, tying in with the frog theme, has been:
Der Glumph went the little green frog one day,                       
Der Glumph went the little green frog
Der Glumph went the little green frog one day,                       
And the frog went glumph, glumph, glumph!
But we all know frogs go La de da de dah, La de da de dah, La de da de dah.
We alll know frogs go La de da de dah, They don’t go glumph glumph glumph!



We also like to learn a new song about every three weeks and enjoy finding them here at Kidsongs.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Everything was about frogs



Five green and speckled frogs sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs
Yum! Yum!

One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were four green and speckled frogs

We watched the tadpoles for a long time and guestimated how many there were in the container



We made green paint and painted frogs


We glued frogs onto lily pads and pasted them on the pond

and
we read books about Fergus the Frog with the googly eyes




and
the 4 year olds were interested in how long before the tadpoles turned into frogs
 and how it happens
 BUT
the best thing was playing in the water pond with the plastic hopping frogs.

 
Frog ABC'S Blog Hop Button

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Thursday, September 1, 2011

FATHER'S DAY CARDS AND CRAFT WERE MADE


Some children cut the paper and some ripped the paper, making lovely edges to glue onto the mini canvas for Dad or Grandad. I found them at the $2.00 shop for only $1.00 each. I find the collage is more appreciated by the parents if we stick to a colour theme, so we put out lots of bits and bobs but only using 3 colours. The glitter sticks are always popular too.
The children also did a drawing of Dad that the Mums glued onto a printed sheet saying:

" A picture of you.
 Love from..."

Monday, August 29, 2011

Everybody ate an egg



We had hard boiled eggs for morning tea - one each, and everyone tried them.
The children were fascinated watching the grownups peeling the eggs and they waited patiently to have their first bite. I know people usually do craft with egg cartons ( we do that too and most recently we painted them as ants ) but today we used them to hold the boiled eggs on the table for all to see. The children seemed amazed that they were allowed to touch the eggs and pass them to their parents to be peeled and some of the older children had a try at peeling themselves.

DID YOU KNOW?
Eggs contain ingredients to develop a healthy body including nearly all of the essential nutrients such as  folic acid, B1, B6 and B12. They provide the minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc and iron and they are complete in all amino acids making them the most complete food protein.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

The 1 to 2 year olds were very busy

They wander and explore, watch the older children blow bubbles, run after the bubbles, push the trolleys, throw the balls, draw with crayons, sweep, e njoy playing with the musical instruments and enjoy morning tea time together.

Anything they want or have is theirs and they do not understand sharing.  It can be modeled, as everything for this age group is learned through imitation, but mainly we make sure there are plenty of each resource out or there will be upsets. We have a large amount of blocks, 3 strollers, 4 bikes, 3 little brooms, 6 balls, lots of cars and dolls and most importantly lots of Mums and Dads and some Grandmas and an aunty or two because mostly they enjoy knowing a special person is there for them.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Infants ate no Honey


DID YOU KNOW? Infants under 1 year of age should not eat honey.
Honey may contain Clostridium botulinum spores that can cause infant botulism - a rare but serious disease that affects the nervous system of young babies (under one year of age). C. botulinum spores are present throughout the environment and may be found in dust, soil and improperly canned foods. Adults and children over one year of age are routinely exposed to, but not normally affected by, C. botulinum spores. Honey is safe to consume during pregnancy and lactation. While infants are susceptible to the infant botulism, adults, including pregnant females, are not. The concern for babies stems from the fact that infants lack the fully developed gastrointestinal tract of older humans.
Many thanks to the National Honey Board USA for this information from their article
'Why can’t I feed honey to my baby less than 1 year of age?'



Bees Hive Beezine and Baby Bees House for more info about bees.

We held playgroup in the garden


Today we held playgroup outside. We created stars and bracelets with watermelon pink coloured playdough; threw balls into the blue bucket; tried to twirl hula hoops around our bodies; read lots of books about animals; used crayons at the easel and ate lunch at the table under the tree.