We did a joint floor puzzle

We have these beautiful wooden blocks and children usually pile them up high, making towers and knocking them down.

Today we laid them flat and some of the older children started making them into a flat puzzle. More and more children joined in and some of the parents too.  We ended up with a beautiful creation but the main thing was the co-operation that happened along the way. Here is a great page of co-operative games that you could use at your playgroup.

Thanks to Teodoro for the photo

We had a playdough bakery

Playdough is always popular and we are forever trying to find new ways for the kids to explore with it. The great thing about this sensory activity is that most children, and parents, love it and even one year olds enjoy poking their fingers in the colourful dough.
We always make playdough using the uncooked recipe so that sometimes the children can help us.

Today with the colourful playdough we provided:

• Metal cake trays
• Metal muffin trays
• A variety of plastic kitchen containers
• Spatulas
• Wooden rolling pins
• Plastic knives
• Plastic spoons
• Wooden spoons
• A variety of things to decorate the "cakes".
• A shaker of extra flour to sprinkle on top.

See more ideas for playdough activities.

We are planning our new year

Always at playgroup we try to have a wide range of activities each week for children from newborn to 5 year olds. We try to ensure we have:

Outside activities

Inside activities
Sensory play

Active play

Fine motor play

Thinking play

Literacy activities

Healthy food

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

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.

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

Look Out Fergus Frog!

and

the 4 year olds were interested in how long before the tadpoles turned into frogs

 and how it happens

Magnetic Frog Life Cycle By Learning Resources

 BUT

the best thing was playing in the water pond with the plastic hopping frogs.

 

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.