Winter Loose Parts and Oral Storytelling

 "We are all storytellers, 

We live in a network of stories. 

There isn't a stronger connection

between people than 

storytelling." 

Jimmy Neil Smith

Children communicate their thinking in many ways. The development of oral language is just one aspect of how children communicate. During this stage of development in the early years of childhood, children communicate with longer sentences and begin to create and tell stories. It is such a magical time as we see and hear the brilliance of children’s thinking.

It’s been a wonderful week filled with creative play as the children explored the above wintery loose parts tray. They have shared their thinking in multiple ways and we have enjoyed listening to their creative stories. 

Children’s stories grow in complexity as they have repeated experiences with materials and their peers. Through dramatic play, exploration of open-ended play materials, and when they create art children build language to express what they are thinking. This leads us to an awareness of how children communicate. Children do not only communicate orally. Expressive language begins in infancy as children communicate their wants and needs. As a child grows in their ability to communicate we observe body movements, sounds, and the way they interact with their environment. Children are indeed telling us a story far before they can communicate it orally. Keen observation and our relationship with the child will inform us of their expressions and communication. 

"It's a forest and they are trying to find their food. They followed the
map they made. They buried their food a long time ago. Just in case
 they run out of food. The dragons were guarding the food." 

Within the learning environment whether at home or school, offering children creative materials to express their thinking allows us a glimpse into the stories they share in many ways. When we enter into a conversation with children about their play we can support their ability to share their stories orally. When beginning these conversations with children I keep an awareness of my own interpretations as I do not want these to override the child’s intentions. This can be challenging, as we listen to children share their thinking open-ended questions are a starting point for dialogue. Here are some examples of starting questions when engaging a child in a conversation about their play. 

“What are you thinking about?” 

“Tell me about what you are working on?”

“I wonder what will happen next?”

“How did you figure that out?”

“What do you see/notice?”

Take a peek at the children's play with the loose parts.
These photos represent several days of play 
where the children returned to expand upon 
previous ideas and stories.

"These are the spiky things that come out. It's an ice castle."

"It’s a forest. They are listening to her. She’s the boss. She’s telling them
that the dragons are in the forest. It is going to snow."

Children need time with materials and multiple experiences as they build upon their ideas and thinking. They will revisit and reinvent with the same materials over and over again as they work through their thinking. We have seen children play with the same loose part materials for months. Oftentimes they will pause their play as they investigate other areas of the environment, only to return to the materials and pick up where they left off and begin a new journey communicating through play. 

The materials offered for the winter loose parts tray:

Acrylic ice cubes

Golf tees

Clear glass gems

Acrylic snowflakes and icicles

Acrylic multi-facet stones and gems

The children were also offered wooden peg dolls from MvH Creative Toys and the dragons are from Safari Ltd .

So grateful you visited the blog! 

Blessings for a beautiful day, 

𝑀𝒾𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓁𝑒

P.S.

MvH Creative Toys is my own Etsy shop which I would be delighted if you visited. The Safari link is not sponsored just for your own information.

ABC Sequencing & Sight Word Play

This hands-on sensory play invites children to explore the letters of the alphabet. It can be easily extended for children who are sight word ready too! Allowing children time to freely explore the materials at first gives them time to become familiar with the items you offer them. It also gives you the opportunity to see how the children interact with the materials so you can best move forward with consideration for where each child is in their literacy development. this is the beauty of open-ended materials. You never know where the child might lead you.   

Choose your sensory base to add to your tray.
We used vase filler with these small wooden letters.

We shared the book, "The Mixed-Up Alphabet" by Steve Metzger and invited the children to hide the letters of the alphabet around their home. They were then invited to go on a scavenger hunt for the letters and place them in ABC order. This fun activity is one other way to explore alphabet order through play with your child. 

Three Helpful Tips

A strategy we shared with the children who were stuck on an unknown letter in the sequence was to sing the alphabet song to solve for the next missing letter. This is a great opportunity to do some problem-solving with the children. For those children who might be exploring this activity for the first time, giving them a visual to match the letters to is also a great strategy for these early literacy learners. One last tip! You can use a wooden puzzle board and letters to engage your child in exploring this concept easily. Simply hide the letters around the room and place the board out. Your child can hunt for the letters and place them back on the board. 

Why Teach ABC Order?

This practical life skill can be found in many of our everyday life experiences, from the contact list in our phone book to finding information on a book's index page. Alphabetic order is simply a good way to categorize and organize information so that it is easily and quickly accessible. 

Build and read sight words through sensory play! 
Offer the children only the letters for each sight
word in the sensory tray. Then invite them to build
and read each word.

Make sequencing the alphabet meaningful for your child. Once they have confidently sequenced a to z, invite them to sequence familiar names such as family and friends. Another extension of this concept is sequencing objects from around your home in alphabetic order. This invites the children to think about the initial letter sound of words. Gather a collection of initial letter sound objects in a basket or collect them together with your child to engage them even more in the learning process. Then have fun placing the objects in order based on their initial letter sound. For those children who are ready, they could print the letters of the alphabet out on a large paper or cardboard and use it when sequencing the objects. 

We would love to hear about your alphabet play. Share in the comments below and let our creative community read all about it. 

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To read more about alphabet play and learning on the blog click here: 

https://creative-explorations-mvh.blogspot.com/search?q=winter+snowy+play

Keep well friends, 

𝑀𝒾𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓁𝑒

 

Simple Sorting Play for Children

As children sort objects they begin to take notice of the attributes of materials and make decisions. Within the learning environment, we offer materials to inspire thinking and explore sorting through everyday play. What's one of the first ways we introduce sorting to children? You got it! It's during clean-up. This everyday experience is rich in sorting potential.

Materials offered to children in trays promotes sorting during clean-up routines. Items can also be sorted during clean-up into individual baskets or bins. Have a conversation with your child while cleaning up and share why we choose to sort the materials when putting them away. Share the sorting "rule." For example, "Look, I'm sorting by colour. Each red piece goes in this section." Take notice of the similarities and differences of objects.

When children look closely at objects they build critical pathways and develop problem-solving skills as well as oral language as they describe their thinking. Challenge children to sort a collection of objects in more than one way. This provides an opportunity for them to reconsider, and reflect on their initial thinking. Sorting is such a rich experience for children and can be shared with them in many ways. Sorting is an integral part of our everyday living.

Everyday Sorting Experiences For Children

1. Sorting laundry - Children delight in sorting laundry as part of their imaginary play and during everyday experiences with their family. A beautiful basket filled with colourful socks is a lovely invitation to explore sorting.

2. Make a grocery list - Children can cut apart the grocery flyers and then explore sorting the items. Talk about how we sort items when writing a grocery list and explore the grocery store. This real-life experience is rich in sorting and mathematical thinking. 

3. Sorting in the workshop - Nuts and bolts come in a variety of sizes and make for a wonderful discussion on shape and size while sorting. A great fine motor experience as well!

4. Nature’s Treasures - Explore the outdoor world and pick only what is fallen as you gather your collected natural materials. Then explore sorting the items before returning them to the environment. 

Materials to Offer with Sorting

Any of the following can help children to begin to organize their sets of objects as they explore sorting. An ice cube tray, muffin tin, small bowls, or divided tray. 

Some of our favourite materials to sort are buttons and keys. I was once gifted a beautiful button collection and it is a treasured collection for the children to explore. Here are some of our favourite books to read to the children too!

Sort it Out by Barbara Mariconda

The Crayola Sorting Book 

The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid

Math Counts Series Sorting

Sorting at the Market

                                                    

Keep well Friends,

Michelle

Extending Children's Play

 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about children's play and learning. As we settled in having shared the first month of school, we are reflecting on the children’s play as we engage daily with this beautiful community of learners. With the start of a new week, I thought I would share some considerations for extending children’s play. I’d love to hear your thoughts too. So share in the comments below. 

After careful observation of the children’s play and thinking, there is an opportunity to extend and build upon initial play ideas. Play does not occur in isolation. Within play a relationship exists between and among materials, children and educators, and the experience itself. Play is born from our previous explorations with materials and ideas. These experiences inform what will occur in the present and inturn, the present informs how the future play opportunities will unfold. Add to that our own observations of others in play and there is a rich experience filled with multi-layers of nuanced moments and creative opportunities all built upon relationships. 

Supporting children to have positive play experiences, therefore, begins with our own ability to carefully listen to and observe children. As parents and educators, we bring our own experiences with play to each encounter with children. Guiding children’s thinking and extending their current play interests rests on our ability to see, listen and honour children’s unique ideas about their play. Play is the space where children experiment, create and innovate. 

So the big question to consider is, “How do we extend children’s play without taking over with our own good intentions and ideas?” We must be considerate of the children’s play journey. Guiding them without pushing our own agenda on the play honours the rights of the child and their unique experiences in play.

Consider the following as you engage and extend with children in play

• Observe the play, document what you see, hear and notice. Take photos, videos, and notes.

• Reflect with the children. Share the experience back to them through the photos/videos. Record their thoughts. Ask questions, “I wonder why that happened?” “I noticed this…” “I see you…” “Can you share with me what made you think of that?” “What might you do next?” 

• Add new materials, books, and opportunities to think about within the children’s interest/play space. The addition of one new material ignites creative thinking and introduces another layer to the play.

• Change the location of the play. Bring the play materials outdoors for example. This can invite new thinking and innovation to children’s ideas. 

• Offer children art mediums to record their play, thinking, and ideas. Paint, pastels, charcoal, and clay can all be considered in relation to the play focus. This not only engages children in documenting their own play and learning but allows for reflection and the sharing of ideas. 

Many of the children within the learning environment have shown an interest in playing with toy cars. This past month they have sent them zooming around the room. Racing them under shelves and incorporating them within their block play. They have also built roadways with the wooden blocks collaboratively. It’s been several weeks of observing and documenting this play and thinking about how to support it alongside the children. 

Recently they were offered new materials to use with the cars to expand their interest in movement, speed, and directionality. Within the block area, the addition of PVC pipes cut to various lengths, wire sides of a crate, and a large storage container were offered to the children. What we observed was a more focused play and the experimentation of building ramps with the new materials. As the children inspired each other through their play, they shared ideas, strategies, and challenges within the design process. We look forward to reflecting with the children and seeing where this play may lead us. The journey is indeed just beginning. 

If you know someone who’d love this post. Please share it with them. I look forward to reflecting with you in the comments. Don’t forget to share below. 

Wishing You Many Creative Explorations in Play!

Sincerely,

Michelle 

Earth Day Everyday - Storybooks and Play

We are big fans of outdoor play and celebrating the wonders, joys, and gifts to be discovered while in nature. Building children's connections to the natural world through play remains an important part of our everyday experiences. So Earth Day is a time for us to renew our promise to continue to learn more about what we can do as stewards of the natural world. I am so thrilled to share a lovely invitation to play for Earth Day in this post. 

One of the ways we can support the children in gaining some insights into the gifts of the earth is to allow them time to explore freely in the outdoors. Children can also develop a love of nature through books. Storybooks are a great way to give children not only visual information from the pictures but also inspire dialogue as you build connections to their everyday experiences through reading. This post will also share just a few storybooks from my collection that engage children in thinking about the earth and celebrating her gifts. But first our invitation to play!

Materials: 

Blue sensory base

Round shallow tray

Die-cut wooden frogs, birds, butterflies, and leaves

Books to inspire children to look at the land formations of the earth. I used, "You are Here" by Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield and "Here We Are" by Oliver Jeffers. Both books are wonderful and full of images to inspire children. You could also print out a map of the world or use a globe as a point of reference. 

There is rich conversation awaiting to ignite children's thinking about the parts of the earth and their role in sustaining life through their play. If your child loves puzzles as much as my oldest does. Then the die-cut pieces are a great way to explore problem-solving and spatial reasoning too. There is a lot of learning through this Earth Day play. 

Earth Day Storybooks

Here are just a few of the books we will be sharing with the children this week in celebration of Earth Day. I cannot wait to dive into conversation with the children and support their developing stewardship for the environment through these books. 

Thanks for checking out our Earth Day play and storybook post. If you love this post please consider sharing it. We appreciate you being here. 

Let's make every day Earth Day.

Be Kind to the Earth.

Keep well my creative friends,

Michelle