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