Tag Archives: froebelian

Expressing our imaginations 👩🏼‍🎨

Some of the children have been expressing themselves through imaginative play this week in our clay station, creating mini role playing scenarios.

“guess what Pokémon this is?”

“it’s an eel. And it turns into a rhino. I need to paint it so it blends in”

“I need to roll it so it’s longer. So his mouth fits on. Super big Supertayto!”

“lots of walls. So nobody can see”

“I’m making a surprise. Guess what’s inside?  Surprise! You’re at the beach!”

Other children were very observant noticing familiar letters they recognised, and sharing stories with each other through their play.

“This looks like a L. L is in my daddy’s name. How do I write Lorenzo?”

“L is in my sisters name too. It’s Lexie”

“Is your brother in my sisters class?”

Some even created their own letters using their manipulative skills to mould and shape their designs.

The children have shown such fabulous creativity in our clay area, learning lots of different skills while exploring their imaginations and having fun 🤩 keep up the great work, everybody 👍🤩👩🏼‍🎨

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, talents and abilities.

 

 

Creative with Clay

The children have shown fantastic curiosity in the clay area this week, and have been expressing themselves in lots of different ways.

Some children investigated the clay tools, exploring what different designs and patterns they could make…

Other children enjoyed showing off their writing skills…

“I can do H for Hulk!”

Others explored their problem solving skills, paying close attention to the different shapes of the resources to capture their ideas…

”that can make the eyes because it’s round”

“I’m making a holiday park. The big round shell is the pool. This tall one is like a palm tree”

“These pretty buttons can make the petals. It’s a button flower!”

Clay is a fantastic canvas for children’s learning as it is such a holistic experience. Children develop their little fine motor muscles through all the rolling, moulding and squishing as well as engage their imagination and problem solving skills too when creating their models. It can be as educational or as fun as you want it to be! Great work everyone 😁👍

 

 

 

 

 

Fun with words 💡🖌

The children have been experimenting with mark making in the clay area today using a variety of interesting materials, and demonstrated fabulous letter recognition while investigating the resources. Some children created their own names…

Other children enjoyed copying the letters themselves using the clay tools…

Some children recognised familiar letters from their friends and families names…

“How do I make Mummy? I need an M”

The children had lots of fun exploring the different sounds the letters make, and learning how they work together to create new and fun words.

“what does this say?”

”lots of words!”

“E for elephant.”

“no that’s an e”

”No it’s a big letter so it’s E! A big  capital E”

The children have shown wonderful creativity while developing their literacy skills at the clay table, and most importantly had lots of fun doing it. They have even suggested we try shapes next time!

Article 29 – I have the right to an education that develops my personality.

 

Wonderful Wood!

It’s been a busy week so far in our Woodwork area! We have been very interested in where wood comes from, so we decided to have a wee look for some books that might tell us!

“look it’s trees. Wood comes from trees!”

”that looks like the wood we have outside”.

”and it says paper is made from trees. So that’s wood too. And pencils”.

We decided to go on a wood hunt to see what else was made of wood! Off we set with the iPad to see what we could find!

“Look the blocks are made of wood”. “So is the door. And the table”

”is this box made of wood?”  “I think so”.

Our families have very kindly donated lots of materials to our junk modelling area, so we decided to have a look through and sort out the materials we thought would be made from wood.   We couldn’t believe a Rice Krispies box came from a tree!

We also had a look around our woodwork area and discovered we had lots of “things that are made of wood but look different”. Wood shavings that “were curly and bouncy”, sawdust “my mummy buys me sawdust for my horse.  It makes his bed all cozy when he’s sleeping”.  “The shopping back is made from trees. Look it has a picture of a wee tree on it!”.

It was time to get creative! Using cardboard tubes, paper, wood and of course lots and lots of glue, we produced some fabulous 3d models and artwork!

There was lots of discussion about why trees are cut down to make wood and paper, which led to us deciding to make our own trees and Forest!

Of course we had to “make a giant tree so we can grow it on the wall”.

We proudly displayed our recycled wood and paper artwork in our woodwork area.  We are so lucky to have such talented children at Cart Mill!

“Wood can provide endless opportunities for creative expression and developing design thinking.  There is something special about woodworks’s ability to engage young children.  It is learning through doing”. (Froebel Trust, 2023)