Tag Archives: problem solving

Digital Technology, News, Numeracy

Imaginative Block play in the Discovery Room 😀

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The children were discussing dens and how to build them. They had lots of ideas about what they could do inside their own den. The children had a look around the room at what they could use to make a den and how they could make it cosy. They decided that blocks would make the best den, but they thought they should research it a little first, before planning it out.

Using digital technology, the children started looking at different types of dens. After their initial research, the children decided they should draw a plan of what they wanted their den to be like.

“ I want it big enough to have a tea party in”


“ I want my den to have a roof, so we don’t get wet”

The children then put their problem solving skills to work and worked collaboratively to build their den.

They shared resources and made suggestions to each other to make sure the den they built was the best den ever!


“ How will we make the roof stay up”
The children searched the room for resources and showed their skills as future engineers and architects.  
“ I think that wall is tall enough now”
“We need the cardboard tube to keep the roof up high”


“ We need to be careful not to knock the walls down when we are inside”

When their den was finished the children made it a home from home by adding comfy cushions and a table, they then invited some special guests to join them for afternoon tea complete with cakes and sandwiches, cheese of course!

Science

Science Citrus explosions

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Today some of the children in the discovery room wanted to make an explosion. We decided to try and make one using lemons and tangerines. We placed the orange and tangerine onto a plate and then took the tops off and squished the insides of the fruit to bring out some of the juice. We then squeezed some washing up liquid into the juice and added some food colouring and a teaspoonful of baking soda. After we did this, we watched as the fruits exploded with colourful bubbles! It was so exciting!!
We talked about the science and how the experiment worked. Citrus fruit contains citric acid which has a chemical reaction when it mixes with the baking soda due to form carbon dioxide, which is a gas. Once the citric acid and the baking soda have neutralised each other the reaction stops and no more gas is made. The children had so many things to say about the experiment including:
“ I think the lemon has more citrus acid in it than the tangerine because the lemon has bigger bubbles”

“I want my explosion to be rainbow colours”” Look the blue and red has turned black”
“I need more baking powder I want a big explosion “ “ It feels slimy if you touch it” “The lemon smells nice”


We really enjoyed participating in this fun science activity.

Expressive Arts, Numeracy

Play dough and loose parts

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Loose parts are real objects/ ordinary things that can be used or manipulated in different ways. Adding loose parts to the play dough play will enrich and expand the children’s creativity, improve their fine motor skills along with hand eye co ordination and problem solving.

After helping to make the play dough. The children explored the different objects and discovered different ways they could use them.

Their play evolved from sticking the feathers into the play dough to make birds, to stuffing the play dough into the pots and adding some lolly sticks and dolly pegs to create a rocket ship. We then incorporated some counting into the play. Counting forward to 10 and backwards from 10 as our rockets blasted off into space.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 …. blast off 💥

“My rocket is going to space”

”I’m going to french fry planet”

 

 

Outdoor Learning

Getting creative in the Garden!!

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Today the children were having great fun in the garden. They really enjoyed some gross motor art. They were using rollers to paint on a large shower curtain! They were rolling, reaching and stretching, developing both their gross motor skills and hand eye coordination whilst having great fun and chatting to each other.

”Look at my rainbow!”, “I’ve made a big road!”

The children also had fun den building with our new camouflage materials and pegs. This helps the children develop important skills like problem solving, teamwork and role play! Once the children had built their den they were happy playing inside pretending to sell ice cream out the door! Great fun was had by all!

Literacy, Social Studies

Designing our own School!

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Today the boys and girls in the home room were talking about what their school building will look like. I asked the children how they could find out what their school will look like.

“We could use the computer”

“What about your Ipad, its right there?”

We used technology to search for pictures of the different schools the children will attend.

The children came across building plans as they searched for their schools, so they decided to draw and design their own plans and schools.

“My school will have 10 windows”

“My school is very tall and has a big garden.

Outdoor Learning

Garden fun!!

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The children have been making the most of the lovely weather so far this week by having lots of fun in the garden. They have been developing both their fine and gross motor skills through a number of outdoor experiences.

The children have been developing their filling, pouring and scooping skills with jugs and containers in the water tray and with spoons and kettles in the mud! This helps the children understand the concepts of more and less whilst developing their hand/eye coordination.

The children also had great fun jumping in the muddy puddles the rain left us, jumping and landing on both feet helps to strengthen their leg muscles! What big muddy splashes!!

The children made a great obstacle course which further develops their gross motor skills. This will enhance their strength and balance whilst developing their coordination and problem solving skills.

What a busy start to the week in the garden! Let’s hope the sun keeps shining!!

Health and Wellbeing, Numeracy

Do it yourself dough

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In the Home Room we are learning to make our own play dough by ourselves.

We gather our own materials to make the dough, a bowl, a spoon and a cup for measuring.

We collect the flour bowl and using our spoon we fill up the cup until it’s full.

We pour the flour into the bowl, then collect the salt bowl.

We add 5 tablespoons of salt to our bowl and mix.

We collect the oil and a 1 tablespoon of oil to the bowl.

Slowly we add a little warm water to our bowl and mix.

We keep mixing until our dough sticks together.

(if our dough is too sticky we add some flour and mix, if our dough is too dry and crumbly we add a little more water and mix)

Once our dough sticks together we put in our hands and need the dough.

Its then ready to tip out of our bowl and onto the table.

We are learning to follow instructions and develop our independence skills. We are learning to measure out ingredients and follow a recipe. Some children are scaffolding their own learning  and assisting the younger children with each step.

The children are now accessing this area in the playroom independently and are even cleaning up their own dishes once they have finished playing.

And most of all they are having so much fun making their own dough!

Expressive Arts

Chinese New Year

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We have been learning a little bit about Chinese New Year. We learned that this year Chinese New Year begins on 12th February and that celebrations take place for 16 days. It is the most important holiday in China, but it is also celebrated by people all around the world.  We enjoyed learning all about the Lantern Festival which takes place at the end of the celebrations. We looked at lots of lovely photographs of the lanterns and decided to make some of our own!

Although traditional  Chinese lanterns were red to symbolise fire, good fortune and joy, and gold to symbolise wealth, they can also be all different shapes, colours and sizes. We decided to choose our favourite colours and worked really hard to decorate our lanterns to make them nice and colourful.

We used our excellent fine motor skills to fold and cut our paper, it was a little tricky!

Then it was time to carefully glue our paper to make our lantern shape. We had to be very careful not to rip our paper!

We wondered how we would carry our lanterns? We used our problem solving skills and carefully cut some paper and decided to use more glue to stick it onto the top of our lanterns to make a handle.  Well done boys and girls!

Our lanterns were finished! Don’t they look amazing!

 

 

 

News

So much fun on skis

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The children have been exploring their imagination by using the blocks as skis. They also demonstrated great problem-solving skills as they came up with different solutions to allow them to move around the room.

The children started using the single blocks to slide their feet but were finding it difficult to move. Some children were able to push off using the furniture.



 

The children were engaged in their play and started using the bigger blocks as ski poles.

As the children played we watched some ski videos to inspire their thoughts.