Admin EditWater Play
Last week our swimming sessions were cancelled due to the Primary Swimming Galas, but instead of denying the children the water play they love so much we decided to have a morning of water fun in the garden. We provided the children with brushes, buckets and a whole load of water and sent them out into the garden to explore. It was incredible to see the many different ways the children chose to play. At first they were a little cautious and simply stayed at the water tray as usual. However, with a little encouragement and the help of a hose pipe, they soon began to explore the exciting ways that water could be used. Some decided to wash the cars and bikes, some wanted to splash in the muddy puddles, some wanted to create rain showers and some even decided to sit in the tuff spots and use their bodies to explore the properties of paint. We spent an exciting hour having lots of new experiences, before we washed the tuff spots and ourselves free of all paint, sand and mud.
Not all the children were keen to remain in the water play though. Those who preferred a drier approach to their learning had a wonderful time playing in the K1 shared area with their older peers; where the language and imagination of their older friends helped them develop new games and ideas. Now that the children are becoming more confident with each other and extending their friendship circles we are experiencing the inevitable squabbles and arguments that occur when very small children play together. This is a normal part of growing up and learning to be with others and forms a central part of our curriculum. We are currently sharing some ‘social stories’ with the children to help us explore these issues. We will be sharing more details of these with you shortly. However, if you have any good books at home about playing nicely with each other and sharing, please bring them into school. We can also share these with the children, as it is always nice to show the children that there is continuity between school and home learning.
That looks so much like Songkran Festival!! Splashy!!
Published on Monday, May 20, 2013 LikeCreativity in the Nursery!
For those of you who are new to Patana you will not know about the highlight of the year – the Foundation Stage Art Exhibition. This eagerly awaited event is held in June every year and is a fantastic display of the creative explorations of our children. However, not all children choose to play in our creative area, so what can we do? The answer is quite simple – take the creative area to the children. This is exactly what we are doing this term. You will see us using the whole of our wonderful environment to explore our creative imaginations. We started by using the children’s interest in ramps and cars to explore what would happen if we dipped the cars in paint before we pushed them down the ramp. The tracks made by the paint showed us exactly where the car had gone and prompted a lot of interesting conversation and thought. We expanded this exploration by using a system of pulleys to suspend a container of cars, by putting paper on the bottom of the container and dipping the cars in paint again, we were able to work together to move the cars around the paper. In this way, we have been able to excite the children’s interest as well as show them that creative activities can be thought provoking and fun. I wonder what else we can do before the end of this term. Do you have any wonderfully creative ideas for us to explore? Just let us know if you do!
Wow! Look what happens when the car goes down the slope.
I have made a hand print with the paint!
Watching very carefully to see what happens.
Now the car has got stuck because the paint is so thick!
1...2...3...Go!
Being creative with off cuts of wood.
Using our own ideas!
Exploring printing and designing my own picture.
I like making tall structures
Using a roller to make marks with the paint.
Painting on an easel.
Printing with shapes.
Flicking paint with the paintbrush!
Big arm movements!
Watching the paint land on the paper!
Painting in the garden!
Spraying water on to paint and making colourful rivers!
What a great idea to take the painting outside and to use toys they love to play with alongside paint.
Published on Thursday, May 09, 2013 LikeThey have so much fun!! Lovely ideas!!
Published on Friday, May 10, 2013 LikeOur Songkran Splash!
Our ’Songkran Splash’ was great fun! Many of the children managed to get the ‘grown ups’ very wet and loved splashing each other too! A great end to a fantastic term 2!
Everyone looks like they had so much fun! Lovely seeing the photos of the children in action!
Published on Wednesday, May 01, 2013 Like
Parinda ThanakitprasarnOpen ended learning and fun!!
We are often told about the importance of play for young children’s learning but knowing what resources to provide to support that play can be daunting. Here in the Nursery we like to use what we call open ended resources that can be used in many ways so that children can create and extend their own play experiences. This week we have been having lots of fun and learning with some very open ended resources - cardboard boxes, recycled materials and the very popular blue pipes! It has been amazing the many uses we have found for the ubiquitous blue pipe – it has become a plumbing system, a water transporter, a car ramp and a loud hailer/telephone. Our large cardboard boxes have played many roles in the Nursery this week as well – they have been hiding places, robots and very large containers in which to hide every toy in the Nursery (especially during tidy up time)!
In other parts of the nursery our recycled boxes have helped children to gain many new skills and scientific understanding, especially about balance, forces and stickiness!
We play, we think, we learn! Take a look at our photos! 
The Nursery team.
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