New Podcast!

PODCAST: Building a Curious and Playful Early Childhood Math Community

In this episode of Teacher's Corner, I talk about my new book, Joyful Math. I also discuss how to nurture a curious and joyful early childhood math community with the author of Early Childhood Math Routines, Antonia Cameron. 

Click here to listen:  https://blog.stenhouse.com/podcast-building-a-curious-and-playful-early-childhood-math-community

Loose Parts Provocation with Mirrors

I have been interested in exploring the use of loose parts with the children at home. After gathering some simple, versatile materials I set up an inviting provocation for exploration. I used two acrylic mirrors as 'mats' that would be each child's building space.

The materials were organic and each child was very interested in creating. At first the designs were simple.  

    

After a few attempts they realized that the pieces could be interpreted and used together to form interesting pictures.

A few faces...

A garden...

A roller coaster...

  

Someone's name...

I was amazed at the level of interest and creativity that a few ordinary materials could provide. I believe part of the appeal in this experience was the use of the mirrors, which reflected the pieces back and created interesting effects depending on whether the light hanging above was turned on. In a few days I plan to add a few more materials to the collection and see how they influence the play!

Acrylic Snowflakes

'Loose parts' that consist of interesting objects and materials are an essential part of encouraging children to engage in creative play. Removing commercial materials from the classroom and instead introducing children to objects that are full of intrigue will inspire hours of problem solving and innovative thinking! 

While perusing our local dollar store I found these acrylic snowflakes! 

They are beautifully crafted and because they are clear, would be a great addition to our light table! 

I can just imagine the play these might inspire as children sort, stack, and pattern with them!

When we are done with the light table I may include them in our portable water table and see what happens there!

Tub Painting

Such a fun and easy way to encourage creative exploration and play during bath time that is super easy to clean too!

We used a plastic veggie tray for our palate.

The kids helped me to squirt a bit of shaving cream in each section.

Using a few drops of food colouring, they chose different colour combinations to try.

We used paint brushes to stir the colours and shaving cream together to see what colours were created.

The tray actually floated on the water!

They had lots of fun painting all over themselves and the walls of the tub. (You might want to do a spot check the first time you paint to make sure the colour doesn't stain your tiles or grout.)

We used thick paint brushes this time but we've also tried other art tools like sponges.

Super easy to clean when done...just rinse the walls and tub with warm water. It smells great too!

This is easily modified for the classroom where children can paint in a half-filled water table, tiled wall and sink area, or the clear lid of a tactile table!

Mirror Building

I have been reading a lot lately regarding the use of mirrors to enhance exploration and creativity in Reggio Emilia inspired activities and I was eager to try this with my children. We just rediscovered some wooden blocks and I set them up next to a flat mirror on our living room floor.

My children were a little apprehensive at first to try this activity. I encouraged them to be gentle with the mirror and ensured that I was close by to supervise - I knew my daughter would understand the fragile nature of the mirror but wasn't so sure my three-year-old son would.

The children instantly noticed their reflections on the smooth working surface.

It was hard to tell where the real structure ended and the reflected one began...

In addition to a neat mini-lesson on reflective surfaces, this activity allowed me to discuss the differences between 2D and 3D shapes and introduce some terminology (e.g., cube, triangular prism). It was also interesting to see my children problem solve how to stack the blocks so they did not fall as their towers got taller. You'll notice the 'sidewalks' my son created that joined the structures together. He had a wonderful imaginative story for why the inhabitants of the structures needed to be able to visit each other.

For a great article on how block play encourages numeracy, visit Block Play, Math and Literacy.

Christmas Sensory Bin

We have Christmas fever around here now that the autumn decorations have been packed away. I decided to create a Christmas sensory bin for the kids to explore. I used trinkets that I found at the local dollar store (bells, bows, garland, beads, pompoms, etc.) and put them together with a mini Christmas tree, some gift bags and miniature boxes.

   

There was so much to look at and touch! The bright, shiny objects were very appealing!

It was fun to put together 'gifts' for people! The sensory box had much math potential as my son had to figure out what objects fit in the boxes, which box lids matched the box bottoms, which length of ribbon would fit around the boxes in order to secure them, and the different ways we could sort objects into the bins.

It was also fun to decorate the little miniature Christmas tree with the materials in the bin! This was a favourite activity since the kids have been asking when we are going to get our tree as they are so excited to decorate it. This gives them lots and lots of time to explore decorating in their own way.

Because the materials are so small, decorating the tree proves to be great fine motor practice too!

Spider Web Playscape

My children have been very interested in spiders lately. We have noticed so many webs in our gardens, especially in the morning when they are covered with dew. I thought it would be fun to use some black yarn and plastic spiders in order to turn our light table into a spider playscape. It was so easy to do!

First I tied the loose end of the yarn to one of the table's legs.

I modeled how my children could wind the yarn around and across the table, weaving it in and out in order to make a unique web. We ended up using two balls of yarn - one for each child - but if you are doing this with a larger group of children you might consider using only one ball and encourage the children to problem solve how they might take turns creating one web together.

This activity took a lot of coordination as each child needed to figure out how to wind the yarn around and across the large table, while keeping it tight enough to retain the 'web like' appearance. They also needed to work together. A few times they ended winding each other into the web and had to figure out how to cooperatively create the playscape.

As my children worked, they began to notice and name the shapes they saw in the web. They also realized that the sides of the table were beginning to look like they were covered in webs too, opening up the possibilities for the play space.

Once they were happy with the web, we added plastic spiders (found as Halloween rings at the local dollar store). I was pleased to see that neither child was reluctant to handle the very realistic looking spiders. I'm hoping it helps them feel even more comfortable with creepy crawlies when they encounter them in real life.

Such an easy way to use little materials and a light table to inspire creative dramatic play. Our spiders had all sorts of adventures on and around the table. Tomorrow I'm going to read some books about spiders and encourage my children to retell the texts on the table.

Sparkly Play Dough Creatures

We made a very appealing batch of sparkly black play dough for the children to use with odds and ends from our art area.  The children were intrigued by the wonderful contrast between the dark colour of the dough and the iridescent sparkles.

Their creatures were out of this world!