The pond idea seemed to inspire lots of requests for water play over the week. On Wednesday we enjoyed bathing the baby dolls using water, sponges and soap. The sponges sparked lots of interest as children realised they could soak up the water and squeeze it out elsewhere. To extend this, we set up a tuff tray with water, sponges, pipettes, bowls and spoons to enable us to explore lots of different ways to transport water. We then coloured the water to add colour mixing into our exploration.
Sensory play has been popular all week. The children enjoyed playing with rainbow rice; scooping, pouring and mixing it. We’ve also played with pasta; scooping and pouring it, then using it in the kitchen corner, and then using it in craft on Friday. We also enjoyed playdough, with the children helping us make this on Monday morning.
Role play has been a popular activity all week. Our children are now much more able to develop their own role-play ideas and to build up these ideas with peers. Many of the girls decided to be princesses and used various dressing up outfits and material to dress the part, they then awaited their princes! The boys have been more into dinosaur and superhero play; using our new superhero capes as they showed off their super powers in the garden!
The warmer weather has ensured our seedlings have been growing fast, so, on Friday, we planted these out in the garden. We discussed what seedlings need to grow, and observed all the different seedlings we have (tomato, sweetcorn, bean and pumpkin). We are looking forward to being able to watch these continue to grow and to produce food for snack!
Finally, with the warmer weather, we’ve enjoyed plenty of garden games. We’ve been doing running races, sticky toffee, football, egg and spoon racing, duck duck goose, and what’s the time Mr Wolf.
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home: Could you explore growing at home? Maybe you could plant tomato seeds in a Grobag or, if space is limited, old milk bottles can be turned into herb planters for the windowsill. Children love to watch as plants grow, and can learn to look after them and water them daily.