KLA_Coconut Creek_2’s A

At the beginning of the school year our children were really enjoying playing outside in the flower pots full of mud, they were digging, using their fingers, throwing dirt everywhere around. We decided to start our year with the sensory experiences, which involved finger painting, playing in the sand table and water experiences. Also our children really enjoyed to play with little animal toys, so we combined both sensory and the love for the animals in our “farm experience”. We had a painted cow, with an “udder”, which was a glove, full of milk and our children pretend to play “milking a cow”.
After couple of months, while playing outside we noticed that our children were exploring nature around them. They were touching the leaves, trying to smell flowers and looking into our pond, so we went on a short nature walk. Children were free to pick up any materials that they liked and were interested in. At the end of our walk we have a big basket full of nature materials, as sticks, moss, leaves, and flowers. When we came back we decided to keep those materials and create a collage, using them as well as glue and paper.
Next day our children still wanted to collect nature materials and to bring them in, so we did. This time, however, we gave them another nature material-clay. They started to create different things, Ella, for example, made forest and Daniel made a “doggie house”.
Very soon our children found an ant nest on the playground and were very excited about it, so we got a real ant farm with ants. We were giving them food and water. We had an experience “guess what ants eat”, when we put a tray with a variety of food as ketchup, honey, chocolate, sugar, oil, grains ets near their nest and were trying to see what do ants like the most.
We made our own ants with clay and wire, we painted ants. We were reading books about ants. Once our children saw a lot of bugs outside and one of them was really big. Andrei said: “Look, it’s a Queen” (meaning ants queen, we were reading about)
Our children also tried to build tunnels and ants house, using nature materials as shells, sand, sticks, rocks. And had a really fun time, while building “human ants farm”, using recycled materials as boxes. We helped them to connect boxes with yarn and children were crawling inside the “tunnels”
After a while, grains (ants food) inside the ants farm started growing into plants. It was a new inspiration for us and our children to plant the seeds on our own and to see them growing.
We planted carrots, cucumbers, pumpkins, beans, every day our children can’t wait to go and see their garden.
It was an amazing year full of great memories and great discoveries!

title- exploring the clay
Clay is very versatile and there are so many ways to experiment with it. Clay gives children the opportunity to be creative and learn about texture, shape and form whilst having lots of fun. Manipulating clay helps our children to develop their hand and eye co-ordination as they pound, pat and push the clay into shapes and objects, as well as develop the small muscles in their fingers and hands, known as fine motor skills. Through this manipulation, children can express their thoughts and ideas as they mold the clay to take on the form of their imagination.

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Building castles in the sky
We build castles with the blocks and added some shaving cream, so our children will benefit from both building and having a sensory experience.
Building helps with hand eye coordination as the child has to learn to place the block on the block tower in such a way that does not topple the tower.
Teaches early math and engineering skills through hands on learning. Children definitely learn better when they can feel objects and the best way to learn geometric shapes is to feel each and every corner. It also improves fine motor skills and enhances logical thinking capability – it provides mental stimulation and teaches children cause and effect.

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rainbow in a jar
we created a rainbow using food coloring and mason jars. We added the colors and then mixed them. After all we put them on the window to see how the light goes through it and changes the colors.

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we made mix the colors experience.
We added to the tray, placed on the light table, milk and food coloring. Children were fascinated by all the swirls the colors did as well as the way colors change, while mixed and lighted up from the bottom of the tray.
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Our children building castles and houses together using magnet blocks. Great team work and social/emotional growth!

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Creating edible pudding and painting with it.
We created edible paint and used it in a foil. Our children experienced painting on a different texture, as well as trying how it tastes
Other pictures are a part of different experience, I feel they should not be there.

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stamp printing
we created different shapes from recycled paper and were stamping them after on a paper with the paint

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planting vegetables
our children planted different vegetables.Gardening has a lot of benefits as it encourages them to eat healthier,provides engaging, moderate exercise, relieves stress, mproves focus & memory and t positively impacts mood & psychological wellbeing

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singing songs with Ms. Dany

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Pretend play is an important part of childhood. This dramatic play milking the cow is perfect for toddlers. We learned how farmers milk their cows and that milk comes from their udders.
We practicing their fine motor skills, developing their hands and wrists, which will help them in future for writing skills as holding pencils.

p 47 sports day with coach Lucy
p48 sticky web
We made a sticky web using a tape and caught many» bugs and butterflies» into it, made of crumbled paper.
Pinching and crumbling paper is an excellent fine motor exercise for children. It is an activity that works the small muscles of the hand and really strengthens the arches of the hands.
To really work those muscles, we made our children first tear the bits of tissue paper before they crumble them up.
Defined arches are very important in shoe tying, handwriting, and managing clothing like buttons and snaps.

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learning to cut and glue what they cut to the paper
p 52 exploring the lights and colors