Exploring Tuesday

We love Tuesday!

Today was another great day. Lots of great learning and sharing. Here are some of our learning stories and new language. Before we started we had a big talk about what to do when someone interrupts your play. The children came up with some strategies to deal with this. 

- we could share our equipment

- we could ask them to join in

- we could say "stop - I do not like it"

- we could play a new game with them

- we could ask a teacher for advice

Chameleon – Syriah was very interested in the bugs today. She had a magnifying glass and the box of plastic bugs. She found a chameleon, which sparked the idea to go looking for lizards outside. Knowing that they like hot places like deserts, she discussed with some of the children where we would find them at school. Mrs Fulford shared that her cat likes to catch them in the long grass or the rocks at her house, with that Syriah was off on a hunt!

 

Escape – Today Joseph along with some other children created a dinosaur park. Joseph had a mixture of dinosaurs in different cages. Herbivores and carnivores were separated from one another. In a cage in the middle of the park were the most dangerous predators ... Velociraptors!  Unfortunately while Joseph was explaining his park, the velociraptors escaped and began to hunt for their prey.

Learning stories...

Today the craft table was very popular. Dayton decided to create a hot air balloon using an old plastic bag, ribbon, plastic bottle and the hot glue gun (cool/hot glue gun for children)He created one and tested it on the playground. This was great motivation for lots of other children. We had different designs and different materials. Levi worked out that his one flew really well when he moved the cup higher in the plastic bag. 

Last week our school got new mud kitchens which are by the sandpit at the moment. Syriah, Pele and Alyssia were busy cooking. Alyssia and Syriah were making dark chocolate muffins. Alyssia had a list of ingredients which she was using. Pele was making fritters on the hot plate in the kitchen. 

Along with the new kitchen we got cool new pipes in the sandpit. Mrs Benjamin posed a challenge to the children. How get you get water to the sandpit without just putting the pipe straight on the tap to the sand. The children were inventing unique ways to problem solve this.

Last week Seiaemoe inspired other children to make boats they could test in the water play. Today she was back testing which paper was the best for boat making. Seiaemoe and Caleb had a big discussion about the thickness of the paper she used and why the bigger boat sank first. Levi and Charlie created wooden boats using equipment from the craft table. Charlie's boat went from a boat to a gun and then back to a boat with a gun in the front. He was very pleased when it actually floated.

Hayleigh, Quanitah and some of the other girls had fun playing on the playground. They used the old sheet and tarp to make a shelter which was their house and a boat sailing to Waiheke. They played sisters who were going to Waiheke on an adventure. They had to avoid the sharks and crocodiles in the water!

Here are a few other photos from today...