People Who Help Us: Police Officers

Following my Firefighters post as a continuation of the theme "people who help us" at the Stay and Play group we go to yesterday we had a visit from a police car and a police community support officer.

The children got to climb all over her police van (standing in the "cell" at the back and pretending to drive it), seeing the lights flash, hearing the siren (again a few tears!) and trying on her hat. She also spent time playing with the children to show them that police officers are approachable and people they should go to if they need help.

People Who Help Us: Firefighters

At the Stay and Play group we go to we currently have the theme "people who help us" and yesterday we had a visit from a fire engine - cue lots of excited toddlers! They got to see the hose and squirt at a plastic traffic cone and hear the siren (a fair few tears!). The fireman talked to the children about who he was, what he did and explained that fire is dangerous and there was lots of literature for parents to take away about fire safety and stickers for the children. Obviously we can't all have a fire engine visit us at home with real firemen to talk to our children but we can encompass the theme of people who help us into our children's play.

Operation Play Time - Blocks

We are joining in Operation Playtime - and todays theme is Blocks.

It was by coincidence that at the Stay and Play group today we had some new wooden blocks to play with. They were chunky wooden blocks and came in large trucks and trailers.

The children enjoyed making roads for their cars. They built towers as tall as them (and knocked them down!), they built houses, churches and castles, they worked collaboratively, competitively on their own. They also had great fun packing the blocks into the lorry and then moving the lorry around the room (including sitting on it and scooting!).

Thinking about playing with blocks reminded me of when I was an ABA tutor and I taught children 'block imitation' as one of the foundation skills - teaching imitation /copying and a play task.

This clip shows the early stages - copying the building of a structure brick by brick.

Further stages include - watching something being built and then building it (plus when it is no longer in view), being able to copy a pre-built structure with it in view, being able to build step by step from instructions, being able to build from the finished picture.

Playdough

Another term, another town, another 'Stay and Play' group! We went to a new toddler group today and the 'take home idea' was play dough.

Playdough is great for children to play with and learn new skills at the same time. Play dough is:

• good practice for sharing / turn-taking
• soothing / calming
• good for releasing tension
• good for strengthening muscles / developing motor skills
• good for developing language
• creative
• multi-sensory
• fun!

Recipes

Cooked Play-Dough

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water
food colouring

Mix dry ingredients and mix wet ingredients and then stir together.
Stir constantly over a medium heat until the ingredients change from a lump paste into a more rubbery blob.
Turn out onto a working surface and knead the dough.
Store in an airtight container.

Cooked Play-Dough

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water
food colouring

Mix flour and salt, add water and food colouring.
Turn out onto a working surgace and knead the dough to make a clay consistency.
Store in an airtight container (doesn't keep as long as the cooked version though).

Other ideas:

Add:

• glitter
• spices
• mint
• herbs
• cocoa powder
• yeast (makes a stretchier dough)
• raisins
• pasta
• ginger
• lemon juice
• curry

Use a variety of tools to play with the dough, for example;

• lolly sticks
• fir cones
• toy cars
• cutters
• rolling pins
• paper cases
• straws

Play dough is suitable for children over a year old. Make sure that you supervise the play and use protective coverings for the floor, clothes and surfaces. Some children may try to eat the play dough but because it is so salty after a few tastes children will discover that it is much more fun to play with than eat!

Please feel free to share more playdough recipes / activity ideas.

3 - Stories, Songs and Rhymes

Welcome back to our number rhyme series - so far we've had 1 - Hickory Dickory Dock and 2 - Two Little Dicky Birds.

Three is a bit more tricky as most of the counting songs are to five or ten, however three is a popular number in fairy tales with Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Three Billy Goats Gruff to name but a few stories that include three. So here are some ideas linked to those popular tales.

As with one and two, practice counting - 1,2,3! Again play with number bean bags , foam / magnetic numbers and number flashcards / number fans to help children learn to recognise the number and practice drawing / painting or chalking the number three. The number three also is great to start sequencing numbers, and investigating other properties / adjectives; for example big, medium and small.

The Three Little Pigs

Activity Ideas

• share the story of the Three Little Pigs
• building with a variety of materials
• make a three houses collage, sticking on straw, sticks and printing bricks
• make pig masks using paper plates
• play with Three Little Pigs puppets and act out the story
• huff and puff like the big bad wolf and practice blowing games - blow football, blow painting or just blow whistles!

Songs and Rhymes

• Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf (Frank Churchill and Ann Ronell)
  

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Activity Ideas

• share the story of Golidilocks and the Three Bears
• make porridge
• investigate sizes - small, medium / middle sized and big - sort them and match them
• playing with Goldilocks and the Three Bears puppets to act out the story

Songs and Rhymes

• When Goldilocks Went to The House of the Bears (listen here)

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Activity Ideas

• share the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff
• go for a walk and find a bridge to 'trip trap' over
• investigate sizes - small, medium / middle sized and big - sort them and match them
• play with Three Billy Goats Gruff and act out the story

2 - Two Little Dicky Birds

For the second of our number rhyme posts we are featuring the rhyme 'Two Little Dicky Birds'. This is a very short and simple rhyme - if you don't already know it, here are the words;

Two little dicky birds sat on a wall,
One named Peter, One named Paul,
Fly away Peter, Fly away Paul,
Come back Peter, Come back Paul.

Some activity and learning ideas based on this rhyme - looking at the number two, birds, walls, and the entire rhyme are featured here:

The Number 2
Now we've got past one we can start counting - 1,2! Again play with number bean bags , foam / magnetic numbers and number flashcards / number fans to learn to recognise the number and practice drawing / painting or chalking the number two.

It is also a good place to start to look at teaching children quantities in relation to the number - so look for things that come in pairs; for example, socks, shoes and gloves or just collect groups of two objects - two teddies, two cups, two toy cups etc,

The Birds
There are many activities involving birds.

Firstly spend time looking in your garden or a local park - see how many birds you can see, older children might enjoy identifying magpies, pigeons, sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, bluetits etc. You could also look at what birds eat and start having a bird table in your garden so you can feed the birds.

Draw or colour pictures of the birds you see - there is a FREE bird colouring page available at Littlesheep Learning (drawn as a robin but could easily coloured as a sparrow, bluetit, blackbird or whatever takes your fancy!).

The Wall
Build walls using different types of bricks - Lego, wooden blocks, cardboard boxes or anything else you can think of! Look at the overlapping pattern needed to stop your wall falling down.

Look at house bricks and make rubbings using paper and wax crayons.

Use a wooden block, a Lego brick or a sponge to paint a wall - dip your item into the paint and then print the bricks onto your paper - don't forget to make the bricks overlap!

The Rhyme
The rhyme is a very simple finger play - teach your children the following actions;

Two little dicky birds sat on a wall [use the index fingers on each hand to bend and flex like bobbing birds]
One named Peter [wiggle left hand finger], One named Paul [wiggle right hand finger],
Fly away Peter [put left hand behind back], Fly away Paul [put right hand behind back],
Come back Peter [bring back left hand / finger], Come back Paul [bring back left hand / finger].

Also, enact the rhyme by covering a small box with the brick rubbings / printing and stick two bird pictures on cardboard tubes and move them on and off the wall (you could use finger puppet birds if you have them).

Or just make a Two Little Dicky Birds collage by making a wall of your printed bricks / brick rubbings and sticking two bird pictures on the top.

Number 1 - Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock is a popular nursery rhyme that contains the number one so it seems a good place to start for this series of number posts.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the rhyme it goes like this:

Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one (DONG!)
The mouse ran down
Hickory Dickory Dock (tick tock tick tock)

There are lots of activities that you can do using this rhyme as a theme. You can focus on the number one, the mouse or the clock. Here are some ideas for you:

The Number 1
Obviously as this is the first number we don't need to practice counting up to 1 but it's a good place to mention that counting and number recognition starts here! Play with number bean bags , foam / magnetic numbers and number flashcards / number fans to learn to recognise the number. Draw / paint / chalk the number one - as a straight line down it's also one of the easiest numbers to learn to write.

The Mouse
Make a finger mouse puppet - make a cone from a piece of card and add ears, eyes, a tail and whiskers. Talk about mice generally - what noise do they make, where do they live, what do they like to eat etc.

The Clock
Make a pretend clock - use a paper plate or a circle of card to make the clock face, write on the numbers, make some hands to turn using some card (don’t forget the minute hand is longer than the hour hand) and attach them with a paper fastener. Look out for clocks - how many different ones can you spot?

Check out the range of telling the time items available at Littlesheep Learning if your child is older and interested in learning more about the the time.

The Rhyme
Attach your pretend clock to a box and make a grandfather clock and use your mouse finger puppet to act out the rhyme.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five - Stay and Play with Numbers

I thought I'd do another series of posts based on the Stay and Play sessions I have recently attended with my children. Last term the sessions were based around numbers so this series of posts will be looking at number songs and rhymes - I hope you find it useful and get some great ideas to share numbers, counting and other numeracy skills with your children.

Down on the Farm

Another post in our series based on the activities at the Stay and Play group we go to. This post is based on helping children learn about farm animals.

Activity Ideas

• Visit a farm
• Play listening games e.g. Cock-a-doodle Moo!
• Make a farm collage - cotton wool makes great sheep, stick on feathers for ducks, use real grass, leaves and twigs to creat the fields and foil to create a pond
• Play with farm animals or finger puppets

Books

• The Usborne Farmyard Tales collection by Heather Amery
• 1001 Things to Spot on the Farm by Gillian Doherty
• Muddle Farm by Axel Scheffler
• Noisy Farm by Rod Campbell
• Farm Animals (Usborne Beginner Series) by Katie Daynes

Songs and Rhymes
In addition to the many songs and rhymes about individual farm animals for example; Baa Baa Black Sheep, Five Little Ducks and This Little Piggy went to Market, there are lots of songs farm animals collectively.

Old MacDonald had a Farm
Old MacDonald had a Farm
E-i-e-i-o
And on that farm he had a [pick a farm animal]
E-i-e-i-o
With a [animal noise][animal noise] here and a [animal noise][animal noise] there
Here a [animal noise], there a [animal noise], everywhere a [animal noise][animal noise]
Old MacDonald had a Farm
E-i-e-i-o

I went to visit a Farm one Day
I went to visit a farm one day I saw a [farm animal] across the way
And what do you think I heard it say?
[Animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],
[Animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],
That's the way it goes
[Animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],[animal noise],
Everybody knows.

Repeat these songs as many times as you want using, cows, sheep, ducks, horses, pigs and any other farm animal you can think of.

Walking through the Jungle

Children love jungle animals and there are lots of different ways you can encorporate jungle animals into children's play and learning. Children's stories are often technically incorrect when talking about jungle animals as they generally include animals of from the african plains /savannah.




Activity ideas:

• Visit a zoo and look at the animals
• Create a collage of all your favourite animals
• Play with zoo animal finger puppets or toy animals
• Look at the patterns on different animals skin - which ones are spotty / stripey
• Talk about the noises the different animals make

Books:
Some of our favourite books related to jungle animals are:

• Walking through the Jungle by Julie Lacome
• Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae
• Down in the Jungle by Elisa Squillace
• Peekaboo Jungle! by Emily Bolam

Songs and Rhymes:
There are many different songs that include jungle animals for example:

Five Little Monkeys

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

Four little monkeys swinging in a tree,
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

Three little monkeys swinging in a tree,
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

Two little monkeys swinging in a tree,
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

One little monkey swinging in a tree,
Teasing the alligators, you can catch me, you can catch me....
Along came a alligator quiet as can be.......
And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!
No little monkeys swinging in a tree

The Elephant

The elephant goes like this and that
He’s terribly big and terribly fat
He’s got no fingers and he’s got no toes
But goodness gracious what a big nose

Five Little Ducks

Everyone knows the rhyme 5 Little Ducks went swimming one day and this is an excellent rhyme to use to start teaching children about counting and about ducks. Here are some ideas!

Activity ideas:
Different activities will be suitable for children of different ages so you may be able to revisit this list over a number of years!

• Go and feed the ducks
• Play with bath ducks in water
• Share rhymes about ducks (see suggestions below)
• Share books about ducks (see suggestions below)
• Play with the 5 Little Ducks Teaching Song Mitt
• Draw and colour pictures of ducks
• Talk about the noise ducks make - you could play listening games and listen for the duck
• Talk about where ducks live
• Talk about the lifecycle of ducks from eggs, to ducklings to grown up ducks

Songs and Rhymes
The most popular duck rhyme has to be 5 Little Ducks went swimming one day (start with 3 for younger children!), this is a rhyme that varies everywhere it is sung but here is our version!

Five little ducks went swimming one day,
Over the pond and far away,
Mummy Duck said "quack, quack, quack, quack",
But only four little ducks came back.

Repeat with four little ducks, then three, then two, then one until 'no little ducks came swimming back'. Then we sing:

Daddy duck went swimming one day ,
Over the pond and far away,
Mummy Duck said "quack, quack, quack, quack",
And all the ducks came swimming back.

Another rhyme is:

Five little ducks that I once knew,
Three were fat and skinny were two,
But the one little duck,
With the feather on his back,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack.

Down to the river they would go,
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, to and fro,
But the one little duck,
With the feather on his back,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack.

Back from the river they would come,
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, ho, hum, hum,
But the one little duck,
With the feather on his back,
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack
He led the others with a quack, quack, quack.

Lastly,

Isn't it a bit of luck
That I was born a baby duck
With yellow socks and yellow shoes
I can go wherever I choose?
Quack, quack, quack quack

Books

There are many books based on the 5 Little Ducks song, my favourite is

• Five Little Ducks by Penny Ives

Other 'duck' books include:

• One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root and Jane Chapman
• Nine Ducks Nine by Sarah Hayes
• Duck (Read & Learn: Life Cycles) by Richard Spilsbury
• From Egg to Duck (How Things Grow) by Sally Morgan
• I am a Duck by Linda Bygrave

New Series of Posts

I've been tidying up and I've come across the piles of handouts from the Stay and Play sessions we go to, so I thought I'd write a series of posts based on these. This term the theme has been animals and each week there is a song, a story and activities based on the theme. I'll try and post every few days for the next week or so and then continue to post them each week. Look out for suggestions surrounding ducks, frogs, farm animals, jungle animals and more! These play ideas are great for incidental learning and increasing a child's general knowledge.