Happy New Year Families!
Since returning from winter break many children in Toddler 1 have shown an interest in animals and colour exploration. This month the children were invited to come and explore some new art materials: stamps and ink pads! Each child was offered to choose their own stamps. Clara was excited to find a shark stamp, she said, “Shark stamp! Baby shark?”. Myles chose a train stamp and said, “Train! Choo, choo!”. Once the children chose their stamps they were shown how to use them, and each child practiced pressing the stamp into the ink pad. The children were practicing their pincer grasp/fine motor skills when discovering how to hold the stamps. In addition, the children learned the cause and effect of pressing the stamp into the ink pad first, so when they pressed the stamp onto the paper they could see the picture appear! When Ashaar used his boat stamp on the paper he pointed and said, “Woah! Boat!”. The children enjoyed using a variety of different stamp pictures like whales, turtles, cars, flowers, and more! The outcome was wonderfully done stamp collage pictures!
Another activity the children enjoyed this month was building with the colorful transparent blocks, and color exploration using the color lenses! The children were encouraged to use the different shaped blocks to build. Some children inquired about the name of some of the shapes. Clara pointed to a cube block and said, “Square!”. She then pointed to a triangle and asked, “This?”. Ashaar enjoyed using the color lenses, he held it up in front of his eyes and walked about the classroom. Many peers also joined and started to use the color lenses while looking around the room, Mason switched from blue to yellow and pointed at different objects when he changed the color! During this activity the children were able to practice their color recognition skills, as well as participate in tactile learning while exploring how they could build using the different shapes and sizes of the color blocks.
We wonder where the animal and colour exploration will lead us to next!
