This month at Oak Creek, our playground is going under some reconstruction. This provided an opportunity to see diggers and big machines that are right outside our infant room window. The infants all were so intrigued when the excavator started digging holes in the sandbox and ground. They watched in awe, and some of the children would say truck or tractor when seeing it move around the playground. The children screamed with excitement and let out lots of giggles when watching the workers pull out the tree. It has been a big focus the last week, so we thought let’s bring the construction yard into the classroom to mimic what we see out our window. This introduced more conversation with some of our little ones, and helped with enhancing their expanding language. We talked about the excavators in which we called diggers, and how they have a shovel-like front that helps them scoop the sand/dirt and move it to where they want. We used our toy machinery to imitate what we saw outside.
The children dove right into this tuff tray experience as they immediately started running their fingers through the sand, grasping it in their little hands. The sand didn’t only offer a texture piece but also created sounds as they pushed the toys back and forth. The infants also worked on their turn taking as we only had four of the toy machines. The Educators modeled sharing and the children would be so proud when they offered a child a turn. The infants also watched as the educators joined in on driving the machines in the sand, they would imitate and make driving sounds. This activity seemed to go very well and the children were very engaged while playing. They would observe at the window and then join back as it is just such an exciting thing to watch. We are so excited to see what our playground will look like at the end, but so happy we could turn this into a fun experience and expand on their interests.
