During the month of May we received lots of rainy days, however this did not discourage the children in Toddler 2 from going outside!
The toddlers were excited and eager to go jump in puddles and play in the rain as were the educators in the room. This was also a great opportunity for the educators in the room to support the children’s desire for sensory exploration as we played in the wet sand. As the children began to explore the wet sand and puddles, we also introduced some new sand toys that were shared with us from another program room.
The most popular of the sand toys were the colourful, star pylons. These came in two different sizes and three different colours. The children enjoyed identifying the colours of them as Leon and Mackenzie both exclaimed “blue!” as they held out their blue pylon.
The toddlers also quickly discovered how they could stack the pylons on top of one another. Leon worked together with Isabella to build a very tall tower as they also cheered for their success. Samaira and Lincoln chose to stack their pylons independently.
Among the new sand toys were also some buckets with handles and large shovels. The children utilized these tools to scoop, fill, dump and pour the sand. This is a great example of the transportation schema as the children used the buckets to transport the wet sand around the playground. Jayden and Arthur carried their buckets by hand while Kaia used a wagon or a bike to carry her buckets. This type of play continued all afternoon and into the coming days as we hopped into our muddy buddies and headed outdoors!
We in the Toddler 2 class are so thankful for the rainy days as they allow for sensory rich experiences to take place outside!
