The new class of toddlers at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Luke have been adjusting well to their new environment in these past two weeks, and this means having lots of fun in our outdoor playground! The children enjoy playing with sand toys, bikes, bubbles, and balls. However, they have also participated in other fun outdoor activities! Such as, rolling balls through ramps and tunnels. This helped them explore the concept of gravity and motion. In this activity, they figured out that rolling the balls up the hill only makes it come back down, and that rolling the ball from the high point of the hill makes the ball come out the other end. They also experimented to see if bigger balls could be used for the tunnels, but they found out that it did not work because it was too big and did not fit. Declan said, “Uh oh!” Another activity the children enjoyed doing was making a fall sensory bin!
With the guide of their educators, the toddlers went around the playground and did a scavenger hunt, looking for pinecones, tree bark, fallen leaves of different colours, and acorns of different sizes. Milley found a small acorn, showed her friends, and said “A baby acorn!” They collected all the materials together and placed them on a metal tray. The natural objects were then all placed in a bin and they were able to explore it with their fingers! They noticed the different textures in the fall sensory bin. The educators taught them the words rough and smooth as they felt the tree bark and acorns. They also noticed that rolling the acorns around and tapping them on the bin and on the metal tray makes different sounds!
Lastly, the children participated in playing with water during the warmer parts of the day. They were given a bucket of water and some sponges and it placed it near the chalkboard. They dunked the sponges in the water, squeezed the water out, and wiped the chalkboard clean! Elliot said, “Look! It’s wet!” As the children continue to adjust and feel more comfortable in their new environment, they are getting to learn more to play and we are looking forward to doing more fun activities with the toddlers!
