The children in the toddler room of RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Luke already miss the spring weather! We only had a few warm days in March, after a warm sunny weekend, and the toddlers engaged in spring themed activities. Fabric flowers were added to the tuff tray with some green playdough to represent grass. There were also some playdough tools and forest themed sensory stones, as well as little pavers to enhance the activity’s nature theme. The flowers came in different types and colours which piqued the children’s curiosity.
“What’s that flower?” Adelyn asked. “I believe that’s a peony!” said Educator AJ. “We have flowers at home too!” Noah shared. Milley said, holding up a fabric leaf, “One, two, three, four. My leaves are four.” In another area of the room, the other children pretended that they were having a fun spring picnic. Declan was very enthusiastic about pretending to wash the dishes after it’s been used by his friends. Amit and Finlay loved “eating” bread! Nora shared a plate with Noah. They all enjoyed sharing a picnic snack together with their friends as they fixed up their own plate. Some opted for fish and chicken, while some stuck to veggies and fruits such as eggplants and bananas for their food of choice. “It’s bananas!” Elara said excitingly.
Then, back at the flower playdough table, the children worked together to make a big and beautiful flower arrangement. Educator Simmy rolled most of the playdough into one big circle and the children were quick to stick in the flowers and leaves in the playdough. “It’s pink!” Abilene noticed. We even added in a duck that looked like it was sitting in a pond! After making one as a group, the toddlers set out to make their own. They rolled their own playdough using the tools and created a unique and individual flower arrangement.
In the flower playdough activity, the children enhanced their fine motor skills, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination as they rolled, shaped, and squeezed the playdough. As for the picnic activity, pretend play fosters social and emotional skills as well as cognitive and language development as they communicate with each other to understand perspectives and take on roles that they see in real life. We can’t wait for the spring weather to come back, and we are especially looking forward to flowers blooming once again, the warm sun in the sky, and the little critters in our environment that say hi!
