With many snowy and cold days now here, the toddlers are equally interested in the snow but they also find that it may be too cold for them to engage with for very long. When we go outside, they love sitting in the sleds for rides around the playground, or if they are wearing more flexible mittens they enjoy scooping up the fluffy stuff with the shovels. One day, educator Brittany discovered packing snow, which comes every so often when you get the right consistency for the snow, just right for easily rolling snow balls. Brittany showed the children how fast three large snowballs could be rolled and stacked together to build a snowman. Then the children moved around the playground searching for sticks for arms, pieces of wood for the eyes and nose and the final touch, a hat borrowed from the centre. The toddlers loved this snowman so much that they hugged him gently and gathered around him, rather than knocking him over, which is what happens with most stackable toys and items in the program.
In the classroom the toddlers always know when its time to paint. They see their educator(s) open a cupboard and reach in ready to pull out paint and painting accessories. Often, when they see this they gather at the table or come to their educator's side, excited to see what will be offered and very ready to participate! Art is one of their favourite activities! Recently, we combined their love of art and their interest in snow to create a "melted snowman" experience. First they were given a blue sheet of paper and some homemade puffy paint made from a mix of white paint and flour, giving the toddlers a change in the typical paint look and texture. They used their fine motor skills to hold their paintbrushes and spread the heavier than normal paint across their pages. Over the table educator Heather added black paper circles for snowman eyes and buttons, felt black hats, orange paper carrots, and small sticks, that could be snowman arms. Each child was encourage to use as much of the items as they wanted, making their own choices to build on their autonomy and sense of self. Grasping the small items between their fingers they picked them up and placed them into the snowy paint using their imagination and creativity to make the picture exactly what they wanted. Creative art activities are all about the experience of the process, feeling the fun new textures of the sticks, puffy paint, felt and paper to gain a fun sensory experience. Some of the toddlers wanted to experience these senses more directly and painted the paint over their hands and arms making feeling a sticky paste on their skin that dries similar to paper mache. Also, one child thought the little felt hat would make a good hat for her own head and she moved the small object onto her own head. Tada! A new tiny hat! What a funny idea! In the end, each picture was very different from their peers, as they designed their own unique piece of art that was enjoyable to make and made each child proud!
