A Sensory Experience- Herb Playdough

We made a few batches of home made play dough and did not add color to the dough.  Instead I brought in  my over grown herb garden boxes and the children snipped pieces of herbs to add to the play dough.  

As the herbs were cut and ripped their scents were released.  As the children touched the branches and leaves they felt the various textures of the different herbs.  As they kneaded them in to the play dough it became a multi sensory experience watching the dough change color, smell different and have various textures throughout their piece.  

Loose Parts Play with Rain Gutters

Many of the posts of this blog reference learning experiences that feature loose parts.  I love the description of loose parts in Lisa Daly's wonderful resource, Loose Parts: Inspiring Play In Young Children:

"Loose parts are natural or synthetic found, bought, or upcycled materials that children can move, manipulate, control, and change within their play. Alluring and captivating, they capture children's curiosity, give free reign to their imagination, and motivate learning."

Almost any type of material can be a learning resource for children if given the freedom and time to experiment with it.  Here is an example of this in action using pieces of plastic rain gutters found at the local hardware store, some drink dispensers and upcycled applesauce cups.

The containers were filled with colored water using liquid water colors and set on top of a picnic table for easy and independent access for the children.  

The children not only enjoyed using the water on the gutters, but they were excited when they discovered taking some water from each dispenser in order to make new colors of water.  

As this was a new material for our school, we placed the gutters in an initial arrangement that led itself to the water traveling across several pieces at various heights using a natural rock wall and some tires and small tree stumps (loose parts that have been in our play space for some time).

The children were eager to pour the water into the gutters and watch it travel.  They did not always start at the beginning of the sequence.  A few found a favorite spot and poured cup after cup in the same place.  A few always went to the "beginning".  

As it was used, it was moved causing the water to stop traveling all the way to the end.  A problem was discovered and the children set to work to solve the problem.  They began to experiment with moving the gutters, lifting them, rearranging them, connecting them and testing their new arrangements.  

This engineering process continued as initial attempts were less than successful and there were many ideas from the group.  Each believed that they had the solution.  This was a wonderful opportunity for conflict resolution as well as the children had to negotiate how to take turns trying their own ideas and arrangements.  Sometimes when a child would leave a set up to gather more water, they would return to see a change had been made.  It was a good time to get the children talking to each other about planning and testing.  

On other days we added other elements such as a low step ladder.  We wanted the children to feel that the options were endless-there was not a "right way" to arrange these loose parts.

Often careful observation of the properties and elements of the materials was needed.  How can I connect two pieces?  Why won't they stay together?  What could I use to keep them together? What could I put under them for support?

The children talked to each other.  "Wait, I know!  Let's try this..."   "Look what I did, come see this, its working!"  "Its stuck.  How can we get this unstuck?"  They were listening to each other and helping each other solve problems.

We also made sure to move the parts around the outdoor play space to encourage them to use the materials in different combinations. 

With just a few plastic rain gutters, some drink dispensers and colored water, these children participated in engineering, physics, designing, experimenting, problem solving, negotiating, collaboration, observation, testing and task persistence.  Through this highly engaging and motivating PLAY children are developing these critical 21st century skills. 

Please share with us the loose parts play that your children/students are exploring.   

Name Tag Mailboxes-A Simple Way to Encourage Writing in Preschool

With limited wall space in my classroom, I was looking for a creative way to allow each student to have a mailbox without taking up a bulletin board area.

To solve this problem these cubby label mailboxes were invented.

Simply take a business size envelope, decorate it how you would like and then laminate the entire envelope closed.  After it is laminated cut about 1/4 inch along the top of the envelope allowing it to open.  Then punch a hole through the front side and attach the arrow with a brad.  The arrows had also been laminated and cut out.

This allows the arrow to be down if the mailbox is empty and turned up when it is full.

The children enjoy writing each other notes and giving and receiving mail throughout the year.  We discuss how it is important to write your own name as well as the person you are sending it to, so that person will know who to write back to after receiving mail.  

It is exciting for them to look across the room as they are playing and see their flag up.  "I have mail!" can be heard happily expressed as the children rush over to open their messages.

Having the mailboxes double as their cubby labels saves a lot of space and allows the mailboxes to be in a more central location in the classroom rather than a corner or area they may not frequent as often. The teachers and the working parent also have a mailbox...and we always respond to mail.  

A Justification For Loose Parts Play In This Competitive Society-A Professional Development Workshop

I recently enjoyed giving a workshop on loose parts play to the staff of United Methodist Preschool held at Community Cooperative Nursery School.  We started off with the theory behind this kind of play, reflections on current classroom practices and a slide show of the children from CCNS in action.

But the most important part of this workshop is giving the teachers time to actually play and interact with the materials and investigate the kinds of learning that they can envision their students experiencing.  They were asked to not only engage, but to reflect as they played on the skills that children would be learning and applying as they played.  

Then they were given something that is critical for teachers of young children...time to play.  Time to problem solve...

to engage with each other and the materials...

and to get a real sense of what the children experience as they interact with the loose parts.

We concluded the play portion of the session reflecting on the CT Early Learning and Development Standards and what skills from several of the domains this kind of play fosters.

The teachers then created action plans and materials wish lists for incorporating this type of play into their teaching as well as addressing some concerns and issues they may face.  

It is always invigorating for me to be surrounded by such dedicated educators that continue to want to learn more and improve their practices in order to provide young children the best learning environments possible.  

If you are interested in this workshop or other professional development sessions please contact me at danagorman@playfullylearning.me.

Nature Art: A Trip to The Studio

Creating art from nature and natural products is something I am trying to incorporate more in to my classroom experiences.  This year I was turned on to the work of Andy Goldsworthy, a British photographer, sculptor and environmentalist who creates land art using sticks, petals, leaves, rocks and other materials found in the environment in which he chooses to develop his piece.

We did some of this outside using materials the children found on our playground and we also brought numerous natural materials inside for the children to use to create art.  We were not using glue and keeping the products, just experimenting with the textures, colors and objects themselves. In class, we looked at some of Goldsworthy's stunning photographs and tried to emulate his work. (sadly, my photographs of these experiences were lost)

These Goldworthy inspired learning environments left me wanting to learn even more about using natural materials with children.  I was very excited to find that my dear childhood friend, Christine Orlando-Budd, is the co-owner of The Studio in Fairfield, CT and that they were offering a Goldsworthy Art in Nature Summer Camp for two weeks this summer.  I was able to go and visit her program yesterday.  My photographs are not the best as I was more invested in talking to her about the program and then in creating natural art myself.  During each of these Goldsworthy weeks, the children (mixed age group) spend a day looking at video and photographs of his work and then discussing and sketching the artistic elements present in his signature style.  The next four days are spent completely in the field: two days in the woods and two on the beach.  The products the children develop are ephemeral and left where they are created, so they take beautiful photographs of the work and create slide shows of their process.