Monday, February 29, 2016

Playing with Colours

 We've been exploring colours.
 I set up non-messy colour mixing in ziplock bags.
 I added bubble wrap in a couple of them to add texture.
They mixed as well as trying to pop the bubbles.
As they smooshed they noticed that the colours were mixing together.
 
They began to use the coloured shapes to look at the colours.
Did they find some that matched?
The end of our play.
Well mixed, well done.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Loose Parts to Airplanes

Yes another post about airplanes.
This time the children used the materials in our art area
to make their own little plane.
I was given a bunch of empty toothpaste boxes.
Perfect size for a hand held plane.
They used a wide variety of materials,
some of the containers hadn't been off the shelf in a long time.
We used rubber bands, tape and glue to piece it all together.
 
 
Most of the planes went home.
Some flew over to our model airport.



Thursday, February 25, 2016

Playing and Painting with Pete the Cat

The children love Pete the Cat.
I love Pete the Cat and the message it holds.
Most of the children have read the book so I gathered
props for them to retell the story.
I printed pictures of strawberries, blueberries, mud and a tub of water.
Coloured shoes matched each picture.
The children had fun trying to put the different shoes on Pete.
Some were successful others were not.
One day I moved the story book to the art table
where I had plastic shoes and paint for the children to explore.
There was also a small tub of water.
Can you see the print that was made from the water?



Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Airport Inspection

Alex, who gave us tours of our local airport came in to visit our program this week.
He checked out our plane,
security,

brought us baggage tags,
and got a demo of how to signal the plane where to land.
We learned a lot from visiting our airport.
We thank Alex for sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm for his job.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Ready to Fly

While the children were busy buying their tickets and checking their luggage
they wondered where the plane was.
Here it is.
A control panel that we have used for several years.
Lots of buttons and switches to push and move.
This is the beginning of our airplane.
Cardboard panels define the body of the plane.
Classroom chairs fill it up.
The windows are photos printed from the internet.
We've since added front window photos for the pilot.
They are images of our airport.
Watch for future photos.
The seats have bags on the back to hold the safety cards.
Each chair has it's own seat belt.


We are ready to fly!

Monday, February 22, 2016

Airport Renovations

Our airport has been up and running a couple of days and a few changes were made.
The last I posted I was concerned how well the x-ray machine
would stay on the rollers.
How could it be attached?
 The more I thought about it (that night) the more I worried that by placing the box in the middle
it would hinder the play and possibly encourage a child to climb inside.
The next morning I tried something new.
I found two different bins to place the end of the roller conveyor on, 
one for each end.
The yellow box in the middle is for support in case it falls off,
it won't hit the floor.
The box at one end is big enough for the x-ray box to sit on, giving the suitcase a 
long run, and allowing the children to walk beside it.
(Although it didn't stop one child from climbing inside)

At the other end of the rollers
I placed an old bathroom scale for weighing.
Above it is a digital clock that we pretend
are the scale numbers.

The check in counter now contains tickets, baggage tags, and rubber stamp.

Set to go 
Ticket bought, baggage tagged.
Send it over to security.
Into the x-ray machine.

Next we build our airplane.