My Life in Mono...

Invitation to Play: Animals

 

Inspired by "Small World Play" via Childhood101 and Imagination Tree, I thought, maybe I could do one for the Lil' Tiger as well.  And boy it was a hit! This Invitation to Play needed no prompts at all.  It was "What is that mummy?" and I said "We are building a zoo" and off she went.  Spent a good 30 minutes engaging in it as well.  

Questions were asked as well and that is what I like about activities such as these.  The questions. What animal is this mummy?  What noise does this one make mummy?  Does this animal fly mummy?  Questions I know all the answers to and questions I am happy to answer. I know she is learning and absorbing new things at the same time.  Even Daddy got to play a little. It was very heartwarming. I am hoping that she will continue to play and add on with this play activity.  

 

Invitation to play

Plastic zoo animals. Some bought some gifted and some found.

Building houses with Daddy's help

Animals at home

 

There was even a pig race. 

**Joining the co-op with Pauline. :)

Learning Through Play :: Australian "Aussie" Animals

 

Disclosure:  I was given a gift certificate to Woolworth to get supplies.  Opinion and how I go about to using the gift certificate is my own choice.

 

If you have been following me on Instagram, you would know that this season, I have started teaching the Lil' Tiger about Australian "Aussie" Animals.  I was inpired by Woolworth's Aussie Animals cards and the Lil' Tiger's love for animals.  What better way to teach her about native animals right?  

I think Woolworth hit the jackpot with kids this time.  These cards were a huge hit.  Albums sold out everywhere and there was even a swap meet at certain stores where you can swap and trade these cards.  The Lil' Tiger's album is almost completed, I did not get her the album but I used an old business card holder I had lying around. But she loves going through it naming each and every animal. Well... she did try to.

Anyways, I couldn't find a lot of "lesson plans" from the Internet, so I decided to just "wing" it and see where it would lead us.  I made a "Montessori" insipred nomenclature cards, went to our library to borrow books inspired by Australian Animals and even YouTube a couple of sounds or calls that these animals make. 

We got books featuring native animals from the library and I even found wooden puzzles featuring them as well! Wooot.  Every night before bedtime, we would read a book about The Wombat or Josephine the Dancing Kangaroo or the Bunyip. She absolutely loves them. The Wombat is her favourite.

I used the Gift voucher I got from Woolworth to get laminating pouches and coloured pom poms (shown above) so we could play matching games. I would name the animal and she would place the pom poms on each photos.  She did really well and was asking to do it over and over again.

The most amazing thing happened when we were going for our last swimming lesson for the term, a little friendly Kookaburra was sitting on top of a car and the Lil' Tiger squealed with joy and was able to identify the Kookaburra straight away!  He even let us come really close to snap a photo.

Invitation to play...

When I first came across the term Invitation to Play via one of my favourite blogger.  Anna from Imagination Tree has beautiful Invitations to Play set up for her children to learn and play with the most basic stuff you can get around the house.

What is Invitation to Play?

Simply put, Invitation to Play is organising or arranging an area of the home or room that would “invite” the child to come an explore and be engaged in an activity in a fun way thus promoting independent play as well.  The child should be able to touch, feel, explore and most importantly ask questions and ignite their curiosity.   

The Lil’ Tiger is at a stage where she asks Why and What all the time.  I spoke to a friend of mine who is a teacher, and he said, it’s good that young children ask Why, it means that they are Constantly thinking about things and wanting to learn about things around them.  This is the most crucial time to engage them in what ever they are interested in.

Why is the sky blue? Why the chicken has red bits on it’s head? Why is Pixel wagging his tail so fast? These are some of the questions I get asked from time to time.

 Invitations to Play at my home

I am a firm believer that all children need to play and they learn better through play as well.  So I have decided to do the same and create several “Invitations to Play” for the Lil’ Tiger.  If you follow me on Instagram, you would know that I do this frequently and I rotate her toys from time to time and only leave out 4-6 choices of toys for her so she will not get overwhelm by it.

When I notice that the Lil’ Tiger has not touched a certain toy or has not been engaged by something laid out for her in a while, it goes back in a box and I lay out something new for her.  I will observe her for the week or the day to see what she is interested in or what she has been asking.  This week, the Lil’ Tiger has been very interested in picture puzzles.  She will be engaged for hours just putting them together and then taking them apart again and again and each time she finishes the puzzles, she yells “I did it!”. Cute.

Pictured below are just some of the types of Invitations to Play I have set up around my house.  I
will be posting and sharing more on Instagram and on the Facebook page in the near future.

 You can read more about Invitations to Play from some of my favourite Early Childhood Educator/Bloggers.

Anna from The Imagination Tree.

Debroah from Teach Preschool.

Christie from Childhood 101.

Pauline*** from Lesson Learnt Journal.

***If you noticed, my previous post about Surviving Child Care, has a video featuring Pauline. She was the mum with the Manny.