My Life in Mono...

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. 

Building with blocks

Growing up, my sisters and I had a tub of wooden blocks. We would spend hours and hours building castles and towers with them and send them CRASHING down. Now I plan to pass it on to the Lil' Tiger. I got these beautiful blocks from KMart and we started building and stacking the blocks.  One minute she is building a castle like the boys from her day care and the next, she is building a house for mummy.  Sometimes she ask me to help and she just watches as I stack them on and then starts copying it in her own way.

I love how toys like these wooden blocks and the Legos from last week do not require any batteries at all but still manage to keep a child entertained for hours and hours. These are the sort of toys that I love. It not only encourage her imagination but it also encourage her fine motor skills and logic. A very good "off screen" type of activities for young children these days. 

Her house

Mummy's house

This is how we roll! 

Joint effort

And just like that CRASH. 

Play Matters : Box

One morning, the Lil' Tiger woke up and asked if she could have the empty box sitting next to the door.  I asked her what does she want to do with it and she smiled and said, "It's my car, mummy". I told her she could have it and she dragged it to her colouring table, took her crayons and started decorating it.  After that, she turned it around and sat in it making car noises.  

I asked her where is she going in her car and she promptly told me that she is going to the shops to get her milk for nap time.  After a while, she got her dolls and told me that they were going on a ride with her to the shops and also to the playground. 

It's amazing how a box could keep her occupied for hours. She was talking to herself and to her babies, pushing and pulling the box around the house and at the end, she told me it was her bed for nap time and she was going to sleep in the box with her babies and that I should cover them up with a blanket because they were cold! 

Her imagination never cease to amaze me. It's true what they say that you do not need expensive toys for kids, all you need is something simple, like a box, and let their imagination run wild! I hope she never stops using her imagination. Watching and observing her and her imagination is so satisfying. 

Do your kids do the same? What have they imagined lately? 

Matching alphabets

This month, I am starting to introduce the Lil' Tiger to her alphabets. I am starting out slow as I am also still trying to learn how to teach her the alphabets.  

I spoke to her carers at daycare to see what activities they are learning there at the moment and coincidentally they were learning their alphabets and numbers too! YEAY! That way she wouldn't be too overwhelmed by all these things that she needs to learn. 

I laid out a simple matching game for her one afternoon using flashcards that I already have on hand.  I only used the first 10 alphabets just to see if she finish the activity.  I got her to watch me match capital letters to small letters. Once I was done, I reshuffled the cards and laid it down randomly for her.  The LT did brilliantly she matched almost all the letters correctly. :) 

My next goal now is to introduce the alphabets individually. We are starting with the letter  O this week. 

 

Coloured Salt...

If you are following me on Pinterest or on Facebook (if you are not, you should by the way), you would know that I have started my Montessori journey with the Lil' Tiger.  I was intrigued by the way children learn when I went to an open day at a Montessori school near by.  I was amazed by how the children have some sort of freedom in how they learn, more on my journey later. 

One of the activity that is recommended for the Lil' Tiger's age is tracing letters, shapes and patterns.  Usually this is done with a tray and some sand. Now, I have no access to sand and I don't think people would like it if I take some from the beach so I searched on Pinterest for a while and finally saw this post on The Imagination Tree using coloured salt! What a brilliant idea! 

All you need is 3 simple things that you already have at home.  

• A bag of Salt
• few drops of food colouring of your choice
• a huge ziplock bag (I got mine from IKEA).  

Add the salt in the ziplock bag, add a few drops of the food colouring slowly and mix.  All done.  If you added too much food colouring (like me) I suggest you wait for it to dry overnight first before using it. 

Easy right?  Now to get the Lil' Tiger interested in doing a little tracing with it. :) 

Our ANZAC Day...

How did you spend your ANZAC day? Today we got to sleep in a little bit.  I know people usually get up before the break of dawn to get to the dawn service but I thought this year we would just stay home and reflect.  

I told the Lil' Tiger about the soldiers that went out to fight for the freedom of our country and also what it means to live free in Australia. I know she may not grasp the true meaning of it but I hope if I do this every year she will understand it one day and appreciate the sacrifices that these men, women and animal did for our great nation. 

This afternoon, our ANZAC activity is to make poppies from paper.  I downloaded the template from Tiny Me and pre cut a few petals as prep.  I gave a pair of scissors to the Lil' Tiger and taught her how to use it properly.  I think she still needs a lot of pratice using it properly but she is getting there. :)  She did well with the glue stick though. 

We were also suppose to bake ANZAC biscuits but I forgot that I ran out of golden syrup at home.  Owh well. Maybe next year hey? I hope next year I will get myself together and maybe plan a day of it. 

How did you remember/celebrate ANZAC day with your little ones?