“Animals Roaming in the City of Starry Dreams” Open Ended Free Play
A table was covered with shiny black cloth with a light table device underneath it. Atop of it were colored translucent Lego blocks, various colored plastic mosaics, and toy animals. Together with Seila, we unleashed our creativity using these materials… here’s what we did:
A built towers using the colored translucent Lego blocks while T drove vehicles around it.
N seemed to be interested in “measuring” the towers her friends built through her hands & fingers.
S, our newest friend, explored toy animals and made it move around the black cloth
E, using the colored plastic mosaics, formed animals.
This activity allowed us opportunities to mingle, collaborate, and share our perspectives about animals and the city.
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Coloring the “Mystical Animals”
The images of “mystical” animals were again brought out for us to add more colors in it. Around it were blank drawn stars which added a “magical” feel to it. The stars were included to slowly introduce us to “Tanabata”.
T, L, and A joined forces in “scribbling” in colors by deciding amongst themselves which color of oil pastel to use. All three of them were rather mesmerized when a demonstration of how swirls are drawn was shown to them. Using rainbow colored oil pastels, they drew numerous swirls around the images of “mystical animals”.
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Buckets of Surprise
Towards the inner part of the room, four red buckets filled with cubes and strips of foam cut outs were laid out for us to explore. Animal finger puppets were “hidden” in it and we were cheered on by our teachers to take courage to look & search inside the buckets. After finding the animals, we were also asked if we could fit & slot in the finger puppets on a wooden hand model. This activity was to help us raise awareness of the structure of our fingers & hands which we use to create beautiful & wonderful things.
Several of us extended what the intention of this activity was about by using the materials to do pretend play. Together with Liezel, here’s what we did:
K placed foam strips and let it hang on the circular lid. When asked if it resembled a certain animal, she said, “Snake!” It did look like snakes slithering through a hole!
K tinkered with the idea of going through the variety of finger puppets and observing its appearance. She also tried fitting her tiny hands into it.
T occupied himself with slotting in the finger puppets into the wooden hand model.
N and S used the strips of foam to make dishes (perhaps pasta?) by placing it inside pots and pans
J used the lid of the buckets to play peek – a – boo
A thought of aligning the foam strips in the bucket’s lid
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Tanabata Lantern Making
J (E’s older sister) came by to guide us in making lanterns for Tanabata. She demonstrated and guided us in cutting paper and decorating our lanterns with strips of gold paper & zebra printed paper. E shined in this activity by showing her amazing cutting skills. What made it even more special was pasting golden stars around our lanterns which made us sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.
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Circle Time
To start off our Circle Time, we danced to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”, a few of us boldly took the opportunity to showcase and lead each other by showing a dance move when asked. The activity was also a great opportunity for our younger friends to strengthen their gross motor skills by squatting, bending, standing, and etc.
After an energetic dance session, we did our morning name roll call and officially welcomed our new friend, S. She did really well on her first day and we are happy to see her be comfortable in our company.
After introducing ourselves we were all given two pieces of colored plastic mosaic. To the tune of Furns’ “Jangala”, we did various movements with it such as:
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“Balancing” it on both our hands
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Transferring/switching pieces from one hand to another
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Using it as sunglasses
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“Dream Animals: A Bedtime Journey” by Emily Winfield Martin
We were again read the story “Dream Animals: A Bedtime Journey” by Emily Winfield Martin wherein we were quite surprised to see how magical animals brought young dreamers to different magical, fantasy worlds.
Going along the concept of “magic” and “fantasy”, our Tanabata lanterns were brought out and each of us was asked to share a wish. A few of the wishes shared were about hopes to safely travel to another country, be a superhero, and enjoy a nice meal.
Here’s our wish to everyone: “To always find happiness in life.”
We sincerely wish everyone is enjoying the lovely Thursday weather.
Love,
Buds Class Children