THEME: So this week was all about Building.
COGNITIVE SKILLS: Using the Play School info sheet to get ideas from we were able to talk about what buildings need in order to stand strong and what makes them not collapse. Asher spent time building towers with an old set of blocks I found one day at the op shop. There are some very odd shaped blocks in there so we worked on how to make it stand up by choosing the correct pieces. Of course knocking it down was the favourite part! He also loves pretending to be a dog, ALL THE TIME recently so we made a kennel out of the blocks too.
He did get frustrated with the blocks at times as they are a skill he needs to work on, he doesn't quite get why a small one won't hold up a big one but as the week went on he got there. Previous to this week he hasn't spent a great deal of time playing with blocks as he always goes straight for the cars. This has been a good change.
We spent a bit of time using Duplo and constructing many different combinations with the pieces. Asher's favourite thing to do is make a farm yard as that is one of the sets we have, we also have a circus that Jet got for Chriatmas but Asher still prefers the farm yard. He built it really high and we were talking about the different colours of the blocks and how many pieces were needed to construct his farm. Duplo has only recently become a favourite and I think I will be investing in it over the year. Grandma was the one who bought initially and I'm thankful she did!
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CRAFT: I attempted a couple of crafts that we had done before that were previously successful but this week were not. A combination of fun daddy being home at the time and maybe the timing during the day of the activity didn't help. For the short period he did go with it, we made shapes of buildings from paddle pop sticks and glued them onto tin foil. We made a house and a crane. He like playing with the glue the most I think...
Then we used cut up pieces of foam to build a dinosaur. There were several different shapes that he could choose from to put the dinosaur together. He loves dinosaurs! Again I think we will try this while daddy is away as he just wanted to go play...which was fine.
LANGUAGE/RHYME A DAY: We started our rhyme a day unit from the webbing into literacy website - it was Jack and Jill. Little baby even got into it and started repeating the rhythm of the poem, that was cool! We clapped and worked on the pattern of the rhyme and will probably stick with the same rhyme for another week as we didn't go over it that often.
Asher also loves reading and books in general, so I sat a towel down one afternoon and let him go for it. I wanted to see how many books he would get through while encouraging him to stay in one place - on the towel. He did really well and I would say it ended up being about half an hour. This was interrupted by little Jet and did cause problems, baby wanted to sit on my lap and so did asher and then there were tears. I realised this is all part of the learning process. But overall it was great to see Asher engaged in a pile of books for that long and could have gone on longer.
WRITING: We also tried salt tray letter writing one of the days ~ it was a hit but I would like to see him sit for a bit longer with this. I might need to incorporate other utensils. He made shapes and attempted a few letters, definitely writing is something I want to work on. He also enjoys the magna doodle board we have, I got a Disney Planes one which has shapes and the outline of different planes to copy from a book it comes with. Asher likes trying to make the shapes and draw the planes but does get frustrated when he can't. I think it's a great tool to practice writing and drawing though, especially since it is all about planes!
ACTIVITY: As a family we took the boys to a free animal park, the weather was cooler and the time together was lovely. I loved seeing how excited Jet got at seeing everything. He literally was looking at these creatures for the first time. The huge kangaroo bouncing straight for him made him scared but it was kinda cute too...there was a huge cow and a lamb in the barn yard section which Asher loved but Jet got scared again.
The best place of all after we visited the animals was a special exhibition at the art gallery ~ all about building and construction! It was incredible and incredibly busy...but such an awesome way to end our first week of 'school'. Asher was well behaved for most of the day also and that was fantastic. He really looked forward to what we were doing and it made him feel good we were praising him for his behaviour. A happy toddler equals a happy mummy and daddy!
The construction site was fabulous with a section for play in kinetic sand, a make your own ball run area and then the huge construction zone upstairs. The kinetic sand was mesmerizing, the baby got Iinto it and Asher who normally would bounce onto another activity was able to sit and play for a good amount of time. He watched the older boys around him and decided he would do what they were doing and he was loving it. The construction site had hundreds of foam blocks and there were little people building everywhere! Daddy was the biggest kid of all and Asher's partner in crime...then we went onto the ball run. Here you could build your own path on a wall to see how long your ball would slide down for - it was great and such a good thing for kids. Before we left it was one more stop at the kinetic sand...overall such a fun visit, and both boys were learning the whole time - success!
THOUGHTS: After writing down everything we actually did and achieved i have realised we have gone through a lot. It is a process of trial and error but i am happy with how it turned out. I am continually evaluating my goals and expectations and realise it won't aleays come together how i think it should but that the boys are still learning and that is the main goal in all of this.
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