Beautiful Bonfires and Fantastic Fireworks!

Remember remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot!
A time of year that is full of fun, and with so many opportunities for fantastic learning! 

For anyone that follows me on twitter (@EarlyYearsIdeas) - you may recognise a few of these ideas, as I have tweeted as I've become inspired - but I wanted to round up a selection of activities across the curriculum, for anyone who might find it helpful!

• Explore the colours involved in fire while pouring, mixing and finger painting. 

• You could also investigate the different SHADES of each colour and create a lovely colour wheel through collage (i.e. is a red car exactly the same as a red tomato?) 

• Build your own 'guy' by stuffing an old shirt and pair of trousers - if you have the time you could papier mache a lovely head for him, but if not a balloon or cardboard cut out will do just fine. (speak about what Guy Fawkes might have worn and explore differences between clothing past and present - links to Social Studies)

• Junk model some speeding rockets using toilet roll tubes, cardboard and tissue paper. Make them even more effective by adding streamers or strips of tissue so that they hang out of the bottom - as if they are the flames.

• Using very watery paint - drop a few blobs onto thick paper and use a straw to blow (don't suck!) the colours, creating wonderful firework patterns.

• Use a 'Paint spinner' to make beautiful, Catherine wheel pictures! (Pictured: a nice spinner from the Early Learning Centre)

• Splatter paintings are great messy fun! They are also a wonderful way to bring in some physical skills that will perhaps appeal to boys which often stay away from art. 
• Cover a wall with paper (black/ dark blue looks lovely for a night sky feel) OR just use a large cardboard box (perhaps from a washing machine or other large appliance).
• Use a few sponges and dip them into paint (poster paint is best - maybe watered down a little so that the sponge absorbs it well)
• Throw the paint covered sponge at the wall/ into the box to create great big, messy, fantastic SPLATS!

• Another form of splatter painting is to use a toothbrush - dip into the paint and then run your finger across the bristles to flick the paint onto the paper. I love doing this with white paint onto black paper and the results make for a beautiful starry background for other pictures/ displays.

• Marble rolling can also create lovely colourful patterns. This can be done in a high sided tray, but I would recommend trying it in an old 'quality street' tin (or something similar) for the added bonus of the banging and crashing sounds as the marbles roll about inside - just like real fireworks!

• Speaking or firework sounds, can we make any using out bodies? Maybe stamping our feet to make a banging sound, or I wonder if anyone can whistle like a screaming rocket?

• Provide a variety of musical instruments for the children to make their own firework sounds: tambourines, drums, and whistles are best (top tip - personally I would only have these out at certain times of the day, rather than letting the children access them independently. There are 2 main reasons for this - 1: supervision of the whistles so that they can be washed between different children's turns 2: There is only so long that I can deal with screeching whistles in my ear!!)

• Now that we've thought about the sounds that the fireworks make, let's investigate what they look like! Encourage the children to move their bodies as if they were rockets shooting through the air, or as if they were a huge explosion of light and colour, or spinning and twirling like a catherine wheel.

• Explore new language by creating a word wall. This could include:
• Rocket
• Sparkler
• Twinkle
• Bang
• Pop
• Whistle
• Whizz
• Zoom

• Provide both story books and information books about this celebration. Here is a lovely book about bonfire night from a series which explores the many different religious and cultural holidays and celebrations: 

• This celebration is also a good opportunity to introduce books and learning about London as you investigate the houses of parliament and perhaps extend the learning to find out about other famous landmarks.

• Use a variety of interesting brushes (brushes made of natural resources such as grass/ leaves bound together, or dish-washing brushes etc) and investigate shapes and patterns while printing and stamping

• Turn a simple 'colouring page' into a game by numbering different sections, then rolling the dice to see which part you may colour first. For example, roll 1: colour the houses, roll 2: colour the moon, roll 3: colour the rocket...

• Make your own height chart with your rocket at the top, and it's trail of sparks as the ruler to measure yourself by.

• Encourage the children to think about appropriate clothing and wrapping up warm by playing pairs or other matching and sorting games using gloves, warm socks, hats, scarves etc

• Learn about time and routines, as well as day and night by making your own paper plate clocks, setting them to the time that you will be going to see the fireworks, and allowing the children to compare it to the real clock within the room.

• A huge part of your learning for bonfire night should be focused on safety. Remind your children they they must always keep a safe distance from a fire and must always stay with an adult. Here are some fantastic bonfire safety videos presented to the children by Fireman Sam!

• Why not act out the scenario of bonfire night, to allow the children to understand exactly what will happen and remember how to keep themselves safe. Provide coats, hats, scarves, wellies etc in the role play area for the children to practice putting on by themselves, you could then take them out into the garden/ outdoor area and either use a real fire (if you have a suitable, child friendly fire pit) or make a pretend fire using sticks and material or tissue paper. Make sure to have a visible 'safety circle' (or perimeter) that the children must stay behind. This is a practical form of learning which will help the children to remember.

• A tasty bonfire night treat which is easy to make is Chocolate apples. Push a fork into an apple, dip into melted chocolate and add sprinkles. Yummy!

• Symmetrical firework ICT pictures using 'Paint'
• Predicting and experimenting to discover which materials will burn in a fire
• Firework discovery bottles
• Glitter on the light box
• Exploring glow sticks and torches

I would love to go on and list all of the many other ideas - but I am running out of space and time, so instead - I shall point you in the direction of a few others who have some absolutely fantastic ideas that I would love to try:

Bottle rockets - by teach beside me

Fireworks in a jar - by I can teach my child

Edible Sparklers - by Red Ted Art

Sprinkle fireworks - by Reading Confetti

Have a fantastic week everyone! 

Bonkers for Conkers!

I absolutely love this time of year! The colours, the crisp, clear skies, the crunch of the leaves underfoot... oh and the conkers!!

Image from morguefile.com

I have so many happy memories of going out, collecting conkers with my parents...but what do you do with them once they're collected?

Here are just a few ideas for you to try (besides the traditional game of 'conkers'!):

First things first

• Get your coats on and go out for a lovely Autumn walk. Notice the changes that are happening all around and, of course, collect lots of conkers. Remember to pick up some that are still inside their spiky shells!

Investigating

• Why not set up an investigation table where the children can explore their conkers? Add a light box, some magnifying glasses, pictures and simple information books. 

• Remember to ask some prompting questions to get the children thinking; for example "Do all of our conkers looks the same?"

• You could also create some beautiful discovery bottles by adding the conkers (plus any other Autumn nature that you like) into a bottle either with or without water. These discovery bottles make a wonderful addition to your light table.

I love these seasonal discovery bottles from Sun Hats & Wellie Boots :

Maths

• After collecting them, encourage your children to count how many conkers that they have in their bags, and develop their numeracy skills further by making comparisons i.e. Does George have more or less conkers in his bag than Belle?

• Children can weigh and compare conkers using simple balance scales (if you don't have any scales, make your own using a clothes hanger and 2 pots!)

• A simple muffin tin, or assortment of containers can allow children to sort and organise the conkers. This can be adult led and guided; for example "can you put 3 conkers into each pot?" or you can allow children to sort for their own criteria.

• Create interesting designs and patterns with your conkers! Cover a large table with paper and draw some grids, circles or other outlines which the children can then use to create their own patterns.

Creative and Art

• Painting a conker is a skill in itself! The children develop their problem solving skills as they work out how to prevent the conker from rolling away. Remember to add a blob of PVA glue into your paint so that it sticks to the shiny surface of your conkers.

• Conker rolling: Using a deep tray or last years 'Quality Street' tin, line the bottom with paper, add some dollops of poster paint, add conkers and ROLL! Encourage the children to work out how to make the conkers roll across all of the paper by tipping and turning the tin in different ways.

• Drawing pictures of the conkers is a lovely calm activity and encourages children to observe and notice details.

• Transient Art is a type of art which is of the moment and not permanent. Provide some large sheets of paper (I find that black creates a nice contrast) and lots of loose autumn materials (leaves, conkers, twigs etc) and get creating!

Here is a lovely example of Autumn transient art from: NatureNurture :

• Looking for a larger project? Try and create some large papier mache conkers. All you need is an inflated balloon, some ripped up newspaper (the children will enjoy helping with this!) and a thin mixture of PVA and water. Lots of messy, sensory fun to be had here!

Language and Literacy

• Work with the children to create an Autumn word wall. Some 'conker' themed words include:

           Spiky
           Smooth
           Green
           Brown
           Round

Music

• Encourage the children to explore their musical instruments to see if they can create spiky sounds (like the outer shell of the conker) or smooth sounds (like the conker itself).

• Enjoy a music and movement session using some calming music (lots to be found on YouTube) and guide the children and they act out the growing tree, the changing seasons, and the falling of the leaves and conkers to the ground.

ICT

• Use your computers/ tablets to access the Internet and find out more information about conkers. What are conkers? Do they have another name? Are there different types?

Construction

• Another chance to roll those conkers! Build ramps using wooden blocks, large pieces of cardboard or long tubes and have a race! You can extend the learning by prompting the children to make predictions, for example: will the big conker or the small conker win the race?

Science

• Include conkers as well as other Autumn objects in your water tray area and learn about floating and sinking.

Fine Motor Skills

• Drill a small hole through each of your conkers and allow the children to practise threading them to create a necklace or maybe even a conker caterpillar!

• Provide a variety of spoons, ladles etc as well as a few different containers and allow the children to practise scooping and moving the conkers from one place to another. (This takes patience, control and good hand-eye coordination!)

There are oh so many more activities for you to try using conkers. 
If you're wanting more, I'd recommend visiting www.pinterest.com (a fantastic resource for all EYPs!) if you are not already familiar with it.

Have fun!!

Lovely Lightboxes

Good evening everyone! I thought that today I would devote a post to a fantastic, sometimes a little under-appreciated resource - the Lightbox!

If you don't already have a lightbox (sometimes known as a light table) - don't panic! You can make your own quite easily by putting a lamp or some fairy lights into a large plastic container.
A nice simple tutorial can be found here.

Ok, first things first; in order to use your lightbox effectively you must put some thought into where  you'll put it and how you'll present it - hopefully making it into an exciting invitation to play!
My favourite way to set it out is to have the lightbox on a low table, or even set on the floor, so that it is easily accessible and at child height, and place it against a mirror, or better yet - surround it with a 3 sided mirror! 
There are some lovely examples of how to set out your light boxes on pinterest.

Now that your lightbox area is set up, you can start thinking about the skills that you want the children to be developing, and the resources that you can add to promote these skills!

Here are just a few ideas:

As well as these general ideas, there are many other ways to involve your lightbox in your learning, for example: if you are learning about the body and people who help us - you could add X-rays. If you are learning about Autumn, you could add discovery bottles with pine cones, conkers, leaves! You see? The possibilities are endless!

I find that the lightbox is a great way to encourage children to look at items in detail. It can also help children to concentrate and focus. I hope I have inspired you to have another look at your lightbox!

Here are some more fantastic lightbox ideas to inspire tou from blogs around the web:

Ice on the lightbox by Garden Gate Child Development Centre

A beautiful glittery light table by Fairy Dust Teaching

A huge selection of 'everyday' ways to use your lightbox from Teach Preschool