Writing and Phonics Seaside Small World Play

Over the last couple of months, I have been reading about and following some of the suggestions in the book Montessori Read and Write: A Parent's Guide to Literacy for Children, by Lynne Lawrence
in response to Wugs' recent interest in writing.  At the same time as familiarising himself with the shapes of the letters, he has also been exploring the beginning sounds of certain words.  Our favourite activities have included "I spy" games ("I spy with my little eye something beginning with "sss" - ie referring to the sound of the letter rather than its name) and pulling objects out of a mystery bag and then grouping the objects according to the starting letter of their names.  Today's small world was an extension of these activities combined with Wugs' favourite type of play - sensory small world play.

The group of letters we have been exploring are S,M,A,T so I gathered objects that had these letters at the beginning of their words and arranged them in the play scene - a scorpion crawling out of the sea, a straw and piece of string buried in the sand, a landing spot made out of a mirror for air balloons and aeroplanes, an ambulance, a motorbike and truck travelling across the sand, a shark, turtle and scuba diver swimming in the sea near to a treasure chest and a spoon and a stick placed outside the box for Wugs to use to scoop or draw in the sand.

In a separate container, I placed the four letters that corresponded to the names of the objects in the play scene so that Wugs could match them up.

As the weather was sunny I took the small world into the garden and let Wugs play with it as he pleased.  He pulled out the different objects asking the names of the ones he didn't know.  He proceeded to write letters into the sand using the stick and manipulated the string into the shape of various letters.  After he had finished writing, I asked him if he could find something that begins with "sss".  He pulled out a straw and we put it in the container section under "s".  We went through all the objects in the play scene until it was empty - some of the objects he identified correctly and some he struggled with, so I encouraged him to listen to the beginning sounds of the words.

Once all the objects had been taken out of the scene and categorised according to their starting letters, I let Wugs play with the scene as he wished.  Interestingly he continued to refer to the objects using their beginning sounds even though we were no longer categorising them.

What we used:
Tub
Sand
Blue perspex (for the sea)
Water
Figurines and other small objects related to the letters
Wooden letters
Container for letters

( If I did this activity again I would probably use less figurines and more objects that he was less familiar with to make it more challenging).

Arctic Small World Play

Our arctic small world play was inspired by a topic that Wugs' preschool is covering this week on the earth's polar regions.

To give Wugs and Dooey a different sensory material to play with (we have previously made "snow" from cornflour and oil), I decided to try a combination of baking soda and shaving cream.  When mixed together they create a rough powder-like texture that can be pressed together to make larger chunks or rolled into a large hard ball.  It was an interesting material to explore as the larger chunks (when chipped away at) would suddenly disintegrate.  For that reason, it was also a messy material to play with that left a thin sheen of white powder on everything in that area of their playroom! 

I added some blue perspex to the bottom of the tub to create a sea and added some figurines.  Dooey was particularly interested in the animals, so he learned a few new words.  Wugs was preoccupied with layering the snow on his helicopter and cars which he then wanted to wash off (yesterday he watched me de-ice our car which was covered in a thick layer of frost, so I expect that is why he played with it in this way).  The idea of frost and snow is still largely a novelty to the boys.  They haven't yet experienced real snow!

After they played we watched a short clip of the Arctic Ocean by the National Geographic which featured some of the animals we played with.  

What we used:

Large tub

Blue perspex

3 pots of baking soda (600g)

200ml of shaving cream

Figurines (we used the arctic Safari Ltd Toob)

Spoons, funnels and small containers

Jelly Worlds

Today I took advantage of my husband having a public holiday and decided to put together a sensory play activity for both Wugs and Dooey. I haven't attempted this with both children at the same time before, so it was a bit of an experiment and it helped to have an extra set of hands and eyes to limit the mess. Having said that, the play was surprisingly civilised.

I themed the jelly play according to the moulds that I already had in the cupboard - flowers, fish, starfish and shells.  Making the jelly involved a bit of trial and error as I bought two types of jelly - one made of seaweed ("Swallow Globe Agar-Agar) that involved adding sugar and boiling the mix and the other one ("Jello") was a ready mix that only required hot and cold water. I found the seaweed jelly to be the best as it was firmer, cheaper, set quicker and with just 4 packets of the white powder, I could separate it out and colour it with food colouring according to my requirements (so less waste).  Having said that, the "Jello" softer jelly worked best as a base (we used it as the base of the coral reef jelly tub).  As it broke up easily, it was fun moving the firmer jelly fish, shells etc through the base.  It also meant the children could experience the texture of two different types of jelly.

As the coral reef themed tub was for Wugs, I included some non-edible plastic coins (treasure) for Wugs to dig up.

Then we placed each tub on the light box to see how the light passes through the jelly creating different colours.  For details on how to make your own light box, click on my post: DIY Light Box

The first thing Dooey did was pick out the small flowers from his tub and eat them.  He saw the sensory play as one big feast, to the point that we had to remove some of the flowers as I was concerned about the sugar content.  The first thing Wugs did was use a spoon and carefully lift out the fish for closer examination.  He did eventually touch the jelly, but preferred to handle it with utensils.  Then they swapped places and enjoyed each others' tubs.

What we (should have) used:
(I'll spare you the details of exactly how many packets and brands of jelly we went through to get the right mix and just give you my recommendation):

1 packet of "Jello" green powder mix jelly
1 packet of "Jello" blue powder mix jelly
2 packets of "Swallow Globe Agar-Agar" of white seaweed jelly (I'm sure any brand of seaweed jelly would have worked as well)
500g castor sugar
Food colouring (red, yellow, green, blue)
Tubs

Coral Reef Small World Play

My little family has fallen sick today.  Dooey is congested and Wugs is out of sorts, so I thought we would take our small world play out on to the balcony and soak up some vitamin D.

I set up the coral reef scene by placing some small mats (a mini version of our bath mats) on the base of our plastic tub.  These have small suckers on the bottom and were a good alternative to glass nuggets which I can't find in Singapore.  I built the rest of the scene on top of the mats and placed a bowl of additional figurines and a bowl of pasta shells for Wugs to dunk in the water.

What we used:
Aqua-coloured plastic place mats
Shells and precious stones
Pasta shells (I used these simply because I didn't have many real shells, but it would have worked better with the real ones as the pasta shells made the water cloudy)
Coral reef/underwater-themed figurines
Stones
Scoops

Ocean Squishy Bag

We have been following an ocean theme at the moment with our coral reef small world play and bath play.  To extend the theme a little further and to take advantage of all that light pouring through our balcony doors, I wanted to see how Wugs would respond to an ocean squishy bag.

I emptied a tube of hair gel into a clear file pocket and added blue food colouring, squishing it about until the blue colouring had evenly dyed the hair gel. Then I added some coral reef/underwater figurines, sealed the top of the file and fixed it to the balcony doors with strong tape.  It looked like a mini aquarium on our balcony doors and Wugs enjoyed prodding and poking it and pointing out the fish.

What we used:
Coral reef and underwater figurines
Hair gel
Blue food colouring
Clear file pocket

(Note: I washed out the file pocket before I made my squishy bag to see if the file pocket leaked.  In retrospect, this was a bad idea as the pocket appeared to retain some of the water which broke up the hair gel at the top and corner of the file.  It probably would have been better to use a Ziploc bag inside a Ziploc bag (for double protection) rather than a clear file pocket).

Coral Reef Bath Play

Wugs' coral reef bath marks my first attempt at doing something creative for Wugs' bath time.  Just 4 days later I gave birth to Dooey, so I'm glad I managed to sneak one fun activity in before the demands of a newborn baby took over.

I made the beach and coral reef scenery by drawing the images on foam sheets, cutting them out and dipping them in water which made them stick to the window.  The coral reef scenery was made from some glittery foam sheets, which added a nice effect. I dyed the bath water blue and added a couple of interactive elements: A bucket of "sand" which was made from shaving cream, yellow food colouring and a little sea salt (Wugs had great fun painting the tiles with this) and a tub of "ice cream" which was actually a bath bomb with a turtle inside.  I haven't introduced Wugs to bath bombs yet, so he was a bit wary of all the fizzing, but was thrilled to see the little turtle popping out.    


A successful first attempt at creative bath time play which I measured according to the speed in which Wugs fell asleep that night!

What we used:
Foam sheets
Glittery foam sheets
Blue food colouring
Shaving cream
Yellow food colouring
Sea salt
Bath bomb - I followed this recipe.
Bath toy (small enough to fit inside the bath bomb mould)
Spades