Carolyn’s Play House Highlights
November 2003
New and Noteworthy!
As we launch this new ‘semester’ at Carolyn’s Play House, our newest members – Aditi, Lucia and Jackson – are making themselves at home and inspiring new ideas and activities for the rest of us. Malcolm’s eyes shine when he sees the babies, Sky announces that the ‘bubbies’ have arrived, you will see much diapering, carrying and strolling of dolls by Eli (lullabies included), and watch us compete to see who can make them smile and laugh the most! Simon and Malcolm are delighted to include Jackson in play kitchen games -- Simon brings plates and cups to the table and pretty soon either Jackson or Malcolm or both join him for tea (or spaghetti made with our own garlic press and play dough).
Also new is our toddler version of circle time. Sky and Eli are the leaders here, bringing down their small rugs and going from room to room announcing circle time; encouraging others to join them (Sky pats the rug and motions for Simon and Jackson to come sit). Now they both join in; Jackson watches intently and Simon does all the finger and hand song movements with us. Malcolm sits on his rug for a while and then goes off to the playroom – and that’s just fine with us! We start with everyone’s favorite, the ‘Hello Song,’ going round to everyone. Each does an action or makes a sound and we all imitate. Even teachers, and of course Aditi and Lucia, are included. Sometimes the babies are wiggling their toes and we all do the same! Aditi now claps with us; and one day when we sang ‘Hello’ to Lucia she gave us a beatific smile and everyone laughed.
Things We Like to Do Together…
Aditi and Lucia love more than anything to watch the toddlers’ antics. We have a new CD with the ‘Sneezing Song’ – when it’s their turn the toddlers pretend to sneeze heartily. One day Sky had on his favorite construction worker hat. He stood in the playroom and pretended to sneeze, each time making his hat fall off his head. We all had a good laugh, especially Lucia and Aditi. Simon thought it a great idea and did the same thing, but when he sneezed his hat didn’t fall off! But he kept trying and trying until it did, and we all cheered.
The babies also like to give each other things and take them back. One day Lucia picked up a ball, rolled it on the floor, handed it to Aditi, who kept it of course. Lucia tried to get it back from Aditi who would have none of it. But when she forgot all about it Lucia calmly crawled over and got it! And they hold Eli’s hand while he walks beside them in the stroller. One day Aditi grabbed hold, really tight. Eli asked me why she was holding his hand. And I said ‘because she likes you.’ He asked, ‘why does she like me?’ I said, because you’re nice to her’. He held on even tighter and his pride was evident.
Sky brings books, one for himself and one for Eli; together they climb up on the couch and look at their books. With quiet independence, they ‘read’ and talk -- their very own book club. One day they made the ABC puzzle train together. Eli told Sky the words for each object on the train; and when it was finished we all talked about how long it was. Then we played train on it – chugalug, chugalug, choo, choo!
One day Malcolm was drawing and erasing with the Magna Doodle toy. Jackson came over and they drew together; after several minutes he tried to pull it away from Malcolm who held on tightly. Jackson then went and got two of the drawing pieces and handed one to Malcolm who said ‘thank you’. Jackson left after a while and Simon came over. Malcolm sat on the board! We suggested he and Simon work together; Simon said ‘Simon’ to indicate only he should work; we said ‘Simon’ and ‘Malcolm’ which he happily accepted and they worked together for a while longer.
Dramatic and Music Play:
The toddlers are quite sure there is a scary lion down the hallway and make certain we all know about it. (One day we chanted ‘Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh, No!’). Other times turtles (with vinyl mats for shells) appear in the hallway; one day I suggested they hide under their shells and we would pretend they were rocks and trick the lion. It worked! The mats are also great as walls for a house, tents for reading books and obstacle courses. Other make believe games include eating a banana (peel, chew, swallow, rub tummy), pretending to push buttons in the elevator instead of pushing the real ones, and using clothespins to catch ‘fishes’ made of play dough. And of course Captain Eli appears at just the right time to help with cleanup (he is vigilant when it comes to getting his ship in ship-shape!).
Music is all around these days. There are marching bands up and down the hallway, each taking a turn being the leader; rocking out in Kelly’s room at the keyboard (counting 1-2-3-4- before the song starts), falling down -- toddler version of freezing -- when the music stops, and much bow-taking. New and exciting repertoire in the living room includes ‘Sally has a red dress’ (using all our names of course), ‘Clapping song’ (including toe-tapping and knee-slapping), and playing rhythm games like this one: I say ‘Hel-lo’ (emphasizing the two syllables) and toddlers say ‘Hello’ back on the drums (two beats). We do this with other words and names. We got the beat!
We also imitate all sorts of animals to the tune of ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ (if you’re a mouse and you know it, crawl quickly on the floor’); finger and hand movement games (‘Roll, roll. roll your hands as slowly as you can, roll, roll, roll your hands as quickly as you can), ‘Where is thumbkin’, our old favorite ‘Row, row, row you’re boat’ with partners; and lots more.
Art and Sensory Play
We have added shaving cream to our sensory play table – taking its place as a favorite along with bubbles and sand. We add food coloring to the white mountains of cream, watching the colors drip, stirring to make beautiful mixtures and making prints of the stuff on black paper. And have introduced cooking to our repertoire, including banana slices and fresh squeezed orange juice for snack.
One day after very strong winds in the night, the playground was full of fallen bark. We crushed it and broke it and poked it through holes. We found twigs and made ‘forests’ by poking sticks through holes, seeing which were thick and which were thin and would fall and different ways to make them balance. I showed Eli a tree where the bark had fallen off. When we got home I placed bark pieces (retrieved from the countryside) on the table. We broke them to tiny bits, filling a whole container.
Here’s what happened once at the play dough table. For variety I set out just lumps of play dough – no tools. I told Eli and Sky to close their eyes and squeeze the dough as hard as they could, and open their eyes and see a surprise! We looked at the special shapes we had made with our hands, and turned the forms like sculptures to see all around. Then I brought out pipe cleaners, which Eli decided were candles and he put them in his ‘cake’ and we all sang happy birthday to Sky. Then came the big buttons, which turned into plates for little pieces of pizza that Eli was making. Soon the buttons became bread for delicious play dough sandwiches. We talked about how some buttons were the same colors but different shapes, touching the outside edge of each button to find the shape. Sky started adding the little pieces of play dough to a big piece and pretty soon we were all making a sculpture together. We added crazy pipe cleaner loops – and voila! We just sat back and admired our work.
Here are just a few of our other art ventures this month: chalk dipped in water on black rag paper, droppers with watered tempera paint on coffee filters, decorated surprise boxes with ‘pirate treasure’ inside, shaving cream prints, and inventions with giant buttons and pipe cleaners and Styrofoam. To our collage table we’ve added furry and animal-patterned pieces, bark and magazine pictures. And we’re happily moving into three-dimensional space with wood constructions.
Art, Play and Learning
One day Eli mixed red and blue paint on a tray (by the way, magenta is the best red for mixing purple for beginners). I said ‘so red and blue make…’ and he said ‘purple’ and his eyes lit up. In that moment he began to understand that certain colors always make other colors. As he grows and does it over and over again, he will know it solidly. He had happily mixed colors many times before, but right then he was ready to grasp the concept. When children (or adults, in fact) learn through their hands and heart as well as their minds, their knowledge is deep.
Sky swirls food coloring in glue, spreads the glue on his paper, saying ‘look!’ each time he adds a new color. Then he finds the picture of the leopard he loves and puts it on the glue; I show him to press it. He gets to take it home, this picture of all his choices. Artwork for these young children is an extension of themselves; at once part of ‘me’ and something separate that can be given as a gift to loved ones. They indeed have something to be proud of – themselves.
These days Malcolm is all about words. He says them accurately and with great feeling. He seems to like how they feel in his mouth. No matter what we do he talks about it – at the art table he asks for more colors, pointing, and I ask ‘blue’? He says ‘yes, blue’ most emphatically. He learns not only what words mean, but also pleasure in the sounds he makes. Which is as it should be.
Simon uses colored glue in his own way. Instead of mixing colors together in the white glue he keeps them separate and ends up with bright shapes of color on his page. He has his own way of doing things. He then sees other children getting fire hats and off he dashes to get a hat too. Sky will sometimes stop what he’s doing and go to the drawing table, pick up a crayon and draw intently for a while. Then he goes back to chasing lions down the hall. Each day Eli finds time in his busy day with friends to play quietly on his own with the fire trucks, lost in an imaginary world of his own making. As Jackson ventures on his own into the world of peers he does it in his own time. One day he smiled and watched us from the hallway and played peek-a-boo. I said to the others, ‘Jackson loves this game, let’s play it with him.’ After a while he joined us at the play dough table. Because we didn’t insist on our terms, he could find his own rhythm. If we let them, children feel fine both as the individual and social beings they are. We nurture their self-esteem.
If we provide varied opportunities for play with other children and materials, and are there with gentle attention and direction, children will surely teach themselves what they need to know. They will do what they love to do, and be wholly absorbed. If we are ready with crayons and pencils and paper they will scribble (essential to their later writing skills). If we listen they will talk to us. When the time is right they will discover mixing purple, the joy of being one of the gang, the quiet pleasure of playing alongside others, give and take, what they like to do, and hands-on physics, baby-style. We can only marvel.