Carolyn’s

Play House Highlights

January 2006

Dear parents,

Here are some of our latest and greatest adventures!

Art play

More and more the children enjoy drawing together at the table, with quiet music in the background. We’ve been making murals and tablecloths and roadways using dot paints, markers, crayons, pencils and colored labels. One day I covered the table with already-dot-painted brown paper, planning a drawing session. Liam became more interested in rolling his cars on the interesting surface so I got out my trusty tape, the children helped me ‘draw’ roads with tape, we brought out colored blocks for houses and tunnels, and voila! They spent a long time playing in their very own homemade city.

Of all the collage materials on her tray, one day Zoe carefully selected only the transparent colored beads. Liam, more interested in being with Zoe than in the art project in that moment, gave Zoe all his most special beads. Zoe then painted her hands with the glue and so did Liam, we talked about how it felt to have gluey hands, made sticky handprints and then washed off the colored glue -- as it is kind of hard to do anything when your fingers are sticky! Along came Max to see what was happening. When Liam invited him to see their project (‘look Maxie, look what we’re doing!), Max responded in kind: he made his eyes very big and a big round ‘O’ shape and sound with his mouth!

Music play

Max has a very specific drum set-up these days: Two tambourines and a bell (like the kind on store counters) and a wooden spoon. Matthew’s specialty is the keyboard (although he loves the drums too, and sings so many songs). He puts on a favorite hat and accompanies a selected song – bounce-bopping all the while. One day he chose a fireman hat. Pretty soon Ben (who is back with us on Wednesdays) got his hat and so did Julian, and soon there were three firemen rocking out at the keyboard. I danced and Zoe shook her shoulders in a rocking rhythm, and it was the ‘Fireman’s Ball’ here at Carolyn’s!

During one circle time we chanted ‘Hello Matthew, hello Matthew and what will you do today’ and he rocked side to side on his cushion. Everyone sang Row, row, row your boat and rocked on their pillow-boats just like Matthew. Then in pairs we sat on the floor facing each other, held hands and pulled each other back and forth. I sang one verse substituting gently down the lake and life’s a piece of cake which Max and Liam thought absolutely hilarious. Gina caught on quickly and now says ‘boat’, stretching out her hands, when she wants one of the children to play with her. Later that day at the play-dough table we sang yet another variation: Roll, roll, roll, your dough, gently on the table, roll the dough around and round just because you’re able!

Sometimes I play Skip, skip, skip to my Lou on the guitar and make up verses about each child’s movements. Then the children take their turns, singing whatever songs they wish while playing Kelly’s guitar. You can feel their delight when we join in on their song. Or we play dancing music and give out colorful scarves which become places to hide under, things to twirl, useful for bridges and capes, and blown in the wind. And all rock our babies to Hush little baby, or take down the sofa pillows and cushions for rolling and tumbling and jumping and doing fancy tricks kicks while the music is playing. Sometimes I play Old Mac Donald at the piano, and other times the children sit in one’s and two’s, turning pages and ‘reading’ from music books as they play. And Gina now knows all the finger movements for Little Bunny Foo Foo, now a traditional finger play here at Carolyn’s!

Play dough and water stuff

One morning Gina learned how to slide our new toy spatula under a play-dough ‘pancake’ to pick it up and, toddler-style, practiced over and over again. It turned out Liam was also interested in the spatula – that day he was serving ‘bacon’ for breakfast (and I happen to know from his sister Madeline that he loves bacon!) Meanwhile Zoe and Julian were in the kitchen near the water table, where ‘Doctor Zoe’ was pouring ‘medicine’ (water with a tiny bit of cranberry juice) from a pitcher into Julian’s cup. Gina wandered over with a plate full of green play-dough ‘spaghetti’ and Zoe poured a cup for Gina who stood there, just happy to be included. Later I added red food coloring to the water, then poured more from a big white bowl that instantly became a toy for Liam. He spent a long time scooping into the floating bowl from the water table, and stirring with a wooden spoon. As he played I heard him say very quietly, almost in a whisper, ‘I love pink water!’

The next day it was Liam’s job to choose which color to add. He decided on yellow and I introduced the bowl again. Along came Max, who likes to play with the letter magnets on the fridge (often singing the ‘ABC’ song as he does) This time he dropped the alphabet letters into the bowl and soon the two cooks with wooden spoons were making delicious alphabet soup. And the next day the cooking spoons inspired two different cooks, Matthew and Ben, to make alphabet soup again!

As she gets older Gina spends more and more time at the water table. She likes to use the measuring cup to scoop water into a plastic jar until it’s full, then pour it out and start all over again, steady on her task while louder bigger-kid things are going on all around her. And as she works she is sure to mimic the words and sounds she hears.

Pretend play

These days our piano bench backed with a large mat board mural (decorated by the children) sets the stage for different dramatic play ideas. The children like to watch as we write the words Doctor’s Office or Bakery or Puppet Show, and help to decorate the sign. Proximity to the play dough table generates some interesting ideas. One day the children made lollypops (play dough and wooden sticks) for patients after their injections (Zoe’s idea). Another day Gina on her own brought plates from the kitchen area, inspiring play-dough bagels and cookies to sell at the Bakery. The children decided on one butterfly cookie per plate, Max put on his baker’s hat (an upside down pull-up), filled up his shopping bag and made off with the with the baked goods (and we didn’t see him pay – a homemade cash register will definitely be the next addition!)

And up in the loft Matthew will make flying leaps into the ‘water’ and swim and splash on the mattress. He and Max did this over and over one morning and later, for himself and Alyssa, the roof of the big dollhouse became a slide into a swimming pool. Moms and dads and sisters and brothers all had their turns, accompanied by the most musical of sound effects.

Play and learning

As they play in the company of other children, with the help of parents and teachers, toddlers learn the fun of including and imitating, being leaders and followers, going their own way and joining in the game, having their own ideas and getting ideas from others, participating in what’s out there and inventing what’s not. Whether they are creating music or art or imaginary worlds or silly songs, their minds and bodies are wholly engaged and they are learning – toddler-style, by experiencing the wondrous wide world. Whenever we enjoy their fun and all their good ideas, their self-esteem flourishes. They come to expect that the world is a friendly and interesting place and this expectation becomes part of who they are. And surely the world is a better place for it.