Sensory Table - Oats

I had a wonderful time observing (and taking pictures) of my 

grand daughter

experiencing a sensory table for the first time.

The tub contains ground oatmeal.

I ground so it would go through the holes in the colander

and to make it look a bit like sand.

If I was to use it again I wouldn't grind it

as it is quite dusty.

At first she was hesitant, not sure what it was or what to do with it.

I put my hand in and scooped some up and let it fall from my fingers.

Her initial interest was in the tools provided.

She took out the wooden spoon and cup and played with them for a bit.

Then back to the oats.

Over the years of watching toddlers I noticed that when they dig in and scoop up

their arms, when bent, will swing wide and most times something is

spilled on the floor.

Rather than trying to contain it in the tub I continued to watch

what my grand daughter would do next.

Babies and toddlers will use their whole bodies when exploring

so I wasn't surprised to see her moving the oats with her feet.

She sat down and looked at her feet as she felt the bits stuck to them.

 Next she moved her hands through the oats on the floor.

Sweeping it back and forth, wildly watching it spread around.

She has been using utensils to help feed herself for several months 

so it was natural that she would try to eat the oats.

             

So much exploring and learning in this short play period.

She stayed at it for about 25 minutes before moving off to something else.

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Birds Expanded

In a past post I shared my grand daughter experiencing her 

first play tray.

 This week I changed it up a bit.

 I moved the wooden pieces out of the tub and onto the floor to see how she would interact with them.

 Having them on the floor made it a lot easier for her to reach 

 and spend a bit more time exploring each piece.

  

After giving her some time playing with the small birds I switched them for

bigger stuffed bird toys.

Most of these make bird sounds when you press on the back.

It took a lot of effort on her part to make the birds sing.

She preferred to hand them to one of the adults to make it happen.

A few of them are finger puppets

and she was particularly interested in the crow.

Here she is flying like a bird.

Baby Sign Language

During my career I have worked as an interpreter for the Deaf and an intervenor for the Deaf/Blind.  

I loved signing and watching Deaf children learn their language and express themselves.

When my own children were young I introduced them to sign language but didn't use it as much as I would have liked.

Having grand children gives me the opportunity to start very early.

My daughter and son in-law were open to learning too.

The above picture is showing her sign 'milk'.

We started with signs that were relevant to her like;

mom, dad, nana, opa, milk, water, book

To help everyone learn the signs I created a photo block.

  

On each side of the block is a photo of an important person in my 

grand daughter's life.

In the corner I added a picture of the sign and the word.

  

It's fun to roll and find her picture then make the sign 'baby'.

Her first sign was 'water'.

To date she is signing dad (for most of the adults), milk, sleep, again, eat, baby, dog, and help.

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Treasure Basket - Rings

For Christmas I made my granddaughter a Treasure Basket.

A Treasure Basket is a container filled with things you would find around your house or at a thrift store.

The basket provides your child with an opportunity to discover and explore.

This first treasure basket contained a stubby paper towel holder, that I found at a thrift store, and a variety of rings.

The rings are made of plastic or wood or metal.

And there are two of each.

She spent sometime playing and trying out different ways to handle the rings

and the stubby holder.

It turns out that it is a great instrument for banging and swinging around.

She even discovered that some of the rings make a great musical instrument.

Each month I will change the items in the basket.

This will allow new explorations but also limit how many play things she has in her home.

First Play Tray - Birds

Last week I created a play tray for my grand daughter.

It was her first and I decided to make one about birds because her dad likes birds and shares that interest with her.

I kept it simple with pieces of wood and little, plastic bird figurines.

She liked the birds, especially when she heard me make bird noises.

But she showed more interest in the pieces of wood.

I involved myself a bit into her play here and incorporated the wood pieces and birds together.

She became more interested in the birds. 

Taking a good look at each of them.

She even made some of them fly around.

The next day I placed some dried moss in the bin to add a new texture.

I had found it when walking in the woods and

I thought it looked like a birds nest.

We continue our interests in birds when we go out for a walk.

So far we have heard a few different birds but have only seen crows.

She is learning to say "caa, caa".

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