Little Seeds Children's Center

House for Frederick Sensory Play// To begin this sensory exploration, we read the story "Frederick" Leo Lionni. To continue and expand the literacy experience, we set the intention of going the multi-sensory route due to the fact that children learn best and retain the most information when they engage their senses. The tray was filled with small rocks, sand, grass, plants, lentils, loose parts "mushrooms", tree blocks, corn, etc, and toy mice to represent characters of the story. When children play like this, they are playing with a variety of materials and textures that stimulate the mind and body through the tactile experience. By giving children the opportunity to investigate materials with just a little bit of knowledge from reading the story, we are helping them develop and refine their cognitive, social and emotional, physical, creative and linguistic skills. Our ultimate goal for this activity is to tie it in with literacy experiences in order to further solidify any new words or language to children that come from reading the book. This helped them in practice listening skills, comprehension skills, and fostered imaginary play.

Invitation to Explore and Create Puffin Habitats// As we continue our journey of animals, today we explored puffins, specifically Atlantic puffins! We started off this invitation by reading Puffin, written by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Jenni Desmond. The book is beautifully illustrated and taught us so much about the life of puffins on the coastlines of Europe. A few facts about puffins: 1. There are 3 different types of puffins: Crested, Horned, and Atlantic. 2. Puffins most often mate for life. 3. Puffins lay one egg at a time, taking over a month to hatch. 4. A young puffin is called a ruffling. 5. Puffins can live up to 40 years. 6. Puffins nest inside burrows, often on the side of cliffs. 7. A puffins bill will exhibit its bright colors in spring, but in winter, it fades to gray.

By giving children the opportunity to investigate materials with just a little bit of knowledge from reading the story we are helping them develop and refine their cognitive, social and emotional, physical, creative and linguistic skills. Our ultimate goal for the small world play is to tie it in with literacy experiences in order to further solidify any new words or language to children that come from reading the book. This helped them in practice listening skills, comprehension skills, and fostered imaginary play.

Animals Galore: Marsh and Swamp Animals// This week we are learning all about animals galore! For this activity, we added chia seeds, water, green Colorations® Liquid Watercolors, tree blocks, lily pads, and swamp animals to our sensory table.

Small world play accompanied by sensory materials (water, sand, rocks, etc.) are a great way for extending literacy, language, imaginary play, and tactile play. Through this pla, they can reenact what they see in stories, shows, experiences, and environments around them to deepen their understanding of the world. This type of play can be defined as where children accept and assign roles, then act them out.

When children engage in small world play they break through the walls of reality, use their imagination, pretend to be someone or something different from themselves, explore different worlds, and have actions to go along with the roles they have chosen to play.

Play is an integral part of the developmental learning process by allowing children to develop skills in such areas as abstract thinking, literacy, math, & social studies, in a timely natural manner. They are able to play and manipulate a variety of materials and textures that stimulate their mind and body while deepening their connection and understanding of the world.

Desert Animal Small World Play/This week, we will be learning all about animals galore! First stop,animals in the desert. To begin we read "Over and Under the Canyon" by Kate Messner. In our sensory table we provided river rocks, sand, cacti, tumbleweeds, and desert dwelling animals.

Small world play accompanied with sensory materials (water, sand, rocks, etc.) are a great way for extending literacy, language, imaginary play, and tactile play. Through this play they can reenact what they see in stories, shows, experiences, and environments around them to deepen their understanding of the world. This type of play can be defined as where children accept and assign roles, then act them out.

When children engage in small world play they break through the walls of reality, use their imagination, pretend to be someone or something different from themselves, explore different worlds, and have actions to go along with the roles they have chosen to play.

Play is an integral part of the developmental learning process by allowing children to develop skills in such areas as abstract thinking, literacy, math, & social studies, in a timely natural manner. They are able to play and manipulate a variety of materials and textures that stimulate their mind and body while deepening their connection and understanding of the world.

Invitation to Explore Dinosaurs 2 Ways:

Polar Dinosaurs and Mammals//Most of the time, when we think of dinosaurs, we picture jungles, volcanoes, and tropical islands, which make us think they were always in warmer climates, but dinosaurs have been discovered in every continent! It has been found that dinosaurs would have spanned a range of climates and seasons across every geographic latitude, likely including areas of snow & ice. These dinosaurs were called Polar Dinosaurs & were spiky, feathery, & beaked. They adapted to some of the harshest habitats with a stop & start growth pattern, so they were already biologically predisposed to surviving on less during the cold month & faster again during the summers.
For this invitation, we filled our Discount School Supply Tuff Tray with Schleich and Safari Ltd dinosaurs/mammals, river rocks, dinosaur skeletons, dinosaurs frozen in ice chunks, and Insta Snow. And there we have it, SNOW MUCH FUN!

Invitation to Explore Prehistoric Sea Creatures// We've all heard "when dinosaurs walked the earth," but did they swim the sea? Researchers have suspected for some time that land-based giants like the Spinosaurus might have been good swimmers due to fossil evidence that shows specialized adaptations (webbed feet, nostrils positioned high on the skull, crocodile-like teeth suitable for catching fish, and dense bones, which could have helped it in buoyancy control). But were there dinosaurs in the sea, unfortunately no. The mosasaur, plesiosaur, icthyosaur, and tylosaur were marine reptiles. A few things set apart land dwellers and sea reptiles: habitat, bone density, movement, teeth, and reproduction. They had long needle-like teeth for catching fish, flattened bodies with flippers for moving quickly through the water, and gave birth to live young.
We set up this invitation on our Tuff Tray from Discount School Supply. We added blue Colorations® Liquid Watercolors, seaweed, seashells, fish, sea reptiles, and other prehistoric ocean creatures (opabinia, nautilus, ophthalmosaurus, cameroceras, etc.). The children were very interested in the creatures' names, characteristics, where in the world they lived, etc. This activity fostered imaginary play and refined their linguistic skills.

Dinosaurs & Life Amongst Tar Pits and Volcanoes// For this activity the children helped us make some black "tar" ooblick! They measured and poured in the corn starch, water, and black tempera paint. Then, we set up the invitation by adding trees, rocks, wooden pieces, and dinosaurs. The last thing to do was to stand back and watch the children explore! The children had a blast saving the dinosaurs; freeing them from the tar, moving the dinosaurs to higher ground, trying to scoop the tar and move it to another place, etc. Ooblick is a fun mixture that is a great sensory activity that has scientific elements because it is both a liquid and a solid. Research shows that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brains pathways, which leads to the child's ability to complete more complex learning tasks. Sensory play supports cognitive growth, promotes language development, fosters fine and gross motor skills, problem solving skills, and social interaction. Where there are dinosaurs there are volcanoes. The two are linked together in significant ways. Volcanoes are linked to dinosaurs through both extinction events & periods of flourishing. Volcanic activity, particularly large-scale eruptions, can drastically alter the Earth’s climate, leading to mass extinctions that wipe out competitors & create opportunities for new species to thrive, including the early dinosaurs. Conversely, volcanic activity can also create conditions that favor the diversification & dominance of certain dinosaur lineage.