I saw the following on Pinterest, and I was inspired. I tried attaching three boards to the pallet in the Music Area. I drilled holes and put in bolts and nuts, but it didn’t work well. Only one of the boards created a resonate sound, and I have some theories: Hole Spacing. I noticed that […]
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Try looking in the monthly archives. November 2017
Mind map
Back in college, I learned the ‘mind map‘ technique for brainstorming. I think the context then was to gather all the interests of the children and map out different avenues of thought. I used SimpleMind Lite to create the following map of ideas for the Preschool Outdoor Classroom. This is just a small sampling […]
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I love the internet! I have discovered so many great ideas and blogs and books. There are all sort of great websites to explore too! And of course, my Pinterest page
Continue ReadingMusic Area
Last year our music area was pretty much neglected, so I wanted to update it and add elements to make it more dynamic. Here were my considerations: Noise. Since our preschool is connected to elementary classes, and there are apartments across the street, there had to be care in selecting the instruments that were out […]
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Having a magnet board is great! Ours is a $10 Galvanized Steel Sheet https://www.lowes.com/pd/IMPERIAL-24-in-x-3-ft-Galvanized-Steel-Sheet-Metal/3234805 I’ve seen people put frames on them too. However, you’ll want to rotate the magnets. Here is a list of the different types of magnets: Christmas (although they were flimsy and fell apart quickly) *pictures of the kids and teachers (maybe resin) *wood […]
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In a wooden carpenters box I keep the following: * 8 wooden boards with phillips screws in them * 8 sets of eye protection goggles (I maintain the rule that when using any tool, we must have eye protection) * 8 No.2 Stubby Phillips Screwdrivers Individually you might end up paying $6 each, but I bought […]
Continue ReadingThe Stick Issue
When I attended various sessions at NAEYC, the stick issue would come up. (see my notes) For such a simple open-ended toy, there are a lot of concerns that come up if you try to include it around kids. “What if a kid swings it around or runs with a sharp stick and gets hurt?” […]
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In addition to our Building Area, I decided to add a Den Making Area. I wanted to define a different space with supplies that wouldn’t be so heavy over the kids’ heads. I saw a “Dens” PDF article on http://www.infiniteplaygrounds.co.uk/resources/ that gave a great explanation on the importance of kid built structures. Last year we […]
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For our Nature Art Area I have lots of great materials that I try to rotate: markers — best time to buy these is back to school season 10 pack for $1 at Target or Walmart — we also use these for our *air marker sprayer clipboards and golf pencils crayon rocks natural pencils – […]
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The idea: I wanted to have photos of the laminated and stick magnets on the backs. I imagined the kids having all sorts of fun organizing them into friend groups and such. The process: We printed out mini photos of all the kids and laminated the pages. Then attached them to magnetic sheets which were then […]
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