Monday, April 18, 2011

Windchimes and Tree Stumps!

Well, wouldn't you be shocked if I was blogging today about the cloning machine I invented over the last week!  Well, don't hold your breath, no luck with this just yet, but we've been exploring a few interesting things. 

Last week, my husband was kind enough to help me bring in some tree stumps for the children to sit on for our outdoor learning area (as the start of a large group area).  The children have had a huge amount of fun simply sitting and talking to their friends on these, playing musical instruments while sitting on them and, for one child, pretending to be an "owl!"  

(These are horribly boring photos- sorry- I'll try to get some photos of all of the materials we use while outside next time- still working on that cloning machine...remember :)

After our second day with the tree stumps, one of the children in Bumblebee Boulevard commented to his teacher, "We really like those things that we can sit on...you know, the things that someone made so they look like trees..." 

Umm...children, they are TREE stumps...they WERE trees!  Apparently, we will need to explore these items in a bit more detail so the children realize that these are actually trees that were cut down.  (After a storm brought the whole tree down, by the way!)

We've also worked on adding a very small and movable art station with a small easel, (and soon some clay and natural objects).  We've also begun adding to our music area, with handheld musical instruments and wind chimes.  All of these are items that can be stored in a shed when not in use since we do have an issue with things disappearing while school is not in session. 


To attach the wind chimes and easily remove them, I simply hooked together a zip-tie to form a loop.  I then attached several small plastic links, attached the wind chime and hung it on the side of our "tree house".  To remove it, we simply open up the link and put the whole thing away in the shed. 

We're still working on finding a shelf to slide in the shed for our loose materials; but until then, we've had a blast introducing the new items to our outdoor area!

1 comment:

  1. These tree stumps are great!
    We have a few in our play yard, and the children also roll them around, and like balancing on them as well.
    Nice to see your enjoying being outside, and it is good to see you back. Hope you have a nice week!
    Brenda

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