In our Tuesday class, we have some friends that are seriously focused on construction and cars right now. So after a few weeks of chaos and struggling to provide activities that would hold their interest, we switched and started a transportation and construction topic. This mixed aged group of two to five-year-olds is now happily immersed in teaching their teacher about what each of the machines will do and fully engaged in exploring ways to show what they know about construction sites.
As we played today, we worked on fine motor development as we held paint brushes, pinched play dough and used toy backhoes to scoop and pour sand. We practiced peer-to-peer and adult/child communication skills when we described our map paintings and directed our friends in our exploration of the sensory table.
At the sensory table full of sand and new construction toys, we had many chances to develop our negotiation skills as we navigated who would get which truck and to practice how to be kind to our friends while also expressing what we wanted.
We even did some work with one-to-one correspondence as we lined up the trucks and counted each of them.
It was a peaceful and fun day of construction play!
Rocket paints a red road on his map.
Grader makes a mud puddle on his map.
Foreman explores the new sensory sand and construction vehicles.
Professor Worm pushes sand at the new sensory table.
Foreman lines up the construction toys and counts them.
Reno Arts Development Laboratories 