Term 4; week 1

We hope you all had lovely Easter holidays and were able to relax and enjoy some family time! We had a great first week back and can't believe we are already into our last term of this school year. This past week we have really enjoyed all of the sunny weather and have taken the opportunity to get outside and put up our slack line obstacle course. We have been so proud of our Kidsizers and how responsible they are when playing on the slack line, they understand that there should be no more than two children on the course at one time for safety reasons and are able to remember their number in the queue and ensure everyone gets their turn. The swing on the slack line is very popular and can be adjusted to accommodate all of our children and their various heights.

The children have also really enjoyed the tires that we have in our grassy area. We love that something so simple can be such a great play opportunity and provide endless hours of fun for the children. Check out those happy faces below.

We have seen some awesome marble run creations recently. A lot of our kidsizers have been working together to create the ultimate marble runs and challenging each other over who can create the tallest one. Creating these marble runs requires the children to think about the formation of a structure and what is needed to ensure the structure can stand on its own while also providing the fastest route for the marbles. It was really interesting to see how the children's ideas for creating the structures differed and then how the children working in groups could compromise when they had these different ideas.

At Kidsize we have a 'tuff tray' that allows us to provide a variety of play opportunities ranging from messy play to a surface for toys. Recently the children were given the challenge of creating their own nests out of materials that birds would have access to such as twigs, acorns and grass. The children helped Jenna to write out interesting facts such as which animals make nests and the different sizes of bird nests depending on the size of the birds themselves. We saw some great attempts at bird nests and the children had some interesting conversations about how the nests supported birds and their eggs.

The children then took their nest making outside and tried creating a nest in a small tree, on a wall and the ground using twigs and moss; which they thought made the nest more comfortable. The children soon realised that the safest place for a nest was high up in a tree away from other animals.

Even after the children were finished making nests the play opportunity didn't stop there. Some of the children used the remaining sticks to create stick people who they made clothes for out of material we have in our craft box. The children found that the twig people were difficult to make due to their lack of flexibility. They came up with some clever ideas using wool and cello-tape to create arms and legs. Check out one of our Kidsizer's creations below.

Another place the children love to play is outside at the park. Everyday after school we give the children the choice of the park with the zipline, the school playground or our grassy area outside the community centre. Once we determine the majority vote we then take the children to their outdoor area of choice. The children have been having lots of fun on the variety of equipment they have access to when we go to the different parks. They have access to different climbing frames that provide opportunities to climb and engage in imaginative play. Some of our children were providing a food truck service at the park and serving delicious imaginary hot drinks to warm everyone up on a windy day.

For this term we asked the children what they would like for snack and created a menu with each child having their choices on a different day. This allows for the children to feel involved in their snack time and ensures they have the opportunity to try a variety of foods as they are also able to request specific fruits and vegetables that we may not usually provide in our fruit and veg boxes.

Take a look at some of the other things the children have been doing last week.