Category: Loose Parts

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Mud Play

On By aprilzajkoIn Booklists, Building, Early Childhood Education, Food Education, Gardening, Learning Environment, Loose Parts, Mud, Natural Materials, Nature, Nature Art, Outdoor Classrooms, Sensory, Trainings with April's Teaching TreeLeave a comment

I know that mud can feel like a HUGE barrier in an outdoor classroom. So NOW is the time to think through the obstacles. (Actually well before mud season is even more ideal, but let’s take action NOW.)

Set up a time to talk with your coworkers and share information with currently  enrolled families so that your muddy play area can be a YES space. Children thrive with daily outdoor time, so canceling outside play time for the entire mud season is NOT an option. Mud builds healthy immune systems, supports physical and cognitive development, and so much more.

I have compiled a FREE “Mud Play Resource” to hopefully make mud easier this year!  In this resource you will find links to:

  • Mud Play articles to share with families
  • Mud Curriculum Ideas for teachers
  • Mud Kitchen Resources for teachers
  • Children’s Books about MUD!

Three steps for embracing mud play! (And then three cheers for bringing back mud pies!)

Muddy Mindset for Staff ~ even BEFORE mud season, schedule a conversation with your teaching team about their perception of mud play. Come to a consensus about your program’s ‘mud rules’ and ensure that children hear the same message from all staff. Perhaps pre-read a Mud Play article and talk about the Pros & Cons at a staff meeting.  {During mud season, continue the conversation, document the children’s learning and JOY with mud. Then revisit your ‘mud rules’ after mud season. Step by step is how we make change.}

Muddy Solutions – if you have extended ‘mud seasons’ at the beginning and end of winter….consider investing in Muddy Buddy types of suits, have a place to hang them to dry, and a system for drying boots. Having functional systems for dealing with muddy gear when coming in and how to manage so the indoors space isn’t too hard to clean. {Would fundraising or grant writing make gear more accessible for your children? Think NOW about how to set yourself up for success in the future.}


Mud Chat with Families ~ even BEFORE mud season, prepare families for what to expect. Remind them of your messy clothes policy, share mud articles about why it’s valuable to play outdoors even when it’s muddy, get their support in sending in extra dry clothes, and build in an understanding of what you need for this season to be successful. We need to work in partnership with our families. If families have a bunch more laundry as a result of being in your classroom, they are going to understand the WHY.

Pinecone People

On By aprilzajkoIn Art Classes, Loose Parts, Natural Materials, Nature, Nature Art, Outdoor Classrooms, Uncategorized1 Comment

“Pinecone People” – Today I made “Pinecone People” with a group of 20 preschoolers out in the forest. I wasn’t sure how the natural materials would stick because everything was wet from two days of rain. I sort of cheated and pre-glue beads to the pinecones so there would be some level of success, even if the other bits were falling off, at least the heads would stay on! I also had some plain pinecones so children could create whatever they wanted.

Pinecones are challenging in that they tend not to stand up on their own and have very little flat area to glue onto. So this led to exploring the following ‘adhesive materials’ and I share some thoughts on how it went.

The next picture shows the art materials I gathered that I thought might be useful to adhere natural materials to the pinecones. I wasn’t sure how these would work but I wanted to have a variety of options to test out. (If I was making these indoors I would have used my trusty low-temp glue gun since it makes things stick even if the surface isn’t flat.) But that’s a challenge of being outdoors is figuring out how to make it work even in damp weather! Listed below are some thoughts on these materials!

Liquitex Acrylic Medium – I read about this in Sally Haughey’s book, “Wonder Art”, and thought I would give it a try. It’s much more expensive than glue but so worth the investment. A little bit goes a long way and it seemed to work well with a wide variety of textures. Obviously the drier the material the easier things seemed to stick, but even with some damp materials it all stuck really well. So I would definitely suggest adding this to your teacher art supply kit. I used a popsicle stick to get a little out at a time and kept it in a little scoop so I could keep track of it.

Glue dots sort of worked especially if stuffed into the pinecone. If the materials were lightweight and dry, they seemed to hold fairly well. Today with the damp though, wet materials did not stick well.

White glue was all but useless since pinecones have very little flat surfaces and take way too long to dry. This was frustrating for some kids and though they can be independent with the glue it really didn’t work well.

Twine & yarn was woven into the pinecone independently as decoration and with adult support the yarn was used to tie the leaves on like a belt or scarf.

Fuzzy sticks (pipe cleaners) ended up being a great tool. Many preschoolers could independently twist them onto the pinecone and have their people holding acorn babies or used to hold on their wings.

Air Dry Clay was not really great to get the materials to stick together but some enjoyed squishing materials into the clay and squishing small bits into the pinecones.

Wool roving wasn’t in my materials bag today but in hindsight I could see the kids enjoying weaving it into the pinecone, creating hair, or making arms with it.

Moss also wasn’t in my materials bag today but would have been fun to add for hair or decorations.

Milkweed Pods all the little pinecones became ‘babies’ and I was wishing I had some little pods to use as cradles!

A related discovery was that using washable markers on wooden beads led to smears and bleeding. I discovered that the wooden beads and colored pencils worked well though the color was light. I was tempted to use a permanent marker but knew that many other aspects of the projects needed adult support.

Have you ever made “Pinecone People”? Any tips or tricks that you discovered?!

S.T.E.A.M. Kits to Foster Play Based Learning

On By aprilzajkoIn Conferences, Early Childhood Education, Loose Parts, STEAMLeave a comment

Join April Zajko, M.Ed. for a half-day training called “S.T.E.A.M. Kits to Foster Play Based Learning“!

Cost: $45 ~ this fee includes an afternoon session as well with Ellen Drolette or Tom Copeland

Date: October 23, 2021

Time: 8am – Noon (with breaks built in) ~ afternoon session 12:30-2:30

Sponsor: Early Childhood Professional Network – Hartford, Vermont 

Workshop Description: 

We will dive into learning about play-based learning through Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) which are all important skills to foster in early childhood. STEAM education truly sparks wonder and creativity in children and taps into their desire to test out new ideas. The focus of this training is to develop project-based activity kits that early childhood educators can assemble ahead of time so they can ‘grab and go’. Participants will work in small groups and design a list of materials for their topic, list out potential play-based activities & investigations that children may engage in, create a list of loose parts to gather, and create a documentation sheet that is connected to the Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS) and Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG). Our focus will be to create low cost yet highly engaging learning kits that take some of the stress out of preparing STEAM learning for your children. 

Learning Objectives: 

  • Define play-based learning and the role of the adult in preparing the environment and supporting the children’s ongoing exploration
  • Practice developing project-based activity kits with low cost materials including loose parts
  • Create a list of learning materials for a specific STEAM topic and list out potential play-based activities that children may engage in
  • Develop a documentation sheet that is connected to the Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS) and Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG)

Presenter Bio:  April Zajko, M.Ed. is a licensed early childhood educator (ECE) and has taught ECE courses for the Community College of Vermont since 2016. April teaches preschool in a public school where she integrate S.T.E.A.M. and nature-based approach to curriculum. April has also lead professional development for ECE staff throughout the state of Vermont for more than ten years and has worked with a wide cross-section of educators to find ways to help make high quality learning accessible in their ECE programs. April’s primary goal is for ALL students to meet with success and to offer professional trainings that are engaging, relevant, and inspiring

To register – go to this link and click on the register button on the left hand side 

ECPN Mini Conference With April Zajko, Ellen Drolette and Tom Copeland

Loose Parts and Building

On By aprilzajkoIn Building, Loose PartsLeave a comment

A couple new loose parts for my preschool classroom ~ firm polystyrene inserts from new kitchen appliances & these wooded scraps meant for kindling that were only five dollars for about 20 planks! There was a huge interest in construction and building before break so I am eager to see if these materials spark their curiosity!

Another simple idea that we’ve been playing with is making “Snow Faces”. Since we didn’t have snowman making snow, we figured out that if scooped snow into bowls we could still ‘build snow faces’ with natural loose parts!

My new professional development offering “Math & Loose Parts” that I offered in November & December was a success and I promised I would add ideas to my blog. I invite you to also come check out my business page “April’s Teaching Tree” on either Facebook or Instagram since I am much more active there than here on the blog!

Best wishes,

April

Snow Faces!

Children’s Books to Inspire Collecting & Playing with Natural Materials

On By aprilzajkoIn Booklists, Early Childhood Education, Literacy, Loose Parts, Natural Materials, Sensory, Tech Free, Uncategorized3 Comments

Thanks for dropping my April’s Teaching Tree. I am April Zajko, M.Ed. and I am nature-inspired early childhood educator. Through my blog, writing, and professional development offerings I aim toward ‘growing a holistic view of childhood’.

Children need nature now more than ever ~ fresh air, freedom, movement, and play….all important parts of raising happy and healthy children. Please subscribe to my blog by putting your email address in the top right corner!

Follow along with April’s Teaching Tree on Facebook or Instagram for a daily photo and idea to for “Growing Outdoor Classrooms”!

Books are perfect way to inspire children and families to collect and play with natural materials. Loose parts are open ended play materials foster children’s creativity and imagination!

No book list is ever complete but here is a start. I’d love to hear about books that you like to read aloud to children to inspire playing with natural loose parts! I have tried to create categories…but near the top of the list is a new book I added this year to my book collection called “Anywhere Artist” and an old favorite “Hannah’s Collection”. 

 

“In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kinds of variables in it.” ~Simon Nicholson

 

 

 Collections:

Collections by Margaret Ballinger and Rachel Gosset

Hannah’s Collections by Marthe Jocelyn

Look What I Found! By Deborah Schecter (Level A Reader)

Small Treasures by Akimi Gibson

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert (collection of good snowman making things)

When This Box is Full by Patricia Lillie

 

Nature:

A Stick is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play by LeUyen Pham

Bees, Snails, & Peacock Tails by Betsy Franco & Steve Jenkins

Discovering Nature’s Alphabet by Krystina Castella and Brian Boyl

No One But You by Douglas Wood

One Little Balsam Fir: A Northwoods Counting Book by Lesley A. DuTemple

Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II

 

Rocks:

A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston

Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor

If Rocks Could Sing: A Discovered Alphabet

If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian

Let’s Go Rock Collecting by Roma Gans

Stone Soup by Jess Stockham

Rocks: Hard, Soft, Smooth, Rough

On My Beach There are Many Pebbles

Elizabeti’s Doll

Rocks, Fossils, & Arrowheads (Take Along Guides) by Laura Evert

Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran

 

Sticks, & Bark:

The Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni

Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson

Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld

Trees, Leaves, & Bark (Take Along Guides) by Diane Burns

Clay:

When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor

Clay Boy by Mirra Ginsburg

 

Leaves:

Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber

Leaf Man – Lois Ehlert

Leaves by Violet Findley

Leaves on the Trees by Thom Wiley

Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! By M & G. Berger

Look What I Did with a Leaf! By Morteza E. Sohi

Make a Leaf Rubbing by M. Ballinger,Gosset

The Leaves are Falling One by One by Metzger

We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by S. Metzger

When the Leaf Blew In by Steve Metzger

Why Do Leaves Change Color? By Betsy Maestro

Acorns & Squirrels

Acorns Everywhere! by Kevin Sherry

Busy Squirrels by Melvin and Gilda Berger

Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane by Victoria Sherrow

Earl the Squirrel by Dan Freeman

Just One! by Sam McBratney

Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert

Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt

Squirrels by Brian Wildsmith

The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri (board book)

The Secret Life of Squirrels by Nancy Rose

Those Darn Squirrels! by Adam Rubin

 

Pinecones:

Evergreens are Green by Susan Canizares

The Pinecone Walk by Barbara Springfield

Night Tree by Eve Bunting

Shells:

What Lives in a Shell? By Kathleen Weidner Zoehfelf

Seashells, Crabs, and Sea Stars (Take Along Guide) by C.K.Tibbitts

Seashells by the Seashore by Marianne Berkes