What a great end to the week in which we enjoyed 'Walk and Talk Trails', daily sessions of Dough Gym, challenged ourselves and made new friends at the park, had a great time at the local Library creating Coronation mementos and choosing new stories, painted an amazing array of pictures to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III and coloured crowns.
Today in the garden we found out just how incredible dandelion clocks are, went on a dinosaur hunt and marvelled at the wonderful Knitted Coronation made by the Friends of The Red House Museum.
The children are loving Dough Gym. It is where we mould dough in time to music and perform different actions including: rolling it into balls, flattening it, poking each finger into the dough, flipping it hand to hand, punching and slapping it, rolling sausages, passing it around our body and even using our elbows to pummel it. The activity helps to strengthen children's fine motor muscles to enable them to develop their pencil grip, which in turn will help to develop their writing skills.
Experimenting with dandelion clocks we discovered just how incredible they are as we dipped them into a glass of water. We saw the dandelion clock collapse in the water, only to return to a perfect ball again as it was pulled out.
This happens because each dandelion seed is attached to loads of feathery bristles that cannot pierce the surface tension of the water. This creates an air bubble around the dandelion clock which keeps the flower dry and in tact, even in the rain. Amazing!
We also discovered the flowers themselves became bedraggled when wet. It wasn't long before the water became cloudy. After puzzling over why the water was clouding up, the children solved the problem concluding it was the yellow pollen. This lead to chatter about bees, honey and an enthusiastic dandelion picking session, because they wanted to see just how yellow they could make the water.
Walk and Talk Trails - There's always so much to talk about when you head outside for a walk. It's a great way to build young children's language, their sense of community, and love for the natural world around them.