CHILD-INITIATED
Experience the excitement of windy weather.
Resources
Lengths of ribbon and crepe paper streamers; commercially produced windmills, kites and windsocks; a range of materials and tools in the workshop area, for example, tissue paper, card, crepe paper, ribbon, string, wool, art straws, lollipop sticks, scissors and masking tape.
Play suggestions
* Encourage the children to run in the wind and feel it blowing on their faces and through their hair.
* Encourage them to 'fly' the ribbons and streamers as they run around.
* Ask them to choose a 'ribbon tree' and help them tie the streamers to one of its branches (or tie the ribbons to a bracket on the corner of a building). Encourage them to watch as the ribbons blow in the wind and to feel them blowing on to their faces.
* Provide the commercially produced windmills and kites for the children to explore how wind makes things move.
* Encourage the children to make kites in the workshop and fly them outdoors.
Possible learning outcomes
* Responds with curiosity and excitement to sensory experiences.
* Talks about observations.
* Makes simple cause/effect links.
* Explores materials through senses.
* Selects tools and materials for a purpose.
* Uses prior knowledge of properties of materials during selection.
* Uses a range of joining and fixing techniques.
* Tests and modifies own work.
2 MUSIC TO THEIR EARS
ADULT-LED
Take advantage of the March winds to increase children's musical awareness.
Planned learning intention To explore, and experiment with, sound Adult:child ratio 1:4 Resources
Wind chimes, metal kitchen utensils (ensure that they are safe for children to handle and have holes in the handles for hanging), coathanger, string, children's scissors, masking tape.
Activity content * Before the children arrive, hang the wind chimes from branches or wall brackets around the outdoor area.
* Explain to the children that they are going on a listening walk.
* Outdoors, talk about the sounds of the chimes and the wind in the trees. Ask questions such as: What is making the sound? Is it loud? Do the chimes make the same sound? What makes them move? Are they moving all the time? Would we hear the chimes on a still day?
* Show the children the utensils and allow time to explore and discuss them.
* Ask for suggestions as to how they could use the utensils as wind chimes. Encourage discussion about ways to hang, fix and join them and about reasons for choosing particular utensils.
* Hang the utensils in a position selected by the children (either from a coathanger or directly on to a branch).
* Encourage the children to listen to the sounds as the wind blows the chimes and to experiment by adding utensils and removing others.
Stepping stones * Children with little experience will probably show an interest in and respond to the sounds that the wind chimes make (perhaps with a facial expression or gesture) and will want to explore the utensils through handling them and tapping them together.
* Children with some experience will probably understand that the wind is blowing the chimes and that they produce a sound when they bang together. The children will be interested in selecting utensils to make chimes, will listen carefully to the different sounds and will contribute ideas about how and where to hang their chimes.
* Children with more experience will compare sounds using vocabulary such as 'loud', 'quiet', 'banging' and 'rattling'. They will experiment with their chimes, trying out different combinations of utensils. They will probably choose a windy area in which to hang the chimes and be able to give reasons for their choices.
Extension ideas * Encourage the children to hang their chimes in sheltered and exposed areas, and to talk about their observations.
* Provide children with plastic and wooden objects to use as chimes and ask them to compare the sounds made.
3 CHASING SHADOWS
CHILD-INITIATED
Explore shadows on a sunny day.
Resources
A box of hats of different shapes and sizes; a box of silk scarves and large and small pieces of fabric; fiction books featuring monsters, princesses, kings, wizards and dragons; chunky chalk sticks.
Play suggestions
* Encourage the children to experiment with shadows, looking at the shapes that they can make with their own bodies and when working with a friend. Model your own shadow shapes. Encourage them to find out how shadows behave by asking them to 'hide' in their friend's shadow or to run away from their own.
* Encourage them to record their shapes by drawing around them with chalk.
* Provide hats and fabric so that they can change the shape of their shadow and create their own fantasy shadow characters.
* Make fiction books available to stimulate creative ideas and story play.
Possible learning outcomes
* Observes others at play.
* Works co-operatively with other children.
* Talks about features of weather conditions.
* Uses language such as 'big', 'round' to describe the size and shape of flat shapes.
* Uses resources imaginatively.
* Talks about characters in books/own character creations.
* Develops imaginative ideas through story making and role play.
4 IT'S RAINING, IT'S POURING
CHILD-INITIATED
Enjoy a spring downpour!
Resources
Waterproof 'splash suits' and Wellington boots; umbrellas; selection of wood, plastic, metal and paper objects; metal dustbin lids and empty tins of different shapes and sizes; pieces of kitchen foil; plastic sheeting; cellophane; nylon play tunnel or tent; A4 sheets of coloured card.
Play suggestions
* Encourage children to stand andrun in the rain, splashing through puddles, feeling raindrops on their faces and hands and tramping through long, wet grass.
* Provide objects that the children can hold above their heads or in front of them to compare the sounds made by the rain on different materials.
* Encourage the children to listen to raindrops falling on the umbrella and to watch them as they drip off the edge.
* Encourage them to listen to the rain as they sit inside a play tunnel or tent.
* Provide tins and metal lids and encourage the children to build a rain drum. Some may want to catch rain in a tin and listen to the sound of raindrops on metal.
* Encourage the children to catch raindrops on the card to make a rain pattern. (The splattered water patterns will quickly dry and disappear when taken inside, which often fascinates children and can lead on to discussion about evaporation.) Possible learning outcomes
* Shows interest and enjoyment.
* Responds to sensory experiences.
* Uses senses to find out information.
* Talks about features of the weather.
* Describes experiences.
* Carries out investigations.
* Asks questions about why things happen.
