It’s that time of the week again where the nurseries compete to be the winners of the Tuff Tray Challenge! This week, both Winklebury and Highdown have showcased tuff trays to celebrate National Pink Day whereas Worthing took a trip to Jurassic Park with their tuff tray. Who is going to be this weeks champions?
WINKLEBURY- National Pink Day sensory tuff tray.
INTENT: This weeks tuff tray was based on a national day this week which was pink Day! We wanted to do this themed tuff tray to provide the children with the opportunity to learn about the colour pink and to help them understand how we can make different colours.This tuff tray was available and explored by children in each age group. This tuff tray was filled with four sections of different sensory materials all coloured pink using paint that the children helped make, then we ask the children to find all of the pink objects from around the room and added them in the tray.
IMPLEMENTATION: The children really enjoyed playing and exploring in this pink themed tuff tray. We used a range of resources in this tray such as rice, pasta, shaving foam and gloop. The children really enjoyed using the different shaped toys to make marks in the shaving foam and gloop and they also enjoyed using the different containers to scoop up the rice and pasta.The children also really enjoyed talking about what colours we use to make pink and all the different shapes they could see on the tuff tray.
IMPACT: The reason we chose this tray was because it teaches the children all about colours and how we can make different colours and different shades of colours. When the children were playing in the tray, they were talking amongst themselves about the textures and the different shapes they could see on the tray. The children in each age group really enjoyed exploring this tray and they learnt a lot about the colour pink.
HIGHDOWN- National Pink Day sensory tuff tray.
INTENT: This week our tuff tray was based around the National day ‘pink’ day. We planned for the children to learn about the world as well as the colour pink. We planned for the children to explore different textures such as soft, hard, crunchy and slimy. We want them to use describing words as well as answering simple questions. We planned for the tray to be fun for the children, by adding their favourite animals which is unicorns at the moment, so that they can make up stories or even count how many they can see.The tray will encourage making friendships, turn taking and playing alongside each other.
IMPLEMENTATION: In our tuff tray, we used lots of colour pink in different shades for the children to explore. We also added their favourite animal characters which is unicorns. We mixed shaving foam and pink paint to act out as magical unicorn food. We added pink sprinkles of different shapes form big and tiny. We also added rainbow drops as the children can name all the different colours they can see. We added questions around the tray for the children to look at and see if they can answer the questions as well as recognising familiar letters. Throughout the tray we had different textures, we has shaving foam to act out as slimy, and rainbow drops as crunchy.
IMPACT: The children were a little hesitant to start playing but as soon as the adults demonstrated that it was nothing to be worried about they all got stuck in! Some children went straight for the shaving foam and squished it between their hands, whilst others went for the unicorns. The children used describing words to talk about the different textures which allowed the adults to extend their vocabulary by asking more questions. Whilst the children were having fun in the tray they all played alongside each other and took it in turns.
WORTHING- Jurassic Park tuff tray.
INTENT: This week we created a Jurassic Park themed tuff tray to follow on from the children’s love of dinosaurs. We will expand the children’s vocabulary with trying to name all the different dinosaurs and talk about what they would have eaten. The children will use all their 5 senses through play to explore all the different textures within the tray.
IMPLEMENTATION: The tuff tray was filled with lots of different textures for the children to explore. We added a layer of sand where our variety of dinosaurs stood strong. We added a green slimy cornflour mixture with stones around the outside to make a water area fro the dinosaurs to drink from. We also put in a few leaves and sticks from our garden to add colour and effect from Jurassic Park. We printed questions for the children to think about and answer!!! Around the edges we printed some real pictures from the movie Jurassic Park and the logo.
IMPACT: The children excitedly came over to the tuff tray and got involved straight away with using their hands to explore. The children used a wide range of vocabulary and expanded their knowledge using new words. Eg “Dinosaur, T Rex, Carnivore and Jurassic ” The children played with all the different Dinosaurs and started making lots of noises which represent a dinosaur. “RROOAARR” Through out the children’s playing a lot of them where humming the theme tune from the Jurassic Park film. The children enjoyed putting their hands into the slimy green bog and mixing the two textures together. They also stamped the dinosaurs into the mixture and feed them the leaves for dinner. The children took turns with looking at the pictures from the movie and telling us about their own experiences with their families when going to the cinema to see the film and eating lots of popcorn. The children took turns in small group exploring our tuff tray as they all wanted to be involved. “We had a Roar-some time!!!!!”
THIS WEEKS WINNERS, TWO WEEKS IN A ROW ARE…. WORTHING!!
