This week the children at MonkeyMoos have had the chance to explore some more amazing trays!!! All three trays this week were amazing and very inviting and the children were able to learn new and different things. Worthing & Highdown both created their very own beaches, these were both themed around one of our national days this week and they both taught the children all about Hawaii. Winklebury created their tray around the preschools current interest which was music and singing. The children came back to nursery and taught all their friends the new song that they had learnt at ‘BIG SCHOOL’.

Who will be this weeks winners…………

Worthing’s tray

INTENT ~ For the tuff tray this week I created a Lilo and Stitch tray for Hawaii Day. I wanted the children to get a sensory experience out of the tray, using their hands and mouths. I also wanted the children to learn some new words; OCEAN and SAND.

IMPLEMENTATION ~ In the tray I used some rice crispies and cornflakes smashed up as the edible sand before laying down up blue tissue paper ripped up as the sea. I placed some pictures of Lilo and Stitch onto some blocks and placed them into the sand. I then added some pictures of flowers and placed them into the tray as well. I scattered some sea creatures into the sea as well as some turtles in the sand. I placed some questions and keywords in the tray for us to repeat to the children.  

IMPACT ~ The children absolutely loved coming to explore my Lilo and Stitch tray. They sat down and straight away used their hands to feel the texture of the ‘sand’ before tasting it, “Yummy”. The children loved moving the animals around the tray, hiding them under the blue tissue paper and finding them again. The children loved looking at Lilo and Stitch, showing them to the practitioners and moving them in the sand. Some of the children started to copy the keywords after the practitioners “Ocean” whilst pointing to the blue tissue paper and “Sand” to the smashed cereal. 

Highdown’s tray

INTENT ~ The intention behind the tuff tray was mainly because it was Hawaii day, so I created a beached themed tray to show the contrast of different colours when the sun is setting and how the sky can change into various colours throughout the day. I wanted the children to be able to understand how the colours can mix in the sky and not just paper, I also wanted the children to know and be able to identify the different creatures and animals that live around the sea and on the beach.

IMPLEMENTATION ~ I created a beach theme by painting the tuff tray blue and adding sand at the bottom of the tray, I then added a variety of bright colours (pink, yellow, orange, red) and splattered them onto the upper half of the tuff tray and mixed them together to give the sunset effect. I created an image of the sun by tracing around a bowl with yellow paint and then filling in the circle with more paint. I had then printed of some sea creatures (starfish, dolphins, sea horses) to really give the “beach” effect. As inspiration of Hawaii, I used Lilo and stitch as main characters in the tray as they are based in Hawaii and I thought the children would recognise them from a film they may have watched.

IMPACT ~ I created a beach theme by painting the tuff tray blue and adding sand at the bottom of the tray, I then added a variety of bright colours (pink, yellow, orange, red) and splattered them onto the upper half of the tuff tray and mixed them together to give the sunset effect. I created an image of the sun by tracing around a bowl with yellow paint and then filling in the circle with more paint. I had then printed of some sea creatures (starfish, dolphins, sea horses) to really give the “beach” effect. As inspiration of Hawaii, I used Lilo and stitch as main characters in the tray as they are based in Hawaii and I thought the children would recognise them from a film they may have watched.

Winklebury’s tray

INTENT ~ This week we based the tuff tray all about musical instruments and singing. We choose to base our tray on this as some of our children that are going to school have been visiting their schools and learning new schools. We di this tray so the children could all teach each other their new songs and it helped encourage conversations about their visits.

IMPLEMENTATION ~ In our music tray I used different coloured pieces of material to cover the tray and add some colour, then I added lots of different musical instruments for the children to play. The tray is set up for the children to use all different instruments while they sing and teach their peers the new songs they have been learning. This also encouraged the children to learn how we can play the different musical instruments in different ways.

IMPACT ~ The children were very intrigued about the waysthe different instruments worked and they really enjoyed teaching their friends their songs. After they had taught their they songs they encouraged their peers to all join in.They enjoyed using the different materials to hide under to listen to the different sounds.