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 & Winklebury both themed their trays around ‘TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY’ but both trays were so different. And Highdown created a textured tray based around ice creams.

Who will be this weeks winners…………

Winklebury’s Talk Like A Pirate Day

INTENT ~ As it was pirates day for one of our national days we did a treasure hunt tray. Pirates love treasure and as we had so many pirates tray was a good idea. It also helped the children to share and work together as a team to find the treasure. We have children that need sharing support. So this tray helped them w their next steps.

IMPLEMENTATION ~ In this pirate treasure hunt tray we had flour and lots of different jewels and jewellery. We covered them with the flour and the children used their hands to discover all the treasure. Which they did very well.

IMPACT ~ This tray had the children for a long amount of time. It also encouraged communication among themselves as the children asked lots of questions about the treasure that they found also helped the younger children to use their hand eye co-ordinations to find treasure. The children worked together which sometimes they struggle to do. 

Highdown’s Ice Cream Tray

INTENT ~ The idea around the tray was for the children to learn about textures and explore them in a fun way. As it was a hot day I based it around ice creams, so that it would draw the children in more and for them to extend their language and friendships. With the tray I wanted them to feel around them and listen to the sound of the textures as well as describing what they could feel. It could also give them a chance to listen to their peers suggestions.

IMPLEMENTATION ~ Around the tray I added different textures from hard, soft, and crunchy. In the tray there was rice, tea bags, pasta, oats, flour, sprinkles and of course ice cream cones. On the sprinkles I laid out different describing texture words for the children to explore and talk about.

IMPACT ~ Of course, as the children began to get involved with the tray they went straight for the cones. After they had shared the cones out with all their peers they began to reach in for different textures and filing to create their own pretend ice creams.
As the children were creating their ice creams, they all took it in turns to talk about all the flavour ice creams you can get and what they have had in the past as well as the flavour ice cream they were making.
Each time the children added a new texture I would ask what it felt like and they would all repeat different describing words to what item they had in their hands. The children were about to extend this by ripping the tea bags to feel for a different textures as well as breaking up the cones and hearing different sounds.

Worthing’s Talk Like A Pirate Day

INTENT ~ For the tuff tray this week I decided to create a tray based on one of our national days – pirate day. I wanted the babies to gain a sensory experience from this tuff tray as well as progressing their fine motor skills. 

IMPLEMENTATION ~ To create this tray I used sand and placed turtles walking towards the sea, I put some shells on the sand to create the effect of a real beach.  I used blue tissue paper as the sea with some blue rice to create texture. I put the sand over the sea to give the effect of waves. I printed out some pirates and a pirate ship and stuck them to some blocks so they stood up. I added some rocks along the middle and put some ,ore boats in the sea. 

IMPACT ~ The babies absolutely loved exploring this tuff tray. They enjoyed using their senses when looking and feeling the textures of the sand and the rice. They loved using their fingers to create marks in the sand. The babies loved picking up the turtles and the pirates and saying ‘arrgg’. Some of the babies was able to repeat keywords such as ‘turtle’ and ‘pirate’.