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. Highdown created a dinosaur themed tuff tray as the children have really enjoyed playing with them but to extend their learning they have added sensory materials and the aim was for the children to be able to use their physical skills as well as their language and imagination skills too. Winklebury created a Superheroes tuff tray as superheroes is the current interest of the children at the moment. The aim was to encourage communication and socialisation skills. Worthing created

Who will be this weeks winners…………

Highdown’s Dinosaur Tuff Tray

INTENT ~ This was a extension from interests of the children who have been playing with the dinosaur’s inside and outside for a couple of days, Thinking about the cohort of children This was a sensory activity but also physical, language and using their imagination.

IMPLEMENTATION ~ In the Tray I added living herbs, broccoli, limes, water, asparagus, Play-doh for printing footsteps and tools to shape and make, making a scene for their imagination play, But to also have items for the children to use their language of how, when, where. Using tools for PD using them wrist movements ready for their next stage of learning.

IMPACT ~ The children loved this Tray, the language we got from all the children, the use of questions. The imagination, the made-up story’s they were saying while playing. Each child said“sticky”.The children loved the sensory smells, feels, “smells like flowers” another child said. This extended to cooking and what we use at home for cooking with herbs. This was also great for problem solving too with only one broccoli the children had to figure out how to share with one child breaking it up and sharing with their friends. Towards the end of the day the mud was out of the parsley and the children was mixing the limes, herbs and mud in to the play-doh and was great to see children just adding different texture in the play-doh and also having a go.

Winklebury’s Superheros Tuff Tray

INTENT ~ This week’s tuff tray was based around the children’s widely shared interest of Super Heroes! All of our children love super heroes and villains, so I created a hero city for them to play as Spiderman, one of their favourites! The children’s interest in superheroes really encourages their communication and socialisation with other children. This interest brings together children from all 3 of our age groups into a community at MonkeyMoos!

IMPLEMENTATION ~ This tray consisted of spidermen figures on sticks, 2 city buildings made with cardboard boxes and paper (so incorporating imagination and junk modelling), roads made out of cardboard, cars, little people, trees, flour to act as snow and of course, white string scatted all over the tray to be Spiderman’s webs!

IMPACT ~ The children really enjoyed being super heroes! They played as Spiderman, and created their own stories in the tray. They would pretend there were ‘bad guys’ who Spiderman had to defeat! They would make hills out of flour and swing Spiderman across. They shared the city buildings as a team and made up their games together. This provided opportunity to discuss what superheroes they like and what these heroes do, and helped engage their creative and imaginative skills in the construction side of the tray.

Worthing’s Alpaca Farm

INTENT ~ For the tuff tray this week I decided to create a tray based on National Alpaca day, for the toddlers to enjoy and explore . I created this tuff tray because I wanted the toddlers to expand their knowledge on the animal using the basis of a farm which they are all familiar with. 

IMPLEMENTATION ~ To create this tray I sprinkled some of the tray with hay and placed cut out alpacas around it. I then added our fake grass around it and placed some tractors on top to help the children recognise it is a farm. I then added soil to the rest off the tray and filled it with a selection of vegetables to create a vegetable patch to symbolise what Alpaca’s eat. I also included an information sheet for me to read to the Toddlers about the Alpaca as an animal. 

IMPACT ~ The Toddlers absolutely loved exploring this tuff tray, they loved using the tractors by adding lots of hay to the back trailer and moving it around the tray. The Toddlers also enjoyed exploring the different vegetables and using their senses. The toddlers were also engaged and excited about listening to the different facts about Alpacas. By the end of the activity some Toddlers were able to describe the different colours of an alpaca and the vegetables they eat.