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.

INTENT ~ This weeks tuff tray we did it on Babies next steps. Babies next steps this month have been. Working on their communication and language, taking part in messy activities and learning animal sounds. We made sure the tray was at babies level and inviting f our them to take part

IMPLEMENTATION ~ In the tray we used flour, this was to help the children who do not really like the messy texture but we knew it would easily brush away which wouldn’t cause to much distress. We used shredded wheat so that babies could eat and crunch up in their hands and listed to the texture plus another texture that isn’t messy but enjoyable for them to play in. We had rice so that the children could pick up with their hands, scoop and put in to pots and mark make using finger tips. We added a wild and farm animals to the tray so that the children could learn new animals and practise saying the names and sounds. Which they did really well.

IMPACT ~ They focused and spent a long amount of time in this tray, engaging with each other and with their grown ups. The children who are not that keen on messy texture’s enjoyed taking part. It was lovely to hear the babies trying to repeat animal sounds and pointing to more to learn what they wanted. We felt the babies achieved a lot from this tray and had so much fun playing in it.

INTENT ~ The intent is to create a warm, cosy enclosed environment which will help the children to feel more comfortable\ confident in the enclosed space, like a safe space. This is promoting positivity, happiness, well being and self esteem (PSED). I have also made this activity based on our book of the month which is The Hungry Caterpillar, which I have added labelled pictures of food which will encourage conversations with the friends (Communication& Language). With the activity being low and enclosed the children will have to army crawl into the den which is also encouraging Physical Development.

IMPLEMENTATION ~ I have created a small enclosed environment where the children can feel safer, confident and comfortable. To create this I have used the carpets and cushions to give it that warm cosy vibe. I also used a sheet to cover the tray making it the den which made it darker enclosing the den making it more smaller so the children can feel more comfortable being enclosed. This will help the children that are more intimidated by big spaces feel safer and more relaxed.

IMPACT ~ The children loved that it was a small enclosed environment which made them feel closer to their friends making them feel comfortable and happy. They was looking at the labelled food pictures and referring to the Hungry Caterpillar book “The Hungry Caterpillar was eating apples and oranges too”. They all took in turns to take snack from the tray and was encouraging their friends to have some too.

INTENT ~ The Intent of the Tuff Tray was for the children to be able to understand the different features of sea animals compared to land animals and people. I wanted the children to engage with the book ‘Barry the fish with fingers’ and have an understanding of all the different colours that can be seen on a fish, I also wanted the children to be able to know that their are different types of fish such as a ‘puffer fish’ and “sharks”. The children also needed to be able to understand the difference between fiction and non -fiction stories.

IMPLEMENTATION ~ I had created a template fish for the children as an example and placed it in the middle of the Tuff Tray, so that it was visible to all the children. I had used a range of different resources and spread them around the tray so they were also in reach of all the children such as; pipe cleaners for fingers, sequins for scales, colourful ribbon for the tail and some googly eyes. I had also used blue tissue paper as a background to give the affect of the sea and I had put the book out so it can be referred too as they made their fishes.

IMPACT ~ The children were drawn towards the tuff tray and eager to make their own fishes.. They were all given the opportunity to pick the colour of their fish and decorate it however they liked. They had all listened to the story carefully and had really enjoyed the book as they had found it funny because they had said “fishes don’t have fingers”. The children were really excited when using the sequins for scales and giving their fishes different coloured eyes. All the children had used their imaginations to give their fishes names like Dora, T-rex and sparkly wand.

INTENT ~ The intent of my tuff tray was to create a jungle tray based off the babies recent interests of animals. I wanted the babies to explore and be able to discover the different animals and learn the noises they make for example lions and tigers “roar”. In this tray I also wanted the babies to gain a sensory experience and use their 5 senses. 

IMPLEMENTATION ~ To create this tray I used coco pops as mud across the tray. Using food colouring I dyed rice different shades of green to show the shades of grass in the jungle, for even more texture I added green string to make the grass feel different compared to the rice. Lastly I used icing sugar mixed with water and blue food colouring to create the river stream. I included animals such as rhinos, tigers

IMPACT ~ The babies absolutely loved exploring the jungle tray! They used there hands to feel and scrunch the different materials as well as tasting the foods. They enjoyed picking up the different animals and listening to their practitioners making their sound. During the activity some of the babies repeated the sounds and  shouted ‘’roar’’ when finding a lion.