One of my most favourite play invitations to set up is one that links to a particular topic or celebration. I love teaching children about whats going on in the world. About religions and respecting and understanding the faith of others. Did you see the Ramadan Tuff Tray? From the youngest of ages you can begin to introduce these things. I used this tray for Chinese New Year, so here it is again but this time for Easter.
I filled the container with brown shredded paper. The paper was delivered as part of some packaging so I popped it aside as I knew there would come an opportunity to use it somewhere. It made a great base and provided a rustly, scrunchy texture for the children to explore. Some of the eggs sunk into the filling too so they had to work at navigating their fingers through to the eggs.
The larger plastic eggs I used chalk markers to add some sums to them. I mixed and matched colours so the children had to work out the answers rather than assuming both the blue pieces fitted together.
I scattered them around in the tray and didn't explain what to do with them. I wanted to see what the children would decide to do.
Other Activities using the Plastic Eggs -
I added a couple of larger wooden letters from my Easter sign. It didn't take long for the children to start saying 'S is for Spring' 'S is for splitting, the baby chick eggs split open'.
The little eggs were scooped up and used to fill the eggs once the sums were worked out. It is quite a skill to align the eggs to get them to shut. I observed lots of perseverance, but they didn't give up which was great to see. They filled the yellow basket with the filled eggs, talking away to themselves as they did so.
The baskets were brought this year from the pound shop. They had different coloured baskets but I stuck to yellow as I love the colour along with green to represent Spring. If you are planning on doing some egg hunts with the children you could look at assigning the basket colours to the egg colours the children need to collect. This will avoid one children rushing around collecting all the eggs.
Anything to prevent conflict right?
I added some rabbit pegs. Wasn't really sure what the children might do with them but it was an opportunity to use the fine motor control to open and close them. They ended up clipping them on the sides on the tray, using them as book marks, making patterns along the sticks of the eggs in the baskets and one used them as small world bunnies. Rushing around the tray to make sure the eggs were hidden for the children.
I added some different textured items to the tray just for something a little different. The book was part of a set that I brought from The Book People. They are excellent to covered a wide range of religions and celebrations in the classroom. The information is really accessible for young children.
Other Sensory Play linked Religions, Celebrations and Culture:
Have you joined our Learning Through Play GROUP yet? Its the place you can be inspired by other like minded people and share your photos to inspire too! We have everything being shared from Outdoor Areas, Tuff Trays, Dens, Literacy set ups, Funky Fingers and endless crafts!
You can request to join our GROUP here - Learning and Exploring Through Play GROUP.
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