The children in School-age 1 at RisingOaks Early Learning | John Sweeney are consistently showing their creative abilities as they plan, design and create various items with materials found in the classroom. The children really enjoyed exploring with playdough as they squished it in their hands and rolled it flat to allow for easy “cookie cutting”. The educators discovered 2 boxes of Playfoam, which was plenty to share amongst the School age groups. We showed the children a short video on how to create animals, structures and abstract objects by manipulating the playfoam in between your fingers. The children chose their colours and began squishing the playfoam, rolling it into balls or flattening it out across the table. Pinching, scooping, squeezing, pressing, and rolling Playfoam helps your children build the fine motor skills and manual dexterity they need in order to button their shirts, print with a pencil and complete other fine motor activities.
Discussions were held amongst peers as they shared plans and designs with each other. The playfoam is easy to manipulate, but can easily fall apart. Some of the children became frustrated as the playfoam would crumble in their hands. The children used problem solving skills and patience as they continued exploring the new texture.
Adriana created her family as she maneuvered her playfoam into the shapes of her family members. Delphine used her hands to mold the playfoan into a heart shape. Iliana used multiple colours and manipulated them into a sward fish. During this process, she asked to see a photo of one on the iPad that she could reference. She was very proud of the final product. Gabriel used his hands as tools and cut the playfoam creating several piles. There were many techniques, strategies and ideas shared around the table as the children continued to generate new arrangements with the playfoam.
