Due to the weather being so cold, we have been staying indoors a lot this month. It appears to us that the children might have been telling us about how they miss being outside during the day as they stared out the window. We wanted to acknowledge to the children that we’ve seen them missing their outdoor play by providing a sensory experience with elements from outside, such as snow, and bringing it inside as a way of connecting the outdoor environment indoors!
This experience invited us to offer materials to further develop our natural curiosity and creativity. Therefore, we added paint and brushes to decorate the snow. It felt like a mixture of outdoor play and indoor play by mixing the indoor and outdoor elements such as snow and paint brushes. The children were interested as they engaged in this group activity, and began to make the snow colourful. The paint added to the snow allowed the movement of snow to be more visible and invited the toddlers to observe the snow easier than when it is simply white.
Lana kept saying, “the snow is cold.” Henry Y repeated, “cold snow.” This interaction between the toddlers demonstrates the learning of sensory discrimination which essentially involves the children learning the words of what they are feeling. Both Lana and Henry were combining language and touch together to expand their tactile learning.
Finally, as we added all the paint to our snow we explored color theory by mixing all the colours together. Exploring colour theory is all about having fun as we engage in a colorful science experience. This encouraged creativity as the toddlers mixed all the paint and turned it into black! Kairo was so proud of making black and said, “I made black!” Monique was showing her educators how she made green, and Victoria looked at Monique and said, “it’s green!” Children learn best when they engage as a group using all their senses and it was evident throughout this experience.
