Science@Play - Five Senses

Our second session of Science@Play, which was at the end of March, was on the Five Senses. The children had a sensory galore with ten stations for them to play, explore, create, and experiment. We couldn't cover all ten stations but I think we went to eight of them. 

The first station we went to had kinetic sand on a mat. I know the little girl is usually very hesitant of getting herself dirty so early into a playdate before she has warmed up. As I had expected, she didn't want to touch the sand at all. Oh well.

Moving along we went to a station that had colourful plastic eggs in an egg tray. The children could shake them to hear the contents and guess what were inside. Or they could shake them to match two eggs which had the same contents. Now that's a mess-free starter activity which suited her just fine.

 Shaking the eggs

 Colourful eggs in a tray

Next was a fun station for the children to explore with shaving gel, paint and glitter. After spraying some gel into a tray, they decorated it with different coloured sparkly glitter before deciding to explore further with their hands. Since she had warmed up I assumed, the little girl was ready to get her hands dirty.

 Adding some sparkle to their shaving gel

 Let's get messy!

After washing the gel and glitter off her hands, we went to the next station for some play with scented dough. She spent quite some time there playing together with her friend. And while she was busy with the dough and cookie cutters, I spent some time catching up with friends.

Playing with dough and cutters 

While she was busy with the dough, I looked around at other stations. There was a station with colourful yummy-looking jelly for the children to eat. They could even play with the jelly if they wanted to but the little girl wasn't interested in it. 

Colourful jelly to eat or play with

There was another station where the children could experiment with water in test tubes to hear the different pitch that they make when struck with a tuning fork. Only thing is, I didn't think they were given a tuning fork. A tuning fork usually has a shorter handle with longer prongs but what they got was something with a long handle and very short prongs. When I tried hitting a test tube of water with it, it just made a dull thud. Hmm.. There was a shaker and a xylophone too for the children to explore but the children were more than happy to just transfer water using the pipettes.

 Transferring water using transfer pipettes

I think this is how a tuning fork should look like

After some time, I decided to lure her away from the scented dough and asked if she wanted to make a rice shaker. She still held a piece of dough in her hand while filling her shaker with rice. Then I taped both ends of the shaker with craft paper and tape and we got for ourselves something to make music with.

Filling her shaker with rice

Next was a station to make a sensory board. She probably missed out one or two materials but she got nine different materials neatly taped onto her board.

Her sensory board

And while almost everyone else had opened up their lunch boxes and were munching away, the little girl was suddenly attracted to the water and pipettes. And so she sat there transferring water from a plastic cup into glass test tubes. She had used a transfer pipette just the day before at a playdate session with Growing with Colours so she was probably enjoying the new instrument. 

Though it might look rather mundane to be just transferring water, but I was grateful that the little girl could control the pipette well enough to guide it into the small opening of the test tube without spilling water. At times like this, I thanked Him for giving me such golden opportunities to watch my daughter learn and practise a new skill she had picked up. That very day, I asked my brother-in-law if he could get a few transfer pipettes for the little girl and he did! Now we use those pipettes mostly for watercolour art. 

Practising her new skill of transferring water with a pipette

I know we missed a few stations that day but it's okay. One of it was to make a paper tambourine and another to taste foods with different tastes. There's no point in rushing her through and I would rather she has ample time to enjoy each activity thoroughly before moving on. I remember going home really happy that day for a fulfilling noon with my daughter. 

Growing With Colours

A few weeks back, we attended an outdoor play session by Growing with Colours. Earlier in the week, a friend of mine had gotten a pamphlet from them which listed their weekly activities for the outdoor sessions, hence I decided to give it a try. 

We received a reply from the GWC team with details of the session; like the price ($12 for trial), duration (1 hour), time to meet (10am) and venue (near the playground at Pasir Ris Park). Although the session is for an hour, it would be packed with activities - circle time, art activity, sensory activity and snack time. On the pamphlet, it was written that the activities would be suitable for children up to 30 mths old so I enquired since my daughter had turned 31 mths old. I was told that it would be okay for up to 36 mths old. We would have another 5 months left to take part in the activities by GWC then. Everything seemed perfect and I was looking forward to it!

On the day itself, we went to the park and spotted the pink tent and balloons from afar. The two mothers behind GWC, Normah and Rahmah, greeted us warmly and we made ourselves comfortable on the mat. It was a cosy group as there were only six toddlers for the session, including the two girls who were the daughters of the duo behind GWC. Some of the children were reading or playing with toys but my little girl was happy to sit and observe, as she always does in a new situation.

Then we were asked to gather for circle time. There were some singing and movement led by one of the mothers. Again, the little girl was happy to watch. But then came the part where the children were presented with their own pictures that the mothers had handed over earlier. The children then pasted their pictures on the "Who is here today?" board. Unfortunately, I had not brought a picture for the little girl. The organisers were sweet enough to have written her name on a piece of apple-shaped paper so that she still had something to paste. Note to self: Bring a picture next time!

Pasting his picture on the board

Then out came a covered box for the children to put their hands in. They each picked a ball of different types. They were introduced to the different types of balls and were shown that the balls could be used to make a piece of art when dipped in paint.

Picking a ball from the box

Making an art piece with a round ball, bouncy ball, spiky ball and rose ball

The children were then given a piece of paper, different types of balls, and some paint. They dipped and printed away with the balls. The little girl's favourite had to be the bouncy ball which is my favourite too as it makes pretty fireworks pattern on the paper. And it's so fun to bounce it in paint and then bounce it on paper! 

Bouncing the ball away on her paper

Her art work which I call "Fireworks"

Next was sensory play. The children were given their own trays with dollops of frozen coloured shaving foam. The shaving foam had melted a little under the hot sun but it was still a whole lot of fun. The semi-melted shaving foam looked and felt just like ice-cream and for a moment, the children thought they had been served with some on a hot day. The children were also given an assortment of scoops and containers to play with the shaving foam. 

Scooping some foam into ice-cream cones for pretend play

More scooping into ice cube trays

Free play

I was amazed at the amount of work the ladies had put in into carrying out the activities. It felt like an outdoors session of Julia Gabriel! I felt though that the activities (art and messy play) were a little too short. The little girl was still printing with the balls when they started clearing away for the next activity. In general, I stay away from structured classes for now to avoid hurrying the little girl from one activity to another because she can spend a long time doing an activity that she likes.

But I understand that there is a targetted age group of 18-36 mths old. The activities couldn't be longer so as to sustain all the children's interest and attention, especially the younger ones, and not just mine. I totally get that. I will still attend the sessions as they are affordably priced and I can get ideas which I can replicate at home. And they are outdoors too! 

Due to that reason, we went for another session with GWC last Sunday. Hafsa was also celebrating her birthday that day at the park so we decided to attend the session with GWC before the celebration and more free play at the playground. There were more than twice as many children than the previous session we attended which surprised me as I thought there was a maximum number of children accepted per session. 

Circle time

We gathered round for some song and movement during circle time. After that, two boxes were taken out and the children reached in to take out a number. Then the organisers revealed the activities for the day - number stamping and playing with goop. The children were divided into two groups and each group would start with an activity before swopping. 

What is in the box?

We were given an aluminum tray, some goop in a ziplock bag to scoop out, some food colouring, and transfer pipettes. The little girl wasn't so keen to get her hands dirty in goop but she was more interested in using the pipettes to squirt some food colouring onto the goop. While she was busy with the pipettes, my hubby and I were busy playing with the goop. It felt like hard plasticine when we tried to scoop it up, but once in our hands, it dripped down like liquid. But after a while, she got her hands right in too. It was obvious that the parents were having as much fun with the goop, if not more.

Using transfer pipettes for the first time

Daddies having fun with goop too

Finally getting her hands in the goop

Parents couldn't have enough of goop too

It took a while before the little girl was ready to swap to the next activity which was number stamping. By then the other children were cleaning up or changing clothes. She did just a little stamping and then she was done. Oh well, whatever makes her happy.

Printing with numbers

Bubble time and goodbye song

By then the children, and the parents too, were hungry so we took out our picnic mats and food to start munching while the organisers were cleaning up. Then we wrapped up the session with some bubbles and a goodbye song. We decided to get the package with GWC too which cost us $64 for 4 sessions. Individual sessions cost $18 each after the trial. We were told the next session on 13 April will be on the book We are Going on a Bear Hunt. That would be so much fun! Inshaa Allah we'll be there as the book is one of our favourites and we've watched the play too earlier this year. Till the next session!

Science@Play - Weather

Last month, we attended our first session of Science@Play by Dr Rufaihah and her team from Granada Academy. The theme was on Weather and it was the second monthly session of Science@Play. It was conducted outdoors at Bishan Park which was just perfect as I love outdoor playdates. Nothing like the sound of birds chirping, the feel of the gentle breeze, and the sight of trees around us to add to the experience.

We arrived a little late and by the time we had settled down, the children were listening to a sharing on different types of weather. A few inflatables were passed around of the sun, snowflake and raindrop after the discussion, followed by an activity on making a weather mobile.

I felt that this activity was more suited for children who are probably four and above; who are able to cut, thread strings through a hole, and tie knots on their own. As the little girl is only turning three this year, she couldn't complete it on her own but I tried to make it as child-centred as possible by letting her cut the strings and thread them, and choose where to hang the pictures. By the time the activity had ended, we had completed hanging only three pictures but that was totally fine. We kept the other two to complete the mobile at home.

The pretty weather mobile 

The next activity was to make a tornado in a bottle. An empty bottle was half-filled with water then a special cap was screwed onto it so that another empty bottle could be fastened on top. Then the two bottles were quickly overturned and given a quick swirl so that the water in the top bottle would spiral down in a tornado-like motion.

Of course when I got home, I had to find out why a vortex was created in the bottle. We all know that when water flows out from a container, air has to enter to take the space previously occupied by the water (now that's a textbook answer or something students memorise for their exams). That is why when we pour, we hold the bottle at an angle so that the water flows out smoothly as air is able to enter at the same time. Or when we make a hole in a milk can, we make another hole so that air can enter while we are pouring out the milk.

Have you tried pouring out water while holding the bottle vertically? Well I have, as an experiment of course. The water gurgles out or comes out in spurts as air and water have to take turns going in and out respectively. And if sufficient air doesn't get to enter, the bottle will slowly collapse so that there's a smaller space in it. Amazing stuff! Once students experience this, they'll never ever forget the lessons on Matter.

So back to the tornado in the bottle. The bottle was given a swirl to create a vortex with a hole in the middle so that air can come up the bottle and water can swirl into the bottle below. Now that totally makes sense, doesn't it? Without giving it a swirl, and the vortex, the water will not flow down smoothly due to the explanation above. You can read about the tornado in a bottle at Steve Spangler Science to create your own at home!

Observing the tornado in a bottle

Next was an activity which got the children all excited as it was time for some messy play! They each got a bowl filled with some water. A spoon of white powder was added and voila, the powder erupted into fluffy "snow"! The instant snow, which is a polymer, felt cool to the touch and wasn't clumpy or sticky. The children poured it out, threw it on themselves or squished it with their hands. My neat little girl, who loves to scoop and transfer, immediately scooped it back into the bowl with a spoon after it was overturned.

I think the time given for the activity was too short as the children would have loved to play with the instant snow for a longer time. I am trying to get my hands on some of that instant snow powder. I would place the snow in a large basin or at the water table, with some scoops and containers, and I know the little girl would be absorbed in it for an hour or so, for many days.

Playing with instant snow

The last activity for the day was an exploration with dry ice. Some dry ice were placed in measuring cylinders, water was added, and the children were amazed with the bubbling in the water and white smoke that escaped. Immediately the children grabbed the metal tongs to add more dry ice to the cylinders. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide so when it reacted with water, the gas produced is a combination of carbon dioxide and water vapour. The smoke that you see is a cloud of tiny water droplets.

Mesmerised by the reaction of dry ice with water

Food colouring was added to the three cylinders to add to the excitement and the children continued to add dry ice. What they forgot to do though was to add water to the cylinders as without water, the above reaction would not take place and bubbling and smoke would cease. Finally, some dishwashing liquid was squirted into the cylinders and soap bubbles erupted from them. There was no way to contain the children's excitement after that. You can read some dry ice experiments at Steve Spangler Science to do your own at home!

Colour added to add to the excitement

All the kids clamoured to add more dry ice

 Kids went crazy when dishwashing liquid was added

The little girl wanted to add some dry ice too

Of course there was science behind the tornado in a bottle (vertex), instant snow (polymer) and dry ice (sublimation and chemical reaction), but the children, aged 2-6, were too young to understand those. If we were at home, I would probably tell a simplified explanation to the little girl. I'm looking forward to the Science playdate by Umar's ummi as I know Teacher Za will surely give a brief scientific explanation for the activities.

The next session of Science@Play, with the theme on Five Senses, will take place on 31st March at Bishan Park. Can't wait for the next one! Looking forward to see you there!

Rivers & Lakes Reading Corner

While we were in the midst of the previous reading corner on birds, I didn't know why but I just wanted the next theme to be on rivers. I figured we could visit the River Safari, and I already had two types of river toobs. It would be fun too to talk about the natural environment, which is the river.

So even when we started the theme at the end of October (we had a little breather after the previous one), we had no idea that we would be taking a trip very soon to a land of not only rivers, but lakes and mountains too. And still not knowing of the trip, I had decided to include lakes in our theme too because of the book Little Beaver and the Echo. Was it all a coincidence? No, I don't believe in coincidence. I call it Fate.

Exactly a month into our theme, we had the opportunity to go for a holiday which we hadn't intended to earlier. Since the trip would take place three weeks after that, it wasn't easy to choose a destination and get flights that were not too exhorbitant. In the end, we settled for South Island, New Zealand. We had always wanted to go back there and we were so excited to have the little girl with us this time.

After our flight to Christchurch were booked; and I thought of all the magnificent lakes at South Island, where I sat with my hubby and marvelled and pondered, and thought and dreamt of when we were back home; my decision to do a theme on rivers and lakes totally made sense. It had all been Written.

I had decided that for this post, I shall not be too long-winded and ramble like I always do, but my introduction is already four paragraphs long. Gosh! I promise that this shall not be a 5000-word essay. I'll try!

Reading corner

So we had our usual reading corner but getting books to suit the theme was tough. First I had to find out which are the animals that live in or near rivers and I found out some of them are hippos, bears, beavers, raccoons, ducks, river otters and crocodiles. Finding interesting books about those animals was the big challenge and these are the ones that I got. All the books I had bought them online from Amazon or Book Depository.

Our reading corner

Reading with a crocodile toob

Among the books, our favourites have to be The Selfish Crocodile, Little Beaver and the Echo and Raccoon at Clear Creek Road. The last book came with an audio CD of the book and I like to pop it in so that the little girl can listen to the story while I'm preparing breakfast for her. 

Activity corner

We had two more books at this corner and they were to accompany the dress-up family bear puzzle and Malay picture-matching cards based on the Brown Bear book. The picture cards were made by a friend as part of a busy bag exchange. 

The thing I loved most about this corner was the small world set-up with the river animals. Many of the animals, like the bears, raccoons, deer, otters, hippos, tigers and frogs, came in pairs. That delighted the little girl of course as she loved pairing the "mummy and baby" animals together.

Our activity corner

 Dressing up mama, papa and baby bears

Matching the picture cards

Food play

The little girl got a tub of alphabet and number cookie cutters as a birthday gift and finally the letters came out of their tub. We had fun cutting our pancakes to spell the names of the animals. I also bought another tub of animal cookie cutters which we used to make edible art for breakfast. It was fun to make them and eat them!

Spelling with pancakes

Making duck scrambled egg

Toasting cheese on bears

Sensory play

Based on the book Little Beaver and the Echo, we had ice and bubble play at the water table. Like in the book, the beaver went out on his boat to look for The Echo, but instead found the duck, the otter and the turtle who became his friends. 

Ice and bubble play

And we had an animal matching game in water beads which she played with her papa. Since many of the river animals came in pairs, they took turns to look for the match when one found an animal in the tub. It was a great father-daughter bonding time on a Sunday morning.

Matching animals in water beads

Quranic literacy

For this theme, it was the little girl who unknowingly chose the topic for our Quranic literacy. I had intended to look up the verses on rivers in Paradise and to talk to the little girl about them, but she had other ideas, and child-led learning is always the best. She had taken an interest in Surah Al Feel, which is the 105th surah in the Quran, mostly because of the elephants in the pictures that were mentioned in the surah. 

Surah Al Feel

So I decided to let her pursue her interest in the elephants while always referring to the surah during our conversations and Quran recitation. We went to the zoo to watch the elephant shows and got to feed an elephant too. After feeding the elephant, we had a hard time peeling her and Ayn away from the elephants as they were busy pretending to be little mahouts while sitting on the elephant statues. In fact, the little girl has already requested to sit on a real elephant the next time we are at the zoo.  

Watching the elephants at the zoo

I found illustrated lessons from Surah Al Feel by Ustaz Nouman Ali Khan which proved to be really beneficial for me. After a few weeks of talking about the surah, the emotional moment came when we were seated outside Masjid Sultan one evening while waiting for her papa. It was the time of the month for me and I couldn't perform my prayers. She was listening to the imam's recitation, asking who was reading it and all, and then she asked me, "Is the imam going to read Surah Al Feel?" I think for now, it is her most favourite surah.

Excursions

We went to Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park so that the little girl could have her first experience in a river. Little did I know that the river in the park was actually part of Kallang River! It had rained earlier so to get to the river, we had to squelch down a muddy slope and walk through some grass. Doesn't that just remind you of We are Going on a Bear Hunt? Then the little girl gamely asked if she could walk in the river, which she did with her papa. Later on, she asked if she could swim with the fish in the river. Not in the mucky water, my dear! 

Walking in a river at a park

We made a few trips to Botanic Gardens to see the nesting black swans which I had written about before. Two books came in handy for the trips, namely Ducks Don't Get Wet and A Nest Full of Eggs. To read in books about birds laying eggs or ducks preening their feathers to make them waterproof, and to actually see these animals and their actions in person, are just worlds apart. I'm really grateful that the little girl could experience such wonders and that I was right beside her.

Nesting black swans and ducks at Botanic Gardens

We made another trip to the River Safari to see some river animals. Sadly, the animal show that we caught previously where we got to see the animals up close was no longer showing. But the little girl didn't mind at all as she was busy playing with her little friends.

Nile crocodile, river otter, Amazonian manatee and crab-eating raccoon at River Safari

Holiday experience

Our holiday trip to South Island of New Zealand was the highlight of the year for us. The last time we were there was to celebrate our third wedding anniversary so we were ecstatic to be back there with the little girl in tow. We wanted to share all the delightful places we had visited with her and we wanted her to experience His Beauty in all its majesty. 

It was a free-and-easy, self-drive holiday which started and ended at Christchurch. We drove in a clockwise direction, staying at Christchurch, Tekapo, Queenstown, Wanaka, Fox, Greymouth and finally back at Christchurch again. I could go on and on about the trip, but I guess I shall save the lengthy write-up of the trip and let the pictures do the talking for now. These pictures show the child-led activities of my little girl amidst beautiful nature and magnificent scenery. 

Throwing rocks at the top of Mount John, with Lake Tekapo in the background

Chasing ducks by Lake Tekapo

Throwing acorns into Lake Pukaki and watching them float 

Picking acorns for her chosen activity

Picking up rocks to serve as food on a plate to a passing duck at Lake Wakatipu

Throwing rocks into Lake Wakatipu with The Remarkables mountain range in the background

Watching ducks and throwing gravel at Lake Wanaka

Feeding ducks at Lake Wanaka

Wondering how to get down to Clearwater Creek

Picking flowers and running in a meadow beside Clearwater Creek

Crossing a suspended bridge at Fox

Watching the running water that flows from Fox Glacier while on the suspended bridge

Picking up fallen leaves and twigs during a forest walk at Fox

Finding company in a duck at a fantastic playground at Greymouth

Taking a walk with the duck around the park at Greymouth

Art and craft

I had written before of the free-form art that the little girl had done during the course of the theme. With some paint, watercolour, brushes, plastic cutlery and cotton buds, these are what she came up with.

Free-form art

I love to cut up scenes for the little girl to paste. My husband always says that I look to be having more fun than the little girl when it comes to art. Well I love craft and having the opportunity to cut up some coloured papers always cheers me up. I wouldn't want to do something that bores me to tears, would I?  So our collaborative art is what I call a win-win situation.

Scenes for the ducks and hippos

Collaborative art - done with paint and paper cut-outs

Done with watercolour and duck stamps

It was the first time that we did some craft with felt and I'm hooked! The elephants were done to tie in with the elephant excursions that we did and the ducks were done after all the ducks that we saw in New Zealand. I didn't realise it at first but later on I realised that there were so many circles in both crafts! So we got to talk about shapes too, which included rectangle (legs), triangle (beaks) and semicircle (ducks' bodies).

Felt craft

In conclusion

All praises to Him for giving the little girl and I the opportunity and knowledge to put together the theme and carry out the activities together. In the end I did look up the verse in the Quran, in which rivers of water, milk, wine and honey are mentioned. For the Paradise is where we are striving for during this short life of ours. 

"The description of Paradise which the Muttaqun (pious) have been promised is that in it are rivers of water the taste and smell of which have not changed; rivers of milk of which the taste never changes; rivers of wine delicious to those who drink; and rivers of clarified honey (clear and pure) therein for them is every kind of fruit; and forgiveness from their Lord. (Are these) like those who shall dwell for ever in the Fire, and be given to drink boiling water so that it cuts up their bowels?" (Quran, 47:15)

You may wish to read:
Birds Reading Corner
Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner
Marine Reading Corner