New Toys

Hey, check out the cool new toys we picked up at the grocery store.

Some of them look kind of like balls, so we thought we'd set up the gutters and paint with them the way we sometimes do with balls.

We ran adding machine tape down the gutters, dipped our new toys into brown, yellow, orange, and red paint, then let 'em roll. Big messy time fun!

Some of the painted adding machine strips were still drying when I locked up on Friday, but we'll use them to finish up the "woven" bulletin board we started last week.

We also have larger versions of the cool new toys. They're pretty heavy, but most of us can lift them, before dropping them back to floor. So far they've always bounced. We tried making ramps out of our big blocks down which to roll them, sat on them, and used them for places to count our spooky dinosaur skeletons. We're finding them both useful and versatile.

Next week some extra big ones arrive in class -- so big we won't be able to lift them, but we'll try! Maybe we'll be able to lift them by working together.

We've also been trying out our new toys in the magnificent sensory table along with some 30 lbs. of flax seed, where they seem to have attracted teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy, and great big spiders. Flax seed is the king of sensory materials. The tiny, smooth oily seeds glide and slide over your skin, leaving them soft and good-smelling. 

There is something almost liquid about the way they move, flow and ripple together. Several years ago 2-year-old Aiden made this connection and tried drinking a cup of flax seed, which turned out to be a bad idea. You'll notice there are no containers, shovels or scoops in there -- that's so the children have to feel the seeds with their hands. Flax seed feels sooooo good.

And then there are these things.

We'll all know the word "ornamental" by the time we're done with them.

There is nothing more gratifying than breaking in new toys.