Exploring old technology

Today the Phoenix House children used screw drivers and other tools to explore the contents of old phones and keyboards :) They spent a long period of time at the table and were very curious to see what was inside!

The Phoenix House children conveyed persistence and patience throughout this activity and were very excited when they mastered how to unscrew screws. This afternoon activity was great for fostering their hand/eye co-ordination as well as their fine motor skills :)

Teddy Bears Picnic

The Phoenix House had an awesome day at their Teddy Bears Picnic where they brought along their favourite teddy bear or furry friend for a day full of fun:)
We decorated our own teddy biscuits, had jelly, lollies, honey sandwiches, fairy bread and tiny teddy's at our picnic and played games such as pass the parcel, musical statues and awarded the winner for our colouring competition :)

Some children even had their face painted!

Thank you to all the parents and children who participated today, and made it a day to remember :)

Chinese Dumplings

9th February 2016

Today we had Cherry's Mum come in and visit the Phoenix House where she helped the children create their very own Chinese dumplings in celebration of Chinese New Year!
The children had the opportunity to use their sense of smell with smelling the different ingredients that was used in our mixture and conveyed great turn taking when mixing all the ingredients together.

Next we rolled out the dough into a thin circular shape where we added our mixture and folded it together with the help of Cherry's Mum :)

They turned out great and the majority of the Phoenix House children attempted to taste their dumpling creations at lunchtime :)

Happy Chinese New Year!~

Ice exploration

In continuation with the children's current interest in water play the Phoenix House children had the opportunity to explore the element of ice!
The teachers set up a number of ice sculptures with toy animals, colours and objects frozen inside. The children loved exploring the texture and used dye drippers, salt, and spray bottles of warm water to free the objects and toy animals that were frozen inside. This attracted a lot of attention from the children and they enjoyed taking turns melting the ice with the resources provided :)

Dragon Collage

Some of the Phoenix House children have been creating a collage of a Dragon for Chinese New Year where they helped stick on the traditional Chinese New Year colours of gold, green and red pieces of paper and sequins. This year we are celebrating the year of 'The Monkey'. The Phoenix House children have been busy creating lanterns, fans and paintings in celebration of this special day. Next week we plan on making some delicious Chinese dumplings! :)