Ruth(playworkeatrepeat), Author at PLAYWORKEATREPEAT

Lightboxes For Preschool !

5 Comments / Insights Into Early Childhood Education

What Is A Lightbox? A lightbox or light table is an illuminated surface. They are commonly used in drafting, and for viewing x-rays or artwork. Lightboxes come in many shapes and sizes and they are very popular in early childhood classrooms. Using them in preschool settings will provide a wonderful teaching and learning tool. They are a calming influence in the playroom and will spark the children’s interest to explore colour mixing, shape and pattern. Providing a lightbox with inviting resources will encourage children to think critically and creatively in many areas of learning. What Do Children Learn with A Light Box Lightboxes provide the perfect opportunity to develop problem-solving skills, pattern and colour recognition, as well as language development. Lightbox activities are also great for hand-eye coordination and even pre-writing skills. The lovely soft and captivating glow means that children spend longer amounts of time engaged with the activity that is provided. This is a fantastic opportunity to stretch their developing attention spans. Using a lightbox encourages children to be better observers. This is because the subtle details of the presented materials are clearly visible on a lightbox than on a non-lit surface. The lightbox improves children’s learning experience as they learn through visual images. The colours of the materials used on the lightbox are enhanced. This will provoke the child’s imagination. Lightboxes are a very adaptable teaching tool and you can use them for many open-ended play experiences. They also create a very inviting learning space. They are interesting and will captivate and hold children’s attention. The warm glow from the lightbox creates an aesthetic appeal for the whole playroom too. What Things Can You Use On A lightbox? I have found that there is just a huge variety of equipment designed especially for lightboxes. You can see these in almost any preschool toy catalogue or good toy shop. When I look around my own preschool environment I have found that you can use almost anything. The possibilities really are endless. At our preschool, we have a perspex cover over the lightbox. This means we can add messy things like shaving cream. The children love using their little fingers to smoosh and swirl the shaving cream around. They form patterns, write their names or draw faces. It’s such a fantastic sensory experience for them. In addition, we have also placed leaves, insects in resin and x-rays on the lightbox with magnifying glasses. The children love exploring detail and their eyes light up at new discoveries. Another popular way we use our lightbox is for general construction activities. This is where those colourful magnetic tiles and coloured blocks have come in so handy. I love these coloured splats and look at the colourful cubes. They are a recent addition to our lightbox resources. The magnetic tiles are also great and the children love building with them and looking at the light shine through their creations. These wooden blocks with colourful windows are always available on our block shelf. Here the children can use them to create objects and patterns. These colour paddles are just the best! A fantastic colour mixing activity without the mess!! Colourful stones can be used to place on the lines and make patterns. Look at the variety of colours and shapes. The children have such a wonderful time creating beautiful things like flowers, houses, and people. They can let their imaginations run wild!! Adding mirrors is also another fun idea. Look how pretty it looks. Such an inviting play area. I just love the lightbox in our preschool room as it makes the room so warm and inviting. Over the years it’s been so great to watch how the children have learnt and benefited from such a fantastic teaching tool.

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Hello Monday!

Leave a Comment / Family Life, Hello Monday

Happy Monday friends, hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Here I am linking up with My Glittery Heart and The Other Side of the Road for a quick look at my very very low-key weekend. ~Friday~ As I was not rostered to go in to work on Friday, I had the luxury of a slow and lazy day. I had stayed up late on Thursday catching up on a few episodes of FBI I had recorded and we ended up going to bed late. Friday morning I got out of bed much later than I normally would. I’m not complaining as it was certainly a real treat not to have to rush out the door! Porridge I enjoyed some hot steamy porridge with a splash of honey for breakfast. Recently I discovered very creamy organic Rolled Oats made by an Australian company called Red Tractor. It is just so delicious, especially on those cold mornings and it takes no time to make. I’ve worked out that all I need to do is mix about three tablespoons of oats with lite milk into a deep cereal bowl. If I pop it into the microwave for three minutes It will cook beautifully without boiling over. Goodness knows I haven’t always done this successfully. I used to make my porridge in a regular saucepan but it stuck to the bottom and cleaning it was no fun. The only non-stick cookware I have is a skillet. So for a short while, I was cooking my porridge in it. The clean-up wasn’t as terrible as it was with the saucepan. However, as I was only making small quantities it was hardly worth the big effort to pull out a big skillet every time. Then I worked out I could use the microwave successfully if I cooked it for three minutes. Any longer and I found that the whole thing would boil over. Porridge would just be oozing down all over the microwave plate. Such a bad way to start the day and it never put me in a great mood having to clean all that up. UGH! I’ve got a really great Granola recipe, but for winter months you can’t beat a creamy porridge. I like to alternate between both granola and porridge yum and yum. Omelet for lunch! For lunch, Steve made me an omelet. I love his omelets! For this one, he added some tasty cheese, ham, tomato, and mushrooms. We ended up sharing it as it was quite big and with all those ingredients it was very filling too. I was busy for the rest of Friday doing housework, cooking, and half-listening to movies on my iPad. I usually have an old favourite going while I do my chores. Does anybody else do that? ~Saturday~ I woke up on Saturday thinking it was Sunday. I got up and went to our front door to look for the Sunday newspaper we get delivered. When I discovered it wasn’t there I just assumed the delivery must be running late. It was at this point Steve realized my confusion and reminded me it was Saturday. For a good few seconds, I honestly did NOT believe him. I really had to stop and think hard. Then of course I couldn’t stop laughing. I really don’t think this has ever happened to me before. Sure I’ve woken up on some mornings and very briefly had to remember what day of the week it was. But this was different, I honestly and truly thought it was Sunday! Ha, how crazy!! I can only blame the lockdown and the change in my work routine. I caught up on more laundry, always laundry!! and spent most of the day watching the Olympics. More gold medals from the pool. Our ladies are doing incredible!! Sam was craving subway and he convinced us this would be a perfect lunch idea. We really didn’t need much convincing! We left it up to him to order for us and we were very happy with what he chose. I don’t usually eat subway so it was a nice treat. Meatball Subways Sam ordered Meatball subways with mozzarella cheese, carrot, onion, and ranch sauce. We all love a lot of sauce. It was delicious, he also recommended that we needed a cookie. He ordered a double choc chip for himself and I picked the macadamia cookie, which I shared with Steve. It was fun to have lunch while we watched yet more Olympics. Sam is right into the weightlifting. I find myself cringing a bit thinking about how many knee and hip replacements the athletes might need after their weightlifting career is over. Poms Steve went to work in the afternoon then got home at around 11 pm so we watched a movie together. I agree with what you are probably thinking, That is super late to start a movie! Anyway, we watched Poms with the lovely Diane Keaton. It was thoroughly enjoyable. The movie is about an older lady called Martha, who moves to a retirement village and befriends a group of ladies and they form a cheerleading squad. It made me laugh, and it made me cry. When it was finished as I usually do I googled it. Turns out that it was based on a true story! That made it even better. I really recommend this lovely movie!! ~Sunday~ Sunday morning was another lazy start. We had a late breakfast together and then listened to the online church Sermon. We usually go to our local Anglican Church, but with lockdown, It will probably be a while before we meet together in person. Later that afternoon I indulged myself with a face mask. I use one that I picked up from Aldi a while ago, it felt very refreshing! I put in my earbuds and listened to some music. It was a super nice way to finish off the weekend. Thank you so much for joining me for this week’s Hello

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Friday Favorites

Hummus!

7 Comments / Recipes

Our family loves hummus, I don’t think our fridge has ever had zero hummus. We eat it with everything, in wraps, as a dip with crackers or vegetables, we even have it as a condiment for lamb and beef. We simply cannot live without it. I usually buy the Aldi hummus as my boys love this one the best. But with lockdown, I have been avoiding going to the supermarket as much as possible. I’m sticking to click and collect at Woolworths as much as I can. On the way home from work I had to stop off at the local fruit shop as we were low on not only hummus but quite a few things. I’m lucky as our fruit shop sells a delicious variety of cheeses, salami, hams, sausages dips, and all sorts of yummies! I found some hummus but it wasn’t the usual brand I buy so out of curiosity I looked at the label and read the ingredients. I was so surprised to see that it contained canola oil! Now to be fair I’m not sure what the Aldi one contains as I have never looked at the label. Anyhow as I’m sure you know, Canola Oil is not really great for your health. It is not a good source of nutrients and it also contains trans fat. I try hard to avoid canola oil and I stick to either Olive Oil or Rice Bran oil for frying. I was also a bit disappointed in myself that I had neglected to read the ingredients in the store-bought hummus. As I was standing in the fruit shop surprised at what I had found on the label, I remembered a friend of mine made her own hummus, I gave her a quick call and she said all I needed was tahini, garlic, lemon, and tinned chickpeas. Excellent! I bought all the ingredients and headed home, meanwhile, she messaged me the recipe, and here it is Ingredients~ 1 can of chickpeas 1/4 cup of lemon juice 1/4 cup of well-stirred Tahini 1 small clove of garlic 2 tablespoons of olive oil 1/2 teaspoon cumin salt to taste 3 to 4 tablespoons water Directions~ Place chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, cumin, garlic, and olive oil in a food processor and process until smooth Add salt to taste Add water I added the chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil and processed them. I didn’t add the cumin yet because I thought it might dominate. Turns out I was wrong and after I tasted it and consulted my sixteen-year-old son Sam, we both agreed it definitely needed something. So I added 1/4 teaspoon of cumin instead of the 1/2 teaspoon the recipe said. That was just personal preference. I do use cumin in my cooking but I am a bit cautious with it as I find the smell really pungent. I also added the water gradually until I was happy with the consistency. So all up I think I added about 5 tablespoons of water. The great thing about this recipe is that you can adjust it to suit your taste! The hummus was so creamy, delicious, and unbelievably easy to make. Sam declared it PERFECT! That is a huge call as he knows his hummus well. I guess you could say he’s a hummus connoisseur. I have never used tahini before and I didn’t even know what it was. Well, it turns out tahini is just sesame seeds all ground up. The recipe says to add well-stirred tahini paste. The reason is that the oil sits on the top of the jar and this needs to be mixed through before you use it. I think from now on I will be making my own hummus, it was just that good. Plus I will be using olive oil instead of the dreaded canola oil. I know it’s so much easier to throw the packaged hummus into your supermarket trolley as I have been doing for years. But honestly, after tasting the homemade version I don’t think I can go back. It really and truly was so very easy to make. One Final Note~ I guess I just really want to emphasize that the beauty of this recipe is that you can adjust it to your taste. We are super fussy about our hummus so I didn’t just stick to the quantities of seasoning the recipe says. I tasted, added, then tasted some more until I was confident it was just right! That’s it for today. Home-made hummus and now there is no turning back!!!

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Whats Up Wednesday!

2 Comments / Family Life

Hi All I hope you are all having a great week so far. I’m super excited to be linking up with Sheaffer and Shay for this fun ‘What’s up Wednesday’ post. So let’s kick off! What We’re Eating~ Well, what can I say? Lockdown has us eating everything! My goal is to try super hard to not get stuck into too many treats this week. Is it me or is it an excuse? I just think Winter makes me hungrier! I always try and make sure I eat lots of veggies and I serve them up with every meal for the whole family. My Simple Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry is loaded full of delicious veggies. Certainly, a huge hit when I made it last week!! Delicious homemade Focaccia has also been on repeat around here and we are loving it! Recently, I discovered this! Slow-cooked pork shoulder with BBQ sauce. This was half price at Woolworths. So delicious and easy peasy. You just pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes to heat up and that’s it! We’ve eaten it in wraps with coleslaw for lunch and for dinner we’ve had it served with baked potatoes or rice and of course, veggies. A nice easy lunch or dinner for sure. What I’m Reminiscing About~ I’ve been thinking about all the fun times before lockdown when we were able to catch up with friends for dinner! We used to get together about once a week at a friend’s house and it was usually for ‘Mexican Monday’ or a ‘Friday Feast’ She would cook up some very delicious food and it was just so good to be together. We had so many laughs on those nights. I’m really missing this. What I’m Loving~ The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games!! Yes indeed! I just love the Olympic games, so many sports I would never normally watch. I have to confess that I’m not at all a sporty person, No Sir, I am not. But I do love watching The Olympics. I’ve also been really loving this Bio-Oil I bought it originally for my sixteen-year-old son. He fell off his scooter and scraped off a massive amount of the skin on his elbow (shudder). It is supposed to be really good for scars. I started using it recently as my skin has been just so dry. Probably a combination of the cold weather and ageing (sigh) Anyway it’s been really great. My skin feels much smoother and hydrated. Really recommend it. I don’t receive an affiliate commission for this, just letting you know about a good skin product that I’m loving. What We’ve Been Up to~ Not a whole lot really. You know, Lockdown. I guess I’ve just been enjoying staying home and keeping safe. We’ve been catching up on shows and eating. Yep, lots of eating! What I’m Dreading~ Thankfully I’m not really dreading anything at the moment. Other than the State Ministers 11 am Covid updates every day. I dread hearing how bad COVID is at the moment in Sydney. I’m still in disbelief as I never saw this coming. Don’t think any of us did! What I’m working on~ Still working on this Blog! I think I’ve been blogging for about six weeks and really enjoying the challenge. Not so much the technical side of things, but I think I’ve developed some new neural pathways as a result, so that’s most definitely a bonus! What I’m excited about~ Spring! I’m pumped for spring and I’ll keep saying this until the end of Winter ha! I like this quote, I think it’s quite true! What I’m watching~ I’ve been going down memory lane and watching ‘The Golden Girls” on Stan. I just love having something on as I’m folding laundry or cooking. This show is so funny and I just love all the characters, they are each funny in their own unique way. This show holds a special place in my heart because I used to watch it as a kid. I was about 13 when my mum and I visited my Uncle and Aunt who were living on Long Island NY at the time. Every night after dinner we would sit down with dessert and watch an episode. They were special times. What I’m Wearing~ Other than pyjamas and work clothes on workdays, it’s usually just Sloppy Joes and leggings, I think my American friends eat Sloppy Joes but in Australia we wear them. I’m referring to long-sleeved warm fleecy tops. like this one What I’m Looking forward to next month~ To tell you the truth not a whole lot! I’ve got my first Pfizer jab scheduled for next Tuesday. And this morning, The Premier of NSW announced that we were going to be in lockdown for a further four weeks. Stephen and I will still be working as we are classed as ‘Essential Workers’ and Sam will be doing school online. If we weren’t in lockdown I would have been looking forward to seeing ‘Hamilton’ at The Sydney Lyric Theatre. We had tickets I was given as a present for Mother’s day. But sadly it got cancelled, never mind maybe we’ll get to see it later this year or the next. Well, that’s about it for this month’s What’s up Wednesday. I really hope you have a fantastic rest of the week!!

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World Earth Day and World Ocean Day at Preschool!

Leave a Comment / Insights Into Early Childhood Education

Earlier in Term two of preschool, we looked at World Earth Day and World Ocean Day. So I thought it would be fun to show you a few of the creative classroom setups we had going. Fun Playdough Activity~ First, up for our playdough table, our lovely classroom teacher provided two playdough colours instead of the usual one. We had blue and green dough, this inspired the children to copy the little world globe that was also part of the setup. If you look closely you can see how they are using the green playdough to add pieces of green land to their blue playdough. Watching the children use their own initiative and imaginations without being prompted was such a huge bonus. Aren’t they smart little friends using the dough to make their own world globes! We supplied some Earth coloured stones too for the kids to press into the dough and make patterns. There were some lovely different shades of blues and greens as well as natural stones. Classroom setups just look so visually pleasing when you use things like baskets and wooden trays for the tools and materials. Looks so much nicer than plastic trays, don’t you agree? I printed some sky images and laminated them to be used as placemats. The children really enjoyed this activity and my colleague and I were really pleased with how well the children played. Sensory and Sorting Activity~ We usually have a sensory table for the children every week with either rice or shaving cream. For Earth Day my colleague had the brilliant idea of adding little bits of pretend rubbish into the rice tubs. The children then had to sort the ‘rubbish’ into two mini bins. One was a recycling bin and the other a rubbish bin. This was not only a great sensory activity, but it was also a fantastic sorting activity too. And to top it off it gave the children a chance to really think about what household waste should actually be recycled and not just put into the general rubbish bin! How good was that? World Ocean Day~ For world Ocean Day we set up a cool book display complete with plastic sea animals and magnifying glasses. It was great to see the children browsing through the books and talking about all the different sea creatures. There are a couple of cute but very active little kids in our class. I just love them and it was so great to see them looking at all the pages of the books quite engrossed in what they were discovering. They revisited these books over and over too. Another part of the book display was this ‘Ocean’ display. Again I went through our preschool cupboards trying to find interesting things to use and came up with this. We recently bought a few of these round mirrors and they have really come in so handy. We use them for heaps of different displays and craft activities. I scrunched some cellophane and arranged it around the tray and mirror to represent the ocean, added more stones, and of course small sea creatures! Even though it was a big rush to get it all set up, I was happy with the end result. We are always short of one thing at preschool and that is time! Craft Table~ Finally, for our craft table, we added some images representing the environment. The children cut these out and used them for their collages adding other materials available to them too. I hope you enjoyed a little peek into our classroom for Earth Day and World Ocean Day. I think it’s great to cover topics such as these. It’s so important that our next generation know how amazing our planet is. And it is vital that they not only appreciate our planet but that they also grow up being active participants in protecting and looking after our world so it is a happier and healthier place to live!

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Hello Monday

Friday Favourites

14 Comments / Family Life, Friday Favourites

Hi, All and happy Friday to you! Thanks so much for joining me to have a look at some fun things for today’s Friday Favourites. As usual, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika. Wishing you all the Happiest of Fridays and a most wonderful weekend!! 1 Seeing my fun work colleague and friend was my favourite part of the week! She is the sweetest, kindest person and I just love her sunny smile! I had really missed her as I hadn’t seen her since the last term of preschool. We have to wear masks at work now but trust me underneath those masks there were some super big smiles! 2 See this little nook here? When we had our new kitchen built, we added this cute breakfast nook for one! Our kitchen is small and that little space would have been way too awkward for more cupboards. I am just so happy with how it turned out. All this week I have been using it to do some work. Definitely a favourite spot in the house. 3 Mmmmmm What can I say? Who doesn’t love a little cheese, crackers, and salami? We enjoyed some nibbles on Wednesday afternoon. So good! One of the fun things about being at home is yummy moments like these. 4 I have just been loving the beautiful sunshine and bright blue sky! I sat out on the verandah during the week and enjoyed a hot drink while I soaked up the sun. It’s been so cold but around about mid-morning on a clear, nice day it can get super sunny. I have to admit that at the beginning of the week I did try and sit out there but only lasted a little while as it was so windy. I felt like I was going to get blown away. But sunny days like this were all the go later in the week. 5 Toilet paper with a seal! (my husband thinks I’m crazy) but it just makes me so happy. A while ago I watched a cleaning and organization video from a YouTube channel called ‘Til Vacuum Do Us Part’ and it showed how to seal your toilet paper so it looks pretty sitting there in your bathroom. Well now that I have so much time because of lockdown, I have been sealing my toilet paper and I’m just loving it ha! Well, that wraps up this weeks Friday Favourites, Thanks for following along! I hope you all stay safe and well!!

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