Building, building everywhere!

This week we started back after a two break for Christmas, it is always a bit of worry whether some children will find it hard to settle back in after the break but almost of all the children had no problem at all coming back in and settling straight to play. Most in fact, were delighted to see their friends again and couldn't wait to explore the playground again. 
It is always interesting to reflect on how far the children have come in just 4 months & sometimes it's easy for us the adults to forget how many new skills they have achieved since September. It's always good to read over the observations and for all staff to chat about how children used to be to help us appreciate the progress they have made. It is wonderful to watch a child come to pick a book to take home when you remember that same child not wanting to take part in such activities a few weeks ago, or to see someone get an egg timer to ensure they get a turn with a resource with no prompting from any of the adults. 
The past few days the children enjoyed building lots of different structures and we could definitely see an increase in concentration and perseverance at such activities. 
It's always great to see the 'harder' resources in action and to see how the children can really engage with them and extend their play - it never ceases to amaze me what the children can build as sometimes we as adults can only think of limited ways to use resources!

One child spent all morning playing with the 'Lasy' first building a windmill 'like on our jumpers' and then a 'big long thing' - it was indeed a very long thing, it stretched across the classroom and it took a lot of patience to join all the little 'H' shapes together.

"It's a round thing" - of course, silly me!

Another child stacked up some cardboard cylinders that we have in the block corner and found my hat on the shelf nearby & made her mummy - she then decided that it needed her own scarf too, I helped tie it on. She was very proud of her creation and we left up until the next morning so her mummy could see it too. 

As we begin second term, I can't wait to see what amazing structures the children will create as we add more resources together. 

You can find out more about LASY here:  http://www.lasy.org.tw/aboutus.htm