OUR TREASURE BASKET

 I have noticed that toddlers that I am working with, always have the same resources everyday. They always play with plastic toys. So I decided to add more resources by ceating a treasure basket. I added resources that they've seen at home because it will help their transition from home as they feel a sense of belonging. I was making sure that all resouces are safe and age appropriate. I did not include small objects. However,  I put a big wood spoon and fork, phone, stick, stones, shells and so on in a basket. I left it in the center of the room and I was impressed with the way they were playing with them. I have decided not to interfere but to observe them carefully. I have observed that child 'M' (18mnths) picked up the phone, press the buttons and put it on her ear saying "babe, babe". This time, I assumed that she meant by the song by Justin Bieber, as she always listen to it on my phone. Child 'S' (14mnths) on her right, picked up the spoon, looked at it, put in her mouth and tried to stand up with it. Child 'X' (20mnths) and child 'Si' (16mnths) were joining them in exploring the objects to see how they taste, how they feel, how they smell, how they sound and how they look like.

I love the way that they were interacted and explored objects using thier five senses. From this activity, they have learned to make choices, develop their manipulative skills, imagination, solve problems, fine motr skills, sequence, anticipate and rearrange objects. The activity also promotes the development of concentration skills, through the exploration of interesting objects (Lambe, 2004). These toddlers also develop thier social and language skills as they interacted an sharing the resources. They have learnt to take turn and care for each other. According to Te Whaariki, children feel that they belong in the centre when their play is valued (Ministy of Education, 1996).


For toddlers, the question posed when participating in heuristic play is 'What can I do with this object?'. They have a natural curiosity to explore, and experiment with the different ways that objects interact with each other, toddlers investigated with all the physical possibilities of the objects, by rolling, filling, stacking, dumping, fitting things inside each other, balancing and manipulating an object in every possible way. I have observed that they make satisfying discoveries about how the world works, by exploring area's such as gravity, spacial awareness, density, and simple physics, which builds their cognitive development, hand and eye co-ordination and fine and gross motor skills.


In order to extend on this learning, I think it is important to provide a range of objects that can be used together. I will make up a range of 'activity kits' with a purpose in mind, but then to let the children explore them and use them as they would like to. I will add more resources and sort them in different baskets. For example, wooden objects, rubber objects, natural objects, metal objects and so on. The children will then sort the objects, interact with them and enjoy school.


References:

Lambe, E. (2004). TreeHugger Mums. Retrieve from  http://www.treehuggermums.co.uk/articles/parenting/article.php?article=236 on Wednesday, 13th of October 2010 at 11:00am


Little arcons to mighty oaks. Retrieved from
http://www.littleacornstomightyoaks.co.uk/Articles/Treasure%20basket.php on 13th of October, 2010 at 12:02am.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki, he whaariki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.