Sunday, June 3, 2012

Sensory box and toys for June's garden/farm barnehage theme


Our theme for the barnehage, our children's Norwegian-language playtime, is gardening & farming.  I put together this activity table to encourage the children to learn new Norwegian words and use them in their play.  It includes a Playmobil farm set (seen in and around the yellow fence), several My Little Pony toys and accessories (including the barn), a sensory box, and picture cue cards.


The box has coffee beans in it, and the children can "plant" the fruit, flowers, and vegetables from the plastic toy sets.  They can also put row markers made from cut drinking straws in the coffee beans.  Then they can "water" the plants with the watering cans.  The big flower is a four-piece puzzle, and the cards to the left of it (below the straw signs) are word cards for the parts of a flower.  On the right are two sorting sheets, one for flowers and one for vegetables, and a set of picture/word matching cards with the words written in both Norwegian and English.  The sorting sheets can be used with the plant stakes and with the matching cards.

My ideas for this play table came from the Playmobil 5893 Pony Farm with Carrying Case, the My Little Pony Applejack's Sweet Apple Barn Playset and other accessories, homeschoolcreations.com, and Modern Parents, Messy Kids.