Wild Rumpus, week 8 (west side edition)

This week, the hole/tunnel sisters decided to dig troughs deep and long enough that they could lie down in them and then get buried in sand.

 

Not sure if you can tell, but these two guys were loping across the sand on all fours like lions, kicking up dust and having a great time.

 This was a really elaborate structure that involved adding water into the tubing.

 They spun the top in the sand so much that they drilled a hold and a flat spot on the top of the sand.  Plus, when they took their hands off the rim, the top still stayed more or less upright!

 This little guy was so careful about balancing his ladder on this top.

 When he reached the peak, he declared, "king of the mountain!"

 His friend mostly liked pouring dry sand out of his watering can onto the mountain.

 Check out these awesome cherry-topped cupcakes!

 

Speaking of elaborate constructions, there was a lot of exploration of connecting tubes, funnels and pouring sand down them today.

 Apparently, their invention was called a "Sand Transferer"

 

This was the first time I've seen a combo of pop-up tunnel plus AnjiPlay tunnel.

 There was some very fancy action going on with the tulle this week as well!

 Check out this wooden structure!

 And lots of exciting water play:

 The orange cube was explored

 mostly (interestingly) by toddlers!  This little girl with the pink shirt crawled up on top and said she wanted to get down but each time her mom helped her to get started going down, she just crawled right back up!

 She's "fishing!"

 

One little boy wrote out this name in blocks.  I asked him if that was his name.  

He said, "no, it's my imaginary friend." 

His dad asked, "who is your imaginary friend?" 

"he's an animal." 

"What kind of animal?" asked his mom.

 "He's a horse."  (this was all news to his parents.)

 Otis' friend's younger brother built a "firepit."

 

In the last half-hour or so of the program, one of the kiddos decided she wanted to build a treehouse.  You can see in the photos and videos below that she has amazing leadership skills.  She managed to get all of these kids happily cooperating together to build this structure using complex techniques like pulleys to get larger items up into the tree.  She said to one of the library staff, "I know how to get kids excited, 'cuz I'm a kid!" Must be true -- check out the play stories from multiple kids about their treehouse building experience!

 

Please note: "Anji Play,” refers to a specific philosophy and comprehensive approach to early education developed by Ms. Cheng Xueqin in Anji County, China. I use the term "Anji Play" to describe my programming and throughout this blog with the explicit permission of Ms. Cheng because our programming has been developed as part of a close collaborative relationship with her and her team of Anji Play educators. If you are interested in learning more about how you can bring Anji Play to your community, please visit www.anjiplay.com