The Tree & The Tape

Children really enjoyed the bales of hay we had prepared for the fall. Now, the Holiday Season is approaching, Angela suggested that we get a Christmas tree. And so we did! We are calling the tree - "Our Tree" instead of "Christmas Tree" out of respect for the families that do not celebrate Christmas. In general, we do not focus too much on celebrating holidays, but when we do - we like to include the different traditions and believes of our families to make it meaningful for the children. Finally, Christmas trees are a nice reminder of the winter season in our part of the world.
Back to Our Tree... the main reason we brought it in was to enrich our outdoor environment. Children spend a lot of time outside in the play yard and it's important to us to make it exciting and engaging. In order to do so we switch things around, bring new things in and create opportunities for new experiences every so often.
I love watching children's reactions to any novelty that is introduced in the classroom. This time was no different. Angela bought the tree during her lunch break, and when she brought it in most of the children were still napping. The few of them that were awake watched her with big smiles on their faces. The first reaction came from Bradly who exclaimed with joy: "It's Christmas day!"
After the nap, while eating snack and waiting to go outside, we asked the children to think about the things we can do with this tree. The responses were priceless:

Declan: We can dance around it.

Nalini: We can climb it.

Marta: No, we can't climb this tree because it's too small. We need to be gentle with it.

Landon: We can eat it.

Marta: I dont think we can eat this tree. Do you have other ideas?

Landon: We can jump over it, and we can go under it... Maybe we can play hide and seek around the tree?

We continued the conversation the next morning. Before we went outside, I reminded the children about our tree in the play yard and asked what they thought about it, and what other ideas they had.

Matty: It's Christmas tree, we have to play hide and seek.

Nalini: Play hide and seek, we have to touch it gently.

Landon: Can we put the tape on the tree?

Marta: Sure, we can!

I got out a couple of rolls of color tape. As I was looking for other materials children got busy with the tape. They taped the floor and started wrapping the furniture, and when it was time to go outside they got busy decorating the tree with the tape. Many children eventually moved away from the tree, but they continued to explore the tape.

Children worked on the tree all morning, enjoy the pictures illustrating the progress below.

Next day couple of children were interested in painting the tree.

The following day children were offered to paint the fabric and then to rip it - they enjoyed the ripping activity a lot, later on some children added the fabric to our tree. 

Tape exploration kept children engaged for two days. Below pictures illustrate some of the activities and various ways children used the tape for. 

Taping the floor and wrapping around the furniture

"Now I am going to start following. I am going to follow the road' Nalini

"I am making a road for my tape" Scarlett

Stretching the roll out / measuring with

Pulling/towing the cars & other items 

Matty swinging the car for heavy work

Winters' project took at least half an hour, she worked until she run out of pink tape. Winter started stretching the tape on the floor in the art area and moved through most of the classroom taking time to wrap it around the furniture and classroom materials. She was so busy and focused she didn't stop to explain her work when I approached her asking what is she working on. Judging from the amount of time, focus and effort she put into her work I know she had a big idea.

It was a joy to watch children work this week. I am curious to see where will they take the tree project next and what other activities and explorations will result from it!