A RAINY DAY IN OUR TODDLER ROOM
Siolta Standard 2: Environments
Enriching environments, both indoor and outdoor (including materials and
equipment) are well maintained, safe, available, accessible, adaptable,
developmentally appropriate, and offer a variety of challenging and stimulating
experiences.
One rainy morning, we were having breakfast in the Toddler Room. The children were
talking about the rain outside. Jen explained to the children that she got wet while
walking to work because she forgot to bring her umbrella.
As Jen was chatting to the Toddlers, Kate came running in with her raincoat, wellies and
umbrella shouting “muddy puddles, muddy puddles”. She then showed us her umbrella and
said “Santa got me a new umbrella! Look, look.” All her friends gathered around to see
Kate’s umbrella. She was so excited and said “can we go outside Jen”. Jen said “of course
we can! Lets ask our friends. “We must put on our raingear and wellies too.”
Standard 6: Play
Promoting play requires that each child has ample time to engage in freely
available and accessible, developmentally appropriate and well-resourced
opportunities for exploration, creativity and 'meaning making' in the company of
other children, with participating and supportive adults and alone, where
appropriate.
Some of the children went to get their gear and others decided they wanted to stay
inside. While the children were getting ready Jen said, “what are we going to do when we
go outside guys?” They all shouted, “jump in muddy puddles”. Then Joe said “we gonna
splash Jen”. All the children started laughing. Kate said, “I’m putting my umbrella up”.
We went outside and the children started jumping in the rain. Ben said “look Jen I am
eating the rain”, with his head up and his mouth open. Jen said “what does it taste like?”
Ben said “it’s like rain, silly” and started laughing. Jen said “I’m going to taste the rain
too”.
Joe and Aisling, were jumping in a big puddle when suddenly Joe shouted while pointing at
the puddle, “look I can see you, I can see you”. All the children went to Joe and started
saying “I can see me too”. Jen went over and explained to them that that is called a
“reflection”. Jen said “it’s like when you look in the mirror and you can see yourself”.
Kate said “I can see me in the door”, pointing at her reflection in the glass door. Jen said
“where else can we see ourselves outside?” Ben pointed at the CD’s that are hanging in
the Outdoor Area. Jen said “well done Ben”.
The children then started sitting down and rolling in the rain. They were having so much
fun. Jen said “who has seen a rainbow before?.” Some of the children said, “me, me”. Joe
said “one day in granny’s house we saw a rainbow”. Jen said, “what colour was the
rainbow Joe?” They all started to name out colours, “blue” said Joe; “red” said Kate;
“blue” said Ellen; “green” said Aisling; “white” said Ben. Jen asked the children would
they like to make a rainbow. They all said “yes”. Christine went and got some paint and
asked what colours would they like to use. Each child took a different colour. “Ok
everyone, we will use this big puddle to make our rainbow?” Each child poured paint into
the puddle and we mixed it all together. The children were amazed at the paint floating
in the water. They watched the paint float firstly and then sink into the water. As each
colour mixed up, Jen explained that rainbows are made from raindrops and that the sun
reflects off the raindrops to make the rainbow. She said, “the rainbow is the sun’s mirror,
just like the puddle reflects your face”. The children loved this story. Kate said “there’s
my face Jen”. Ben said “Jen, we have no muddy puddles”. Jen said “Well why don’t we go
find some mud”. So off we went to gather some mud.
Aistear Theme 3: Communication
Aim: Children will use language
Learning Goal 1; Interact with other children and adults by listening, discussing and
taking turns in conversation
A few minutes later some of the children decided to go back inside. Jen said how about
we make some muddy puddles when we go inside. The children were very happy to do this
so they gathered the mud from outside and brought it inside.
When we went in the children started to tell their friends inside about how much fun they
had. “We made a rainbow John,” said Joe. Once the children were changed they went to
the art room to make muddy puddles. The children sat at the table and Ellen said, “Can I
make some puddles too like Peppa Pig.” Jen gave the children some paper and put the
mud in the middle of the table. They had so much fun with the mud it ended up on their
faces and hair.
Aistear Theme 4; Exploring and thinking
Aim 3; Children will explore ways to represent ideas, feelings, thoughts, objects and
actions through symbols
Learning Goal 1; Make marks using drawing, painting and model making to record objects,
events and ideas
In the afternoon the children were talking about their busy morning. Ben said “I love
jumping in the rain”, and the other children said “me too”. Jen asked the children did
they remember seeing their faces in the puddle and Joe said, “I did, I saw Joe”. Jen said
“remember I said it is called a reflection”. Jen and the kids went to the mirror and each
child looked at their reflection in the mirror and made funny faces at each other.
At Nurture, we recognise each child’s unique and special abilities and encourage
recognition and acceptance of all. The children’s curriculum encourages children to think,
reason, question, experiment and explore.