15 years ago, House of Knowledge International Kindergarten brought the Reggio Emilia education philosophy to Beijing, the philosophy that has opened its unique vision in the field of Early Years education in whole China with its child-friendly educational concept.
During more than a decade of growing and development, House of Knowledge has grown to be the practitioner of Reggio Emilia inspired education and the Kindergarten has been the pioneer in Early Years education (18 months – 6 years) which is well-recognized and acknowledged by many Beijing international and Chinese families who hold the same education values with us.
At House of Knowledge, you can easily find that in each of our child’s daily Kindergarten life, they are encouraged to see, to feel, to explore, to experience, and especially to take part in a variety of activities. They are fully engaged in exploring the world around them.
House of Knowledge is deeply committed to fostering the life-long learning concept in our children.
Today, we would like to share with you some simple but very fun winter craft activities that play a positive role in enhancing a child’s sensory experience and sensory development.
As it’s getting colder this week in Beijing, the winter has its unique own charm and we cannot wait to start off these interesting hands-on activities with you while enjoying a nice and educational winter time!
1、Homemade Playdough
• 2 cups cornstarch
• 1 cup body lotion or hair conditioner
• Optional glitter or food coloring
Through (sensory) manipulations, children develop eye-hand coordination, the ability to match hand movement with eye movement. They also gain strength and improve dexterity in their hands and fingers, critical areas of physical development for writing, drawing, and other purposes.
You can supply them with cookie cutters and rolling pins, as well as any interesting objects you find in your apartment.
For open ended play children will also be fine to use their imagination and create a lot without any helping material but their hands.
Now let’s get ready and happy kneading!
2、Salt Dough Sculpting
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 1 cup of water
• Vanilla extract, cinnamon powder, or essential oils (if desired)
• Cookie cutters (if desired)
• Colors to paint (if desired)
Steps:
1. Start by letting children smell and later taste (with a small finger and a minimum amount) flour, salt and water. Talk about your findings.
2. Let children measure and mix flour, salt and water. They shall knead the dough with their hands until smooth and ready to use.
3. Separate the dough in equal parts and allow children to add extra smells to their dough, such as vanilla extract (1-3 drops are enough), cinnamon powder, or essential oils and let the children experience the different smells.
4. Now children can start sculpting with their dough. You can prepare winter cookie cutters for them, or let them explore their imagination and creativity without any prompts.
5. Put your salt dough out on an even surface to air- dry. It will need to be turned after a couple of hours to allow for even drying.
Pro Tip – poke a hole through your sculptures before drying so later on you can hang them as ornaments on windows, door balls as a very fragrant and creative addition.
6. For an extension of this exercise, you can paint your completely dry salt clay sculptures and mix in a bit of color education.
This is an amazing recipe that allows for hours of imaginative play while your child can get to practise lots of skills including measuring, creativity and imagination, hand–eye coordination and dexterity, gustatory and olfactory exploration
3、Fake Snow
Here is another inspiration activity —— the fake snow.
Ingredients:
• 2 cups frozen baking soda
• 1 cup of water
Mix it together and your child would find it very interesting to feel of the “real” snow due to its coolness.
4、Ice Excavation
Activity Name: Ice Excavation
Steps:
Find small objects around your home (such as legos) and put them into ice cube trays.
Let your children pour water over them. Put them outside (-5 degrees currently) or in your freezer to freeze.
Once solidly frozen you can experiment on how ice melts. Let the children pour water, hot water, and salt on your ice cubes, then watch what happens and discuss your findings.
5、Snowflake Paintings
Ingredients:
• toilet paper rolls
• paint (white and/or blue)
• scissors
• paper
Let the children cut the toilet paper rolls like in below picture. Wide, narrow, small, big, long short. Different cuts will create different snowflake shapes, and this can help the children develop their recognition and fine motor cutting skills.
The toilet paper cuts shall then be dipped in paint and the children can create their own snowflake painting prints on paper.
Let your children be creative, and ask them to use the different shapes to experience the different results. Who has, can also add glitter to the snowflake paintings.
2023 Open Day
Visit Our Campus!
The Year of the Tiger is drawing to a close, the firecrackers of the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit will soon be sounded and family reunions around the country will soon be upon us.
In this time of hope and good fortune, we sincrely invite you to join us for our next series of Open Days and discover the inspirations that a real Reggio Emilia inspired kindergarten like us, can give to your child through his/her entire Early Years childhood.
Dates:
• Jan.16th-20th（Monday-Friday)
• Feb.1st-3rd（Wednesday-Friday）
• Feb. 6th-10th（Monday-Friday）
• Feb.13th-18th（Monday-Saturday）
• Feb. 20th-24th （Monday-Friday）
• Feb. 27-March. 3rd（Monday-Friday）
Contacts:
• Phone：4006507747
• Email: admissions@hokschools.com
• Or scan below QR code to reserve for a campus tour.
See you soon!
