Magical elf house

 

As a teacher I find that it is important to believe in magic and to instill that belief into children. To be enchanted by the world around us and notice little joys everywhere, to let our imagination fly and our creativity bloom. That is why we decided to build an elf house with our 3 year old artists, or an house for anybody who decides to move in actually!

We used some old boxes as the construction of the house which we painted blue, next came the important part of designing the insides. We got creative with the wallpaper and decorated one of the walls with candy wrappers (in this case the teacher being the biggest sweeth tooth).
A toilet paper roll became a stove where all the future residents can cozy up to during the dark and cold winter evenings. There is plenty of fire wood to keep the fire going and warm the whole house. Future guests can take a little nap and rest their tired legs on a tree bark.There is no easy way to access the second floor where the sleeping quarters are though, some physical activity is needed or just a bit of magic, whatever is chosen!
If any of the visitors feel the need to leave, they have multiple options to do that - climb out from the back of the house or use the side door. 


















On the first floor there is a bit of soft moss for the four legged travelers to rest on. You can also find a collection of shiny treasures collected by the current resident elves and a nice warm meal of healthy vegetables waiting on the table!








This house is definitely a work in progress and I see it changing and developing in many exciting ways. It was a lot of fun creating this together with the kids, to see their imagination fly and for them to learn that wonderful things can be created from the most simple items :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Box full of boxes

Image
  In the Autumn our preschool group visited the neighboring Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences of the University of Tartu. We had a wonderful visit, we learned and saw a lot and made some new friends. So, when the scientists working there had a lot of filter tip boxes they would not use anymore, and asked if we could have any use for them, we were jumping for joy! Our preschool group took a short walk to our neighbors and came back with a big box full of boxes of different colors and sizes.  What did we do with the boxes? In preschool we each child has their own drawer, where they can keep their personal belongings. To keep their things organized, each child chose a box they liked the most. They wrote their name on it, decorated it with stickers and created a wonderful storage box for their pony tail holders, hair clips, lego pieces and all the other treasures they have. Secondly we had a fun learning experience with organizing the boxes qua size and colors, counting them...
Read more

World Cleanup Day 2023!

Image
Kindergarteners of Tartu International School contributed to cleaner environment and took part of the World Cleanup Day. Our groups walked different routes in the neighborhood of our school and checked if there were places that needed to be cleaned up. Unfortunately there were! Ready to take action! Children were really passionate and excited when going "trash hunting"! They were very attentive to notice even the smallest pieces of rubbish. Cleaning up the waste offered various learning experiences and arose opportunities to discuss different types of trash and the dangers that come along. The children learnt: the difference between natural waste and man-made rubbish. At first some children also started to clean up old leaves, feathers and berries lying on the ground. After discussing the differences and talking over what kind of waste we are cleaning up, we found dog poop. Some children said that as this is also natural it can be left on the ground, so we had the chance to...
Read more

Sprouting mung beans in kindergarten

Image
Sprouting mung beans As one of our Echo-School topics for this academic year is health and well-being, we often deal with the topic of healthy/unhealthy habits in our everyday lives. Last week we sprouted mung beans for ourselves. We started with observing the beans thoroughly (their color, size and the germ) and discussed what is needed for the beans to sprout (water, air) .  We used the scheme on the board to present the expected result and compare our the process with the pictures on the board.        Everyday twice a day children took turns, rinsed and drained the beans.       We used a special sprouting tray which made it easy to use it with the children and they could take care of the sprouts pretty independently. We kept the beans/sprouts on the table to keep an eye on them and every now and then children checked if the beans had grown a “tale” yet or not. Four days and the sprouts were ready to eat!   We have different nationalitie...
Read more