Care Corner Photo Journal Page 109
Sheila Sims Iding
It was kind of an accident. It started out as a box of plastic dinosaurs when we did our Dinosaur Week 8 years ago. One of the stations was a box of plastic dinosaurs and the kids had so much fun. They sorted them…line them up…used the box for a cage…and used the stool for mountain. And I realized two things. They are kids. They need to play. Everyday we ask them to work hard and we should give them a time to play. Just play. And I also realized that a box of dinosaurs isn’t just a box of dinosaurs when they use their imagination. So from that day forward I vowed to let them play every day. So part of the “specials” after handwriting each day is a group called “Imagination Station”. It is box with toys. Sometimes cars, sometimes plastic bugs or snakes, sometimes finger puppets, sometimes wild animals and sometimes plastic people and a map of the world. This month it has had Legos. And when it is their turn for Imagination Station, they take the plastic box of toys, they dump them on the rug and they use their imaginations because…that’s what kids do best.