Cinnamon Bark

(Open ended play)

Do you know where cinnamon comes from? Cinnamon is one of those sweet spices that is so versatile that we might even take it for granted sometimes.

Cinnamon comes from bark.

Cinnamon farmers first shave the outer bark off the trees, and then shave off the inner bark -- the cinnamon layer. When cinnamon is dried, it naturally curls up into "quills."

Materials:

-cinnamon sticks

-glass bottle with lid

Instruction:

-present the materials in front of your toddler

-let your toddler play freely

Y loves spices oh so so much from early age. Her most favorite spices are whole clove and cinnamon bark. She loves to grab, transfer from bottle to tray back to bottle, and take a whiff of them.

We watched a BBC documentary about cinnamon last night. I just realized it was the first time she knew that cinnamon comes from the bark of a tree. She loves to touch tree bark, but never knew it before. She shouted “Tree! Tree!” when that scene of where cinnamon comes from was revealed.

While watching the reminder of that about 20 minutes long documentary, I let her play with this sensory tray. She grabbed the cinnamon sticks and transferred them into the bottle. She had difficulties to close the cork lid, firstly because it was upside down, and secondly because the sticks needed to be arranged certain way to make it all inside the bottle. She ended up leave 2 sticks aside in order to close the lid property.

#cinnamon #stick #bark #sensory #tray #toddler