Tuesday 25 February 2014

Mr Potato Head and Play Dough


An activity that I have found generates much fun for children of all ages is play dough. I am always on the look out for new and exciting ways for us to use our dough so was keen to try the suggestion to combine Mr Potato head with dough. 


After making up a large ball of dough and adding our favourite ingredient (glitter!!) the children spotted the Mr Potato Head and the dough and immediately dashed over to play. This activity held the attention of children ranging from one to seven years of age and the resulting combinations were fantastic. 



Even our one year old had a good go at making a character, sounding out all the body parts that he recognised as he did so.  

Friday 14 February 2014

Valentines Day Crafts

To turn valentines day into a fun crafting opportunity I made use of some wax resist painting. This was a massive success and the children all loved seeing the 'invisible' hearts suddenly appear on the paper as they painted. To extend this activity for older children I incorporated the word 'love' to help him recognise some letter shapes. 

The children had a great time painting with watercolours and discussing the shapes they found underneath. 


Another simple activity was making some coffee filter hearts.  Even our youngest enjoyed using the felt tip pens to make some marks on the coffee filter hearts. They then had even more fun painting some water onto them and watching the colours run together. The colours of these brightened up the window on yet another rainy day! 

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Chinese New Year 2014

 In celebration of the Chinese New Year, the year of the horse, we have been participating in a range of activities that encourage children to learn about the world around them at a level appropriate to their age. 


We enjoyed doing some blossom tree printing. The oldest children drew their own trees and painted on the blossom while the younger ones enjoyed getting their hands messy in the pink paint, saying the word 'tree' in recognition of their work. 


We talked about the country China and looked at some fun images of new year celebrations ranging from the festivals and lanterns through to noodles and chopsticks. 



It was then time to get our hands a bit messy for some Chinese themed sensory play complete with noodles and chopsticks. The boys had a lovely time feeling and describing the texture of the noodles as well as attempting to use the chopsticks to pick the noodles up. 


Finally, after all that hard work the boys were hungry so we added a Chinese aspect to snack time today. The boys all tried, and predominantly enjoyed, some spring rolls. When I asked what they tasted like, one child looked at the spring roll, spotted some carrot and triumphantly announced, carrot!!'