Monday 30 June 2014

Credit Card Art

Always on the look out for different painting techniques that encourage the children to experiment with colours and patterns I decided to make use of the many redundant plastic cards that we have lying around the house!


To enhance colour awareness the children each chose their own colours and then used their card to dip in the paint and spread it across the paper in a pattern of their choice. As this was so easy it enabled even the younger ones to create their own art while enabling the older ones to demonstrate their imaginations through describing their pictures. 



As we used pearl acrylic paints the final results were both vibrant and sparkly and all so very different. This was a great little activities that we shall be trying again!

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Harvesting Potatoes

Back in March this year the children helped to plant some potatoes as part of the 'grow your own potato' project. 


Since then the children have helped to care for the plants, watering them and measuring how big they are growing. When they spotted some of the potatoes peeping through the soil they became tremendously excited about picking them. Finally, this week the day of picking arrived!


Armed with spades the children excitedly attacked the mound of soil, holding up the potatoes like they were treasure. It was also a great opportunity for a mini beast hunt with woodlice, ants, snails and spiders being discovered. 

We collected the potatoes and the children then set about washing the mud from them before they came indoors. Finally we cooked the potatoes and, after adding some butter and mint and I can confirm that they tasted delicious!

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Phonics Baskets


I am always looking for ways to enhance literacy in a fun way for preschoolers and foundation children. This fun game from 'The Imagination Tree' immediately grabbed the children's attention through seeing all the toys spread across the tray. 




Finding sounds that I wanted the children to practice I wrote the phonemes on some card and asked them what sound they were. I then presented them with the toys and they had great fun dividing the toys into the correct basket. The concentration was visible as they were saying the sounds to themselves!

This activity could be extended depending on the abilities of the child. For example presenting objects starting with digraphs such as 'sh' and 'ch' or through asking the children to find their own objects. 

Thursday 12 June 2014

Pennywell Farm

We have had a lovely day at Pennywell Farm and Wildlife Centre near Buckfastleigh. We were fortunate enough to have a lovely sunny day for our trip and the boys enjoyed such as great variety of activities. 

One of the firm favourites was helping to feed the lambs their bottles of milk although collecting the chicken eggs and milking the goat was also popular. It is a great place for the children to learn about animals in a completely hands on manner.



Once we had seen a lot of animals the boys were happy to sit down for a picnic together, a play in the park and a ride on the train.


 It was a great day out, thoroughly enjoyed by adults and children and the boys were so exhausted they slept all the way home!

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Citrus Dough

In order to make playing with play dough a more sensory experience I decided to add a bit of zing with the aid of some citrus fruits. Through adding the rind and juice of some oranges and lemons the dough had a wonderful fresh aroma.



We initially looked at and smelt the oranges and lemons and talked a bit about the fruits. The children then got to work on their play. 
As ever the dough became a wonderful creative tool, resulting in fantastic imaginary play with the children pretending to make flowers using cutters, cupcakes and even a caterpillar as well as using the tools to investigate shapes and practice their cutting skills.