Visiting the Fish

Today we decided to go and see the fish at the aquarium again as one of the boys is very interested in sea horses at the moment. 

We met up with some friends and had a lovely time looking at all the fish, particularly the sharks. We also had to wait for several of the big boats to pass before we could cross the revolving bridge much to the fascination of the boys. 

 When we got home the boys wanted to do some drawings of fish. After some debating they decided that they wanted to colour in some sea horses and then chose to add their own sparkles!

Wind Chimes

We had a go at making our own wind chimes so that the children could use their creativity as well as seeing the effect of the wind outdoors. We found some old tin cans and then had great fun painting them using acrylic paints. Some were messier than others and the boys enjoyed having a good bashing session to see what noise the cans made!

The end results were very different but all colourful. We hung them up in the garden and waited for some wind. Unfortunately it was not a windy day and the cans needed some help to move but they made some noise and that was enough to make the children smile. 

Half Term Fun

Exploring the sand

Gaining the courage to cross the bridge

As it has been half term this week all of our regular groups are not running and we have taken the opportunity to be outdoors lots in spite of the absolutely freezing weather!

Experimenting with the wobbly bridge

Some of the children enjoyed challenging themselves with new play equipment such as this lovely rope bridge shown above. Younger ones enjoyed exploring new textures and simply watching the older ones play. Most importantly, it gave everyone opportunity to  enjoy playing with each other!

Cloud Dough

After the boys had been partying hard at their little friend's birthday party, I thought we needed something a bit calming for an afternoon activity. We opted for cloud dough messy play. Cloud dough is a combination of baby oil and flour and has a lovely soft but mouldable texture. 

 We used the dough in several ways, first exploring the texture - pressing it together and running it through fingers. We then added some animals to increase the imaginative play. The animals walked through the dough, ate it and even got buried in it!

Finally, I resorted to the old favourite of adding spoons and silicone cupcake cases - a winner every time for making pretend cupcakes (while increasing fine motor skills!). 

Valentines Day

Rather than make cards we decided to make stained glass hearts, an easy and popular activity that proved ideally suited to the two and three year olds. 

I laid out a sheet of sticky backed plastic and the boys had a lovely time sticking different shapes of coloured tissue paper all over the sticky plastic surface. They talked about the sticky texture and really loved the popping noise it made when they pushed it!

When they had covered the entire surface, something that they were very meticulous about, we covered the tissue paper with another layer of sticky backed plastic. I then cut the layer into a variety of different sized hearts that looked lovely and colourful when placed against the window.