Role-play vets
Have you ever seen such a pitiful looking kitten? Good job the vet is on hand with raisin tablets to bring her temperature down.
To make our vets kit we used our doctors’ set and added in some cotton wool, cotton buds, a jar of raisin tablets, some water to go in our syringe to irrigate any wounds, and some bandages made from an old muslin cloth.
Role playing is a great way for children to rehearse everyday situations and try out new experiences. It’s also a really good way for them to develop their language and practise co-operating with others as they play. Do your children enjoy role playing?
Make a Clothespeg Butterfly Mobile
Look what’s been fluttering in our garden: a Lesser Spotted Peg Butterfly!
We had some wooden clothes pegs left over from making our pegdolls and Little wanted to make a butterfly. Here’s how we made it….
We used a sheet of clear plastic to cut our a butterfly shape – but card or paper would work just as well.
L was in charge of customising the butterfly, with liberal amounts of glue and bits and bobs from our making box. We talked about symmertry and L had a good try at getting her butterfly to match.
We put lots more glue down the centre of the butterly and inserted the wings into the peg. We also tied a length of string around the peg. Sitting the butterfly on the side of a glass helped press the wings in place while the glue dried.
We twisted a pipe-cleaner around to make the antennae, and drew on a face (you can see this on the first pic). Once all the glue is dry you can hang your butterfly up and watch as the breeze makes it flutter around.
They’re so pretty, why not make lots more to decorate your bedroom?
Happily shared with…
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Storybook Springboard – bringing books to life
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
by Judith Kerr is one of our all time favourite stories. My girls are spellbound by the idea of a tiger popping round and helping himself to all the cakes. It’s also a perfect book to use as a springboard for lots of other play and learning activities. Here are a few ideas:
When children first begin to engage in imaginary play it’s usually by role-playing things they see in their everyday life – feeding their teddy, giving their doll a bath, chatting to daddy on the phone. This is a valuable way for them to try out a different experience and practise all the language associated with it. As they get a little older and their view of the world expands beyond their own homelife they start to play in more imaginative, fantasy ways. The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a great book to use to foster this creative play and get them using their imagination. You could try some face painting, so they can be the tiger themselves. Add in some props, such as a tea set and some packets of food, and they can recreate the story – and then adapt it and make up their own endings too.
As an alternative you could make a tiger mask.
Or how about making a tiger puppet so they can play out the story on a small scale.
Everyone learns best when a new idea is linked in with other experiences which re-inforce the new. Can you have some fun bringing your child’s favourite book to life today?
This post is linking in with The Gallery, hosted by Tara at Sticky Fingers, where the theme this week is A Novel Idea – a photo inspired by your favourite book. Why not pop over and see the other pictures for more inspiration?
Happily shared with…
How are your sunflowers coming along? Ours went out in the garden a couple of weeks ago. The tallest one is up to 45cm on our sunflower height chart and mostly they’re doing well – working their way up the wall but not yet taller than Little. One however has been munched. The girls were horrified! Who had done such a thing? Pulling some ivy off the wall this weekend we found our answer: 14 snails, sat biding their time, waiting for the feasting to begin. I am such a hippy, harmony-promoting gardener that I can’t bring myself to squash them, so they are flung over the back wall (into an alleyway, not someone else’s garden!) – which of course only delays the munching.
Before the snails went for the high jump, we put them through their paces in a Snail Race.
On Your Marks....
This gave the girls the opportunity to look at the snails up close and ask lots of questions about their shells, slime and ‘sticky out bits’. Snail World had all the answers. We talked about our responsibilty to animals and both girls were very careful when handling the snails. One thing we did discover was that snails just don’t understand the concept of keeping in your own lane – so if you fancy trying this I’d suggest more of a ‘bull’s eye’ circular race track, starting all the snails in the centre and seeing which makes it to the circumference first.
Victory to Snail #1
What do you do when you find snails, or slugs, in your garden? Have you got any alternative solutions to stop them munching?
As the weather is getting warmer and we’re starting to spend more time outside I thought I’d show you one way my girls love to play in our garden: in our Dinosaur Land. Big recently did a ‘show and tell’ at school about gardening and the Dinosaur Land proved to be so popular an idea with her classmates, that several of them have gone home and made their own – so it comes highly recommended.
This kind of ‘small world’ play is fantastic for young children: they get to be the boss of the world, create characters, role play situations, use their language skills, be imaginative….. I love watching children engaged in this kind of play as it really gives you an insight into where they’re at, what’s concerning them, what they’re exploring at this present time. Big’s characters are often having battles at the moment, as she works through ideas of ‘being fair’ and negotiations. Little’s play in nearly always focused on a family group and playing out familiar routines – her dinosaurs get tucked up in bed and read a bedtime story.
As always, this idea is easy to make and you’re likely to have most, if not all, of the things you need around your home.
Start by finding a big plastic storage box and making some drainage holes in the bottom. Then let your children fill it up with soil – good, messy fun. Add a few rocks – we have one big one, which the dinosaurs like to stand on to survey their territory, and some smaller one to sit on. How about some plants for the dinos to eat and hide in? Have you got one to spare somewhere in one of your borders? The grassy one we used works really well – low maintenance, pretty robust and won’t get too overgrown. You can add any other props which catch your children’s eye: glass pebbles, fir cones, sticks, water too if you’d like a swamp area.
Then it’s over to the kids to get playing.
If your children are enjoying the garden, have a look at our Sunflower Club for more outside play ideas.
With Earth Day and St. George’s Day both falling in this week, why not combine the two to make a Recycled Egg Box Dragon? Big says he’s ‘fantastically ferocious’!
You will need: 3 egg boxes, green paint & a paint brush, red paper, 2 treasury tags, glue / sticky tape, red and black felt pens, scissors
Start by cutting out 2 of the ‘cups’ from one of the egg boxes and painting them green. These will be your eyes.
The other two egg boxes will be your head and body. Ours were already green, but if yours aren’t you can paint them. We added some extra painted ‘scales’. Leave the paint to dry.
Fasten the head and body together with treasury tags. This means you can move your dragon to play with him and he’ll have a bit of movement in his body.
Cut out some flames, spines and a tail from the red paper and fasten on with glue or sticky tape.
Add some scary eyes and some nostrils.
Rrrrrrr! Your dragon is ready to play.
And how about some dragon books to go with your new pet?
Our sunflowers have now moved outside to our little greenhouse to enjoy the Spring sunshine and get them used to being outside. We’ve been out enjoying the garden too. Little has been especially interested to see creatures out there. She will stop in her tracks and peer at her feet, watching an ant running around. Big is interested to know which animals are goodies (that would include worms and ladybirds) or badies (which definitely includes slugs and snails). So we have decided so survey what animals we have sharing our garden with us by playing… Garden Bingo!
First we talked about what animals we might expect to see. (Sorry Little, but no elephants are likely to be found.) Then we drew pictures of them. Everyone can join in with this, no matter how young or artisically challenged they might be. Little did a great worm, ladybird and spider – with carefully counted legs. Big’s cat is very characterful and her butterfly is perfectly symmetrical. I was able to muster some greenfly and wowed everyone with my woodpigeon.
Then we stuck our animal pictures on to our bingo card and wrote their names underneath, along with a tick box for each one. Each time we spot an animal in the garden we’re going to tick them off our card. Take time to have a good look at each animal as you see them. Look at their shape, colour and patterns and count their legs (or note their lack off). Talk about their role in the garden ecosystem and decide if they are goodies or badies.
If you like a competition you could make each person a slightly different bingo card to see who can spot all their creatures first to get a ‘full house’. We like to promote harmony in our garden so we have one big bingo card to complete all together.
If you’re out in the garden and growing things with your children, come and join in with our Sunflower Club to get a Spring and Summer full of activities all linked to growing and gardening.
Today, less is more. Little made these two Easter cards to give to her best friends at pre-school. They are a very simple design but I think they’re prefect Easter cards for a little one to make, almost by themselves. You can just draw the basic outline and then let them take charge and make a unique card. So easy, you could make them this weekend to send to grandparents in time for the Easter holiday.
To make a Spring Lamb card you need: card, pencil, glue, white wool
Fold your card in half and draw the outline of a sheep’s body and head.
How many legs does a lamb have? Count them as your child draws them.
Cover the sheep’s body with glue.
Does your child know where wool comes from? Stick some on your sheep.
A lovely woolly lamb. And why not sing Baa, Baa, White Sheep while you’re at it?
To make a bunny rabbit card you need: card, pencils, glue and a ball of cotton wool.
I drew the outline and Little did the rest.I love the wibbly mouth!
Happily shared with Today’s Creative Blog & mommymoment.
The Chinese Year of the Tiger begins 14th February 2010
Following on from the Chinese New Year ideas in the last post, we made a tiger finger puppets today. And we had so much fun making them that my daughter said ‘Can we make a thousand?’ Hope you like them too.
You will need: some card*, orange and brown crayons, a sheet of white paper, scissors, a craft knife, a glue stick, a black ballpoint pen
*The card needs to be thick enough so the finished tiger doesn’t flop over when you put your fingers in the holes.
Start off by drawing a tiger body and head shape onto your card. Include 2 circles (as shown in the picture) which will be the finger holes.
Cut the shapes out. I used the scissors to cut the outline, but needed the craft knife for the finger holes.
Then get colouring. My daughter selected all the orange and brown crayons from our box (good sorting practice!) and then chose her favourite shades to colour her tiger. Don’t forget to add some brown stripes, especially along the tail.
We cut out an oval from the white paper to go on the tiger’s tummy. As we used wax crayons we found a black ballpoint pen worked best to make the face. My daughter said at first that drawing the face was too hard, but with a bit of encouragement to have a try I think you’ll agree she did a great job.
Check the finger holes are the right size for your child – you can enlarge them with the craft knife if you need too. Then all tiger needs is a name and he’s ready to play.
Grrrrrr!
Today’s advent activity for us has been to make bird feeders for the birds in the garden. This is part of our theme of thinking of others – animals included – over the Christmas period. My 3 year old managed to do all the tasks here herself (except the craft knife cutting of course) and was really pleased with what she’d made. We chatted about why we’re putting extra feed out for the birds in winter, what they like to eat and where the seeds come from.
Here’s how we made our Milk Carton Cafe.
1. You will need: a 1 pint milk carton with a lid, a craft knife, bird seed, lard (at room temperature so it’s squashable), raisins, a twig (about 15cm long), a dessert spoon and a teaspoon
2. Cut two holes for the twig to go through about 2cm up from the base of the milk carton. I used a craft knife to do this and made a triangular shaped hole – it’s clearly not something the children should do by themselves. You want the twig to fit through snuggly so it stays in place so just make a small hole. Make two larger holes above so the birds will be able to sit on the twig and get at the cafe through these larger holes.
3. Poke the twig through the two smaller holes to make your bird seat.
4. Next mix up your feast. We used lard, a mixed wild bird seed and some raisins. We found using the larger spoon worked best as we could squish and squash the ingredients together.
5. Use the smaller spoon to put the food into the milk carton and squash it down with the back of the spoon as you go.
6. Put the lid on the carton to keep any rain out and your cafe is ready to go outside. You can place it on a bird table, wall or window ledge or use the handle (perhaps with some string threaded through) to hang it from a tree, hook or nail. Then keep watch and see if you can name all the birds who come to eat.
