NurtureStore » Animals

Air drying clay models: let’s go camping!

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:00:31 +0000

One of the ideas we had for our Screen-Free Week was to have a rummage around on our craft shelves to see if there were any long-lost art materials that we might like to try. We struck gold with two packs of air drying clay that Father Christmas had brought in the girls’ stockings and which had been put away in a post-Christmas tidy up and forgotten about.

Modelling with air drying clay

Have you used air drying clay before? It’s not too messy and quite easy for young children to use – my 5-year-old had no problem manipulating the clay into the shapes she wanted. The girls had wooden skewers and scissors to use to cut and make marks with but mostly just used their hands. The clay warms to the touch and is a great work out for fine motor skills.

The clay does dry out and turn hard just by being left to sit, with no oven or kiln baking needed, but you do need to be patient and let the models dry out thoroughly so they are then robust enough to play with. How long it takes will depend on the size of your models and the weather – thinner models will dry out faster than big, thick ones. Ours all dried out over night.

(an expedition by sledge)

And what did they make? A camping expedition! If you follow NurtureStore on Facebook you might have seen the chat yesterday about camping with kids. We’ve just bought a tent and are planning our first camping trip – but you can see the kids couldn’t wait and made a camping play set of their own.

(warming up around the camp fire)

Once your models are dry you can leave them as they are or add colours. Acrylic paint with a coat of varnish over the top is perhaps the best option for a long-lasting design but the girls set their hearts on using oil pastels. While this isn’t likely to be very durable they were really pleased with the way their colours and the texture turned out.

(sheltering from the rain)

More modelling ideas

Tempted to try out some modelling? You might like these ideas too:

:: salt dough creatures – a homemade recipe for when the craft cupboard is bare

:: clay or salt dough candle holders

:: outdoor clay tree sculptures

:: or how about cement art tiles?

And if you stop by tomorrow I’ll show you the Kids Art Explorers Paper Free Art land the girls made for their clay models.

Spring play dough recipe – cheep, cheep!

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:00:38 +0000

The inspiration for our spring chicken play dough comes from the clutch of ten eggs which have been resident in the girls school for a week. The eggs have been in an incubator in the reception class but every child in the school has been in to visit, to hear the chicks cheeping from inside the shells and to see the eggs wobbling and the first cracks appear. Then, most exciting of all, the chicks hatched, some brown, some yellow but all very fluffy. Great inspiration to talk about spring, bring out our favourite easy play dough recipe for some sensory play and make some chicks of our own.

Yellow play dough recipe for spring chicks

We made a batch of yellow play dough using our favourite no cook play dough recipe. If you’ve never made home made play dough before our easy play dough recipe master class takes you through the recipe step by step.

Then we raided the craft cupboard to find our chick essentials: foam triangles for beaks, straws for feet, and feathers, feathers, feathers.

The children wanted to add some nests to their play so found some yarn to make their chickens a home.

Some birds are tidier than others – B said this swan’s nest could do with a bit of spring cleaning.

Just like at school, the eggs hatched out and we had some baby play dough chicks.

The children never tire of play dough, and ringing the changes with different themes to match each season gives us the opportunity to introduce different ideas and language every time we play. Play dough is great for sensory play and manipulating the dough is so good to build strength and dexterity in fingers, developing fine motor skills. If you’ve never made your own play dough, why not follow the master class and give it a try?

More spring activities

For lambs, bunnies, daffodils and more have a look at our kids spring activities.

And for different play dough ideas including a space theme, under the sea and ice cream varieties take a look at all our play dough recipe ideas.

Earth day activities: grow a meadow indoors!

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:24:31 +0000

Are you planning any Earth Day activities on April 22nd? Celebrated around the world, Earth Day is a great time to pause and reflect the impact you, your kids and your family have on the earth.

Last year we carried out an eco-audit of our play, looking at simple but effective ways we could align our activities with the ideas of reducing, re-using and recycling.

This year, we’re joining in with the Earth Day Celebrations hosted by Mommy Labs and Greening Sam and Avery to bring you a blog hop bursting with ideas you can use to celebrate Earth Day with your kids. Have a browse around the blog hop at the end of this post to find ideas for art, crafts, games, activities and positive action your family can take to go a little greener this month. First though, here’s what the NurtureStore girls came up with as an Earth Day play idea: we grew an indoor meadow!

Earth Day activities: grow a meadow indoors!

I still haven’t decided if this was a crazy or genius idea but it has been a huge hit with the children. We live on the edge of a city and have a small urban garden. We grow lots of flowers, fruit and vegetables in the garden – as well as running a School Gardening Club – but the one thing our house is missing is a lawn. We had a lawn in a previous home (and I have to say I don’t miss all the mowing) and we’re blessed with having excellent local parks on our doorstep, but, to celebrate Earth Day, we came up with the idea of grown our own small world meadow – to play with indoors and out.

We started by filling a seed tray with compost and watering it. We wanted a meadow that was big enough for the girls to use as a small world play area but something which was small enough so it was very easy to bring inside.

We measured out our grass seeds (according to the seed packet instructions) and sprinkled it over the compost – in horizontal and vertical lines to ensure good coverage.

As we knew our seed bed would be too tempting for our pesky cat, we placed the seed tray in our mini greenhouse and waited for the grass seeds to sprout. The girls checked the seeds everyday and in just over a week they had begun to grow. And they grew and grew and grew until….

we had a beautiful, verdant meadow, which the girls have played and played with. It’s such a sensory little world for them to use – so green and wonderful to touch. It’s been next to our fairy garden for a while…

until the dinosaurs moved in and the fairies fled to safety.

(This photo makes me laugh.I don’t know why the goat is so cross, but my husband says is looks like an episode of Lost.)

And of course the miniature meadow has been inside too. L especially loves to lie on her tummy and play here with her little creatures. She has the animals chat away to each other and sends them off for adventures in the tall grass. The meadow’s in need of a haircut now – time to bring out the scissors!

More Earth Day activities

How are you going to celebrate Earth Day with your children? Will you grown some seeds with your children, make a junk model toy, turn rubbish into plant pots? For inspiration take a browse through the ideas in this Earth Day blog hop. And please join us. If you are a blogger and you have a great Earth Day idea, please link up with the blog hop and share with us.

This Earth Day celebration is brought to you by:

Everything dinosaur: games, crafts, songs and activities

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:00:43 +0000

Do you know someone who’s mad about dinosaurs? Taking a child’s passion and using it as a springboard into lots of play is a great way for them to learn.

Here’s a fiesta of all things dinosaur: dinosaur games, dinosaur crafts, art and models, dinosaur activities and even dinosaur songs. There’s lots of fun to be had while you work on important skills including maths, language, fine and gross motor, imaginary play and creativity.

Mix up a batch of our favourite salt dough recipe and make your own dinosaur models to keep for lots of play

Or use plaster of Paris to make your own fossils

Try some T-rex art and make a dinosaur stomp picture

Use pasta to make dinosaur skeleton

Transform a cardboard box into a dinosaur land

Make some eggs and watch your baby dinosaurs hatch

Or take your dinos to play outdoors in a leafy dinosaur world

Go on a playdough dinosaur dig and see what you can unearth

Or head outside and see if there are any dinosaurs in your garden

Read lots of dinosaur books. We’re Feather & Black Kids bedroom furniture testers and the recently sent us their new bedtime story book David the Dinosaur to read. The book was written by Feather & Black’s managing director Adam Black, inspired by his own young boys. They have matching Dino bed linen and PJs too.

Make yourself some dinosaur feet and go on a dino dance

Try some dinosaur target practise

Print these picture cards and play some dinosaur matching games

Sing these dinosaur songs

Check out the dinsoaur resources at the Natural History Museum website

Get all the best kids ideas

These dinosaur games and activities were all discovered through the Kids Co-op weekly idea swap. Bringing together kid bloggers from right around the world it’s a great place to find fun activities for your kids. Follow the Kids Co-op facebook page to get all the best ideas.

Leave a comment and tell us your favourite dinosaur games.

Easter bunny craft

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:55:43 +0000

Looking for a kids Easter bunny craft idea? Here are five different ideas you might like to try – all easy to do and all super cute!

Easter bunny craft #1: rabbit mask

Here’s an idea from my colleague Lesley, which we used at creche this week.

Cut out a rabbit face shape from a piece of card, with lovely big bunny ears. Provide pink noses and ear shapes, black wool for whiskers and black pens or pencils for drawing on eyes. Invite the children to glue, stick and draw to make their own bunny rabbit craft. You could turn this into a mask too – punch eye holes and attach an elastic thread at the sides and the children can wear their creations.

It’s good to remember that kids crafts don’t all have to turn out to be ’perfect’. Even if you offer the children the same basic materials it’s great to encourage them to make their own mark, use their imagination and create their own take on an Easter bunny. At creche this week, some children wanted to stick, stick, stick – and others want to draw. Some enjoyed the process of spreading the glue and placing the materials in ‘alternative’ locations! Others were very particular about making their Easter craft looks as much like a real bunny as they could. One child sat for a whole hour adding lots of detailed extras around their bunny – carrots to eat, baby bunnies under ground, lots of kisses and decorations.

More Easter bunny craft ideas

Bunny #2 is a kids Easter recipe lollipop – with a printable recipe card for you to use.

Bunny #3 is a junk model Easter bunny craft – and has a flower meadow to play in

Bunny #4 is made from printing with carrots (of course!)

Bunny #5 is a decorated egg craft

Are you making an Easter rabbit craft this year? Share an link in the comments!