Shadow puppets

shadow puppets
Remember the indoor meadow we grew as one of our Earth Day activities? This week it has become the indoor / outdoor stage for a theatre production using shadow puppets.

Home made puppets are some of the most played with toys in our house, lending themselves time and time again to all sorts of adventures. The children play with puppets so often I think because it lets them be the master of a small universe and really stretch their imaginations as they tell their tales. Puppets are also a wonderful way for children to work out real-life relationships and develop their language – and so much fun to make! Here’s how the girls made their shadow puppets this week, with links to some of the other puppet ideas in our archives.

How to make shadow puppets Read more »

What does a lamb look like? Art as conversation

spring lamb craft 8

Crafting with children can be a wonderful time to sit with them and have a conversation or explore an idea. The children who made these spring lamb pictures are aged between one and three and a half.  And each in their own way created their answer to the same question: what does a lamb look like?

Spring lamb craft Read more »

Incy Wincy books with artist Becky Adams

literacy and art ideas incy wincy books

I have a wonderful project to share with you today which combines literacy and art ideas to create magical Incy Wincy books.

We’ve been at the GobbleDEEbook Children’s Literature Festival in Chester this week, having a fabulous time. One of the workshops we attended was run by Becky Adams, an artist who explores the links between narratives and textiles. She guided a room full of children and parents through the workshop, resulting in everyone producing their very own, unique Incy Wincy book.

How to make an Incy Wincy book Read more »

Autumn sensory scavenger hunt

autumn scavenger hunt
Remember the easy sewing project from yesterday, showing how to make a bag? It was a fun project for little fingers but we turned it into a springboard for another activity too, by making a scavenger hunt on the reverse side.

First we had a blast of ideas for all the things we might find on our nature walk . The children shouted them out and we put all the ideas down on some stickers. Some wrote them down, some drew pictures and I scribed the others. Here a some of the things they came up with: Read more »

Pirate map literacy fun

literacy ideas pirate theme map 1

Literacy and maps

We’ve been using our easel to try out lots of literacy ideas recently and our latest one was to try out a pirate map.

Our easel is set up in the kitchen where the children can’t help but notice it and has lots of fun pens and pencils with it for them to use. Every week or so I’ve been setting up an invitation to write on it – something I think might act as springboard into some writing or conversation or storytelling.

This week I drew the basic outline of a pirate map, just enough detail for the children to get a clue about where we might be heading, but with plenty of scope for them to make it their own. And look what happened… Read more »

Create a Pixie Post Office

just so festival pixie post office

I’ve written before about making writing irresistible so children are encouraged to pick up a pencil and start writing and in my last post this week from the Just So Festival I thought you’d like to see their wonderful way to invite all the children to send someone a letter: a pixie post office provided by the FairyLand Trust.

Which child wouldn’t want to pop inside this tent to discover what was on offer inside? Read more »

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