We started by printing lots and lots of circles on to pieces of card. We used our set of stacking . . . → Read More: Painted Christmas wreath]]>
The children had so much fun making this painted Christmas wreath. I like the mix of the traditional decoration with the vibrant colours the kids chose. Here’s how they made it.

How to make a painted Christmas wreath

We started by printing lots and lots of circles on to pieces of card. We used our set of stacking cups to print with, which were really easy for the children to hold and gave us a variety of sizes. We used washable paint so we could clean up the cups afterwards.

Once we’d finished the stamping fun and everything had dried we used the same cups to draw lots of circles on the painted card and cut them out.

We used a paper plate as the frame for the wreath, with the centre removed.

You know my kids have an issue with waiting for glue to dry, so we stapled all the circles in place around the paper plate ring.

We added some shiny ribbon for extra pizzazz and ta-da, our painted Christmas wreath is ready.

More Christmas crafts

If you like this painted Christmas wreath you might also like our other Christmas craft ideas.

happily shared with it’s playtime

We’re joined by Christie from Childhood101 today, with a great post about sorting fun. I hope you enjoy her ideas.

“Pleasure in arranging things – whether lining up pebbles or tiny toys in a row, or arranging lines, shapes and colours on a sheet of paper – is part of children’s lives, part of the human desire . . . → Read More: Thinking It Through: Sorting Fun]]>

We’re joined by Christie from Childhood101 today, with a great post about sorting fun. I hope you enjoy her ideas.

“Pleasure in arranging things – whether lining up pebbles or tiny toys in a row, or arranging lines, shapes and colours on a sheet of paper – is part of children’s lives, part of the human desire for visual order.”

~Ursula Kolbe, It’s Not A Bird Yet: The Drama of Drawing (2005)

My daughter loves to sort and organise; from collecting small, natural objects on our daily walks at 18 months of age and sorting strips of fabric two months later, to arranging fairy stones at play or helping to sort the laundry as a three year old. At various times we have sorted by colour, size, texture, shape and number. Always in a spontaneous, fun and playful manner.

Play is the vehicle through which children learn best and the key to successful thinking and reasoning activities for young children is keeping it playful. I often look for ways to invite my daughter to come to these experiences herself, presenting them in a colourful and appealing manner (as an invitation to play) or leaving them ‘strewed‘ for her to discover. This provides her with an element of independence with the activity and me space to observe her thinking processes, her interest, her ideas for the experience. I show interest and answer questions but try to avoid leading or dictating the play, and hence the learning.

There are limitless ways to practice these skills but basing a thinking and reasoning activity around the interests of the individual child helps to engage them, therefore motivating them to learn. A child obsessed with dinosaurs can line them up in a row from biggest to smallest, a child who loves home corner play can sort the types of pretend food to set up a general store, and a child mad about cars can sort her collection by colour or type of car or size. It makes no difference to the learning if dinosaurs or plastic food or cars are used, the skills being developed remain the same.

Keeping it playful IS what makes all the difference.

Christie is a qualified early childhood teacher and the Mum of one very busy preschooler. You’ll find inspiration and information on children playing, learning and growing on Christie’s award winning blog, Childhood 101, and in her recently launched quarterly play-zine, Play Grow Learn.

We always have a well stocked making box ready to create with but it was a bag of colourful marbles that we found in a charity . . . → Read More: Marvellous marbles: how to make a marble run]]> It seems fitting after yesterday’s inauguration of the Junk Model Hall of Fame that today’s post is about how to make a marble run from – you guessed it – junk!

We always have a well stocked making box ready to create with but it was a bag of colourful marbles that we found in a charity shop that were the inspiration for this marble run. It’s all B’s creation and she had to use lots of problem solving and adaptations a she went along, to make a marble run that would be fun to play with. Here’s how she made it.

How to make a junk model marble run

The basic materials B used are cardboard and plastic boxes in various shapes and sizes all stuck together with sticky tape. (Regular readers know my girls will not hang about waiting for glue to dry.) Doors were cut out with scissors and toilet roll tubes uses to create tunnels. B had to do some problem solving and make some adaptations to get her marble run on the right level so the marbles would indeed run, rather than come to a halt half way down. Creating tilted layers was the answer.

She added in some excitement by making it so there were two ways the marble could go – with a toilet roll tube trap sending the marble out of the game into a penalty area.

The egg box at the end is a great way to catch the marbles, so they don’t end up skittering all over the floor and also lets you turn the fun into a game. Allocate a score to each section of the egg box and collect points to see which player becomes Champion of the Marble Run.

What have you been creating from junk this week? Come and join the Junk Model Hall of Fame.

 happily shared with abcand123 and monday madness and  glitter link party and link and learn and sunday showcase and craft schooling sunday and preschool corner and  fun sparks and  for the kids friday and your green resource and it’s playtime

Maths activities for preschoolers work best when they are fun (of course!) and practical – using real objects the children can feel, rather than abstract numbers on a worksheet.

Try this fruit cocktail maths activity for some tasty number practice.

1. Talk about the . . . → Read More: Eat some numbers: Fruit cocktail maths]]>

Maths activities for preschoolers work best when they are fun (of course!) and practical – using real objects the children can feel, rather than abstract numbers on a worksheet.

Try this fruit cocktail maths activity for some tasty number practice.

How to make a counting cocktail

1. Talk about the fruits that would be great in a fruit cocktail and have the children write or draw a list of possible ingredients.

2. Go shopping or raid the fruit bowl to find your ingredients and wash, peel and chop the fruit into pieces.

3. Recipe time.  Have the children create their own fruit cocktail recipe and write or draw them out on a recipe card.

You could use a 1, 2, 3 ,4, 5 recipe, where the children must pick one of some kind of fruit, two of another, three of another, and so on.

Or use an ‘Adds up to ten’ recipe, where the children can pick any combination of fruits they like so long as they total ten pieces all together.

If you’re interested in colours, you could make the rule that they need five different colours in their cocktail.

If you’re interested in letters you could require that all the fruits in the recipe start with a different sound.

4. Eat and enjoy your bowl full of numbers.

You can find lots more preschool maths activities in our maths archive.

happily shared with tot school and preschool corner and smart summer for the kids Friday and it’s playtime