NurtureStore » Role Play

Egg carton treasure box make-over

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:00:08 +0000

We’re joining in with TinkerLab’s Creative Challenge today with an egg carton treasure box make-over. As soon as Rachelle laid down her challenge to see what we could make with egg boxes my girls were united and divided. Both wanted to make treasure boxes, but each with a very different style to match their individual passions. My princess-loving 5yr old made a treasure box fit for the crown jewels, while my adventurous 9-year-old went for a pirate box. Here’s how they transformed their egg cartons.

Make an egg carton treasure box

Take a cardboard egg carton and peel off any packaging labels.

Select your colours. We used acrylic paint for a good coverage. The princess went for red outside and pink inside.

The pirate went for brown all over.

We left the boxes to dry over night and then added the finishing touches. The princess used mosaic stickers to decorate the lid of her egg carton jewellery box. The pirate used black paint to add her details.

Both girls decided their treasure chests needed filling with some extra goodies.

The pirate made silver nuggets and coins from tin foil.

The princess made little silver beads from her tin foil and then threaded them together to make a bracelet.

And she used the pointed part of an egg carton to make a ring – painted inside and out, with extra jewels stuck on. A pipe cleaner threaded through the end turned the gem into a ring.

What could you make from an egg carton?

Hop over to the Tinkerlab Creative Challenge to see a fiesta of other egg carton creations and link up an idea of your own.

How to make a child’s hat

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:00:57 +0000

How to make a child’s hat couldn’t be simpler but with a creative kid involved the results are super fun and oh so stylish!
This idea is inspired by one of our favourite books: Millie’s Marvellous Hat by Satoshi Kitamura. The book is about a little girl who longs for a beautiful hat but has no money to buy one. It’s a tale of imagination, positivity and overcoming problems. It also features the most wonderful illustrations of fabulous hats. We couldn’t read it without creating our own marvellous hat!

How to make a child’s hat

Never underestimate how much a super simple activity can bring joy to your kids. L and her best friend made these hats last week and had a blast.

This is such a easy craft you hardly need instructions but if you’d like a reminder on how to make a child’s hat, here goes.

Step one: Take a piece of card around 5- 10cm in depth and long enough to wind around your child’s head. Fit it in place, check it for comfort and fasten the ends together with staples or sticky tape. You can of course use two smaller pieces of card to make your headband if you don’t have a very long piece.

Step two: provide your child with lots of interesting materials to decorate their marvellous hat:

:: tissue paper :: coloured paper and card :: stickers :: feathers :: buttons :: glitter :: pens :: pencils :: crayons :: ribbon

Step three: invite your child to imagine a most marvellous hat and style it however they like

Step four: parade! Wear your hat around the house, or better still head out for a walk wearing your marvellous creation. Just as in the book, watch the marvellousness spread and spot how all the people you pass smile and admire your wonderful creation!

happily shared with it’s playtime

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:00:01 +0000

A Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was the perfect birthday party theme for my little bookworm. B turned nine last week and at the weekend we hosted a Book Party for her family and friends, with crazy food and fun activities. The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was such fun to plan and prepare, with the kids excited about sharing the mad ideas with their friends.

All the invitations were little books, illustrated by B, with the story inside telling the tale of how all the guests were invited to a party. Everyone came dressed as a favourite book character – I was Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, although sadly no photos of that incarnation remain. I do have lots of photos of what we made and what we ate though, so here’s our round up of how we hosted a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

Apple juice was served in our fanciest tea pot and every guest had a weird and wonderful cup to drink from (sourced from family treasures and charity shops.)

We froze grape juice in gold fish ice cube trays and served them to guests with silver sugar tongs.

One fish or two?

Pudding was do-it-yourself. I used my favourite cake recipe and gingerbread recipe to make the cupcakes and cookies in advance and then the children all decorated their own: some to eat at the party and some to take home too.

As you can see, they are not of the less is more school of thought.

Like all the poshest parties, cucumber sandwiches were served, but with a Mad Hatter’s twist. (Thanks to Jackie for the inspiration)

Edible golden bracelets were served on a china platter.

Ever eaten a hedgehog? A potato skewered with sausages on sticks – or even something as exotic as cheese and pineapple! – was a classic dish at birthday parties when I was a kid, and my girls thought it was fun. (Do hedgehogs have whiskers? We couldn’t decide.)

A rainbow on a stick was a healthy dessert option and bursting with colour. You could add a yellow section too if you don’t forget to buy the pineapple. (ahem)

We never have a birthday party without jelly. In a rabbit mould (see first photo) or in a jar the stripes look fabulous.

This idea of putting individual portions of ice cream in silicone cupcake cases makes the easiest way to serve it – fun too. (Thanks for the idea Real Simple)

Homemade party bags were filled with book worms (thanks to Jessie for the idea)…

and Wonka chocolate bars, plus a note pad and pencil to write stories of their own.

Thank you so much to all of you who left lovely birthday wishes for B, she had a great Mad Hatter’s tea party.

Making play posh

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:30:30 +0000

L’s ultimate praise is to declare something ‘posh’ – and our teddy bears’ cafe this week was ever so. We know how to dine in style. Table cloths – fancy!

Vases of flowers on the table.

Waitress service. And real coffee for mummy

And best of all, real biscuits.

What added extras do you use to turn everyday play into something just a little bit posh?

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Five fabulous ideas for feet

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Sun, 22 May 2011 14:34:59 +0000

Five fabulous ideas for a feet theme.

1. Set up a shoe shop: gather together as many different types of shoes as you can: lace-ups, high heels, flippers, wellies, ballet shoes, walking boots, football boots, slippers. Talk about when you would wear all these different types of footwear – what’s special about them? Add in some imaginary play and have some of the children be the shop assistants and some be the customers. Add in some maths by measuring everyones feet and graphing the results.

2. Explore movement and see what your feet can do: Play musical statues but have the children try out a different movement each time the music re-starts. Can they walk, hop, skip, run, go backwards, walk on tip toes? Try some other challenges such as seeing if they can pick blocks up with their feet and load them into a bucket. Or hold a crayon between their toes and do some drawing.

3. Discover animals’ feet: use toy animals or print off some pictures and investigate their feet. Talk about paws, hooves, webbed feet, claws and talons. Add some classification practise by sorting the animals into those with no feet, two feet, four feet, lots of feet. How do the animals’ feet suit how they live? Which animals can walk on the ceiling?

4. Make some footprints: for a great collaborative work of art tape big rolls of paper to the floor and then play some music. Have the children step in some paint and then dance their way over the canvas.

5. Read all about feet: with this fabulous selection of stories suggested by NurtureStore’s Facebook and Twitter friends. (Come and join us on Facebook and Twitter for lots more resources and idea swaps)

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happily shared with made by little hands Monday and math Monday and preschool corner and Outdoor Play and we play and math Monday and Tot School