junk modelling Archives

Easter bunny craft

By Cathy James on March 2nd, 2013%

Here’s a super cute Easter bunny craft idea that’s easy to make and works great filled with little Easter treats or as puppets for some imaginary play.

Easter bunny craft Read more »

30+ pirate activities: games, crafts, food & costumes

By Cathy James on October 25th, 2012%

Shiver me timbers, have I got some fabulous pirate activities for you! With ideas from Nurturestore and a crew of kid bloggers from around the seven seas, here are over thirty five ideas you can use with your little pirates. There’s everything for some pirate-theme play and learning – pretend play, food, dressing up, story telling, sensory tubs, writing, action games and more. Click each link to to find out more and enjoy some fun pirate activities with your kids.

35+ pirate activities: games, crafts, food and costumes Read more »

Carnival of Junk Play

By Cathy James on December 2nd, 2010%

Welcome to the Carnival of Junk Play!

Come and share an idea and help us build a store of junk play ideas we can use whenever we need some inspiration. This link-up will be added to our Junk Play archive (click on the Junk Play button on the right hand column) so you can come back and use it whenever you need an idea.

1. Please link to your actual post, not your homepage. Junk play ideas only please – no giveaways or adverts.

2. Please add a link from your page through to this carnival, to invite others to come and share the ideas. You can grab a Play Academy badge from the right-hand column if you’d like.

3. Go and visit some of the other blogs listed and say hi.

4. Grab an idea and go play!

5. Don’t forget to come back next Friday to join in with our regular ‘anything goes’ Play Academy link-up.

Can’t wait to see what you’ve been playing!

Junk model horse riding stables

By Cathy James on November 9th, 2010%

We’re getting ready for the Carnival of Junk Play on Friday 3rd December!

What do you think of our riding school? We have stables, jumps, a daisy filled paddock and some prize winning rosettes – and all made for free using re-cycled materials from our beloved making box. B has been off school ill this week and we needed a good ‘sitting down’ activity to keep us busy and cheer us up – and this is what we made. It was a totally spontaneous project, put together after a rummage through the junk box to see what materials we could find.

The base is made from a big piece of cardboard from a packing box, which happened to have a circular shape marked out in the centre which seemed to say ‘paddock’! The jump is made from two Smarties tubes, turned inside out, with a wooden skewer, snapped in half and poked through the tubes to make the cross bars.

The stables are made from tissue boxes, and the one on the end which has proper stable doors is made from a teabag box. We covered them in sugar paper, held in place with sticky tape – as you know we can’t wait for glue to dry when we want to get playing. The prize winning rosettes are made from little gift bows salvaged from some presents, with a ribbon made from sugar paper.

We have a bucket with a pipe-cleaner handle, wool for straw and a biscuit tray cut up and stuck inside each stable to make a feeding trough (there’s probably a proper horsey word for that isn’t there?) The bunting is made from wool, old wrapping paper and held up on wooden skewers. And the paddock was painted with poster paint, sprinkled with a little glitter while it was still wet, and with some daisies (cut from a remnant of edging from my sewing basket) glued on.

Not all our junk models are this grand – L’s boat was very simple, but they both sum up what I love best about junk modelling:

it’s recycled, it costs nothing, it’s creative and it’s makes a toy with lots more play value to it.

I hope you’ll get junk modelling with your children and come and join in the fun at our Carnival of Junk Play on Friday 3rd December.

happily shared with teach mama The Tissue Box Challenge and Kids Get Crafty and No Time for Flashcards and Making Monday Marevellous and Made By You Monday and We Play! and Today’s Creative Blog and Works for me Wednesday