Summer’s here, bringing with it blues skies, sunshine and the top priority: keeping kids cool.
We want our children to be enjoying themselves all summer long but hot and cranky kids aren’t much fun – for them or us!
So here, with the help of our wonderful Facebook community, are our favourite ways for keeping kids cool whilst still having lots of summer fun. (Thanks to Jules, Nichola, Gayla, Tina, Michele and Debi for sharing their tips) [Read more…]
Following on from yesterday’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas for caterpillars, today we have a selection of butterfly crafts.
The designs are all very simple again, making them easy for very young children to try.
Working with the idea of butterflies gives the opportunity to talk about symmetry and with older children you might want to encourage them to focus on creating matching patterns, as part of a more mathematical activity.
With young children though I think the main purpose behind these crafts is to invite them to enjoy the colours and see what patterns they can make – so I wouldn’t worry about strict directions about making sure both sides match.
This idea is a childhood classic – painting on one side of a piece of paper, folding and squishing the paint, and then opening it up to reveal your butterfly.
I particularly love this technique because it’s open to all children – even babies. Everyone can join in: finger painting, smearing colour around, making hand prints, using brushes or sponges to apply the paint. And my kids really love the surprise reveal when the final pattern is peeled open and revealed.
Two tips I’d share:
1. It might be hard for the children to understand the idea of painting at first on one side of the paper only, and you won’t want to pester them all through the activity to stop painting on the other side. If you fold the paper over so the side to be kept clear is underneath and only the side that needs painting is presented to them (see above), then they can go for it, applying the paint wherever they like, without any restrictions. When they’ve finished you can fold it the other way to make your print.
2. I’d do a demonstration of the folding and squishing first before using their own art work – some children can be very upset if they think you’re spoiling their design, so best for them to be happy with the plan before you try it.
These twirling butterflies were inspired by an idea Amanda created for Make and Takes. Amanda’s children made ladybirds, but I think they’re also beautiful with a butterfly design, and the kids can paint, pattern or collage any design they choose.
Make and Takes has a step-by-step guide to assembling them.
A tip I’d add: if you laminate the pieces of card before assembling them they’ll withstand a little rain so you can have them twirling in the garden.
We used a wooden clothes peg to make a butterfly mobile: here’s our step-by-step guide showing how we made it.
Kicking off our celebration of Eric Carle’s birthday this week we’re sharing three The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is our favourite of Eric Carle’s books and is the first book I ever read to both my girls. It’s masterpiece of a children’s story, a joy to read and look at, and bursting with possibilities to use as a spring board for lots of crafting, exploring and learning.
Mr. Carle is celebrating his birthday this week and Kate at An Amazing Child blog is hosting a week of fun, linking up many early years bloggers who are sharing ideas for activities and crafts linked to Mr. Carle’s books. We’re sharing some caterpillar craft ideas today and some butterfly crafts tomorrow. On Thursday we have a post full of ideas you can use to explore The Very Hungry Caterpillar with links to the EYFS.
Eric Carle is famous for his signature style, combining colour and texture and The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a perfect book to use to inspire children to try some art and crafting. When creating with young children I always like to give them plenty of opportunity to explore materials their way. Even though these projects are all designed to result in a caterpillar there is plenty of scope for each child to experiment and add their own style to the creations. The caterpillar crafts are all very simple to follow, inviting even very young children to have a try. [Read more…]
Happy Fathers’ Day! A great excuse to celebrate some inspiring blogs written by men. Here are three fabulous ones for you to check out: [Read more…]
B’s been behaving out of character this week: up before anyone else, dressing in her school uniform without any prompting, and downstairs before anyone else is even out of bed. What’s going on? Junk model fever! She’s been up and at ’em, and in the playroom creating. Here’s the result: a sail ship manned by a crew of fairies, complete with ship’s wheel, crows nest, trap door and anchor. When you’re struck by the junk model fever you just have to get crafty – even if it is six o’clock in the morning.
What have you been playing this week?
1. Link up a post to share a play idea, craft or activity with us.
2. Add a text link back to the Play Academy from your post to invite others to come and share the ideas.
3. Take a look at some of the other ideas linked and get some fabulous play ideas for the weekend. Bloggers just love to receive your comments, so please take a minute to let them know you stopped by.
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Two other idea swaps you might like to join:
Friday 24th June is the Carnival of Water Play
Thursday 30th June is the Sunflower Festival
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How to use Star Wars to teach literacy?
I’m always on the look out for opportunities I can offer the children to get them interested in writing. Sitting rather reluctant writers down with a blank piece of paper and a pencil and saying ‘let’s write a story’ doesn’t work for us – but adding writing in to play or setting up a invitation which sparks their interest does.
Create your own opening crawl
This idea for creating a story on a roll popped into my head when I was thinking about a different way for us to use our easel. Adding a long roll of paper to the easel made me think of the opening credits to Star Wars, when the text crawls up the screen and I thought we could use it all summer long to create a story.