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How to make a jungle

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jungle theme preschool craft

After the great pocket money debate, over the summer holiday the girls have started to earn a little money. A very exciting new thing for them, which meant on our recent trip to the zoo they had some of their own money to spend on a treat. So, we now have a family of wild animals in need of a home. On our return we transformed a humble cardboard box into not just a jungle, but a savanna and watering hole too. The hippo is very happy in her new home – and the play scene is giving the girls the chance for lots of imaginary play and chat.

How to make a jungle from a cardboard box [Read more…]

Groovy dolls’ houses and snail gardens

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snail minibeast ideas
Some fun ideas from around the web that I  think you’ll love this week include:

Sara’s Art House’s groovy dolls’ house transformation, which is making me want to give our plain one a makeover

Strong Start’s snail garden, which combines growing, small world play and up-close observation of some mini beasts (and what do you thikn of my snail picture?)

Sand and Water Tables video clips of young scientists and engineers delighting in their water play discoveries

The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas

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the very hungry caterpillar craft idea

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…]

Fantastic fish tank craft

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make an aquarium craft

Following on from Suzanne’s guest post which showed a wonderful whole-class collaboration to create a Rainbow Fish craft, here’s a fish tank craft on a smaller scale. L celebrated her fifth birthday this weekend with an ‘under the sea’ party and all the guests made their own aquarium complete with a beautiful rainbow fish to swim around in it. This junk model fish tank is easy to make, with just a few simple instructions and also gives each child the scope to be creative and create exactly the kind of fish they like best.

Here’s how to make a junk model fish tank [Read more…]

Junk modelling giraffe

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junk model giraffe

Taking my own advice for turning this half term holiday staycation into a fun filled PLAYcation, our making box is well stocked with packets and boxes and old wrapping paper this week. My eight-year-old especially loves junk modelling and it amazes me how she can delve into a box of junk, select a few boxes and re-appear an hour later with a creation.

I love encouraging junk modelling because of course it’s a fabulous free activity, and it challenges children to be creative, think about sizes and dimensions and problem-solve as they create their masterpiece.

Today B made a junk model giraffe. I asked her if she set out to make a giraffe or if the boxes she found suggested it to her and it seems this time she was fulfilling a brief requested by her little sister, who wanted a new animal to live in her safari park.

You can see she’s used sticky tape to fasten the body parts together, which is the girls’ favourite method for sticking as they never want to wait for glue to dry before they start playing. I’d recommend getting a weighted tape dispenser which makes it much easier for kids to use the tape by themselves, so they can grab some when they get a creative urge. The giraffe is stuck to a platform with a ribbon attached so it can be pulled along and go for a walk.

What might your kids  junk model this week? If they’re in need of inspiration our archive has dragons, snakes, castles, double decker buses, houses and a city to spark some ideas.

Like our ideas? Please VOTE FOR US in the UK Mum and Dad Blog awards!

happily shared with child centred art party mini masterpieces and  kids get crafty

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