Here’s a really simple idea that’s full of possibilities for children to develop language, art and imagination: design your dream home!
Activities for toddlers :: art and crafts
Welcome to day two of our week long series dedicated to the lovely, playful and sometimes willful stage of childhood that is toddlerhood. Yesterday we looked at sensory play and today we’re got some of our favourite ideas for arts and crafts. They’re ideas which are just right for two- and three-year olds (but also great for bigger kids too!)
Activities for toddlers: art [Read more…]
Playing dens
Up! from blocks to rockets
Download your copy of Up! here: 30+ hands-on projects that explore blocks, building, rockets, air planes, parachutes, pulleys and everything Up! Includes 100 printables
A strange new habitat has appeared in our playroom – what could it be?
Secret surveillance cameras reveal signs of life – glimpses of the wild creatures inside.
Special cameras attached to the animals allow us to penetrate deep into the burrow, where no adults may enter.
The footage reveals that, deep underground, these creatures like to play…
…and sleep in four poster beds.
B says ‘playing dens is our favourite thing ever’. I say a whole day’s worth of happy, imaginative play is well worth having a messy room to tidy.
Printable bird and bird house set
Valerie over at the Frugal Family Fun Blog has such great ideas and we love the crafts she does with her two girls. When we saw her post about a printable bird house play set we thought they were so cute we’d have to try and make some. The houses can be made from card, or even a recycled cereal box, and Valerie has given us all a template to use which means they are so easy to make.
B, who’s seven, managed to do all the stages by herself: tracing round the template, cutting, folding and sticking and she is really pleased with her birdhouse. She decided to leave the roof un-stuck so she could put some furniture inside and use it as a play house. The house was a little too tricky for L, who is four, to make by herself but she got involved drawing a pattern which we used to make the roof, and she’s really enjoying all the small world play now the houses are finished. We made some extra houses to hang in the window as decorations too and for these we stuck the roofs down. I think the co-ordinating roofs and perches make this a very stylish neighbourhood! We used recycled wrapping paper to make them but they’d be the perfect way to re-use your children’s art work too.
Of course then we decided we needed someone to come and live in our bird street so we made a little flock of birds. If you’d like to make some the same as ours you can use this Printable bird template, which works out a great size to match with Valerie’s bird house. All you need to do is draw round the bird template on card, adding a slit where you can insert the wings. The wings are made from a piece of paper folded into a concertina and pushed through the slot in the bird’s body. You can make a hole above the wings if you want to hang them up on a cotton thread, or add a base so they can stand up if you’d like to play with them. You’ll find both options available on the template.
We used the same paper for the birds wings as we did the roofs of the houses, so it turned out to be a good matching game too, making sure all the birds got back to their own house. A big thank you to Valerie for the idea and the how-to bird house template. If you don’t already know the Frugal Family Fun Blog do pop by for a visit as I know you will love her ideas.
happily shared with Kids Get Crafty, Upcycled Awesome and Works for me Wednesday and Preschool Corner and Craft Schooling Sunday and No Time For Flashcards and Making Mondays Marvellous and and Mad Skills and Mad Skills Monday and Made by You Monday and Homemaker Monday and Sumo’s Sweet Stuff and Today’s Creative Blog and ABC and 123 and Something for the Weekend
