With less than two weeks until the holiday weekend the NurtureStore house is now full on baking, painting and generally bursting with Easter crafts! I’ve got a great idea today for an Easter creation station, which invites the children to glue, stick, paint, tear and create to their hearts content.
This spring sensory play tub with carrots is great for a range of ages.
Here’s how to set it up, with extra ideas for spring activities for kids.
Click to play on the video above to see our sensory tub masterclass. You’ll learn how to make a sensory tub for your children using simple materials, the benefits of sensory tubs for children, and how to use a sensory tub to teach children about math, literacy, science and fine motor skills.
You’ll also see lots of ideas for sensory tub fillings plus find out how to get great printables to add to your tubs. Subscribe to NurtureStore’s YouTube channel to get more sensory play videos!
Sensory tubs are wonderful for children to play with. They offer opportunities to explore sights, sounds, smells and textures, and promote lots of imaginary play and language development.
There are three basic ingredients you need for a sensory tub:
:: the tub itself. You’ll want something large enough to hold your materials, but shallow enough so your child can easily reach inside. I usually use this under-the-bed storage box, which is just right.
:: a base material. We’re using rice today, but you could use shredded brown paper, dyed pasta, or real compost for your tub.
To dye the rice I placed it in a plastic bag and added green and red food colouring gel. (Photo borrowed from our lavender sensory tub because I forgot to take a photo this time!)
Give it a good shake, until all the rice is coated in the colouring.
Then spread it out to dry.
I set mine out on a tablecloth and left it overnight – and in the morning discovered the children had already started playing with it, drawing shapes and letters in the rice.
:: Added extras. Try to include a variety of open-ended materials, in different colours, shapes, sizes or textures.
These extra materials can give the children a spark of an idea, and they can use them to explore the tub or start some imaginary play.
Today we have some little spades, rakes, and plant pots. These are great for scooping, pouring and filling. Or perhaps for some pretend gardening.
We also have some real carrots, looking fantastic with their feathery leaves still on.
These bring another, natural texture to the sensory tub, and are fun to plant and pull out of the ground.
And finally, a few little characters are always popular with my children, and very often are a spark for storytelling and puppet shows.
Today, less is more. Little made these two Easter cards to give to her best friends at pre-school. They are a very simple design but I think they’re perfect Easter cards for a little one to make, almost by themselves. You can just draw the basic outline and then let them take charge and make a unique card. So easy, you could make them this weekend to send to grandparents in time for the Easter holiday.
Looking for some Easter craft activities for children? Here’s an idea that takes a childhood classic and gives it a spring-time twist – we’re potato printing chicks, lambs and rabbits!
Transform your science and math, reading and writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts all through garden-based activities. The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoors play and learning ideas, however big or small your outdoor space – and comes with a lovely, free gift.
Your garden, no matter its size, is an outdoor classroom waiting to be explored. The Garden Classroom is bursting with ideas you can use to make the most of the math, science, literacy, art and play waiting for you outdoors.
In this book I’ll show you:
:: how to get started with Let’s Grow! Garden Basics: my five favorite plants to grow with children, tips on growing plants from seed, how to make the most of your space and get the most flowers, fruit and vegetables from your plants. Plus a few projects to get you started having fun with what you grow.
:: fun ways to learn through Play & Imagination: how to make play spaces you can use all year round, ideas for equiping your garden to encourage den building and creative play with loose parts, fairy and dinosaur worlds for imaginary play, and suggestions for sensory play for each season of the year.
:: ideas that promote Reading & Writing outdoors: with suggestions for outdoor alphabet and spelling games, and ways to encourage storytelling, reading, and writing – through scientific reporting, journaling and creative writing.
:: projects to explore Science & Math: using the intrinsic opportunities of the outdoor world, and by introducing new materials and activities to boost learning. We’ll host a plant Olympics, study seeds and plant growth, play minibeast bingo, make a tree trunk geoboard and set up our own bug hotel.
:: beautiful Arts & Crafts projects inspired by the garden: ideas for painting, printing, paper crafting, using cement, sewing, finger knitting, land art and a fun twist on a traditional scarecrow.
:: Garden Recipes that celebrate the high point of the growing year: the garden harvest. Make a shared soup, a relish that’s great for using up a glut of summer produce, and ideas for making great use of herbs and edible flowers all year round.
This is your go-to book to give your children a connection with nature, full of creative ways to use the garden to inspire learning.
All the ideas have been tried, tested and approved by children. A few are more suited to preschoolers, some are better for older children, but the majority are adaptable to suit your child’s age, stage, and interests.
You can group ideas together if you’re homeschooling, planning a class project, or looking for ideas for a summer break, or you can dip into the book and try a different idea each week.
The book includes a free gift for everyone :: a gorgeous Garden Journal to use with your children.
A garden journal is a great way to bring literacy outside. Your children can each have their own journal, or make it a collaborative project. You can use it to record your planting and what’s growing, make sketches and include photos of the things you see in your garden, and at the end of the growing year you’ll have a beautiful record of all the fun and learning that happened in your garden classroom.
You’ll find lots of ideas in the book on how to make the most of your Garden Journal. Head through here to the Garden Journal pdf and print as many pages as you like, for as many children as you like.
You can get your copy of The Garden Classroom using these links:
Happy gardening!
For this easy Easter craft we’re using collage materials to create chicks, eggs and lambs. Or make collage frogs to celebrate Passover.
