All Crafts Archives - Page 22 of 34

Five fabulous ideas for feet

22/05/2011 by Cathy James 10 Comments

Five fabulous ideas for a feet theme.

1. Set up a shoe shop: gather together as many different types of shoes as you can: lace-ups, high heels, flippers, wellies, ballet shoes, walking boots, football boots, slippers. Talk about when you would wear all these different types of footwear – what’s special about them? Add in some imaginary play and have some of the children be the shop assistants and some be the customers. Add in some maths by measuring everyones feet and graphing the results.

2. Explore movement and see what your feet can do: Play musical statues but have the children try out a different movement each time the music re-starts. Can they walk, hop, skip, run, go backwards, walk on tip toes? Try some other challenges such as seeing if they can pick blocks up with their feet and load them into a bucket. Or hold a crayon between their toes and do some drawing.

3. Discover animals’ feet: use toy animals or print off some pictures and investigate their feet. Talk about paws, hooves, webbed feet, claws and talons. Add some classification practise by sorting the animals into those with no feet, two feet, four feet, lots of feet. How do the animals’ feet suit how they live? Which animals can walk on the ceiling?

4. Make some footprints: for a great collaborative work of art tape big rolls of paper to the floor and then play some music. Have the children step in some paint and then dance their way over the canvas.

5. Read all about feet: with this fabulous selection of stories suggested by NurtureStore’s Facebook and Twitter friends. (Come and join us on Facebook and Twitter for lots more resources and idea swaps)

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

happily shared with made by little hands Monday and math Monday and preschool corner and Outdoor Play and we play and math Monday and Tot School

Play dough recipe

18/05/2011 by Cathy James 33 Comments

Need a play dough recipe? Salt dough recipe, bread dough recipe, no cook play dough recipe?

How about a year’s worth of playdough play ideas – including math, literacy and creative play.

Now available: an all-new-and-improved Homemade Play Dough Recipe Book!

come and take a look!

How to make an origami dog

16/05/2011 by Cathy James 14 Comments

How to make an origami dog

1. Take a square of paper, any size you like – a piece of your child’s art is especially good to use as your dog will be unique

2. Follow this guide to fold it (or this one which is animated)

3. Add some googly eyes using craft glue and a nose using a felt pen

4. Make your dog happy by adding a smile.

5. Think of a name for your pet while the glue dries, then he’s ready to play

We made these dogs at creche today with sixteen 2- and 3-year-olds. They loved them! We counted out the eyes and they had a go with the pen adding the nose and mouth. There was a lot of woofing too!

The folding was a bit too tricky for the toddlers, but my two girls (4 and 8 ) found the instructions easy to follow. Using the children’s own art work to make the origami dog and letting them add the face still gives the younger children plenty of things they can manage all by themselves. I’m thinking we could use an egg box to make the dog a body, with this face at one end and a tail at the other to create a junk model dog for even more play – what do you think?

A big thanks to my colleague Lesley for the idea and to the lovely toddlers for sharing their origami dog creations.

happily shared with craft schooling Sunday and Saturday’s artist and the resource centre teach mama and for the kids Friday and it’s playtime upcycled awesome and we play

Match box art idea

11/05/2011 by Cathy James 10 Comments

After really enjoying our large scale painting we decided to go small this week and try out some tiny match box art.

I traced around the outside of the match box on a piece of paper to make lots of frames and then the children set to, creating all sorts of designs.

We had no particular plan in mind, other than using the matchbox as a frame, but when L drew a garden scene we decided to transform the matchbox into a window to peep through.

We added a window frame and used tissue paper to make some curtains. The girls like peeping through the fairy windows and have plans to make a whole skyscraper full of different views. I like the depth that the layers add to the picture.

Glue a little magnet on the back and you can create a match box gallery on the fridge.

If you like our ideas, please share them on Facebook or twitter or link back to them from your blog.

happily shared with made by little hands Monday and for the kids Friday and it’s playtime and creative juice and upcycled awesome

The Rainbow Fish craft idea

08/05/2011 by Cathy James Leave a Comment

I’m delighted to feature a guest post idea today from Suzanne of skybluesea, inspired by The Rainbow Fish story by Marcus Pfister.

Suzanne is a freelance textile artist and she’s recently been working with a Reception and Year One class to produce an amazing collaborative work based on The Rainbow Fish book. The process incorporated art, design, texture, colour and numeracy. Here’s Suzanne to tell you more.

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“A long way out in the deep blue sea there lived a fish. Not just an ordinary fish, but the most beautiful fish in the entire ocean. His scales were every shade of blue and green and purple, with sparkling silver scales among them.”
extract from ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister .

I have recently completed a project with a Reception and Year One class for Curious Minds. The brief was to include collaborative and individual working for the children, numeracy and the theme ‘water’. Mathematical language was used throughout : how many?, how many more?, Is that too much?, Do we need more or less?

The children experienced silk-painting, and drawing outlines of shapes with gutta. We then talked about ‘The Rainbow Fish’ and we decided to create a huge silk painting based on it. They also made small wire and tissue fishes, and they had to choose two colours of beads for threading – counting as they threaded them on.

Their fishes were then suspended from the ceiling with ribbons and displays of their silk painting, and lot of photographs of the children working. Questions like ‘How many points does a star fish have?’, ‘How many octopus can you see?’ also became part of the display.

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The children’s project also incorporated felt making, sewing and weaving. I love how they were able to try out lots of different techniques and make their own design choices as well as coming together to create a collaborative work of art the whole class took part in.

You can see the finished result and find a tutorial for the felt making collage over at skybluesea – pop over and be inspired to try the ideas out with your children.

happily shared with abcand123

Collage ideas: lentil art

24/04/2011 by Cathy James 9 Comments

Using store cupboard staples such as red, green and brown lentils, rice and pearl barley to make collages adds an extra sensory dimension to your play – and is a good way to use up any leftover packets just past their eat-by-dates. Try and provide a mixture of shapes and colours and place them in little pots on your creation station.

The basic principle is: glue, sprinkle, dry. You can keep to one colour per section or mix it up a little.

You can freestyle on your glue and maybe make some repeating patterns – or draw out a design for your collage. Filling in outlines of letters and number allows children to feel the shape of the characters and makes a good addition to a sensory alphabet chart.

For more ideas, try making rangoli patterns with your children or try creating some art with spices with this idea shared with our Play Academy by My Kids Make.

happily shared with the resource centre and creative Friday and upcycled awesome and kids get crafty and Made by Little Hands Monday and the Learning Laboratory and Tot school and making Monday marvelous Craft Schooling Sunday