Model Making Archives - Page 7 of 10

How to make a fairy garden

08/06/2011 by Cathy James 13 Comments

How to make a fairy garden

After making our miniature garden last week, the girls re-discovered our outdoor fairy garden at the weekend. The one we made last year has been well played with but was in need of a little spring cleaning, so they hunted round the garden to see what they could find to give it a revamp.

An old, broken plant pot has been given a new lease of life as a house, with a path of mussel shells leading up to the entrance – very neatly laid in ascending size order by L.

A few twigs for the framework and some woven garden twine provided the fences.

A lucky find was another old plant pot which had been completely overgrown with moss – giving them a perfect circle to make a lawn with. B peeled off some bark from an old log to make a bench and L laid out some cockle shells ‘all in a row’ for a border.

Two longer twigs make an archway, marking the entrance to the garden – I wonder if we can find a tiny plant which might grow over it?

Did you make a fairy garden with your children? If you have a link to share, the girls would love to see where the fairies live in your garden.

Find lots more fairy garden inspiration at the Magic Onions Fairy Garden Competition 2011

happily shared with get your craft on and abcand123 and tot school and the Sunday Showcase and Craft Schooling Sunday and outdoor play and Friday’s nature table and It’s Playtime and Kids Get Crafty and Works For Me Wednesday

How to make a miniature garden

01/06/2011 by Cathy James 12 Comments

A miniature garden makes a wonderful child-sized space for some small world play. We’ve made dinosaur lands and fairy gardens before but here’s B’s version of what a back garden should look like.

Small world play gives children the opportunity to be masters of their mini universe. They can role-play situations they’re working on in real life, testing out different ways to handle things. They also get the chance to stretch their imaginations and be creative in their little world, exploring possibilities that just aren’t possible in the real world. It’s always interesting to sit and observe children engaged in small world play, to listen to the language they’re using and get an insight into what’s occupying them at this stage in their life.

Make a miniature garden of your own

Here are our miniature garden ideas

1. Choose a container. We used an ice cream tub for this little garden and have found under-bed storage boxes to be a good size for slightly bigger play worlds.

2. Prepare the ground. If you’re going to grow real plants (which is highly recommended by us as the children get to see their garden develop) you’ll want to make some drainage holes in the bottom of your container – so it’s not going to turn into a swap. (That’s a landscape idea to try another time!) Then fill your container with soil. You can still play with your miniature garden inside, just sit it on a tray to catch any drips.

3. Add some landscaping. Use lollipop sticks and twigs to build fencing and make wigwams for your plants to grow up. Gravel and shells can be used for paths. Lids from food jars, tin foil or small mirrors can create a pond.

4. Get planting. Select plants which will stand up to some play and which will retain a miniature size. We like using grasses, which are fun to give a haircut, and easy maintenance plants such as houseleeks (semper vivum). B wanted something pretty too so she added a tiny viola.

5. Add some embellishments. You can borrow items from your dolls’ house to make a seating area, or make some chairs and a table using corks and pebbles. Use some twigs or wooden kitchen skewers and string to make a washing line or some bunting. When I was a child we used to use seeds placed in rows to make a vegetable garden. Let the children use their imagination and see what they can create.

If you make a miniature garden of our own will you share a photo with us on our Facebook page? We’d love to see what you create.

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Junk modelling giraffe

31/05/2011 by Cathy James 8 Comments

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

Junk model ideas

20/04/2011 by Cathy James 10 Comments

Are you celebrating Earth Day with your children this Friday 22nd April 2011? For environmentally-friendly, creative play we love to make junk models. We love using items from our craft box which otherwise would be thrown away – turning them into toys and extending the life of the materials.

Here’s a showcase of our favourite upcycled junk models. If you have any more ideas you can share with us, please leave a link in the comments or on our Facebook page – we’re always looking for new inspiration and have a stack of boxes ready to go!

A riding stables created from the contents of our making box

A dragon made from egg boxes

A double decker bus from a shoe box

A cardboard box ride on train

A dinosaur world from a cardboard box

And have a look at our the ideas shared by all our Play Academy community in our Carnival of Junk Play

happily shared with made by little hands Monday and Friday’s nature table and preschool creations and the resource centre and creative Friday and for the kids Friday and It’s Playtime and upcycled awesome and kids get crafty

Junk model snake

04/04/2011 by Cathy James 7 Comments

After big sister’s guide on how to make a dinosaur world yesterday, today little sister is taking over the blogging reigns with her design for how to make a junk model snake.

To make a snake like L’s you will need: toilet roll tubes, scissors, paint, a long ribbon, stapler

Start by cutting each toilet roll tube into three. Paint them in your favourite colours adding extra stripes and spots to make them fancy. Mix some colours together to try out some new shades too. Our favourite was purple.

Once the paint is dry, choose one hoop to be your snake’s head. Thread the ribbon through and staple it in place. Cut the end of the ribbon to make it look like a snake’s tongue.

Thread all the other hoops on to the ribbon to make your long snake.

To fasten the last one in place and stop your snake falling to pieces, loop the ribbon round the last hoop and fasten it with a knot.

Add some nostrils and some eyes and your snake is ready to go a-slithering.

Printable bird and bird house set

18/01/2011 by Cathy James 15 Comments

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.

Printable bird template

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

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