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Air drying clay models

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Have you ever used air drying clay? My girls love it – it’s maleable, not too sticky, and you can poke embellishments into the clay to create wonderful effects. And as the name suggests, when you’ve made your model you can simply leave it to dry instead of having to bake it. You can paint the dried model, or leave the clay in its natural state. As it’s long-lasting its a good material to use for gifts and decorations too.

So, what did we make today? Well, I don’t you know if you’ve seen The Gallery over at Sticky Fingers, where Tara posts a prompt each week to inspire readers to take photographs of a particular topic, but this week the theme is ‘Creatures‘. So that’s what we made. Do you like them?

Why don’t you try some air drying clay with your children and see what they can make?

And if you’d like to see how everyone else interpreted the theme ‘Creatures’ why not pop over to Sticky Fingers and see?

Make a double decker bus

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The highlight of Little’s week was a ride on a double decker bus. We had to sit on top and right at the front of course- something I remember always wanting to do when I was a child. When we got home she wanted to make a double decker of her own.

We used a shoe box for the bus and found two biscuit containers which we stuck in place with sticky tape to make the decks. I used a craft knife to make the bus open-top and to add in some windows.

It’s always good to add in some letters and numbers, so we made a sign for our bus too.

This kind of small world play lets children try out situations they come across in real life. By testing out scenarios they can gain confidence for their own encounters in the big world. It also lets them use lots of language and if you play along with them you can add in some new vocabulary. There’s usually a song you include too – The Wheels on the Bus would be perfect here.

We have more transport theme activities you might like too.

And you can find lots more play ideas at the Childhood 101 We Play link up

Balloon puppets

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Gloriana, Queen of Balloons

Please welcome Her Royal Highness, Gloriana, Queen of Balloons.

This is Big’s creation made this weekend from the balloon she got from the vet’s open day, and the contents of our craft box. The balloon came with a plastic stick attached so it’s perfect to hold upright and move, play, dance with. The features are simply fastened on with sticky tape. She’s holding up pretty well, three days later, so we may be in for a long reign (so long as the kitten doesn’t pop her).

Have you ever made balloon puppets?

(One word of caution is that young children should be supervised with balloons. It they do pop, the pieces of balloon can be very dangerous if swallowed.)

 

Make a fairy garden

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Following on from the success of our Dinosaur Garden, this weekend we’ve been working on a Fairy Garden. The film below shows how we made it – now we’re eagerly waiting for the seeds to start growing so the flower fairies can really feel at home.

The music on the film is kindly provided by Anne van Schothorst and is from a piece called A Bird Came Flying.

Happily shared with Today’s Creative Blog and WeareTHATfamily’s Works for me Wednesday

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Make a dinosaur world

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As the weather is getting warmer and we’re starting to spend more time outside I thought I’d show you one way my girls love to play in our garden: in our Dinosaur Land. Big recently did a ‘show and tell’ at school about gardening and the Dinosaur Land proved to be so popular an idea with her classmates, that several of them have gone home and made their own – so it comes highly recommended.

This kind of ‘small world’ play is fantastic for young children: they get to be the boss of the world, create characters, role play situations, use their language skills, be imaginative…..  I love watching children engaged in this kind of play as it really gives you an insight into where they’re at, what’s concerning them, what they’re exploring at this present time. Big’s characters are often having battles at the moment, as she works through ideas of ‘being fair’ and negotiations. Little’s play in nearly always focused on a family group and playing out familiar routines – her dinosaurs get tucked up in bed and read a bedtime story.

As always, this idea is easy to make and you’re likely to have most, if not all, of the things you need around your home.

Start by finding a big plastic storage box and making some drainage holes in the bottom. Then let your children fill it up with soil – good, messy fun. Add a few rocks – we have one big one, which the dinosaurs like to stand on to survey their territory, and some smaller one to sit on. How about some plants for the dinos to eat and hide in? Have you got one to spare somewhere in one of your borders? The grassy one we used works really well – low maintenance, pretty robust and won’t get too overgrown. You can add any other props which catch your children’s eye: glass pebbles, fir cones, sticks, water too if you’d like a swamp area.

Then it’s over to the kids to get playing.

If your children are enjoying the garden, have a look at our Sunflower Club for more outside play ideas.

Wordless Wednesday : Junk

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Boat by Little

This is Little’s boat – the first thing she’s made all by herself from our ‘making box’ full of household junk on the way to be recycled. I love how she’s explored the three dimensional nature of the box by colouring each plane in a different colour. And how she thought to make a door so her passengers could come aboard.

Our Making Box

Do you have a making box? What kind of things are in yours?

Like to see what’s in our other craft box?

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