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Story box tent

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Make Your Make : 30 projects that promote a love of writing, self-confidence and compassion

Help your child to make their mark with these wonderful projects that help develop a love of writing, creative storytelling, self-confidence and compassion – along with six sets of bonus printables.

 

It’s always exciting when a delivery arrives in a great big box. Who cares what’s inside, the big questions is: what shall we make with the box? Over to Big this time, who straightaway said, ‘Let’s turn it into a Story Box’. Her inspiration came from the character Pinky Dinky Doo (attention: this link is noisy!) who has her own cardboard story box where she draws pictures which come to life to tell her stories.

I think this is a wonderful idea to get children creating stories of their own, developing language skills as they play with characters and settings.  It’s also good to use drawing in a different way – on the walls and roof of your house. And writing on a vertical (or even overhead) surface is very effective in developing wrist strength and pencil grip, getting ready for writing.

To make your own story tent you will need:

a big box – ours is big enough for both girls to fit in to together and sit upright comfortably. (If you’re not expecting any deliveries of your own, your local removal company or white goods store are places you might source a big box.)

a craft knife – to cut out some windows to let light into the box so you can see what you’re drawing. And apparently, rectangular windows are boring, so you might like our star-shaped ones.

felt pens – to get drawing and telling stories with. Whatever you like – let your imagination go free! And you can come back again and again to add more characters and make the next installment of your adventure, until every surface of your story box is full.

You might like to add in some cushions and a blanket to make your story box as comfortable as can be.

My girls are really enjoying this play den – inside together, in their own space, lying on their backs, collaborating over a story as they draw it out on the ceiling. Why not give it a try with your children? I’d love to hear what stories they come up with.

Any if you’re looking for other ways to use a cardboard box you might like our play house or ride-on train too.

I-spy game with letters

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>>> Download our guide to ABCs and 123s here 

 

We’ve been playing I-spy Letters today as we were out and about in the neighbourhood. We were hunting for the lettert ‘R’, which happens to be the initial of Little’s best friend, but of course you can choose whichever letter you like: think about what stage your child is at with letter recognition and play the game accordingly.

Young children might just be able to spot the first letter of their name. Older children can be set the challenge of spotting each letter in alphabetical order.   If you have more than one child you can even make this a competition to see who can find all the letters of their name first. Aside from helping children to actually recognise letters, this game helps them to sort through an assortment of information to home in on what they’re searching for. It shows them that letters have a real purpose, as you can talk about what all the writing is telling passers-by. It’s also good for them to see words written all sorts of different fonts and in both upper and lower case.

Somedays the school run can be fun, other days it can be a chore, so it’s handy to have a few games ready to use if the kids need to be chivvied on a little. What games do you play?

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 My guide to ABCs and 123s

Do you have a young child who is learning their ABCs and 123s, and do you want to make their learning fun? Our ABCs and 123s resource of mulitsensory, play-based letter and math activities is just what you need. See more here.

play Hangman to practice spelling and alphabet

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My 6 year old has been off sick today and we’ve been playing hangman to pass the time and keep her mind off her poorly tummy. Do you remember playing this as a child? If not you can read a guide on the rules here. It’s a good game to practice the alphabet and spelling.  Some tips for playing with children:

1. Obviously use words that they know. The idea to start with is to get their brain working and thinking of possible words – you’re not trying to beat them!

2. Write out the alphabet on the paper to help them out. If they get stuck help them to go through the alphabet trying out each letter for a possible match.

3. We identified the vowels by using a dot rather than a dash for them. For example ‘CAT’ would be _ . _ rather than _ _ _

4. If they’re really stuck and getting frustrated, give them a clue (e.g. this word might say ‘meow’). You’re aiming for a enjoyable game to get them playing with letters – not giving up because it’s too hard and no  fun.

5. You might want to re-think using a hangman picture – you could use a face instead.

6. Take turns guessing the word and let them catch you out sometimes.

Create a song bag to boost language and maths skills

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Singing is good for your mind, body and spirit. It helps to nurture language skills:  the patterns of traditional nursery rhymes follow the rhythm of  the spoken language, and songs let you practice new vocabulary and introduce the concept of rhyme. You are also exercising your memory by recalling lyrics. Group singing lifts your spirits and develops a sense of community and team work. It’s physically good for you too: it releases endorphins, and can improve your posture and breathing. It’s even working on your maths skills as you deal with concepts related to rhythm such as ratios and fractions.

So with all these benefits we should be singing with our children every day!

To get you started why not make a song bag? Choose your bag and fill it with props that link to your favourite songs. (You’re bound to have some around the house already, but keep an eye out for them in charity shops too). Then take it in turns to pick something out – and sing about it!

can you sing a song a about a.......?

can you sing a song about a.......?

This is what we’ve got in ours:

a sun hat – I’m a Dingle Dangle Scarecrow

a star shaped cookie cutter – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

a spider – Incy Wincy Spider

a doll – Miss Polly had a Dolly

a cow – Hey Diddle Diddle or Old MacDonald Had a Farm

a rubber duck – Three Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day

a fish  – 12345 Once I Caught a Fish Alive or Thou Shall Have a Fishy

a dolphin – Slippery Dolphins

a dog – How Much is that Doggy in the Window

a horse – This is the Way The Ladies Ride or Horsey Horsey Don’t You Stop

a monkey – Three Cheeky Monkeys Swinging Through the Trees / Bouncing on the Bed

a pig – This Little Piggy Went to Market

We’re currently on the look out for a (the wheels on the ) bus to add to our collection.

My children love using our song bag – it’s one of their most frequent requests. They also love subverting the lyrics of the songs – to see how silly they can be. You might also like to have a look at the Sing Up website which is packed full of information about singing, including a song bank full of songs to listen to, learn and sing along to.

Flutter like a butterfly and wiggle like a worm

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A quick and simple game to play to boost your child’s language and get them moving.

Ask you child if they can tell you an animal which flutters? And can they move like one too?

What about an animal that wiggles…swims…flies…dives…stomps…jumps…shuffles…bounces…slithers…stalks…pounces…gallops?

After you’ve played the game a few times and your child has been using the new words you can extend the game by getting them to ask you the questions.

What’s in the sock? game

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This is a great party game and can also be used to link in with a topic you’re looking at.  You need to use your fingers to feel inside a sock and guess what’s hidden inside.

Start with  a few old socks -we bought some  cheap men’s sports socks especially for the game. (They might get messy, depending on what you fill them with.)

Fill each sock with a different content. We used feathers, dry pasta, fir cones and jelly.

Each person has to put their hand into the sock (no peeping!) and see if they can tell what’s inside just by feeling.

You could give a sweet prize if they guess correctly, or if you have a few children playing you could work as two teams, with a prize for the team that gets the most correct answers.

You can vary the contents to fit with any theme or topic you like.

For Hallowe’en you might use cooked spaghetti (dragon’s intestines), green jelly (witch’s snot), peeled grapes (monster’s eye balls) or tomato ketchup (bat’s blood).

If you’ve been on a woodland walk you might fill each sock with conkers, acorns, fir cones, moss and so on.

Extend the game to nurture language skills

You can use this game to promote children’s language too.  Have one child feel inside the sock and describe the contents to others – see if the child can give enough clues so the others can guess what’s inside without seeing or even feeling it.

Or play the game and ask all the children to see how many words they can use to describe the contents – is it slimy, squashy, soft, slippery, gentle, hard, crunchy…?

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