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Saturday, 19 May 2012

Mark Making with Driftwood

This was a spin off activity from exploring the box of driftwood that arrived. The girls had been using some lovely descriptive words to describe the markings in the wood and I thought they would enjoy exploring the textures further by making some marks in clay with them.
Rolling the balls of clay into smooth balls provided a challenge for the younger ones!
They were all spoilt for choice with the wide array of textures to choose from! and found creative ways of using the markings (see below).


Faith particularly enjoyed this - I remember one year we made prints this way using flowers from the garden. Faith made a dandelion montage - every time she went for a flower, she brought a dandelion in various stages of growth! It made for a really lovely keepsake of her toddler interests - I still have them now!

I particularly liked the one in the top middle row, and the wormwood ones turned out really prettily also!

Friday, 18 May 2012

Black and White Sensory Play for Babies


I set this up for Idris using what was in the recycling box and a packet of pudding rice that was in the cupboard (Tip - never use dried beans for babies and toddlers to play with as some are toxic if eaten!!). He was fascinated with it and sat in it happily for about half an hour.

He watched us pour the rice and put his fingers out to feel the rice fall and to try and catch some - he picked it up himself and dropped it. he wriggled his feet in it and made it swoosh around.

He watched Faith fill up a cup and then tried to do it for himself with some success.
He used his pincer grip to pick up some individual pieces, then he bashed the tray hard and watched them fly all over the place then laughed and laughed!

He tried a piece then spat it out again!

And then he discovered how to tip it OUT of the box all over the floor - and we have been sweeping them up ever since!!!

We have pulled this out on and off over the last couple of weeks and watched how Idris's play has developed with experience. He is now very proficient at filling the cups and tipping them. He has learned to throw so now throws handfuls of rice out of the box across the laminate and watches as they scatter away. We tried some new resources such as a ball to roll in them and a pastry brush but he isn't interested in those so we took them back out. His interest in it is waning now so time to change the set-up and see what he does next I think!!