Painting With Feet!

This was born out of a lovely idea that I had to make butterflies from foot prints on canvasses- I may put he pics up if they are a success! The children so loved the sensation of paint on their feet, that we extended the activity. I taped a line of white paper along the lounge floor and then the children painted each other's feet before walking or running or jumping along the line.

Eve was very creative about how she painted Faith's feet, making symmetrical patterns....

....... that were wasted on Faith as she jumped around the paper!!

 Hopping, skipping, jumping, running walking - forwards, backwards, sideways - anyway you did it, it made a lovely mess, and not just on the paper (predictably)!!!!!

 Of course, Idris just couldn't resist getting in on the action....... oooh, scrumply paper.....

 Hang on a minute - is that paint on the floor....... really Mum? Really? Oh you fool!

 Thankfully for his taste buds he turned the brush around before seeing how it tasted!

 Clean-up time was just as much fun - look at that tongue stuck out in concentration!!!!

It was such a good fun afternoon - I'm going to print some of the pictures and put them up with the sheets of painty paper in a display and write up what the girls remember about it.

My mindee said it was' tickly and beautiful' - what a quote!!

Jack and the Beanstalk Play Dough!

As part of our Jack and the Beanstalk Growing topic, I made a batch of play dough following my usual recipe (see at the bottom of the post) then coloured half brown and half green. I set it out with two little terracotta pots, some green craft sticks and green pipe cleaners, a bowl of dried french beans and some little garden tools we had from another set. These are some of the things the girls did with it....

Recipe:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 2 tsp cream of tarter
• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp oil

Mix all together then cook over a medium heat until it all balls together to be kneaded on a clean surface. Sometimes I add the colour to the water to get an even spread, for intense colours I use powdered colourants used in Indian cooking. I find that natural food colours are very wishy washy..... i need to find a better source of dough colours..... any suggestions?

I Can Tell It's Spring When......

......my back door has stood open all day and this is the view from it!!

The girls spent all day outdoors, from about ten in the morning when it warmed up until 6.30pm when I called bath time and deposited two grubby happy children. Here they are sweeping up the wood shavings (from Dewi sawing up tree branches to replenish our wood store for next Winter) and mixing them into water.

We had delightful weather all last week..... shame about the forecast for this week!

Apple Playdough

I make fresh play dough around every six weeks and this week made some apple scented dough.  I bought apple essential oil from the Internet and added it with the liquid and colouring before mixing and cooking it. The girls had a wonderful time creating various cakes with the dough.

The recipe that I use is:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 2 cups of water
• splash of oil
• Food colouring/ scent/ spices/ glitter/ sand etc.

Sensory Play With Foam

I have to confess something here..... I have always considered sensory play with foam as a bit of a cliche....... until I was cleaning down the builder's tray on Wednesday and the children were a little restless and I suddenly decided to go for it. And it was well worth going for!!! It was great; the children loved it, in particular one little girl whose hands are in the pictures and who until a short while ago wouldn't touch anything wet and messy!!!

She first explored how the foam felt on her hands, then swirled it around on the tray, making ever larger and more expressive arm and hand movements.  She then watched another child use a finger tip to draw in the foam so she tried that (see the top picture).  The two children started walking then running around the tray with the fingers of one hand making a circular track in the foam around the edge.  Some time later I added plastic balls to the tray and here is the little girl smoothing foam over the ball; it flipped out of her hands a few times and she adjusted her grip to keep hold of it, then the pushed it across the tray.  She ran round to push it again and a game began between the two children; they pushed the balls to each other.  This little girl is 21 months and she used trial and error to perfect her pushes to get the balls just across to the other child.  After the game had ended she went back to swirling the foam, putting her nose almost on the tray to look very closely; she put some on her cheek and felt it, then on her cardigan and looked at the pattern it made.  She was absorbed with the foam for nearly thirty minutes..... it was amazing to watch and guess what? Foam will be on the play menu again next week with some new twists to extend her learning!

Try marble pictures - good for a bit of primary colour mixing fun!

Another great one to try is mixing one part PVA glue to three parts shaving foam (I sprayed it into cups to measure it out). Mix the two together until the foam glistens, you could add food colour also.  Spread the foam thickly onto card and allow it to dry - it will stay magically puffy after it has dried!

Have fun!! Jenni x

Water Play

This is a photograph of the exploration that went on in the water tray recently.  We had been to the Sealife Centre and I bought small figures of a seahorse, starfish, ray and crab.  These were the creatures that the children had been most interested in whilst we were there.  I put an inch of water in the tray, along with some smooth pebbles and shells; in this picture the children were covering all the creatures in the shells and pebbles to camouflage them as they had seen the rays doing at the centre!  The water tray is a very simple and low-cost set-up of an under bed storage box placed on two upturned milk crates.  It is easy to store, easy to clean, easy to use for something different, and with a lid to put on to keep it clean!

I later added some clear plastic fruit boxes that utterly absorbed one of the little ones as the water flowed in and out.  She made piles of stones then covered them with an upturned box, then pressed her face to the base to look as she could still see the stones and usually when something is covered with an upturned box she can't see it!  I would like to introduce clear plastic bags to extend her investigation next week (under very close supervision of course!!)

Another very simple idea that has been a bit recently is placing a deep box of water under the end of the guttering system with some cups and jugs.  All of the children experimented with pouring the water at different parts of the guttering and trying to catch it at the bottom as it trickled back into the box.  When they weren't looking I added green food colouring and the children brought out another piece of guttering so there were two tubes then flowing into the builder's tray.  Add some cardboard packing and dinosaurs and another half hours messy play was created!

Some other ideas that I would like to try are:

• Clear tubes wound round some upside down wire baskets, complemented by funnels and jugs, and coloured water so the children can see how the water moves through the tubing depending on how much they put in and where etc.
• A pump such as the ones you empty fish tanks with where you squidge the bulb in the middle and it starts the flow of water to transfer it one from place to another.
• I would also dearly love a concrete water channel in my garden with a hand-pump at one end!!!!
• For babies I have put just half a centimetre of water in a builder's tray and allowed them to crawl through it to experience it with their hands and feet, either in a nappy/nothing in warm weather or an all-in-one waterproof in colder weather!

This article has ideas for linking water play to the EYFS as a core experience and part of your continuous provision planning.  To extend children's thinking about water there is Water Splash from the charity Wateraid. The on-line booklet 'Learning Through Play in the Early Years' has a great resource list for waterplay along with what ideas the tools and materials can support children to learn.

Making Paper with Children

We tried this out last week and it worked really well, the children were fascinated with the process and because it took time and we did it outside, they drifted in and out of the activity as it suited them.  One of the youngest at 18 months old stood still at the edge of the table with her chin on her hands and observed very closely as three children made thier paper sheets.  When it came to her turn, she knew the steps to take and did so well!  I had never seen her concentrate like that before.

To make your own paper you will need:

1. A picture frame with the glass, back and any sharp bits removed.
2. A pair of finely woven tights.
3. A rectangular washing up bowl or plastic storage box that will easily fit the frame you have.
4. A blender.
5. Scrap paper (a mix of different types of paper is great.... if you want to make coloured paper, use some tissue paper that bleeds its colour when wet!)
6. A bucket and spoon.
7. Dry sheets of newspaper cut slightly bigger than your frame.
8. A rolling pin.
9. A sponge.

Follow these steps:

1. Tear the paper into very small pieces about 2cm/2cm maximum, put them ina  bucket full of warm water, mix round and let them sit..... overnight is preferable but a few hours will do, just keep topped up with hot water from a kettle if you do it over a few hours.
2. Take two cups of the paper to one cup of the water and blend it in a food mixer until it is a pulp. If the blender is working very ahrd, add a bit more water.
3. Tip the half-blender-full of mix into the storage box/washing up bowl.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.
5. Add 2 inches of water to the storage box/bowl and swirl it around until all of the pulp is suspended in the water.
6. Put the tights carefully over the frame, taking special acre that the corners do not snag. Tie a knot in each end close to the frame and cut the extra bits off.
7. Lower the frame into the mixed up pulp, and then gently and slowly lift it out of the box.

8. Lay a few pieces of newspaper over the top, place your hand flat in the middle, flip the frame over and lay it down on the newspaper.
9. Use the sponge to press over all of the frame (don't rub or you will wrinkle the paper!) until you have sponged away as much of the excess water as you can.

10. Slowly and gently peel up the frame and use your fingers to tease away from it any edges that stick.  this will leave the paper open side up on the newspaper.
11. Put a few more sheets on top and use the roling pin to squeeze more water out to be absorbed by the paper.
12. peel the newspaper up carefully, and leave the exposed paper to dry in the sun or in a warm place.  it will peel off its newpaper base when dry!

Experiment with different amounts of pulp, different types of paper to shred, essential oils to make scented paper, adding dired leaves and petals to the pulp, and see what you can create!

Springtime Lemon Playdough

This is one child's use of the springtime dough that our childminding group made on Monday!  The dough was scented with lemon flavouring (a baking ingredient but scented essential oil would work very well).  The recipe can be found on this post here.  We sat and observed the children playing with the dough and made some notes about what they were doing, then as a group shared and put them into the six areas of learning. 

PSED: Dispositions and attitudes - children becoming interested and absorbed by what they are doing; self-confidence, particularly if a child is not keen on messy play but then decide to have a go which could be a big step forwards for him/her; making relationships as they play alongside one another, sharing tools and chatting about their play and ideas (fewer resources than there are children can lead to some good problem solving if you support the children to work out a solution to the 'problem'!); Behaviour and self-control - problem-solving and sharing is part of this, as well as following rules for playdough such as keeping it at the table etc; self-care - knowing that it isn't good to eat and washing hands afterwards!

CLL: Language for communication - talking about what they see, smell and feel and what they are doing enhances children's vocabulary, especially if you give them some new 'describing' words.  It could turn into a fun rhyme if you encourage the children to experiment with their words as they play; language for thinking - using talk to organise and sequence what they are doing and thinking, for example they might 'narrate' everything they do, so you know that they are planning and understaning what they are doing.  Using 'positional' language such as 'on top of', 'inside', 'under', 'nest to' is a big step for children in language; writing -  making marks in the dough, shaping letters.

PSRN: Numbers as labels and for counting - children might make representations of numbers with the dough; calculating - count the number of objects they have made, sharing out "half for you" etc; shape, space and measure - talking about shapes "this circle", "that curve there" etc, using words to describe weight and volume "heavy" "more than" etc, having the children measure out the ingredients is even better - the recipe is great for children as it is measured in numbers of cups rather than grams or ounces!

KUW: Exploration and investigation - learning about changes and patterns could be achieved if the children help you make the dough in the first place (powdery flour to wet and sloppy mixture to firm, squashy dough is amazing for a child to see!!); designing and making - constructing with the dough if you add straws of different lengths, craft sticks etc.

PD: Using equipment and materials - children use a range of fine-motor movements and can refine skills such as cutting (scissors or knife), pressing through a garlic press, using tweezers, rolling pins, biscuit cutters etc, all of these help to develop hand and finger strength later needed for achieving correct pencil grip and writing.

CD: responding to experiences, expressing and communicating ideas - children responding to the sight, smell and tecture of the dough (put it out when it is still warm and reshly made!); exploring media and materials - the children working with colour, texture, shape, space and form in two and three dimensions (how perfect play dough is to meet this aspect!!); developing imagination and imaginative play - I have watched children as they have made bee hives, fairy gardens, fairy houses, birthday party food, you name it, a child can make it out of playdough!

Here is some information linked to the EYFS to do with messy play.

These playdough ideas will give you some inspiration all year round!

I printed these simple number mats to laminate and put out with the dough.

This is the second in a series of our group looking at how everyday activities in your home can support all six areas of learning and devlopment, you may also be interested in the post on cooking!

The Joys of Play Dough!

I just LOVE play dough, and not the shop bought stuff, but the real deal home made yummy stuff!  It has provided hours of absorption in my setting and is so versatile, just putting out new dough injects a fresh burst of creativity anto the activity!  I make a new batch every 4-6 weeks and vary the recipe each time  - my favourites so far have been chocolate dough and Christmas dough, out at the moment!

This is a beehive, complete with bees all tucked up inside, the brain child of a two-year-old and made with a little technical help from an adult (aka me!), made with the chocolate dough we had out in the summer (see below for recipe!).

I like to put different materials out each time I make new dough.  Some examples are a box with lots of bottle tops and jar lids, or a pot of tooth picks, or a garlic press, some birthday candles, or scissors to cut the dough into lots of tiny pieces!  For December I made 'Christmas dough' scented with cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice and put out a dish of fresh cranberries, it smelled divine and the children were enchanted with it! 

I use my mum's tried and tested dough recipe: 2 cups of flour (any cup you have, just use it for all measurements!), 1 cup of salt and 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar (in the baking aisle, the one with the orange lid!) Mix together in a pan, add glitter or spices then add:

2 cups of water (put food colouring in the water to get an even spread of colour through the dough - I use quite a lot to get a good vibrant colour!) and 3 teaspoons of oil. Mix it all together, it will look gloopy and nothing like play dough but keep the faith and cook it over a medium heat, stirring all the time!  You will begin to see it coming away from the bottom of the pan.  Stir until it has all turned dough-like then tip it out and knead it until it is smooth, give it to the children warm for a new experience!

 Areas of learning and development that are supported through playing with dough are:

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  PSED - children becoming excited and interested, forming good relationships with others as they play alongside eachother, and share the dough, behaviour and self-control as they follow ground rules for playing with the dough.
• CLL - Language for communication as they use words to describe the dough and what they see, feel and smell, language for thinking as they sequence events a they play, and writing, using the dough to make marks and shape letters.
• PSRN - describing the position of the dough - on top of, behind, under, showing their understanding of space, they may describe the shape of the dough, or compare a ball to a circle, or count the number of shapes they have made.
• KUW - Exploring and investigating the dough and its properties, learn about ways they can put the dough together, using tools to help them.
• PD - using equipment and materials.
• CD - Responding to waht they see, hear, touch and smell, expressing their thoughts and feelings through the dough, exploring media and materials, trying out new things, practising things they know they can already do with the dough