Thursday 9 August 2012

Horsie horsie (small world equestrian play)

Today I'm joining in with Kids Bloggers Go Olympics, 18 days of Olympic fun hosted by Rainy Day Mum, AngeliqueFelix.com and Sun Hats and Wellie Boots (plus many more bloggers who are joining in)

I'm not a massively sporty person but this year I've *really* gotten into the Olympics. You can see our previous Olympic themed posts here- Olympic edible torches and Olympic rings. I'm so proud of team GB! I'm in awe of how hard they have worked and how much dedication they have shown. Watching the show jumping team on Tuesday win the first gold medal for GB in 60 years was amazing. A real 'fairy tale' for the two team members in their 50's (I bet the other two on the team were chuffed as well!)

As you may know, we love small world play and what better way to celebrate the Olympics than a spot of small world equestrian fun.

We started off with a spot of show jumping (I'm not sure equestrian circles would approve of the pedigree of our animals but hey, you can use your imagination). We used cloud dough for saw dust (made by using 4 parts flour to 3/4 parts veg oil).

We took a trip to the library and researched dressage- The Fairy loved the idea that the horses and their riders have to ride in patterns (check out Wikipedia for some more dressage info).

We drew some of the patterns with our finger that the horse then galloped and trotted along.




We even had a crowd of spectators to cheer the horses on

Language Focus:
Vocab: horse, over (when show jumping), fast and slow (when trotting and galloping), shape names (when drawing shapes in the 'sawdust')
Other skills: imaginative play


Why not check out the other co hosts today - more equestrian fun with Creative Playhouse and Martial Arts with Royal Baloo. You can also join up your ideas too

Don't forget to check out what's happening tomorrow - Im passing the torch onto train up a child



9 comments:

  1. What a great idea and lovely post with pics!

    Thank you for participating at our 'Kids BLoggers Go olympics' event

    with Love,
    Angelique

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  2. The horses look like they had a wonderful time galloping around.

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  3. Love this! The cloud dough is an excellent addition! :) Love the drawing shapes in it too cos you get that when you're really riding too.

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  4. Love your activity. Hublet's comment on the dressage was that he watched it for half an hour before realising the horses weren't just warming up while waiting for their event to start

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  5. What fun! My kids would love this,too!

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  6. Ah how cute is that! What a fun way to reinact the olympics!

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  7. That is so cute! I can't wait to give it a try.

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  8. Great Olympics activity for little ones.
    Mari

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  9. What a great idea to combine Cloud Dough and pretend play!

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