Vegetable Glue, review and sensory play

Vegetable Glue by Susan Chandler and Elena Odriozola is the cautionary tale of what happens if you only eat cake. The book is filled with gorgeously quirky illustrations of various parts of the narrator's body falling off (a problem which can be remedied by vegetable glue).

'The Fairy' adores this book. I think it really appeals to her sense of humour. I love reading it too. The book has a great flow and I love the illustrations. It contains plenty of rhyming words which make it a pleasure to read and gives the reader that all important boost in rhyme awareness - so it gets a thumbs up from me as a mum and as a speech and language therapist.

Review rating:

The Fairy Thinks: *****        The Grown up Thinks: *****

Summary: We love it!  

As we love it so much it seemed a natural choice to play 'vegetable glue'. We made 'glue' using cornflour (cornstarch) gloop, made from water and corn flour. I have an extra soft spot for gloop as its the first sensory play material I used at work so using it brings back fond memories. 

We added peas (there's lots of peas in the book) and some green food colouring. It was great watching the patterns the food colouring made as we played and explored.

The Fairy loved exploring how the gloop was a liquid and dripped

but was hard when you pushed it.

It was great for practising letter formation and mark making. 

Why not have a look at some of other gloop posts: Strawberries and Cream
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Valentine heart window decoration

These 'stained glass' heart decorations are really easy to make.

I cut out a heart shape and laid it on a square of sticky back plastic (contact paper).

The Fairy then filled it with assorted items from our craft cupboard. When she finished I put another square onto the heart (sticky side facing the sequins etc) to make a 'heart sandwich'. I then squished out the bubbles and cut round it.

Tada! Heart shaped decorations. They would be a really fun way to introduce kids to concept of transparent and opaque.

Language used: heart, sticky, shiny, press

If you like stained glass you might like these stained glass biscuits

Did you know we're also on Pinterest and Facebook? Follow us for us there for more fun ideas.

Playing with wrapping paper

After having such a great time with our wrapping paper sensory box I decided to save some of our left over wrapping paper from our Christmas presents to play with. Here's what we did, such a great resource (and its free!)

Paint is a big favourite in our house. The Fairy especially loves to print. Scrunching up the paper and using it to print made great patterns. We also tried printing with bubble wrap. This was a great excuse to use language to reason and predict; will the pattern be the same when you print with paper and then with bubble wrap, what might it look like?

Scissors are another big hit in our house. We have a collection of old cards and scrap paper the Fairy can cut. She'd cut everything if she was allowed - I'm hoping providing her with constructive opportunities to cut will mean she won't cut her own, or even worse her brother's hair! This wrapping paper with squares made a perfect excuse to have a go at cutting.

I made some simple 'cards' by cutting different patterned paper out - perfect for a game of pairs or snap.

Did you play with your left over wrapping paper? What did you do?

Best of 2012:Most played with activity

As its January its always fun to look back and remember (as well as plan for fun times ahead!) A group of fab bloggers are doing that, by sharing our best posts of 2012

I think our best post (based on the number times it has been played with since the post!) is our DIY Fairy house. You can check it out here.

Why not check out the other post on the blogs below and if you have a blog add your fav post too.

Happy New Year!

52 Brand New ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ angeliquefelix.com - The Magic Of Play ~ At home with Ali B-Inspired Mama ~ Blog Me Mom ~Boy Mama Teacher Mama ~ Busy Kids = Happy Mom Carrots Are Orange ~ Caution! Twins at Play ~ Coffee Cups and Crayons ~ Confessions of a Montessori Mom Craft To Art ~ Creative Family Fun ~ Creative Kid Snacks ~ Creative Learning Fun ~ Creative Playhouse Creative with Kids ~ Cute and Peculiar ~ De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire ~ Dirt And Boogers Edventures with Kids ~ Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ The Good Long Road ~ Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails Glittering Muffins ~ Go Kid Yourself ~ Growing A Jeweled Rose ~ hands on : as we grow ~ Here Come the Girls Home Learning Journey ~ Housing A Forest ~ Mama Smiles ~ In Lieu of Preschool ~ Inspiration Laboratories Inspired by Family ~ It's A Long Story ~ JDaniel4's Mom ~ Kids Creative Chaos ~ Kid World Citizen Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers ~ Kitchen Counter Chronicles ~ Laughing Kids Learn ~ Learn with Play at home Lessons Learnt Journal ~ Life At The Zoo ~ Little Artists ~ Living Life Intentionally ~ Living Montessori Now ~ Love, Play, Learn Loving My Nest ~ Mama Pea Pod ~ mama miss ~ Mamas Like Me ~ Mess For Less ~ Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas ~ Momma's Fun World Montessori Tidbits ~ My Buddies and I ~ My Little Bookcase ~ My Nearest and Dearest ~ No Twiddle Twaddle ~ Nurturestore Octavia and Vicky ~ One Perfect Day ~ ourfeminist{play}school ~ Picklebums ~ Play Activities ~ Playdough to Plato PlayDrMom ~ playful learners ~ playing with words 365 ~ PragmaticMom ~ Putti'sWorld ~ RainbowsWithinReach Rainy Day Mum ~ Raising Playful Tots ~ Reading Confetti ~ Red Ted Art ~ Royal Baloo ~ Science Sparks ~ Scribble Doodle and Draw Small Potatoes ~ Smiling like Sunshine ~ Sun Hats & Wellie Boots ~ Sun Scholars ~ Teach Preschool ~ The Educators' Spin On It The Fairy and The Frog ~ The Freckled Homeschooler ~ The Golden Gleam ~ The Imagination Tree ~ The Iowa Farmer's Wife The Outlaw Mom Blog ~ The Pleasantest Thing ~ This Reading Mama ~ Toddler Approved ~ Train Up a Child ~ True Aim Two Big Two Little ~ What Do We Do All Day? ~ Connecting Family and Seoul

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