Colour matching with The Princess and The Wizard

Are you familiar with the authour Julia Donaldson? I'm sure you'll recognise her monster the Gruffallo. This month the Poppins Book Nook theme is wizards. We chose to read The Princess and The Wizard by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks. 

A wizard rather rudely interrupts a birthday party and turns the guests to stone. The plucky princess has to work out how to reverse the spell by changing her colour and shape.

We used the story as inspiration for a colour hunt. I wrote the names of several colours in English and Spanish on a sheet and The Fairy collected items to match.

Although The Fairy can't read yet her interest in text is growing and I'm keen to develop this in a gentle way. I'm keen to create a 'print rich environment';  naturally using writing in our activities is one way to do this. As we are a bilingual family I'm also keen for her to see Spanish as well as English text in her environment.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Royal Baloo - 3 Dinosaurs - Monsters Ed - Chestnut Grove Academy - Growing in God's Grace - Royal Little Lambs - Life with Moore Babies - Teach Beside Me - The Usual Mayhem - Mum Central - Fantastic Fun and Learning - Kathys Cluttered Mind - Play Create Explore - Toddler Approved - Growing Book by Book - Adventures in Mommydom - B-Inspired Mama - The Fairy and The Frog - Edventures with Kids - Learning & Growing the Piwi way - A Gluten Free Journey - Rainy Day Mum - Mom to Crazy Monkeys - No Doubt Learning

Gardening in small spaces

Do you only have a small space where you can grow things? Never fear - growing things is still possible! We are very lucky to have an allotment but we also grow plants and vegetables on our balcony. Infact our crops on our balcony are often more successful on our balcony  than at the allotment as there are no slugs or rabbits to eat the plants.

This year we are growing sun flowers, tomatoes and strawberries. These all grow well in pots so are perfect for our balcony

Gardening provides a great opportunity for talking about what you are doing- digging, watering.

Talking about the difference between seeds and plants.

Looking at roots and talking about how plants drink.

Even if you don't have a balcony you can try growing some plants on a window sill.

We are part of :

*   The Usual Mayhem   *   Child Central Station   *   Housing a Forest   *   Rainy Day Mum   *   Growing Green Fingered Kids   *   Nature and Play   *   Fantastic Fun and Learning   *   Kitchen Counter Chronicles   *   Teach Preschool   *   The Educators' Spin On It   *   Kindergarten and Preschool for Parents and Teachers   *   The Fairy and the Frog   *   Let The Children Play   *   Little Illuminations   *   Early Play Outdoors   *   52 Days to Explore   *   Music Sparks   *   Milk and Cuddles   *   Teach Beside Me   *   The Pleasantest Thing   *   Making Boys Men   *   I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here   *

Foil discovery bottle

Discovery bottles are great for entertaining little (and not so little) ones.

Here is a really simple one we made from left over tin foil from Easter egg wrapping and a juice bottle. You could use regular foil if you didn't have any other spare.

The Fairy helped me to make little balls and pop them inside a clean juice bottle.

The Frog loved the rattling sound as well as the bright colours.

Have you seen our autumn discovery bottle?

Child led books

I'm really keen to encourage a love of literature and telling stories with our children. Fortunately the kids are keen on this too!

When the lovely Cathy over at Nurturestore shared how she organises her play room, I knew The Fairy would be keen to adopt the idea of 'little books'. You provide your child with some blank books - ready to be filled with illustrations and stories. These make a great addition to a writing or creation station.

The set up is simple - some blank paper folded to make a book and pens/crayons.

Let the authors narrate.

One of my favourite things about this activity is how child led it is. I left a blank book next to where she keeps her paper, she found it and started creating (she did check with me first that it was OK to draw on it!) The when she was finished she came and told The Frog and I her story; then promptly asked for me to make her up a other blank book.

How do you encourage your child to tell and write stories?

Fairy Forest

The Fairy loves pretend play - especially if it's fairy related. She loves playing with her fairy tea cup house I made last year (click here to see it). So I created a fun filled fairy play scene simply by painting some pine cones green.

The Fairy helped to paint a shoe box as a back drop. We also added some glass beads which the were quickly made into a path.

I didn't stick the pine cones down as The Fairy likes to move things around in play and this provides more flexibility.

By adding a star (I used a hot glue gun to attach a sequin) the tree was transformed into a Christmas tree - a perfect addition to a dolls house.

Maggy over at Red Ted Art has lots more fab ideas of things to make with pine cones - check them out by clicking here

Language Focus: Pretend play is great for developing language. It provides a fantastic opportunity to develop narrative (story telling) skills and imagination.

You Can't Eat a Princess! (but you can eat cake!) - Poppins Book Nook

Every month for the next 12 months, we are linking up with a fab crowd of bloggers to form Poppins Book Nook.

We will each be blogging our ideas for book based fun. Each month has a theme - this month's is Princesses, Knights and castles.

The Fairy is very into Princesses, hence the tales of Princess Spaghetti are very much in demand at bed time. In the book 'You can't eat a Princess', the strong willed and courageous Princess Spaghetti ends up rescuing her Father from a bunch of hungry aliens (who had never tasted chocolate). It's a humorous book with eye catching illustrations. I love how the Princess is a positive role model and instead of being rescued, is the rescuer.

When I suggested to the Fairy we could make something from the book, I rather hoped she'd be up for a bit of junk modelling - perhaps of a rocket or one of the fun planets in the book. Instead (and rather predictably) she chose to make cake - chocolate of course! I actually didn't mind this plan to much, as I too am rather fond of cake.

Baking is great for developing language, talking about what you are doing...

Stirring

Counting

and finally eating. The chocolate cakes topped with white chocolate butter icing and sprinkles.

Here are all the other bloggers taking part. Why not pay them a visit

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Royal Baloo - 3 Dinosaurs - Monsters Ed - Chestnut Grove Academy - Growing in God's Grace - Royal Little Lambs - Life with Moore Babies - Teach Beside Me - The Usual Mayhem - Mum Central - Fantastic Fun and Learning - Kathys Cluttered Mind - Play Create Explore - Toddler Approved - Growing Book by Book - Adventures in Mommydom - B-Inspired Mama - The Fairy and The Frog - Edventures with Kids - Learning & Growing the Piwi way - A Gluten Free Journey - Rainy Day Mum - Mom to Crazy Monkeys

Chick play

 We love the little chicks you get for crafting with around Easter. In fact one of our first ever blog posts was about playing with chicks.

We counted out chicks into a cosy egg box. The dips in egg boxes (and muffin tins) are great for developing counting skills as they are perfect for sorting.

We used our counting sheets (with a number and the corresponding number of dots) and counted out on those too.

Then the Fairy insisted we did some pretend play.The chicks were tired after all that counting so they needed a nap! Duplo beds were the perfect size.