9 ways to reuse bottles and containers in the garden

Recycling makes great sense - not only is it all about making something for nothing, it prevents waste. The Fairy is regularly reminding me to 'reduce, reuse, recycle' (a lesson she has learnt from watching Bob the builder!). Too be honest, I'm not as good at recycling/ reusing as I could be (hence the reminders). So we've been trying extra hard to recycle and reuse things this month.

We made some mini green houses to keep our seedling sunflowers warm. I cut the bottom off - volia a tiny green house for free. Perfect for places too small for a real glass house.

We found some great ideas from other kids bloggers too,

What we do all day has some fab vegetable pots made from old containers. I love that they have a window so you can see the plants growing.

Teach beside me show how to make an elephant watering can - watering will never be boring again!

Playing in the garden is such fun. How about some pretend play with these juice cartoon houses from Red Ted Art- they are super cute.

Or scoops for the sand pit from Picklebums

Why not get active with a game of skittles from Domestic Goddesque.

Or milk bottle tennis rackets from Laughing Kids Learn.

I love this water wall from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots - it looks great fun.

Or how about a sprinkler from Housing a Forest.

Playdough pledge # 3 - Nature dough

Take one lot of unflavoured playdough add natural 'treasures' gathered by small people, throw in a few dried pulses.

Calm, relaxing, natural playdough fun

We had planned to do 5 x sessions on the playdough pledge, but we haven't (yet!). Not sure if we'll carry it on over the weekend - we'll have to wait and see how it all pans out. We've had fun doing the things we've done!

Printing with flowers

I've seen other bloggers join in with Tinkerlab's bi monthly challenges and thought they looked quite fun. We decided to join in too. This one was flower themed.  One of the central aspects of the challenge is that is should be child led. So I asked the Fairy 'Shall we do some making with flowers' the conversation went something like this....

The Fairy 'I don't know, what can I do ?'
Me 'Anything',
The Fairy 'Anything....?',
Me 'Yup' ,
The Fairy 'Really really anything?,
Me 'yes anything',
The Fairy 'OK can we doing painting with them?,
Me 'Er... we can try!' So we did.

Who needs paintbrushes when you can use petals!

The finished pic

Daisy daisy..

We've had a few days away this week and have been staying at a lovely bungalow - with a garden! Perfect for enjoying the sunshine. There were a magnificent display of daisies growing in the lawn. As I have already posted 'The Fairy' loves collecting flowers.

These daisies were no exception.

Once collected they made perfect objects to manipulate and create with. 'I'm making a circle'

They also made a great surface to roll on

A perfect play time activity whilst the grown ups were eating breakfast!

Language focus

Vocabulary: pick, hold, daisy, grass, roll

Collecting flowers

'The Fairy' loves gathering and transporting  things... I'm forever finding little bags filled with pebbles and hair clips or pots with shells and bricks (it worries me that she may develop a habit of collecting things like her Papa - but that's a whole other story!) Because of this I try to provide her with a range of collecting receptacles (old handbags/ purses/ pots/muffin and bun tins etc)

Today I wasn't feeling very well so I was relived that she was busy occupying her self. I thought I should probably check that she was OK and I found her collecting and sorting flowers and leaves with 'her' bun tin (and one she had 'borrowed' from the kitchen!)

I asked her to 'tell me about them' (I once went on a training course that suggested to ask a child this rather than 'What are you making/doing?' as 'can you tell me all about it' was more open ended and encouraged communication).

'I'm collecting flowers for my Mum, just like Goldilocks... they are decorations'. She must have noticed I was feeling poorly! As I've already blogged we are trying to expand our Spanish/ English book selection and have recently borrowed this great book from the library. It starts with Goldilocks collecting flowers in the wood before discovering the house of the 3 bears. I also love it because it rhymes (in English). Developing rhyming skills are important in developing early language and literacy skills.

We brought them inside and she used her small world people to 'have a party' (we've had lots of birthday parties lately so obviously a theme on her mind currently!)

Language Focus:
Vocabulary: prepositions (in)
Other rhyme (if you read the lovely Goldilocks book!)