Fairy forest playdough

Today we've been play and pretending with a magical fairy forest. We mixed up a batch of no cook play dough (with no added extras) to make some 'snow dough'. At Christmas we picked up some Christmas pasta shapes and have been saving them for a special play activity. 

At first The Fairy randomly put the pasta trees in the playdough. Then she carefully re arranged them around the edge of the forest.

Soon The Fairy requested to have some 'people' come to live in the forest. Soon some fairies  had moved in and were having lessons and organising parties (I love how real life is reflected in pretend play).

If you like playdough  you will love this book from the brilliant Nurture Store. The Homemade Playdough Recipe Book is full of play dough recipes and a whole years worth of play dough fun for just $8.99. We are affiliates for this great book (which means we earn some commission if you buy this book at no extra cost to you). Down load it now by clicking on the picture.

Language used: squash, press, forest, wood, magic, enchanted

Other skills: Pretend / imaginative play

How to make Fimo Nativity figures

Its really important for us as a family that our kids know that Christmas isn't just about Father Christmas (Santa) and presents.

Like story boxes, using small world people to tell a story helps children to engage, interact and remember it. As well as using figures as story props you can let your child play with the figures and re-intact the story (great for developing communication skills). As out main nativity set is very breakable I thought I'd make some chunky nativity figures out of Fimo (polymer clay).

Here's how I made them...

The figures are based on a really simple ball for the head, with additions.

Mary, Joseph and the shepherd have head dresses.

The Kings have crowns and a little present.

The angel, wings and a halo.

Baby Jesus is wrapped in cloth and in a manger.

I wanted to keep the figures as simple as possible, partly to be practical (i.e. less bits means less bits to break off) but also to encourage imagination.

This post is part of a blog hop. Do you have a blog and a nativity themed post? If so link up below. Why don't you check out some of the other hosts on the hop.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.theimaginationtree.com" title="The Imagination Tree" target="_blank"><img src="http://rainydaymum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/focus-on-the-Nativity.jpg" alt="The Imagination Tree" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

The Imagination Tree Living Montessori Now Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers My Nearest And Dearest Life At The Zoo Creative Connection for Kids This Reading Mama Adventures in Mommydom Train up A Child Rainy Day Mum 3 Dinosaurs Crafty Mom Share The Magic Of Play Sun Hats and Wellieboots The Fairy and The Frog Housing a Forest The Iowa Farmers Wife Preschool Book Club Craft To Art The Golden Gleam Here Come The Girls Mamas Like Me In Lieu Of Preschool Kids Creative Chaos My Small Potatoes Love Play And Learn Kids World Citizen

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

Playdough mini beasts (bugs)

The Fairy loves hunting for mini beasts (bugs). The other day when it was too rainy to go outside and hunt, she wanted to make some playdough mini beasts.

We took a rainbow full of dough

We rolled

pressed

and created some fabulous mini beasts (with the addition of some pipe cleaner decoration).

Amazingly pretty much as soon as we finished the mini beasts making, the sun came out. So we popped over to Grandmas garden for a bug hunt. Look what we found...

a caterpillar sunbathing on a sundial,

a worm on a leaf

a butterfly visiting a flower

a buzzy bee

a 'stripy worm'.

What's your favourite thing to make out of playdough? Do you like hunting for mini beasts (bugs)?

DIY Fairy House

You know your  blogging habit is getting serious when you see things in charity shops and instantly think of how they can be incorporated into a craft for a blog post. The instant I saw this cup I thought of a way to recycle it into a fairy house. As you maybe able to guess from our blog title fairies are more than popular in our house. There are loads of variations of fairy house/ gardens on the blogsphere/pintrest so I have been mulling over ways to make one (as I know it will get alot of use!)  I recently saw this fab idea of personalising mugs using permanent markers (an American brand of permanent marker) and then cooking them to make the image stick.

Take a cup and some markers (if you want to stock up on some like the ones we used click on our affilate link in blue for the pens).

Add a fairy sized door, window and a sign (just in case the fairies forgot where they lived). Don't forget a climbing rose.

Add a butterfly.

Then all you need are some fairies to move in. A perfect set up for outdoor play.

And indoor play too.

EDIT: Our design has faded with time so its not totally permanent but its still visible (and playable)

Red, white and blue

After seeing a picture of the Queen in the paper 'The Fairy' was very inquisitive about the Jubilee. This lead to a very long conversation about who the Queen was, where she lives, the Union Jack, crowns and jewels. A perfect idea for some sensory exploration....

Union Jack pulses (pearl barley dyed blue and red with white rice). I prepared the sensory box whilst the children were having a nap -I'm glad they were, as it took alot of concentration to get the Union Jack pattern.

We added 'jewels' (glass beads - we didn't have any real diamonds) and some 'gold' corrugated cardboard crowns. Later on we some coins and red/silver and blue stars at 'The Fairy's request.

Quickly the Union Jack had disappeared!

There was lots of hiding of the treasure.

Her 'Royal family' came to play.

Making 'A stepping' (when I asked, 'Do you mean stepping stones?') She replied - 'No. A stepping Mummy ... you know a path!')

 I'm sure there will be some more Diamond Jubilee play before the end of the Summer...

Mint playdough

This play dough is perfect for spring, it smells and looks fresh.

We made some peppermint play dough using our usual recipe 

Then added some fresh mint (from Grandmas garden) 'The Fairy' thought it looked like trees

She then wanted to make a house. The holes are 'windows' and the mint is now people looking out of them

Language Focus
Vocabulary: push, squeeze, press, poke, green, mint, leaf, tree, house, window
Other skills: imaginative play

If you like play dough you will love this book from the brilliant Nurture Store. The Homemade Playdough Recipe Book is full of play dough recipes and a whole years worth of play dough fun for just $8.99. We are affiliates for this great book (which means we earn some commission if you buy this book at no extra cost to you). Down load it now by clicking on the picture.