Noodle sensory play

With Chinese New Year this week end we thought we'd do a spot of noodle play.

I love activities that both of the kids can participate in and also love watching the difference in how they both play. 

The Frog is very much into putting things in and out of containers ( the teacher-ery description of this is 'enclosing'). This included the noodles. He loved squishing them as he filled bowls, then put them back into the big container. Surprisingly he didn't try to eat them!

The Fairy was less keen to touch them but still wanted to move them - she preferred a spoon. 

She later requested to do some cooking with them in her play kitchen (as a side note I made her kitchen before I started blogging - one day when I'm organised I'm planning to write a post on how I did it!).

This activity was great for using adjective words. Adjectives are so much easier to learn if children can feel and experience the word!

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.

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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

CD plant protectors

Being a gardener you need to be an optimist - you plant things in the hope that they will germinate and grow. No mean feat with all the things that eat young plants on our allotment- not only do we have the usual slugs and birds, we also have rabbits and deer - its a wonder anything survives!.

After our bean crop was decimated, I decided I needed to take action. We looked at all the other allotment plots I could see CDs worked well to scare birds. So we visited the pound shop to buy some. I asked the 'The Fairy' if she wanted to jazz them up - she suggested making flowers.

Sorting out which colours she wanted where

Sticking

The finished product (don't look too closely at the bed below - most of the beans have already been eaten and the bed needed weeding when I took the photo!)

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

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Miss Polly had a dolly....

'The Fairy' loves role play. She also loves the nursery rhyme 'Miss Polly had a dolly', so Dr role play is the perfect combination.

'Making' dolly sick  with red sticky dots from the craft box (chicken pox obviously!)



























I love this one as she took it (unusually in focus for one of her shots!)

Making her better (she insisted on having a hat to go with her medical bag when tending to her patient - just like the nursery rhyme, maybe the NHS should invest in some sun hats too!) 

We then obviously had to sing the rhyme:
'Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick,
So she called for the Dr to come quick, quick, quick
The Dr came with his bag and his hat and he knocked on the door with a rat a tat tat.

He looked at the dolly and he shook his head,
He said Miss Polly 'Put her straight to bed'
He wrote on the paper for a pill pill pill.
'I'll be back in the morning,
Yes I will, will, will'

Language Focus
Vocabulary: sick, poorly, medicine, body parts
Other skills: role play, social skills (empathy) and learning rhymes.

Teddy bears' picnic

'The fairy' adores picnics and is always nagging me to have one. Today because of the grim weather we were looking for something fun to do when she asked to have one. I found our china tea set and table cloth (a present from Great Granny) at the back of  the cupboard. We waited for a break in the rain and set up our tea party on our balcony.

We brewed some blackberry tea (with cold water)

 

Stiring

Waiting for the colour to change

                                                             

Pouring

She wanted to add some flowers. The tea was not only a beautiful pink colour but smelled fruity too and the flowers added a tactile element. Very sensory!

Then the rain came so we decamped indoors. At which point 'The fairy' decided we needed snacks, a chocolate dinosaur, shiny cake and a bun with a cherry on the top were on the menu!

 I decided that pink tea, pouring and cream carpets didn't mix so swapped the 'tea' for clear water. 

This activity was great for imagination, developing her concentration and role play and well as linking in with her new found fascination with things changing colour (see the Easter biscuits we made at the weekend).

Language Focus

Vocabulary: stir, pour, tip, drink (if your not using flowers in the water!), names of food and crockery

Play skills: Role play is an important stage of development and helps to support imagination and language development.

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