Friday, April 26, 2013

Outdoor Fairy Tree

We are doing a big over haul of the girls outdoor play area now that the colder weather is approaching and playing outside is a bit less enticing. One thing Bubble wants to create is a Fairy Garden, so today we made a Fairy Tree as a start on that project.
This activity cost next to nothing and strengthened many areas of fine motor development not to mention imaginary play!

WE USED:

* terracotta flower pot
(we got ours at Bunnings for $1)
* air drying clay
(you could also use plaster of paris)
* sticks
* paint
* brushes

We spent a few days collecting sticks with interesting shapes whenever we went to the park and once we had a good collection I spread them out and set the girls up with paint and brushes.

They both enjoyed painting the sticks for the fairy tree in all sorts of different colours and patterns. I put out a variety of brushes so that they could experiment with them.


We laid out the painted sticks on big sheets of paper to dry in the sun.

Once our painted sticks were dry we got our pot and pushed the air drying clay into the bottom of it.

The girls loved the squishy texture of the clay. Make sure you have enough clay in the pot to hold your sticks upright.

The girls then pushed their sticks into the clay to create the Fairy Tree.

Because the clay doesn't dry right away they were able to play around with the sticks and get them exactly where they wanted them to be.


The girls wanted to make the Fairy Tree sparkly so we cut up some metallic pipe cleaners and ribbons to tie to the branches.

Squeak got a great fine motor workout attaching the pipe cleaners and Bubble finally learnt how to tie knots with the ribbon - way to go Bubble!

Some of Bubbles knots.



We used a small stick to make a swing in the tree for the fairies to sit on.

Once the clay had dried we topped up the pot with sand and the fairies moved in.



I love the way one little project created so many opportunities to practice skill building and has encouraged so much play!


6 comments:

  1. I love this and I'm sure our boys will have a great time making one with me this summer. I am so grateful for the artistic and creative ideas you share on this blog. I found you through a viral photo on FB of the refurbished cot to desk, and I made one for our boys last summer. They use it so much for art, schoolwork and LEGO building! Thank you!

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    1. Thank you for your lovely comment E! I just had a quick look at your Blog, your family is absolutely gorgeous, looks like you guys have a lot of fun. Have bookmarked it to peruse tonight, thanks for taking the time to say hi :)

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  2. Such a great idea. My little ones will love this. Thank you so much for all of these amazing ideas.

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    1. Thanks Kayla! Hope your kids enjoy making a fairy tree, feel free to email photos or post them on the FB page if you'd like to share, I'd love to see what they create.

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  3. I just found your blog today and LOVE all of your ideas. My girls are so into fairies. They will love this idea! I'm sooo subscribing...

    http://thisfineday.com/

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