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!