Magnifier Discovery Board

Both of our girls are in love with their magnifying glasses at the moment, we bought them about a month ago and they've been getting a daily workout ever since. At Bubble's kindy they have a great 'discovery board' toy which consists of a wooden tray with holes cut into it and tiny specimens for the kids to look at with their magnifiers. There is a sheet of perspex bolted over the top to keep all the little things inside.
I thought it was genius and wondered if we could make something similar ourselves where the things inside could be changed around regularly. It took awhile to find some cheap petri dishes but our discovery board turned out pretty well and I'm really looking forward to changing the items inside it every few weeks to fit with whatever theme it is we are learning about.

WE USED:

* an old wooden puzzle board
(you could also use wooden board cut to size, a chopping board, a wooden tray etc...)
* a pack of plastic petri dishes
(we sourced ours from Ebay)
* adhesive
(we used clear Liquid Nails, but any strong glue would do the trick)
* small items of interest
* magnifying glass

For the base of our discovery board I used the reverse side of a large wooden puzzle that had lost some pieces.
(see HERE for what we did with the remaining pieces)

Using clear Liquid Nails (any strong glue would work, that was just what I had on hand) I attached as many of the petri dish bases to the board as I could fit.
Once the glue was dry (overnight) I filled each one with something interesting for the girls to examine and replaced the dish lids over the top.

Newsprint and old keys.

Pencil shavings and seed beads.

A piece of clay with an imprint and a swatch of interesting fabric.

Some coloured buttons and the insides from a broken kaleidoscope toy (I knew I held onto this stuff for a reason :-D).

A circle cut from one of the girls magazines.

Bubble examining the items in the discovery board.

Other ideas for discovery boards:

Natural items : leaves (skeleton leaves especially would look great), seeds, seed pods, flowers, dead insects like bugs or butterflies, soil samples, gravel/stones, bark samples, grass blades.

Colours or shapes: small beads, felt or fabric discs, sequins, play dough or clay shapes, miniature items of certain shapes (bottle lids, buttons, stamps etc...), glitter, coloured sand, confetti.

Textures: Fabric samples like hessian, satin, velvet etc..., netting (fruit bags or stockings), course sandpaper, recycled paper, carpet swatches, ash, smooth gemstones, clay, rough and smooth tree bark.

Threading Leaves

After all the rainy weather we've had here lately we took advantage of the clear day today and headed out to a reserve. This particular parkland is under the flight path of the planes coming in to land at the domestic airport so the girls had a ball running around, having a picnic lunch, playing on the swings and watching the planes flying low overhead.

We also had some quiet time sitting on the grass making leaf necklaces, both girls spent ages hunting around for leaves they liked and they were able to thread them easily using 'safe' plastic needles.

WE USED:

* leaves and flowers
* child safe needle
* embroidery thread
* scissors

The leaves the girls collected from the reserve.

I tied the embroidery thread to their needles so it wouldn't come loose while they made their necklaces.

The threading was great exercise for fine motor development but I also loved watching the girls exploring the textures, shapes and colours of all of the natural things they found.

Bubble's finished necklace. I tried to get a photo of Squeak's which had a flower on it but they all came out too blurry, she's too fast for me! :-D

Blindfold Block Sorting

This was one of those on the spot games that just came together and happened to be lots of fun. The girls enjoyed this new twist on a favourite activity and also took full advantage of my turn at being blindfolded...

WE USED:

* wooden block sorter
* blindfold (we used a scarf)

We sat in a circle and poured our wooden sorting blocks into the middle.

Then we took turns at being blindfolded and being handed the blocks one by one. We had to guess the shape just by feeling it, or if it was really tricky we got given clues (it's the shape of a stop sign etc...).

Bubble taking her turn at feeling the shape blocks. After a few turns we upped the ante by sorting the blocks into the sorter while blindfolded.
The girls both enjoyed this game and enjoyed my turn at being blindfolded even more. Instead of blocks I was handed all sorts of things; squishy pears from the bottom of the fruit bowl, nappy wipes, a fridge magnet, even someones foot! :-D

Animal Spotlight

Since the success of our Sight Word Spotlight game a while ago I've been meaning to use the concept for different activities for the girls to enjoy.

I remember when I was younger and growing up on a farm one of the most exciting things we used to do was go spotlighting for animals through the paddocks and bush at night. Since we have neither a farm or animals I thought I'd try and replicate the excitement of finding animals in the dark using photos and torches.

WE USED:

* animal pictures
(I used Google but you could also use pages from an old calendar, photos or pictures cut from magazines)
* blutac
* torch

Using blutac I covered the girls bedroom walls and ceiling in animal pictures. You don't need to use so many (we ended up with 32) I just got a bit carried away!
You could even extend the learning by clustering animals from the same continent or habitats.

Turn out the lights and turn on the torches and get hunting!
The girls were SO excited spotting different animals in the dark, they particularly enjoyed the ones on the ceiling.
We also played a game where I made different animal sounds and they had to find the corresponding animal with their torches.

Warm Water Play

The weather has been a bit unpredictable here lately, one day we have sunshine the next it's overcast, wet and freezing. On cold days we add warm water to our water table so the girls can still enjoy their favourite outdoor activity.

WE USED:

* warm water
(always test temperature before letting your kids play)
* water table or plastic tub/paddling pool
* water toys
* towel

Other ideas - add food colouring, ice cubes or bubble mix for extra play value.

To do our bit for water conservation (always a priority in Australia!) we use a bucket in our shower to catch the 'warm up water' for the girls play activities (meaning the water that usually goes down the drain while you wait for it to 'warm up'). Add in the rest of the hot water from the kettle after your morning coffee and you have the perfect water play activity for a cold day.

Footprint Earth

Bubble is at Kindy today so Squeak and I did an easy little painting project for Earth Day together. Ordinarily Squeak isn't overly interested in painting and drawing projects, but this one involving feet and paint was a big hit with her (and the results are so cute too).
I think this activity would look fantastic done on a larger scale with even more kids involved!

WE USED:

* blue and green paint
* tape
* scissors
* newspaper or drop cloth
* shallow dish or box for paint
* paper/cardboard to make a large circle

(we made our circle by taping together sheets of recycled office paper and then using this method of drawing a circle with string and a pencil. I just held the loose end in the centre of our paper rather than using a tack though).

After we had made our large paper circle using the method linked above we squirted blue paint all over it and used our hands to cover it all over. Squeak loved this part and squelched the paint gleefully through her fingers and even used her elbows to spread it across the paper.

We left the circle to dry (while Squeak had a bath!) and then squirted our green paint into a shallow casserole dish for the second part of our earth painting activity.
Squeak really enjoyed squishing around in the green paint with her feet and then running across our 'Earth' to make her little patterns.

She worked out how to slide her painty feet around and we got some even better effects!

Our finished Earth looks even better in real life and is a very colourful addition to the lounge room wall :-)

“Come over to play at the
Childhood 101 We Play link up”

Things We Love About Earth

Earth Day is coming up on the 22nd of April so today we talked about the things that we like about our planet. Bubble is very much into the solar system so this activity was just about the highlight of her day :-) I loved hearing the sometimes obscure but all very sweet things she came up with!

WE USED:

* play dough (green and blue)
* pop sticks
* permanent marker

First we rolled a big ball with our blue dough then Bubble went to town with the green dough to create her own version of Earth.

We wrote all the things she loves about Earth on our pop sticks, my favourites would have to be "pears and blueberries to eat" (neither of which she actually likes to eat) and "ponds with fish in them" :-)

We are going to leave our Earth on display for the rest of the month and add to it after each day. It's been a great way to talk about things we enjoy and also explore different elements of our planet.

Easter Egg Roller Painting

Today we put an Easter twist on marble painting using our plastic eggs, both girls really enjoyed this activity and made quite a stack of artwork!

WE USED:

* tray
* paper
* large marbles or rocks
* plastic eggs
* paint

hint: we put newspaper and wet paper towel nearby to make it easy to remove the eggs between paper changes.

We used large marbles inside our eggs to weight them, but you could use anything really - a few smaller marbles, stones, sand etc...).

The marbles fit inside perfectly and made the eggs roll better through the paint.

Bubble rolling and tipping her tray to make Easter egg paint patterns.

Squeak loved this activity, we had trouble getting the tray off of her to change her paper before the piece she already had disintegrated into a soggy mess! :-D

“Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up”