Textured Cardboard Road

This activity was Bubble's idea, I was most impressed with her imagination! I am currently in the process of doing up a lovely old desk for our work area and wanted to finish some sanding, so left her to her own devices with the craft cupboard after breakfast this morning. After about half an hour of rummaging she came over with a large sheet of black corrugated cardboard and some scissors and asked "please can we make this a road for me? Por favor?" (big Dora fans in the house ;-D).

WE USED:

* large sheet of black corrugated cardboard
* scissors
* small white sticker labels
* dinky cars

I folded the sheet in half without creasing it and cut rounded edges on the outside and a big rectangle from the centre. This left us with a 'track' shape for Bubble and Squeak's cars to go on.

Bubble wanted 'white things' on her road so we dug out the small labels left over from our Rooms Of The House dice game and she got busy sticking them on.

A road made from corrugated card.

Both girls loved the sensation of the cars bumping over the cardboard, I might try adding to this road with other different textured surfaces (gravel, shredded coconut, glued matchsticks etc...)

We had a strip of black card left over that must have been a remnant from a second sheet of card so I bent each end and slid it under the inner sides of our racetrack to create a bridge.

Heaps of fun had with some scrap card :-) It was also easy to roll up and put in the cupboard to be played with again.

Travel Sorting Games

These travel games were cheap and easy to make and perfect for packing in my handbag or the pram when we go out.

WE USED:

* small sectioned storage boxes
(they cost a few dollars each, we bought ours at Bunnings but I've seen them in most dollar shops, craft stores, Target etc...)
* small objects for sorting
(we used coloured paperclips and buttons).

The paperclips are stored in the storage box and can be sorted by colour into each compartment. We can also use them for fine motor games (linking together, twisting them into shapes) and activities like patterning.

The storage boxes keep everything contained and neat.

Button sorting activity box. I chose buttons of different colours and sizes so we could sort using either characteristic.

Aqua Doodle Stencil Painting

Today we did a fun water painting activity on the girls much loved Aqua Doodle mat in between errands. We're going to give foam stamps a go tomorrow and see how they come out!

WE USED:

* plastic stencils
* water
* mini foam rollers
* Aqua Doodle mat
(dry concrete/bricks/rocks or anything else you can water paint on would also work)

Using the stencils and rollers was easy for the girls little hands and they came out really well.

The stencils would eventually turn into blobs as the water soaked into the mat and blurred the edges, but initially they all came out really clearly. Keeping the brushes damp rather than wet helped keep the images from seeping.

Seashell Matching Game

We have a big container of shells collected from near our home and all sorts of other places that the girls love to play with. They become seats for fairies, boats in the bath and make cool prints in playdough. Yesterday we turned some of the flatter shells into a matching game using some small sea animal pictures and blutac - lots of fun! Both girls loved discovering the little animals underneath each shell and Bubble spent ages finding the pairs over and over again.

WE USED:

* flat clean seashells
* small pictures of sea animals
* blutac

The game was very simple to make - I cut out the sea animal pictures and we used blutac to attach them to the underside of each shell.

Then we spread them across the table with the pictures facing downwards.

Other seashell matching games found on the net:
Crayola Seashell Matching Printable -
print matching shells if you don't have any real ones and back with cardboard and a sea animal picture.
Pretty Handy Girl -
same idea but using stickers - even easier!
Seashell Game For Kids -
same idea again but using letters and numbers.

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

Rooms Of The House

I realised recently that although they are words we use all the time, Bubble doesn't know all of the 'labels' for the rooms of the house. She knows where the bathroom is, but when asked to go to the loungeroom or even her own room from another room she was just guessing and didn't really understand where she was meant to go.
The 'rooms of the house' dice game that we played today was great for teaching her those labels, working on her gross motor skills and was also heaps of fun - even Squeak loved this one and she's been a tough customer to please since her molars started cutting through! :-)

WE USED:

* two cube blocks (or large sized dice)
* small label stickers
* pen/marker

We used plain wooden building blocks to make some dice, one for 'rooms of the house' one for 'actions'. I cut small labels to size to write each word onto and adhere to each side of the dice.

Rooms of the house dice:
loungeroom
bathroom
kitchen
Mum and Dad's room
Bubble and Squeak's room
hallway

Action dice:
skip
run
dance
hop
roll
spin

We took turns to roll the dice and had to run to the right room and do the action for one minute.

Sight Word Balloons

This was a fun way to practice some of Bubble's sight words, but could be adapted for all sorts of games (letters, phonetics, matching games, numbers etc...).

WE USED:

* balloons
* permanent markers
* paper

First I inflated balloons (without tying them off) and drew one picture/balloon with permanent marker. The pictures were meant to be so small you couldn't tell what they were once the balloon was deflated but I made them a bit too big! Next time I will have to remember to draw smaller.

I cut small pieces of paper and wrote Bubble's sight words on them, then matched them with their corrosponding balloon.

Bubble loved spelling and sounding out her words and then inflating each balloon to see if she'd guessed correctly.

Please note, there was a little mess with this activity as some of the marker came off on Bubble's hands when she inflated and deflated the balloons etc...

Valentine's Felt Heart Bag

Happy Valentine's Day everyone
xxx

Bubble enjoyed making a heart shaped felt bag this morning during Squeak's naptime, it was really simple to prepare and she has been using it all day long, stuffed with party favours she found in the pantry :-D

WE USED:

* felt sheet (red)
* scissors
* Sharpie/marker
* sheet of paper
* wool or string
* child safe sewing needle
* ribbon for handle

Cut a paper heart the same size you'd like your bag to be. Use a hole punch or pencil to make even holes around the edge as though you are making a lacing shape (to get the holes equal I folded the heart in half and punched down one side). Leave space at the top for the opening of the bag.

Lay the paper heart on your felt sheet and trace and cut two heart shapes. Then lay your paper template on top of each felt heart and make a dot through each of the holes using a permanent marker.

Use your scissors to make tiny nicks on each dot around the edge of both heart shapes. I folded the felt along each dot and snipped it that way. This is so your child can push their needle through the template easily and sew their bag together.

Place your two felt hearts together so that the holes align and show your child how to sew them together using the wool or string. Bubble just loves sewing at the moment so really enjoyed this part of the activity.

Tie off each wool end and choose your ribbon for the bag handle. Bubble chose orange, her favourite colour :-)

Cut your ribbon to the desired length and knot it at each corner of the bag opening. Bubble is still learning to tie knots so needed my help, but older kids could do this themselves.

Bubble ready to go shopping Valentine's Day style :-)

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