Little Learning has been a bit light on posts lately as I've gone back to work a few weeks ago doing night shifts. Since nights were when I used to do all of my posting I'm finding it hard to find time to get it all done, but once we've resettled into a routine the posts will start flowing again :-)
Today we did some painting using wipeable shape mats, I originally made them for the girls to practice drawing on with whiteboard markers but we soon discovered paint was way more fun!
WE USED:
* thin cardboard (we used an empty cereal packet)
* pen/marker/pencil
* scissors
* paper (we used coloured paper)
* laminator and laminating pockets
* whiteboard markers/paints
First we cut open an empty cereal box (any thin card will do though).
I used a pen to draw some shapes onto the card, then cut them out using the scissors.
The girls chose some paper they liked and we positioned the cardboard shapes on the paper inside some laminating sleeves before running them through the laminator.
The cardboard created a raised edge under the laminate that made tracing easier to do. Bubble struggles a little with fine motor control and this ridge helped guide her while she practiced her grip and hand control.
After tracing with whiteboard markers for awhile we broke out the washable paints so we could turn our shapes into pictures. I was sure Bubble would turn the circle into a face, but she had other ideas...
It's a spider! :-)
The mats were a really fun surface to paint on, Bubble discovered she could make lots of different patterns by swishing and twirling her paintbrush.
Squeak had a ball with this, her picture is of a park with a duck and a bridge, just like the one near our house :-)
We laid paper over the top of our mats to make transfer prints of the girls paintings before cleaning the mats and starting again with a new painting.
Even clean up was fun, we just chucked them into the sink with a little warm water, detergent and scrubbing brush and scrubbed them clean!
We were very lucky to find a great set of emotions charms/key rings in our dollar shop that were perfect for our book. They are rubber so a great tactile tool as well as being bright and fun to look at. Bubble loves rainbows so I chose a colourful notebook to go with them and some special pens for her to use with her book.
The charms were easy to superglue to the front of the notebook. Laminated pictures, stickers or anything else you can find with emotions on them will do the job just as well. They provide a visual cue for your child to help them identify how the feel.
Once Bubble has shown me how she is feeling we write it as a heading on a page in her book and then she lists what is making her feel that way. Sometimes she doesn't know, so we just talk about what we can do to make her feel better (if she is feeling negatively) draw a picture or talk about her day.
I drew some expressions on the ground using chalk, making them roughly the same dimensions as the shadows we were casting at the time.
Then it was just a matter of lining ourselves up to give our shadows different 'faces'. It was hilarious!
I asked Bubble questions based on emotions and feelings ("how do you feel about playgroup", "how do you feel about bath time" etc...) and she moved her shadow to her 'answer'.
We did some storytelling where we took turns making up a story and the other person had to act it out with us. Next time we'll have to draw in some scenery and other props! I'm thinking we could make different places, like a park or rooms of a house.
After initially just standing back watching for awhile even Squeak got into it :-D
