Dinosaur Landscapes

 

Both Bubble and Squeak are very interested in dinosaurs and one of their favourite books at the moment is 'The Triceratops Twins', an ABC For Kids Read & Listen book based on an episode from Play School.

Inside the front cover of the book they detail how they made their dinosaur landscape for the story, so while the girls were at preschool yesterday (Squeak's first day!) I had a go at making some small portable versions as a surprise.

I have a stash of these cheap 5L containers from our local $2 shop which were the perfect size and height for the girls to access. I like that they have lids so we can pack them away when not in use.
A deep tray or play tub would work well too, or even building the landscape right in the sandpit if you have one.

First I attached some small bowls to the base with Blutac (sticky tack) to act as a lake. You could use anything for this - small foil pie trays, clean jar lids, the base from a juice bottle or build up sides using plasticine stuck to the base of your box.

Next came sand from the sandpit.

Then some cuttings from our big conifer trees in the backyard.
In the book they create their own trees for the landscape using toilet roll tubes and tissue paper which looks fantastic, that was a project I wanted to do when the girls were home though.

Then I added some river stones (found in the decorating isle of most dollar shops if you're not lucky enough to have access to them locally).

In the book they use blue cellophane as water, we didn't have any of that handy though so I used crushed water beads instead. They added a great extra sensory feature to the landscapes and the dinosaurs could actually swim in it.
We had water beads on hand but there are heaps of things you could use instead - real water, blue rice, streamers, polystyrene beads, or nothing at all!
(For more information on water beads check these posts HERE and HERE)

Don't be fooled by the fork in the photos by the way, I had intended to mash the beads but discovered this was next to impossible and ended up squishing them with my fingers instead.

Our finished landscapes. 

The girls have since added a lot of things to their boxes themselves; branches, upside down gumnuts (used as volcanos) and plastacine birds in the trees.

Paper Bag Butterflies

After making our Paper Bag Crowns today we tried out something a little different using the side join of our bags to create fold out shapes.

These were incredibly easy to make and could be used to make all sorts of symmetrically shaped pictures. The girls and I made butterflies but in future I'd like to try it out with other shapes like flowers, stars, cars etc...
Both girls had a lot of fun with these, especially the version involving paint!

WE USED:

* paper bags
* texta/markers
* scissors

* paint

Using a texta we drew one butterfly wing on our paper bag making sure to include one side seam in the center.

Bubble then cut around the line with her scissors.

I really enjoyed watching Bubble unfold her bag, I asked her during the cutting process what she thought we were making and she guessed the letter 'B' or a number '3'. As she unfolded the paper she gasped and exclaimed "it's a beautiful butterfly!".

The girls then used textas to decorate their paper butterflies.

We made a few more and decided to experiment with paint. We opened the cut bags and the girls chose some colours to squeeze onto one side in little dollops. Squeak especially loved this part and ended up with mountains of paint!

We then folded the opposite side back over and squished the two together to spread the paint around. When we opened the bag up again the girls were amazed at the beautiful colours on their butterfly's wings.

Squeak wanted her butterflies up on the wall, they look beautiful flying across our kitchen :)

Bubble wanted to play with her butterfly, so we attached it to a wooden ruler (a stick would work well also) with tape so she could make it 'flap it's wings'. We did laminate it first because she wanted to take it into the bath with her, I think the effect would be even better with paper wings though.

Paper Bag Crowns

Saturday night is 'movie' night at our house. The girls get to choose a DVD and stay up a bit later than usual, eating popcorn and making blanket forts in the lounge room.

Every Saturday I make popcorn for the occasion and put it into brown paper bags, cutting the top half from one of them for Squeak who hates having to reach down into a full sized bag. 
This past Saturday Bubble walked by as I was doing just that, picked up the top of the bag and put it on her head saying "thanks for the crown Mum!".

Genius.

Guess what we did today? :D

WE USED:

* brown paper bags

* textas/markers

* stickers

* scissors

* teddybears/dolls

This activity was so simple, I loved the fact that Bubble could do it all on her own and even little Squeak only needed minimal help.

We first turned our paper bag upside down so that the open end was facing us, then drew our crown design across it. 

Bubble then cut along the zigzag line carefully using her scissors.

Once she had cut along the line it was easy to open up the bag to create a crown.

 

The girls got busy with textas and stickers decorating their masterpieces. Glue and sequins/glitter, paint and cotton buds or ink stamps would be fun for this part as well.

They turned out super cute and the girls enjoyed making them so much they spent almost an entire afternoon creating a crown for every stuffed toy in the house.
Lots of fantastic fine motor practice and imaginary play.

After we'd made a few crowns I realised we could just use one bag to make a whole heap of them by layering the designs and reversing them once they were cut. This was much easier and meant we used much less paper as well.

 

One paper bag made all of these! We'll definitely be doing this again.

Vermicelli Rice Noodle Play

I've seen so many awesome sensory play ideas around the net involving spaghetti (like this post, and also this one, and how fun does this look?!) but hadn't until today gotten around to cooking up some pasta for the girls to test out.
At the supermarket this week I came across big packs of vermicelli noodles on sale and thought they'd be perfect, not only do they have a great texture but they also require minimal cooking time - 2 minutes steeped in a bowl boiling water and you're done.
The girls really enjoyed this activity and it carried over into a lot of imaginary play and great fine motor practice. At first neither of them would put their hands anywhere near the noodles, using the tongs and the sieves to handle them carefully, but after some gentle encouragement (yeah, I had my hands right in there ;D) they were soon exploring the texture and squishing away.

WE USED:

* vermicelli rice noodles
(prepare in a bowl of hot water, then drain and fill bowl with cold water)
* large tub
* utensils for play; tongs, sieves, forks, chopsticks, small containers etc...

My girls are very sensitive to textures, namely anything squishy or wet. We kept this activity contained in a tub and they explored the noodles in using utensils from the kitchen.
Tongs and chopsticks provide a great fine motor workout and adding small containers and sieves to fill is good for developing hand eye co-ordination.

The noodles had a great fine, slippery texture once cooked. I kept them in a bowl of cold water after cooking to both cool them down quickly and add an extra play element with the water.

The girls spent a long time making 'worm soup' using their tongs and containers.

Adding cutlery to their play was great practice for Squeak who is having trouble with her grip.

Eventually the hands went in, and then it was a squishy squashy free for all :D

At $1.20 for a big pack the rice noodles were great inexpensive fun, and after we were done playing we drained off the water and stored them in the fridge ready for more play tomorrow.

Apple Sauce Icy Poles

The weather has finally warmed up a bit here and the rain has stopped, so the girls have been asking to make icy poles to enjoy outside.
Yesterday we were short on freezer friendly fruit so used some apple sauce we had in the cupboard.
Not only did it make yummy icy poles (the texture was nice and soft and they didn't drip easily) but the girls had lots of fine motor fun transferring the sauce from the jar to the molds using different sized spoons.

WE USED:

* icy pole molds
(ice cube trays or plastic cups would work just as well)
* apple sauce
(either pre made or if you have a heap of apples peel and cook your own)
* different sized spoons
* freezer

Spooning the apple sauce into the molds was a messy but fun activity.

Frozen ready to be demolished :)

Learning With Push Lights

We have been working hard these last few months to get a home therapy routine set up for Squeak, and since she is only almost-three trying to make it as fun as possible!
We are learning letter sounds at the moment and today incorporated some push lights I bought at a local dollar shop a little while ago. They are very easy to find and also very cheap (these were $1 for a pack of two).
Squeak loved these so much that we will be using them in lots of different learning activities in future... as well as just for fun!

WE USED:

* push lights
(ours also required 2 AA batteries per light)
* whiteboard marker
* permanent marker
* picture/letter/word cards

Push lights are simple to operate - press down on the white plastic dome top and it switches on, press again and it switches off.
They are usually in the hardware section of the dollar shop, but I've also seen them in camping and major department shops as well.

Squeak was fascinated by them right away. They were the perfect size for her little hands and easy to turn on and off.

We had a little play with them for awhile until she got the hang of it.
I may have had a little play too, they're pretty cool ;)

Using permanent marker I wrote her focus letters on top of the push lights and turned them on.

We played a game where I would call out a letter and she would find the right light and switch it off. We took turns so she got to use the letter receptively and expressively.

Once we were done with that game I just scribbled over the top of the permanent marker with whiteboard marker and it easily wiped straight off.
You could use whiteboard marker from the outset but I wanted the letters to not rub off as we played.

Next we used our letter sounds cards, placing the push lights underneath each one.

Squeak was so motivated to find the right letter and push the button and her attention throughout these activities was amazing.

Can't wait to use these again, if I can find them that is - they seem to have made their way into the wardrobe with two giggling little 'astronauts'.