Pretend Food Play - Juice Bar

This little game was something the girls invented while playing together the other day, it was so cute and creative I thought I'd share. We've been using our juice fountain a fair bit to make different juices from all of the summer fruit that is coming into season at the moment, and all that juicing seems to have inspired some pretend play.

WE USED:

* cups
* straws
* play food
(fruit and vegetables mainly)

The girls had spread out a picnic rug and put their tubs of pretend food in the middle. I was instructed to sit down and make my 'juice order'.

I chose the fruit for my juice and the girls made me my drink, complete with straw. This one was watermelon, mango and strawberry, mmm mmm :-)

Bubble got very inventive with her drink creations. Not sure I'm overly keen to try this one involving fish and steak!

We spent ages playing this game making different combinations and flavours.

We even gave milkshakes a go :-)

Incy Wincy Spider

If there's one thing our girls enjoy as much as painting, it's singing. Incy Wincy Spider is a firm favourite at the moment, so when I saw this post on Serving Pink Lemonade (awesome Blog by the way, check it out if you haven't already) I was inspired to add a little more 'something' to our singing sessions.
Plus I've been dying to see how easy it is to thread a needle through a ping pong ball so we could make some decorations for Christmas with them. Turns out, pretty easy! Stay tuned for that post ;-)

WE USED:

* ping pong ball
* twine/wool/string
* thick embroidery needle
* scissors
* paper towel tube
* blue ribbon cut into short lengths
* black pipe cleaners

optional:

* glue
* yellow felt

First we cut our pipe cleaner into four lengths and Bubble twisted them together to make our Incy Wincy Spider. Make sure you cut the pipe cleaner lengths short enough that your spider will fit up and down the cardboard tube.

Using the embroidery needle I threaded some twine through the centre of a ping pong ball and tied it off on one end.

We tied some lengths of blue ribbon onto the twine at around the same length as the paper tube was. The blue ribbon represented our 'rain' so we were excited to find some sparkly sequined ribbon in our stash.
Just under the ribbon we tied on our pipe cleaner spider.

We made our ping pong ball into a sun by cutting a circle of felt and gluing it to the front.

We then threaded the twine (with the ribbons and spider attached) down inside the paper towel roll (or 'water spout' :-D).

When the sun 'rose' Incy Wincy Spider would disappear up the water spout.

Then the rain would wash him back down again!
The girls loved this, it's still in our musical instruments box and has been getting a workout.
Am I sick of singing Incy Wincy Spider yet? Ummm... just a little ;-D

Christmas Activities List

We have new Christmas activities to Blog about in the coming weeks, I just love this time of year! Here's a bit of a round up of some of our posts from last year...

ADVENT CALENDARS:

Count Down Activity List

Christmas Count Down Calendar

Count Down Calendar Bags

ORNAMENTS AND DECORATIONS:

Letter To Santa Ornament

Christmas Paper Chains

Paper Bag Bunting

Paper Snowflakes

Paper Plate Christmas Trees

Snowball Pompoms

Cardboard Box Baubles

Handprint Tree Skirt

Christmas Rosette

PRESENT IDEAS:

Clay Necklace

Glow In The Dark Rudolph Noses

Teacher Christmas Cards

Personalised Canvas Bags

CRAFT ACTIVITIES:

Plate For Santa

Confetti Snow Picture

Bubble Wrap Snow Painting

Yoghurt Bottle Snowmen

Make A Santa Beard

Felt Necklace

CHRISTMAS GAMES:

Ten Scents Of Christmas Sensory Cards

Ten Scents Of Christmas Matching Cards

Santa Sleigh Pegging Game

Christmas Discovery Boxes

Straw And Pipe Cleaner Candles

Christmas Themed Playdough

Wipeable Shape Mats

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!