Playdough Printing - Easter Sight Words

We played this fun game as a variant of our usual sight word activity this week, using Easter words instead.

WE USED:

* play dough
* speech cards
* marker/pen
* alphabet blocks
(if you don't have any alphabet blocks you could make some bottle lid stamps to use instead).

We brainstormed some Easter words and I wrote them on speech cards for Bubble to use as prompts.
Our alphabet blocks are upper case so I deliberately wrote her word cards in lower case so she could practice her upper/lower case letters at the same time.

Bubble rolled out a big sheet of play dough ready to stamp on.

She found each matching letter block to create her words and stamped them into the dough.

Some of the letters printed back to front of course, but the blocks were used to spell out our words as we went.

Bubble loved this activity and spent quite awhile working her way through each word card.

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

Plate For Santa

Day 8 of our Count Down today - time to make a special plate for Santa's treats on Christmas Eve. I took the girls to our local Salvation Army op shop and Bubble took her time choosing a white plate that she liked, then we brought it home to decorate. We were going to use ceramic paint but the only ones I could find last week were hideously expensive, so we used permanent markers instead. I'm going to go over the top of it tonight with a clear resin to seal it all in and protect the design, hopefully we can build a little collection of Santa plates over the coming years :-)

WE USED:

* white plate (we got ours from an op shop)
* permanent markers
* clear resin

The plate Bubble chose was lovely and heavy and cost a whole 0.50c

Bubble drawing her Christmas pictures for Santa.

The orange drawing was Squeak's addition - isn't it cute :-) I'm impressed with her straight lines!

The green drawing is a Christmas tree, the round orange circle is a present and the red drawing is Santa - great job girls!

Letter To Santa Ornament

Our Count Down day 3 activity was to write a letter to Santa, which we did on Friday. I was really amused by what Bubble requested - I would never have guessed and I don't think Santa would have either so it's very lucky we were writing him a letter :-D Bubble drew pictures of the things she wanted and we put them inside a special clear ornament to hang on the tree. I'd like to do this every year so that each Christmas we can open them up and read them together. I love to think of my girls reading these lists when they are older or all grown up, and seeing how their requests changed as they grew.

WE USED:

* paper
* textas/markers
* clear container type baubles (from craft shop)
* Christmas stickers

Bubble's letter to Santa. She wants a yoyo, a teddybear and a rock :-D

Squeak is too little to ask for anything but she drew a beautiful crayon and pencil drawing to go inside our ornament as well x

Bubble chose a special sticker for the front so that Santa would know to look inside.

And we hung the Christmas wishes on our tree.

Love Notes

Bubble (and sometimes Squeak if she feels like sitting still for a minute :-D) and I play this game all the time. Bubble herself started it all because of her fascination with drawing and gift giving, and now it's something special we all enjoy doing.
We sit somewhere together, like the cubby or lounge, and write little notes, passing them back and forth. The other person isn't allowed to peek and once you have written your message you have to fold the paper up as small as you can so that they can unwrap it like a present. Sometimes I write things, sometimes I draw pictures of things they like, sometimes I do both. And sometimes I cut up little surprises like stickers or pictures from magazines to hide inside - it's lots of fun.
I not only love the closeness this activity gives us but I also love seeing what Bubble draws for me. Today she drew me a 'dragon' every single time, but they were always a different colour.
I know I have a limited time frame where my children will value love notes from their Mum like they do right now, so Im enjoying it :-)

Page Maze

Mazes are a great way to improve fine motor and writing skills. Make them enticing by using pictures of things that interest your child (such as a train heading for a station if they are in to trains) and encourage them to use the correct pen grip, go slowly and take their time. These are the first mazes Bubble has done and I think she did a great job!

Other ideas:
This would be a great activity for teaching letter or name writing skills, just design your maze to resemble the letters (or shapes, numbers etc...) that you are teaching.
Once you have drawn your maze you might wish to laminate it or put it into a plastic sleeve. Then your child can practice on it using a whiteboard marker and it can be wiped clean to used over and over again.
Older children might enjoy using a timer and seeing if they can beat their best time without the pen touching the sides of the maze.

WE USED:

* textas/pens
* paper

Texta Tube

Well, we used textas, but you could use anything really - pens, pencils, chalk, crayons. This was actually Mr Bubble&Squeak's brilliant idea when he had craft time with Bubble a few days ago, she enjoyed it so much we did it again today :-)

WE USED:

* toilet roll or paper towel roll
* small elastic bands
* scissors
* textas/crayons/pencils/chalk

Place your rubber bands around the tube, wrapping until they are quite tight. Slip your textas underneath the bands as evenly spaced as you can get them.

Using scissors cut small tabs top and bottom between each texta. These tabs will hold the textas in their positions so they dont go all wonky.

Top view of the tabs cut and folded down.

Bubble drawing rainbows and 'roads' :-D

She also discovered that the texta tube makes excellent dot pictures.

Artistic Dining

Bubble is one of those little people who cannot sit still, and mealtimes are often a bit of a battle in this regard. We don't want every breakfast, lunch and dinner to turn into a yelling match about sitting in her chair and not on the table (*sigh*) but if we let her run off after a few mouthfuls of food then she is hungry ten minutes later. We've tried lots of techniques to keep her at the table but this one has by far worked the best.
All it is is a large laminated sheet of paper. It is actually the reverse side of a wall calendar, but you can also get large items laminated at copy shops. We use this as her placemat at the table and she can draw pictures on it with a whiteboard marker while she eats, then simply wipe it clean when mealtime is over. The rule is that she can draw as long as she also eats, and it works wonderfully - she will now happily sit at the table, eat all of her food and if the fidgets get the better of her she has an outlet.

Come play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up

Plastacine & Streamer Lanterns

Bubble is all about parties at the moment. We wear party hats at breakfast, hang streamers in the cubbyhouse and stick candles in our dinner. She has taken to raiding the recycling bag for sheets of newspaper which she wraps anything she can find in to give to us as 'presents' (on the strict condition that we rewrap them and give them back to her to open). So today we made a few things to have a special 'night time party' just as something a little bit different.
These lanterns were the first two projects, very easy to make and a lot of fun. I will share our other activity tomorrow as the photos seem to be loading a bit slowly tonight :-)

WE USED:

* clean empty glass jars (we used old baby food jars)
* Clag glue
* streamers cut into squares (you could use anything, wrapping paper, tissue paper, cellophane)
* plastacine
* toothpicks
* cookie cutters
* tealights (we used electric child safe fake ones which were bought at the local Reject shop)

PLASTACINE LANTERNS:

We kneaded our plastacine until it was nice and soft, then pressed it around the outside of a jar until it was coated by a thin layer. Using a toothpick and cookie cutters Bubble could then cut shapes and make patterns in the plastacine, creating little windows for the light to escape from.

One of our plastacine covered jars.

Bubble carving patterns with her toothpick.

Using cookie cutters to cut shapes.

STREAMER LANTERNS:
Cut a roll of streamer into squares and put them into a bowl. Hold the jar from the inside while your child covers it with glue, and then sticks the streamer to it like paper mache. You can do several layers, just the one or leave little windows in the sides. You could also vary the textures by using different papers or cellophanes.

Holding a jar while Bubble coats it with glue and streamer squares.

The finished lanterns and electric tealights.

They looked beautiful all lit up!