Quick Polar Small World Box

I realised that I hadn't made the boys a small world box since our Halloween one! We have been so wrapped up in Christmas since then that the time has flown by. So I decided to put something together quickly after school for the boys to play with. As I had a new pot of white play dough to hand we decided on a snowy polar theme. I do often make play dough but Joseph (5) was given a really big set a couple of years ago & I keep finding new pots at the back of the cupboard! If I'd had chance I would have added some silver glitter to make it even more snowy like the play dough i made for our Arctic Week, Group Messy Play.

So at the bottom of one of our sensory boxes I taped a piece of silver rip stop fabric I had, (but silver foil would also work well) to represent the frozen water. Put the snowy play dough on one side & some white decorative stones on the other side. I also have a piece of foam packaging that looks like an iceberg.

 

We grabbed a few of our polar animals (polar bears & penguins) so they could have a play in our showy world. The play dough was perfect for they animals to make footprints in. And if any of the animals needed rescuing Joseph made sure that Spiderman was on hand!

It didn't hold their attention as long as some of our more messy boxes as but it was quick & mess free. Just before tea was ready I put the play dough back in its pot so we can easily get this box out again soon & add some more of our animals.

(Please only use age appropriate materials for your child, as small items could be a choking hazard)

x Jo x

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Arctic Week @ Messy Play

 So as well as our Penguin Craft we had lots more fun with an arctic theme at last weeks group messy play session. It was also a lot busier than the previous week (animal theme) due to a poor forecast & a bit of word of mouth.

Homemade bubble wrap stampers (Idea from Crafts For Boys)

Double water tray - Marshmallows in water & Ice in Blue water

This was very popular!

Bubble wrap (taped down) with fabric underneath to make an arctic small world

Glittery snow-like playdough, recipe here

Shreded paper snow!

Shaving foam snow! Joseph was covered in this at one point I so wish I took a pic:-(

Arctic colouring lots of printable on pintrest

Daniel enjoying the clean up area.

 Really looking forward to next week now ..... DINOSAURS!

x Jo x

Penguin Craft

Joseph (4) & Daniels (3.5) example penguins.

At this weeks group messy play session the theme is arctic, so I really wanted to make a cute penguin craft & searched pintrest for inspiration & settled on the idea of a loo roll penguin. Only thing is loo rolls aren't that hygienic (we use them at home but didn't want to expect others to) & I didn't have enough kitchen roll tubes to cut in 1/2. 

Also they would need painting black, again something you can do a home but not great when the kids are only there for an hour. So I ended up recycling some thick black card that I had (old a4 folder dividers), cut them in 1/3 rolled & stapled.

Craft table.

 I then used orange, white & black paper to make the beak, feet, wings & front, 

for the kids to stick on along with googly eyes.

Joseph's alien penguin he made at group!

I will add a post about the rest of our arctic fun soon!

x Jo x

Arctic Sensory & Small World Box

Since we haven't had any more real snow, we decided to turn our sensory box in to an Arctic zone for some small world & sensory play. We used shaving foam to make our snow, this is the first time we have played with this at home, all though both boys have experienced it at nursery.  We gathered all or snow loving animals, we had several polar bears, a killer whale, penguin, wolf & a seal. The animals are from several places including Lego Duplo, Fisher Price Little People, Schelich, & one was even from a kinder egg! We used 2 white containers as caves & 2 old CD's as icy water.

 The boys enjoyed playing with the animals but after a couple of minutes decided that the shaving foam was to sticky & covered the animals too much. I left the box out all day but neither Joseph (4) or Daniel (2.5), wanted to play again. We have got this DK Fliptastic Animals board book out from the library at the moment (not really sure why as we don't often get board books now they are older) and it has this page about animals that live in the snow. Joseph was disappointed that we didn't have a reindeer to add to our box, but they are in the loft with the Christmas bits.

The next day after washing out the box we made up this magic snow that I bought before Christmas but never got around to using... I was hoping for fine powdery snow, however it was more of a fine gel consistency.

 The boys enjoyed adding the water & watching it grow however once again didn't like the texture (neither did I) it was very sticky & didn't brush off our hands easily. So again after a few minutes the boys were done.

On our list of things to try next is shredded paper, cotton wool balls, & ice also if we get any more real snow I will bring some in.

x Jo x