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

Snow In March - Fun Bath

 I can't believe that spring is just around the corner & we are busy preparing for Easter & we have SNOW! Snow in March is practically unheard of in the UK (especially the south) its almost as crazy as our BBQ & paddling pool in October a couple of years ago.

The boys were disappointed that we didn't get enough snow to go sledging or build a snowman this time. So we decided to have a snowman fun bath instead. 

I made some basic snowmen using craft foam & stuck on some eyes. Joseph (4) decided that the carrot noeses were party hats & soon after made a sun using the arms as sun rays. I didn't get many pictures as the boys were splashing lots & I fired for my camera! 

They both really love fun baths & they ask for them all the time. Its a great way to let them be creative & makes a real change from regular bath toys.

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

Snow Panting

When pinning several snow ideas on Pintrest I didn't think we would get enough snow to try any of them out! So as we did all of the usual snow activity's on day one of our snow, I thought we would try something new when it stuck around for a second day! 

I used one plant spray bottle & one empty (non-toxic) cleaning spray bottle. The plant sprayer was best as it had an adjustable spray.I added approximately a teaspoon of food colouring to each spray bottle. I only had blue, red or yellow food colouring in after using up all of our green in the Christmas bath. I went with the blue & red as the yellow would have looked a bit like wee, but it could have been better than the red as it looked like we had killed something! Goodness knows what our neighbours will think we have been up to!

 

Both boys really enjoyed the spray painting as it gave them something to 'do' in the snow. Its the first time they have used spray bottles (bad mummy) Daniel (2.5) has quite small hands so struggled at first but got the hang of it. We discovered that if you spray far away from the snow you get a lighter colour over a large area, but if you go up close you get a dark colour over a smaller area.

 

They took turns with the colours & they sprayed lots of snow making pictures & trying to change the colour of the plants. We even made a small snow man & sprayed on eyes, mouth, buttons & hair.

I even managed to take this picture while the boys were playing, they would only come in when the spray had run out.

Please be careful when using food colouring, we didn't have any permanent staining however the boys did end up with pink fingers through their gloves!

x Jo x

Snow Day

Where we live in the UK (near Bristol) we are lucky if we even see a dusting of snow each year! I only remember having enough to go sledging 2 or 3 times in my childhood.We had a couple of inches a couple of years a go, but we were unable to enjoy it properly as Daniel was a baby.

Well yesterday lots of the UK saw snow & we had approx 6 inches!!! This is the most snow I have ever seen, so the boys stayed home from pre-school & Daddy decided to close our shop for the day & stay home with us. 

We live at the bottom of a steep hill that doesn't get gritted, so luckily the snow was forecast & Daddy parked his car at the top of the hill, as it meant that we could drive about a mile away to get to a safe place for sledging. Even though we live on a hill we don't really have a good area that is safe enough. So I ran around the house gathering hats, gloves, waterproof suits & wellies, It took us the best part of an hour to gather all our things & get dressed!

Daniel (2.5) really didn't seam that keen on the snow, he found it hard to walk in & didn't really enjoy sledging on our knee, it does sometimes take him time to come around to new things. Joseph (4) loved it, enjoyed the sledging, was running & jumping, making snow angels & crawling round in it. Unfortunately the crawling meant that his wellies ended up full of snow, so his feet were wet & cold on the way home.

When we got home we had some lovely hot chocolate, & the boys were so tired they took a nap before lunch ( this is unheard of, especially Joseph).

After lunch we went out again to play in our back garden & make a snowman. Daniel enjoyed this much more especially our snow covered slide.

After tea we had our first ever movie night. We watched UP & had popcorn & chocolates left over from Christmas. Usually when we watch a film at home they will loose interest after 30 mins or so. But labelling it as 'Movie Night' with treats & turning the lights off seamed to work. I'm sure that telling them that as it was bedtime if they didn't sit nicely that they could go straight to bed also helped. We hoe to make this a bit of a tradition & have a movie night every month or so.

We had a lovely family day that I will remember for years to come...

x Jo x