Play Create Explore: June 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

Body Painting on a Sheet

It has been so hot recently that I haven't been able to do this activity with L because his bear feet would be scorched, however, today we are having a BIT of a cooler summer day and so we did

some body painting on a sheet! Get ready for a mess! But cleanup is simple and fun--just let them run through the sprinkler!

What you'll need
old or new sheet
washable paints
paper plates/plastic or tin pans (just something to put the paint on and let them step in it)

*Try to remember to let this be open ended art. Let them explore with dipping different body parts into the paint and then onto the sheet. They may even get rocks or sticks and dip and paint with them as well! All this fosters creativity and should not be discouraged.

Lawson's Sheet Painting Experience

Tada! (you can see that mommy got in on it a bit too) hehe

When this dried, I cut out some of the feet and hand prints that I wanted to keep and then glued them onto a piece of construction paper. After that dried I framed it. I loved that I got a piece that had my footprint and Lawson's footprint side by side. :)

Such fun!

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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Homemade Fishing Game

I love making homemade games and toys for L (when I have the time!) Here's one that I threw together in about 45 minutes (not including the trip to the laminating place.)

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Construction Paper

Fish Outline

Magnets

String or yarn

Dowel

glue (super glue works best)

DIRECTIONS

I Googled for fish templates that I liked and found two that I thought were perfect.

Here's the ones I found:

Fish Template 1

Fish Template 2

I Saved them and then opened them up in Microsoft Word so I could size them exactly how I wanted.

To make the fish:

1. Trace the templates onto construction paper and then cut out

(you can have your kids color or paint the fish too!)

2. If you want to make the fish sturdier (and I highly suggest you do) you can cover them with clear contact paper or take them to a laminating store and have them done (which is what I did) I paid about $3 to have 10 fish done.

3. Cut out the laminated fish

4. Glue a magnet to one side of each fish.

To make the fishing pole:

1. Glue your yarn to the end of the dowel stick...or even a real stick.

2. Glue a magnet to the other end of the yarn

AND THATS IT!

Kinda blurry but you can tell how excited he is about catching a fish haha

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Monday, June 21, 2010

Cotton Ball Activity: Exploring SOFT

Here's a simple activity I did with L to delight his senses and to be able to explore and talk about SOFT. All I did was dump a big bag of cotton balls ( a big bag is very cheap btw) on the table in front of him and just let him explore with it. He loooves soft things so he enjoyed this very much. He balled a bunch up in his fist and squeezed them, pulled them apart, tried to build a snowman, touched his face with them...and after I let him explore to his hearts content, I took a few in my hand and said " oooo this feels...." and let him finish the sentence. I did this a few times to see what he would come up with. He said they were SOFT, FLUFFY, and then he said you had to be gentle with it....SO, I wrote these three words Soft, Fluffy, and Gentle, on construction paper and then let him glue some cotton balls to it. Gluing is ALWAYS fun for twos and toddlers!

"oooo soft"