This was a lovely activity that we did a couple of weeks ago using our stash of cardboard rolls. You can buy cardboard rolls from craft supply stores or you can recycle the tubes from your wrapping paper. We made some sunflowers using this technique a few years ago but I loved the idea of filling shapes and formations up with dried materials before painting them.
First me and my daughter cut up the rolls. We tried to cut them as straight as possible to make sure that when we stuck them down the base of the roll would stick down fully.
Once we had a good amount I poured some clear PVA onto a plate. You will need a large flat surface to submerge the rolls into as pictured above. This will ensure that they get a good coating of glue to help them stick down.
We used some recycled boxes for the cardboard base. The rolls stuck to them really well. We placed the rolls where we wanted them to be before adding a sheet of cardboard over the top and some weight to press them down. You want enough weight to push them down but not too much weight that will end up crushing them.
We left them to dry for 2 days before moving on to do a fine motor filling activity.
I saw a similar activity over on Mummy and the Bears where she used bird seed to fill cardboard roll formations. Some years ago I followed an online tutorial on And Next Comes L on how to dye chick peas. I store them in air tight containers so they are still used for many play set ups, years later. I thought they would compliment this activity really well so I got them out for the children to use.
This activity is really good for fine motor control as the children have to carefully transfer materials. It gives an opportunity to make patterns, explore colours and quantity and we found it was really good for bringing about some calm.
This activity is really good for fine motor control as the children have to carefully transfer materials. It gives an opportunity to make patterns, explore colours and quantity and we found it was really good for bringing about some calm.
Lets see this activity in action:
I loved Neves formation too. She really took her time and set about making patterns around the rolls.
You could look at gluing your dried materials/craft supplies down. We didn't do that as I love to reuse the chickpeas and the children had already said they wanted to paint them which is something we shall be doing really soon.
As I mentioned earlier, the chickpeas keep for years in a sealed container and they make a lovely sensory media to play with.
At the moment while we are all at home, I am really trying to offer as many activities that bring about some calm. The boys who are 3 can really struggle with regulating their needs for bit of quieter time so setting up an activity that requires them to really slow down is helping with this.
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