At the moment the boys are really enjoying filling and emptying containers. With Easter approaching I have been loosely theming some of the play set ups so as Easter approaches they can be aware of a few things they may see around them. They have started to take an interest in numbers and recognise a couple of them so we are also working at building on this too.

We have recently planted our Sunflower seeds and Little N checks each day to see if there is any sign of them sprouting above the soil yet. It wont be long now and then we get to plant them out in the garden and our Sunflower competition begins - Who can grow the biggest Sunflower.

The sun has been out and we have been enjoying lots of time in the garden, but the good old British weather means we have gone from applying the factor 50 and getting to swimming pools out in the garden to needing our wellies and umbrellas!

GUESS the time I was woken up this morning? 7am? 9am? Nope all wrong - 5am on a Sunday!! 
Ohhh the pain!! I am full of cold right now too which dont help the mood and I had the joys of nightmares last night that I wont go into - (must be the overdose on hot chocolate, trying to ease the croaky throat!) Anyway, up early all dressed and ready to leave the house at 8.30am sharp!! Aren't we good? The sun was out so it quickly changed my mood!!  I put Michael Bolton on full blast in the car which pleased the other half - NOT..... and off we went.

I often worry if I am doing enough arts and crafts with my toddler. I know its important, but things get so busy sometimes life happens and BAM another day with no arts and crafts.

We are very happy to welcome Vicki Pellatt from Hull to Learning and Exploring Through Play. Vicki owns Edens Baby Experiences with her business partner Nicola Thompson and together they provide messy play sessions, baby massage and sing and sign. Edens Baby Experiences provide lots of hands on experiences for children and their families.

Delivering Messy Play to babies from 6 months we always strive to offer safe and healthy messy play. It is paramount that what we provide will not hurt the children in any way. Babies put anything and everything in their mouths, so we always keep this in mind when we are planning our sessions. We also take into consideration any allergies and personal requirements.

Most of the homemade playdough recipes I have seen contain salt, and a lot of it! Salt is not good for babies, or anyone for that matter. It also our skin feeling very dry.

It was a challenge to come up with a homemade no salt playdough recipe. Salt helps to preserve the playdough. We took away the salt and used lemon juice instead. Lemon Juice also helps to preserve.

Empty toilet rolls come in handy for lots of arts and crafts.
I had a couple of rolls that I had put aside and Little N was asking to paint. I set it up for her and put the toilet rolls to the side so she had access to them if she wanted to use them in her painting.
I observed her to see if she would dip them into the paint, paint them with the paint brushes, or decide not to use them altogether.


She selected the rolls straight away and dipped them into a tray of colorful paint.
She then set about printing all over the paper. I was actually really suprized at how effective the printing was. Little N noticed straight away that she was creating circles.


The way I had spread the paint across the tray added to the patterns that were created too, as there was soon an array of colorful circle patterns.

So there you have it, save your toilet rolls and have them out for your next painting invitation to play!

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Hello, my name is Cindy O’Brien.  

I live in beautiful Northeast Pennsylvania USA. 

I have a home daycare with 6 children.  

I have really got excited in the last few years about using sensory boxes in my play room.  

I create them based on the theme we are working on and/or the season.  

This weeks theme was squirrels.  

I created this sensory box using acorns we collected in our yard, tree stumps and little log pieces.  

I also added little tin buckets, felt leaves, little pumpkins, burlap bags, little rakes and little squirrels.

This Sensory Box was a great hit with the all the children in my setting this week! 



I watched as they began to sit and arrange the squirrels, they scooped up the tiny acorns in their hands and began to fill up the buckets. 
They used the wooden logs to build interesting structures for the squirrels to explore.
A couple of the children used the squirrels to role play, they changed their voice tones and had the squirrels interacting with each other!

Some children really enjoyed running their hands through the acorn covered bottom.  

I have found the squirrels all gathered on one wood piece, hiding under the acorns or off in a toy wagon going for a ride!  

I love the imagination and creativity that these sensory bins create each week.  

Each child reacts different to them.  Some play alone.  Some dialogue with other children and role play.  It is delightful to watch and listen to.

Cindy O'Brien will be sharing some more great activity ideas with us very soon!

Salt Dough Diva lamps are great for children of any age.
It allows them freedom to be create and express themselves, making a piece of art. They can then go on to learn about the Festival of Light, Diwali celebrated by Hindu's and Sikhs around the world.
Diwali is also celebrated to mark a good crop at Harvest.

Little N is currently 23 months old.

I made the salt dough the night before I planned to make these with her.

You will need:

1 cup of Salt
2 cups of Plain Flour
1 cup of water

Add to a bowl and mix well.

The following day I gave Little N some of the salt dough to play with.
I explained to her what I was doing as I made them and showed her as we did it.
She did a great job copying in her own interpretation, she really enjoyed it so I am glad I included her in this stage.
While she made her 'diva lamps' I was sitting at the other end of her table making a selection of diva lamps ready to bake.

As Little N is still so young she hasn't quite got the control to manipulate materials like dough to create effects like the Diva lamps, but I knew she would really enjoy decorating and watching them all lit for Diwali.



I baked the lamps in the oven on 100 degrees for around an hour and a half.

You can wait for them to air dry but I dread to think how long you would be waiting for.

Once they were cooked I left them to cool down.

The following day we set about painting them.



Little N really enjoyed doing this, and even recalled what the lamps were called as I placed them down on the table ready to paint, in front of her. She swirled her brush around, covering the lamps with colourful paint! I helped a little too to make sure the paint covered the lamps all over.

She loved cleaning the brushes in the jug
"I'm helping Mommy" she said.
"You're doing a great job!" I replied.
"All done now, brush all clean" she added.

Here is how they looked as they were waiting to dry:


I left them to dry over night.

The following day it was time to get lots of different coloured glitter and sequins together ready to make the lamps even more attractive.

Little N is like a crow and loves anything that's pretty and sparkles.

Together we covered the lamps in lots of see-through PVA glue and she began selecting the sequins and glitter as she wished to decorate the diva lamps.

Here are the outcomes:


Our Diva lamps were ready in time to light for Diwali!

Learning:

- Fine motor skills
- Being creative
- Colours
- Learning about different cultures and celebrations
- Working together

Extending

We will go on to learn about more cultures and celebrations. As Little N gets older I shall teach her more about what the celebrations mean and why they are celebrated. For now we plan to keep things fun and simple.