Make your own Textured Rubbing Plates

Every time I am in an Arts and Crafts store I look at the textured rubbing plates. Master E and Miss M love using them when they go to Playgroup but the ones at the stores are expensive. Awhile ago I came across a post to make your own. (I can't find the link). It was very simple and quick to complete.

I started with some thick cardboard and cut them into large squares (I always have things like this stashed away, a nappy box would work perfectly), my trusty gluegun and some extra glue sticks.

Once the glue was quite hot I got to making patterns, these aren't fabulous but for the purpose it doesn't matter. I found it hard to control the amount of glue coming out and sometimes needed to retrace my lines.

Here are the finished plates, spots, swirls, lines, big and small zig zags and diamonds.

Here is a quick sneak peek of the pattern made from one of the zig zag plates. Not bad for my first attempt!

They are now ready and waiting for Master E and Miss M to get up and have a go. That will be the real test. If they go well I might have a go at making some letter and picture plates.

Enjoy! 

Small World Play ~ Construction Zone

Master E is right into Imaginative Play at the moment and is often roll playing. With a love of all things construction and vehicle related I set up this small world play for him and of course Miss M!

We started with a large low sided tray which I filled with our Rainbow rice (this has been the basis of many play sessions, usually cooking!) Here is the link on how to make the Rainbow Rice. I then added a few construction vehicles a digger, some dump trucks and trailers.

There was a lot of filling and emptying going on.

We filled up all the trailers and drove them around the construction sight.

Master E found it hard to scoop the rice up with the digger and enjoyed the sensory experience of using his hands.

Once Miss M decided to join in we found that we were short of vehicles so we added in some workers. Who apparently needed a rest! Miss M then decided we needed to have planes and helicopters too!

Miss M busy filling up a trailer.

The digger was busy "Digging a BIG hole!" There has been a lot of construction work near our house along the railway lately, so we have had lots of opportunities to watch what the construction vehicles are doing which made for some great role play and conversation.

Like with our other Small World Play there was a lot of play generated from this activity more than half an hour (a long time for my almost 3 year old and almost 2 year old). 

We did plan this one well and placed a plastic mat underneath the tub for an easy clean up of any spills.  This was very popular and as will all our rice activities the rice was packed away to be used again soon!

Cherry Blossom Printing using Softdrink Bottles

Today I had the pleasure of sharing the afternoon with some lovely young men, while their Mummy went off to have a much deserved massage. Her birthday is just a few days away so we decided we should make her some lovely art for the walls. I had seen this amazing Cherry Blossom Art from Alphmom and decided to make our own variation suitable for 2 to 4 year olds.

We started with empty 600ml soft drink bottles, some paint and cheap flat canvases.

The boys proceded to dip the bottles into the paint and print the bottom of the bottles onto their canvases. Making lovely flower/blossom shapes.

Master T who is 4 was great at creating the prints. Here he is inspecting his work.

Print, print, printing!

The 600ml bottles were a great size for the boys, they found them easy to hold and press down.

Master W busy printing his masterpiece. 

Close up of some of the art.

The finished works of art! And a fairly clean table!!!

I was so impressed with how easy this was and how amazing the finished pieces look. I think they look especially good as they are on canvas. (These were only cheap canvases $4 for a 2 pack). The boys felt super special knowing that they were creating real art and that it was for a purpose as a gift for their Super Mum Mrs S.
The only think to note is that they do take quite awhile to dry as the paint goes on rather thick. So allow for plenty of drying time.

Happy Creating!

Colour Sorting using Car Pictures

Master E is car mad and loves pasting so we decided to combine the two and do pasting with car pictures and threw in some colour sorting just for fun.
We started with six different coloured pieces of paper, a glue stick and a pile of car pictures I had cut out of magazines (got to love the op shop!)

Ready to get started.

Getting the hang of matching the colour of the cars to the colour of the paper. 

Being very industrious!

The finished pages, since we didn't come across any green cars in our pile we made the pages into a book with a green cover. Master E has been very keen to read his car book regularly!

Master E and I had a great time working on the car sorting together. He got the hang of matching the colours very quickly and needed less of my help than I thought.

We will be trying this one again soon, however with motor bikes next time!

Cotton Bud Painting

I had been meaning to try cotton bud painting for awhile. Master E is very keen on paint and this was a great way to minimise the mess while still giving him the paint experience.

I put a small amount of paint into an egg carton and added cotton buds.

Miss M was keen to get stated. The cotton buds were great as they absorbed the paint, so there were no drips or spills.

The paint went on nice and thin and made for quick drying.

Master E was painting a "Rainbow".

Some of Miss M's lovely line work.

Miss M practising her pincer grip with the cotton buds.

Master E decided some colour mixing was essential and ended up with a lovely teal, a mucky green and some grey!


We loved this way of painting and will be doing it again soon. Was fairly mess free and helped to develop fine motor skills. Another great thing was that there was no need to wash up paint. I just threw away the cotton buds and egg cartons, WIN!!

Hope you enjoy it too!

Playdough Tracks

Miss M isn't well today and has been asleep early, so I have been trying to keep Master E's noise to a minimum. A perfect opportunity to break out a new batch of playdough.

Master E decided to drive his car through. We talked about the tracks it was making and I showed him how to smooth the playdough out to create new tracks. This kept him occupied for a long time. So I went to find some other cars that would make good tracks.

This motorbike made the best tracks and was the easiest to drive across the playdough. It lead to lots of discussions about textures. Using lots of describing words (smooth, bumpy, rough)

The Taxi is Master E's current favourite car and was used to make the majority of the tracks. 

He went on to make a ramp, by himself to push the cars down.

Making more tracks.

Once Miss M was up she wanted to get into the action too. I gave her farm animals and she spent a long time pushing them in and out  of the playdough making footprints.

Miss M adding as many things to her playdough as she possibly can!

This playdough play lasted for more than an hour and a half with Master E. He was very engaged and loved making all the different tracks. It was a great oppotunity to increase his language and continue to develop his fine motor skills.

Paper Plate Tambourines

Looking for an easy craft to fill in a Winter afternoon. These Paper Plate Tambourines are super easy and made with items you can find in your pantry!

Here is what we started with, some paper plates, macaroni (any pasta will do, this is just what I had in the cupboard!) and some cellophane cut into strips.

Before we started, I turned two plates over so as to create a pocket in the centre and then stapled around the outside, making sure to leave an opening at the top so the children could add their pasta. We decorated our tambourines, added the pasta and stapled to close off the gap, adding some stripes of cellophane for tails.

Miss M busy decorating her tambourine with textas.

Master S with his finished tambourine, all ready to make some music!

Master E using his Tambourine as a steerling wheel!

Miss A and Miss O looking very proud of their efforts!

The gorgeous Miss L with her tambourine.

Our Favourite Playdough Recipe

We use playdough every other day. We have tried and tested a few recipes including this one for Jelly Playdough. Our favourite is cooked playdough.

Here is the recipe we follow

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour
• 4 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil (we use canola)
• 1 cup of salt (we use cheap table salt)
• food colouring
• 2 cups of water

Method

Mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan, stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until mixture congeals.

We find that this recipe works every time. The playdough is smooth and springy and lasts for ages in a sealed air tight container.

Hope it works as well for you!

Happy Creating!

Playdough Baking

Master E and Miss M are so very keen on playdough and cooking that we have decided to combine the two. As much as I love playdough, I personally am a bit over rolling it out and using various cutters to cut shapes for the monkeys. So we added a few new elements to our playdough play, and the play is lasting much longer and with far less intervention needed by me!!! Which means although I am there to help, I can sneak in a cup of much needed coffee!!! :)

For starters we added in patty pans, foil baking cases, bottle tops, yoghurt containers, candles and match sticks.
This generated much interest and kept them entertained for a very long time. I did spend a lot of time singing happy birthday and blowing out many, MANY candles!!!

Once interest had started to dissipate we spiced the playdough up by adding in some sprinkles. (love these ones made with natural colours and flavours!)

Master E enjoyed pouring the sprinkles onto and then making sure they were pushed in.

Miss M took at different approach and spent ages pushing her sprinkles in one by one.

We did end up with lots of sprinkles on the table, I showed Master E how to roll the playdough into balls and the roll  the balls in the sprinkles to make a coating.

Miss M thought this looked great too and got in on the act!



The sprinkles extended the length of playdough play by at least half and hour if not more. Which is a win for me and the kids had a ball. The playdough however, will not live to see another play as the sprinkles have made it quite sticky.
Was well worth it though.

Hope you enjoyed our playdough cooking. Am off to whip up a new batch now!