Pattern Blocks

I spent some time creating some pattern block pictures for the children to use. While making the pictures we talked about the different shapes, how many sides they had, the different colours etc. Good for hand eye co-ordination too.

They then spent time creating their own designs, the first one is a robot.

Water Beads

I've come across lot of talk of children playing with water beads and decided to get some as they seem to have gone down well with other children. They were a huge hit! The first time we used some, I let them swell up over night, so they had some to play with straight away but I also emptied a packet into some water when the children arrived so they could see how much the beads grew. They kept popping over to look a the tub to see how much bigger they had got.

So this week we hydrated 5 packs for our play session including some clear beads. The clear beads are great, we put them in a separate pot to start with because when they are in water you can't see them unless the water moves. The children were surprised that there were beads in the pot and there were squeals of delight when they put there hand in and felt the beads that they couldn't see.

In case you haven't come across water beads before, they are used for flower arranging but are safe to handle etc but I wouldn't use them with the babies particularly if they like to put everything in their mouth.

This is a before and after hydration.

In between play we store them with a little water in a large pot with a lid.

So for today's play session, we had 3 different sized water trays, one empty, one with the water beads and the other set up with the sea animals etc, as well as the toy boats and different containers.

They spent a long time just filling up different containers and pouring them either back into the main tub or into other containers. Seeing how heavy they made the bottle, comparing the size of bottles, counting how many bead would fit in a bottle, never did find out, it's rather a lot anyway!

We also spent time seeing how many beads would sink a boat, a floating lid etc,

 sorting them into different colours in the pots and even layering the different coloured beads to see what patterns they could make.

I must admit I like playing with the water beads too, they really do have a lovely feel. the ones I used are these , just in case you are tempted to have a go too :)

Kitchen Roll Art

We had friend's visit the other week and they had fun creating pictures on kitchen roll, following the different dot patterns on the paper. The younger ones struggled to draw on the kitchen roll so they had some sheets of paper to draw on instead.

We then pegged them out on a clothes horse in the garden

they then took a spray bottle of water and sprayed their art work to see what would happen. They were really intrigued with the way the ink spread and run and the difference between the ink on paper and the ink on kitchen roll.

                            

Boats

Having had so much rain recently I thought we would have some more fun with water but not puddle jumping this time. The children and I spent the morning making different types of boats.

We started of with some paper origami ones,

The children managed the first few folds on their own or with just a little help but as it got further on, we worked together to complete the boats.

We then used some A4 paper to make your traditional paper boat, they then decorated them with felt tips. They were very curious as to what might happen to their pictures when they got wet.

We then cut up some sticks to make a raft.

We tied the sticks together with some wool.

I then cut out some cardboard rectangles, cut out a paddle shape from the back and trimmed it so it is slimmer than the gap. Wrap an elastic band round the outside of the cardboard and fit the paddle through the middle of the band and wind it up,

you can then launch your paddle boat and of it should go, they quickly discovered that depending on which way you wound it as to whether it went forwards or backwards.

They spent ages playing with them, I had to cut some more cardboard out because after a while they get rather soggy.

Much to the children's amazement the raft floated and the lego man stayed safe.

They had so much fun that I will definitely be doing this again, I am tempted to get some of this waterproof origami paper and see how well it does work.