Playful Storytelling: Itsy Bitsy Spider Story Box

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Ness

Incy Wincy. Itsy Bitsy. Eensy Weensy. However you like to sing it, the traditional nursery rhyme about the little spider climbing up the water spout is a huger favourite in our home. Here in Australia we sing it as “Incy Wincy”. How do you sing it in your home or class room? We made a simple story box using recycled materials to go along with the song and R (4 yrs) has been thrilled with it. It was actually very quick to make and because it’s in a box, all the elements pack away neatly inside the box for easy storage – you have to love that!

We painted the inside of a cardboard box blue and green to represent a garden, adding some flowers at the front. On the top flap of the box, we glued on some cotton wool for clouds and a felt sun. To retell the nursery rhyme, we needed rain that could appear and then be taken away again so we painted a cardboard tube blue, and glued on some strips of blue tissue paper. The tube can be balanced on the two side flaps of the box at the appropriate part of the song, and then be taken away again as the sun comes out.

We painted one inside wall of the cardboard box to look like the wall of a house and added a water spout made from a cardboard tube covered in kitchen foil.

For our spider we cut a section from an egg carton and painted it black. For the legs, I used two black pipecleaners. I cut them in half to make a total of four lengths of pipe cleaner. Next, I made a hole on each side of the spider’s body, and threaded all four pipe cleaners in one side and out the other. I bent the ends of each leg to form a foot. To finish, we glued on two googley eyes and our spider was done.

Then it was time to play! Incy Wincy spider, climbed up the water spout….

(Enter the cardboard tub of “rain”) Down came the rain, and washed poor Incy out….

(Lift up the top of the box) Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain, so Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again!

Don’t forget to pop over to The Imagination Tree to see what Anna is sharing this week.

You can also follow all the fun via our Playful Storytelling Pinterest board.

You can see all of my Playful Storytelling posts here.

If this is your first time visiting One Perfect Day – welcome! If you like what you have found, please join us on Facebook or follow us on Pinterest or Twitter where you will find lots of ideas for fun kids activities, thoughts on parenting, family recipes and more.

DIY Lego Magnets

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Ness

These DIY Lego magnets would have to be one of the easiest crafts we’ve ever done. A few Lego bricks, some hot glue, a couple of magnets and voila! Instant colour and fun for the fridge. They’ve been a huge hit with the little Lego fan in our family.

MAKE DIY LEGO MAGNETS

Supplies:

Lego bricks

Strong magnets

Hot glue gun

Note: Self-adhesive magnet tape that you can buy in a roll won’t be strong enough for fridge magnets. You need something fairly strong if you want these to be practical and not just decorative. Having said that, I didn’t buy anything special for these. I used very inexpensive magnets from our local $2 shop (for my US and UK readers, that’s the Australian equivalent of the Dollar Tree). As for the glue, I used a hot glue gun and our magnets have held together perfectly. You could also use super glue or any strong glue of your choice. Regular craft glue won’t be strong enough though.

To make your Lego magnets, glue the magnet pieces to the back of the Lego bricks. That’s it! Pretty tricky right? Wait for at least 24 hours before using them. They’ll stick to the fridge just fine before then, but you don’t want to put any pressure on them to hold things to the fridge until the glue has completely dried, so it’s best to wait.

These magnets are so fun and colourful. They’ve definitely brightened our kitchen. They’d be a fun addition to a magnetic board in a home office or play room.

The magnets would also make a quick and simple DIY gift – perfect for a Lego fan – and who doesn’t know at least one? They would also be a great party favor for a Lego themed birthday party.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Ness

Sidewalk chalk paint is such a fun outdoor activity for kids. It is quick and simple to make and uses just three common household ingredients. Sidewalk chalk paint offers hours of creative play and it all washes away easily with a hose or some rain.

It’s Autumn here in Australia yet the weather has been gorgeously sunny and warm so we’ve been spending as much time outdoors as possible. We enjoyed taking our art to the beach recently and so we thought it would be fun to try taking art outdoors again. Last week I whipped up a batch of sidewalk paint and R (4 yrs) had a wonderful time painting and exploring with this simple diy paint.

How to make sidewalk chalk paint

Simply mix together equal parts of corn flour (corn starch for my US readers) and water and add several drops of food colouring. That’s it. It’s that simple. I don’t measure anything. I usually just half-fill the container I’m using with corn flour (corn starch) and then top it up with water. I add the food colouring and mix. It’s best to be generous with the food colouring because the paint will dry slightly paler than it looks when it’s wet.

I mixed up several colours and we headed outside for some colourful fun. I offered R some sponge brushes as well as regular paint brushes. The sponges worked really well and were a great way to achieve a good thick coverage of paint.

R enjoyed dipping the paint brushes into the paint and then flicking them across the cement to create this lovely splatter effect.

The colours were so vibrant and happy. We found that the corn flour was settling a little at the base of the muffin tin so we would mix the colours with the brushes before using them. This was another way to ensure a good thick coverage of paint.

After creating a few pictures, R decided to tip out all of the colours. It created the most beautiful marbled effect as the colours spread and mixed together.

Such a gorgeous river of colour!

The mixture is basically a concentrated version of goop – you know, the corn flour and water mixture that is a solid when you put your hand into it but runs through your fingers like a liquid. This turned into a wonderful sensory activity and R explored the strange mixture – solid and tough as he ran his fingers through it on the cement but thin and runny when he lifted up his hand and it poured through his fingers. Those messy hands make me happy! It all washed off very easily and what a fantastic sensory exploration!

R tried using the sponge roller over the paint but he found that it didn’t spread – it was a solid once it hit the ground.

R explored happily for half an our or so and I had fun creating some colourful artwork in our back yard as well. We were left with beautiful bright happy murals along our garden path and it makes me smile every time I walk into our yard. We are going to wait for some rain to wash this all away but if you needed to clean up right away you could do so very easily with a garden hose.

I am thrilled to be hosting the 100 Days of Play blog hop today. Co-hosted by Sun Scholars and Life at the Zoo, the 100 Days of Play Blog Hop brings together 100 blogs from around the world, offering 100 play ideas over 100 days. If you have ever heard the words “Mum I’m bored!” or you think you might be running out of play ideas with your children or students, the 100 Days of Play Blog Hop will definitely provide some inspiration!

100 Days of Play Blog Hop
Sharing simple ideas on how to connect with your children through play!
New ideas shared each day from 4/1 – 7/20.

Help us spread the word!

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100 Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful bloggers

SunScholars . Frogs, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails. Playful Learners . Train Up a Child . Fantastic Fun & Learning . Scribble, Doodle & Draw . Learn. Create. Love. . Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas . Nothing if Not Intentional . My Little 3 & Me . Buggy & Buddy . Sun Hats & Wellie Boots . Twodaloo . True Aim . The Educators’ Spin On It . Blog Me Mom . Life At The Zoo . Putti’s World . Kitchen Counter Chronicles . Triple T Mum . Busy Kids Happy Mom . Crystal’s Tiny Treasures . Rainy Day Mum . Momma’s Fun World . My Little Bookcase . Craftulate . One Perfect Day . MumCentral . Artchoo! . Creative World Of Varya . Simple. Home. Blessings. . JDaniel4′s Mom . NurtureStore . Me & Marie Learning . Child Central Station . Mamas Like Me . Mama Miss . Making Boys Men . Powerful Mothering . Craft to Art . 3 Dinosaurs . Domestic Goddesque . Lessons Learnt Journal . Royal Baloo . Smiling Like Sunshine . Adventures at Home with Mum . B-Inspired Mama . PragmaticMom . Eazy Peazy Mealz . Gluesticks . TheBoy&Me . Learning is Messy . My Nearest & Dearest . Growing Book by Book . How to Run a Home Daycare . Here Come the Girls . Think Magnet . Dandelions Picked . 123 Homeschool 4 Me . Our Ordinary Life . Parenting with Professor Poppins . 2 Little Hooligans . Fun-a-Day! . The Non-Martha Mamma . Angelique Felix . My Very Educated Mother . Creative Playhouse . Go Explore Nature . Zing Zing Tree . Sense of Wonder . Childhood 101 . Crayon Freckles . KZ & Me . Serenity You . This Mumma’s Life . Leapfrog & Ladybugs . Blue Bear Wood . Growing Together . KC EDventures . Mommy Lessons 101 . Nature & Play . Like Mama Like Daughter . Mums Make Lists . From Wine to Whine . Messy Kids . Babble Dabble Do . Sugar Aunts . Teaching @ Home . Preschool Powol Packets . Clothed in Love . Curiosity Creates . The Magnolia Barn . Strong Start . Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide . Learn with Play at Home . Mummy… Mummy… MUM! . Science Sparks . Toddler Approved . Thrive 360 Living . Rockabye Butterfly . Mud Hut Mama . Coffee Cups & Crayons . Playing with Words 365 . My Lil Love Bugs . Creative Connections for Kids . LalyMom . Love, Play, Learn . Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers . The Pleasantest Thing . Teach Beside Me

Playful Storytelling: Three Little Pigs Dramatic Play

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Ness

For this week’s Playful Storytelling post we are continuing the theme of traditional Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes. We had fun dressing up and using simple props to retell the story of the classic fairy tale The Three Little Pigs. We are all about simple play and using items we already have around our home. With just a few simple items, we had everything we needed to have an afternoon of fun acting out one of R’s favourite traditional tales.

Our very simple wolf costume was created using a party mask that we pulled from R’s dress up drawer. I used black paint to add features such as the nose and eyes. The ears are two triangles cut from some silver cardboard, then outlined with black pipe cleaners. The ears were attached to the mask with adhesive tape – all very quick and easy. Now, I actually think this looks more like a fox than a wolf, but R was thrilled with it and that’s all that matters, isn’t it? This is about playful story telling, not complicated crafts and details. For the finishing touch I tied one of my scarves around R’s waist and voila! A wolf’s tail!

For our straw house we used a few wicker baskets stacked together. These baskets are the kind that fit inside the Expedit shelves from IKEA. The base comes out of them so they can be packed flat and two bases leaning against each other made the perfect roof for out little house.

After building our straw house and it was time to huff, and puff and bloooooow that house down! Disclaimer: there may have been a little more than wind power used to knock down this house!

That wolf’s tail is the cutest, isn’t it? I love dress ups that turn every day clothes into something magical. For our stick house we gathered up some fallen branches and twigs from our front yard. We have an enormous gum tree that sheds tonnes of twigs every day. We basically just piled them up into a big mound and called it a house. Our own home became the third little pig’s brick house.

This took next to no time to put together and R had a brilliant time. When it comes to playful storytelling, or any imaginative play, the simpler the props the better. It leaves so much scope for children’s imaginations to run wild.

Do your children have a favourite nursery rhyme or fairy tale?

Don’t forget to pop over to The Imagination Tree to see what Anna is sharing this week.

You can also follow all the fun via our Playful Storytelling Pinterest board.

You can see all of my Playful Storytelling posts here.

First Map Skills – Teaching Kids How to Read Maps

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Ness

if you’re a regular reader here, then you know just how much R (4 yrs) loves treasure hunts. We’ve enjoyed a garden treasure hunt with painted rocks, and an alphabet treasure hunt with objects from around our home to name just a few. I thought it would be fun switch things up a little and add some map reading to our treasure hunt games. Map reading is an important skill for kids to learn. It fosters spatial awareness, encourages problem-solving skills, creative thinking and reasoning.

To introduce R to basic map reading, I drew a simple plan of our living room. This was just a simple rectangle frame with the windows marked on the sides. I then wrote the names of “landmarks” within the room on pieces of cardboard. These landmarks were the furniture in our room – bookshelves, sofas, coffee tables etc. I colour coded the cardboard landmarks so that sofas and chairs were all one colour, tables and bookshelves were another, and the TV was a third colour.

I talked to R about orientation, and explained that the map was a representation of the room in which we were standing.

He then placed the landmarks in their appropriate positions on the map and glued them in place.

Let the treasure hunt begin! When the map was complete, I hid five Lego mini figures around the room and placed blue dot stickers on the map to show where they were hidden.

R then used the map to navigate himself around the room and find the Lego mini figures.

This was a huge hit and when he had found all five Lego figures, R hid the figures for me to find. He moved the blue dot stickers to the appropriate parts of the map to show me where he had hidden the figures, so he was using the map in a new way as we reversed our roles in the game. I’m not sure if it was the fact that we were playing a treasure hunt game, or that it involved Lego or that he was excited to learn something new (map reading) but whatever it was, R loved this game!

Taking Art Outdoors

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Ness

A blank canvas and an endless view. So many possibilities.

We’ve been enjoying some beautifully warm Autumn weather recently and last week we took advantage of the sunshine and headed to the beach for some seaside painting.

I packed a few different shades of paint and some brushes into a plastic container. I didn’t want to be fussing with lots of paint bottles and extra supplies so this was the perfect solution. The paints were poured into a couple of empty cracker packages so any unused paint could be easily thrown away, without any messy clean up. I recycle anything and everything for use in our art and craft. Cracker and cookie packages make the perfect containers for paint. In many ways, this was much simpler than setting up for painting at home. I was forced to keep things simple, and keep supplies to a minimum. It worked beautifully.

When we arrived at the beach, I asked R where he would like to set up. When he had chosen a spot, I put a blank canvas on our easel, and left the paints and brushes in their container on the sand. So simple, but oh so inviting.

R sat quietly on the sand and took in the view for a few minutes before beginning his picture. It was lovely (and surprising!) to watch him sitting so still and so quietly as he contemplated his surroundings.

After a few minutes, he pointed across the water and declared “I’m going to paint that part over there”. He then began painting intently.

I love the way he his holding the brush in this photo. He really seemed to enjoy this whole process very much, experimenting with different brush strokes and mixing paint colours to create new hues.

I had packed paint brushes with different thicknesses of bristles and he experimented with each of them.

He even added some finger painting to his picture.

R found the perfect place to store his brushes between uses!

His finished masterpiece. Apparently that’s me on a surfboard! I have never been on a surfboard in my life so this is R’s imagination at work. Perhaps he’s trying to tell me to try something new? This was a beautifully calm, relaxed and simple activity. R seem inspired to try new techniques, experiment with colours and generally take things slow and enjoy the moment. We’ll definitely be taking our art outdoors more often.

Do your kids enjoy painting outdoors? Where is your favourite place to paint?

A Sweet Little Easter Candy Bag

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Ness

These little party bags are so cute and they’re really simple to make. The little “window” on the front is a fun way to show the delicious goodies inside. I used a plain brown paper bag for this one but they would look adorable with coloured bags or why not try using a white paper bag and the kids could decorate it with stickers, drawings or stamps. These bags aren’t limited to Easter of course. Simply change the shape of the “window” and they can be adapted to any event or party theme. The window is easier to create than you might think and you don’t need any artistic skills (believe me, I cannot draw!!) I simply used a cookie cutter as my template.

How to make an Easter Party Favor Bag

Supplies:
Paper bag
Easter themed cookie cutter (eggs, bunnies, chickens etc)
Clear cellophane
Scissors
Adhesive tap
Ribbon or twine
Hole punch (optional)
Candy to fill your bag!

Using the cookie cutter as a template, draw a shape on to the front of the bag.

Cut out the shape from the bag.

You will be left with a hole in the bag in the shape of your cookie cutter. Cut a rectangle of clear cellophane, large enough to cover the hole in the paper bag. Slide the cellophane inside the bag and attach it to the bag using the adhesive tape. Fill the bag with candy and treats. I added some Easter grass as well. Fold over the top of your bag, make two holes in the top of the bag using the hole punch or the pointed end of your scissors. Thread through some pretty ribbon or twine and tie in a bow. Voila! A pretty Easter party favour bag.

What’s your favourite Easter candy? What would you put inside your treat bag?

Looking for more Easter activities and crafts? Here are a few of our other fun Easter posts.

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Easter Play Dough

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Ness

I really love Easter (and Christmas and New Year’s Eve and birthdays and….you get the idea). All of the pretty pastels that are around at this time of year make me smile and today I made a few batches of home made play dough in soft shades of lemon, strawberry and lime. They looked like gelato (I see some ice-cream parlor imaginative play in our future!) R (4 years) enjoyed our Christmas play dough activity so much that I decided to set up something similar for him today.

Play dough is always such a calming activity – perfect for late in the afternoon when I’m cooking dinner and need something to keep R busy. I set out the play dough along with a rolling pin and some bits and pieces for R to use to decorate his play dough creations.

The tray of goodies included pom poms (for bunny tails of course!), toothpicks and pipe cleaners (for bunny whiskers), some googly eyes and various sequins for decorating some play dough Easter eggs.

Just as I did with our Christmas play dough, I gathered our Easter themed cookie cutters and the Easter play dough fun began.

After rolling out the play dough, R cut some shapes out with the cookie cutters.

Lots of fine motor skills being used here!

Love these cute little bunnies! I also love that R added pom pom bunny tails to the eggs as well as the bunnies.

These colours are just so delicious. Home made play dough is so soft and smooth. It lasts for such a long time as well.

This is how I store my play dough. I put each colour into a zip lock bag. I flatten the play dough as much as possible and then I store it in the fridge. Since the bags are flat, they don’t take up much space at all. When we want to use it again, I let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes, then knead it for about a minute and it goes right back to being lovely, soft and squishy.

R had lots of fun with this activity and his Easter creations are now on display on in our living room. It makes me happy every time I look at those lovely colours and the cute little bunny tails.

Looking for more Easter activities and crafts? Here are a few of our other fun Easter posts.

Clothes peg Butterlies – Simple Craft for Kids

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Ness

Last month I took R (4 yrs) to a local zoo and one of the highlights was a beautiful butterfly enclosure. He is always so excited when we spot a butterfly in our garden but they are elusive and usually flutter away before he’s able to observe them properly. The butterfly enclosure was so exciting to him.

We were able to observe them very closely as they sat on the plants in the enclosure. Those of you who follow OnePerfect Day on Instagram will recognise the photo above which I shared last month.

All of this has sparked R’s interest in butterflies so I opened our copy of The Garden Classroom – the fabulous e-book from Cathy at Nurturestore. The gorgeous colour photos throughout The Garden Classroom make this e-book such a pleasure to read and R loves to flip through the pages himself and pick out our next project. When he spotted Cathy’s clothes peg butterflies he couldn’t wait to get started.

How cute is this little guy? We have been making our way through the wonderful kids gardening activities in the e-book. It is full of fun projects to introduce kids to the wonders and pleasures of gardening, and the activities offer learning opportunities in math, literacy, cooking skills, art, craft and science.

R loved making these sweet little butterflies and afterwards there was lots of imaginative play as we took them on a flight around the living room. These will make a really sweet Mother’s Day gift and R is very excited to be giving them to his grandmothers this Mother’s Day.

The Garden Classroom has been such a wonderful resource. There are so many projects and there’s always something that takes our fancy. The projects are suitable for kids from two through to ten so I know we’ll have years of use from this book.

Cathy provides lots of tips for extending the learning opportunities for each project – even in a simple craft like this one. During this project, we talked about symmetry, colour and butterfly life cycles.

The instructions in The Garden Classroom are clear and simple. I really appreciated the tip about standing our clothes pegs on a glass to help press the wings in place while the glue dried.

I think what I love most about The Garden Classroom is the sheer number and variety of projects. There’s always something to inspire us. There are ideas for growing our own fruit and vegetables, bringing the outdoors inside with our own mini meadow, recipes for enjoying all of our home-grown produce, art and craft projects, science projects, maths and literacy activities, indoor activities, outdoor activities, and there are projects for every season of the year.

Download your copy of The Garden Classroom with a 25% discount

The Garden Classroom is available for download as an e-book. Just click on any of the links in this post to download your copy and, to celebrate the beginning of Spring, Cathy is offering a 25% discount off the cover price! Simply enter the discount code GrowingKids1 at the checkout to receive your discount. The 25% discount code is only valid until March 8, so be quick!

Cathy kindly spoke with me last year about her wonderful book. You can read the full interview here.

If this is your first time visiting One Perfect Day – welcome! If you like what you have found, please join us on Facebook or follow us on Pinterest or Twitter where you will find lots of ideas for kids activities, thoughts on parenting, family recipes, and much more.

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Pretend Food Made with Sponges

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Ness

“Sponge” cake, anyone? Playing pretend restaurant is one of R’s (4 yrs) favourite imaginative games. Sometimes he will “cook” up some fabulous concoction using old expired ingredients from the pantry, other times he uses our plastic play food. Last week, we thought it would be fun to create our own play food using sponges. This was a very simple project using supplies we already had on hand, and we spent the morning “baking” a sponge cake and making “toast”.

Our most delicious “sponge” cake and toast!

The beauty of this project is that you don’t need too many supplies – just a sponge, some paint and a paintbrush, and a pair of scissors or a knife to cut the sponge. We also used some tissue paper (not pictured) to make a cherry on top of our cake.

We began by drawing a triangle shape on the top to represent a piece of cake and, using a knife, I cut a triangle from the sponge. Our sponge was one of those great big thick ones you use for washing the car, which worked perfectly to make a nice high piece of cake. I cut the triangle piece of sponge in half horizontally to represent the top and bottom half of the piece of cake but in hindsight I wouldn’t bother with that next time.

After I had cut out the sponge, R got to work painting and decorating. He painted a white line through the middle to represent cream, and he added some purple “icing” on top. He then scrunched up a small piece of red tissue paper to make a cherry. Finally, he added some more “cream” with some added touches of white paint. Delicious!

There are so many things you could use to decorate the top of the cake – glitter, sparkly cut out shapes that you can buy from the craft store, or even little dots of paint all over the top to look like sprinkles.

The rounded ends of our sponge really lent themselves well to making toast. I used a knife to cut a couple of slices of toast and R painted the “crusts” brown.

We don’t have any brown paint so R had fun mixing black and orange to make a toasty brown colour. He loves mixing colours and all of our painting sessions tend to end up as a colour mixing experiment.

Once R had finished decorating the food, we set them aside to dry. Then it was time for a very elegant afternoon tea! Sponge cake anyone?

You simply must bring out the good silverware for an afternoon tea party, right? How very civilized! We still have quite a lot of sponge left over so we think we might make some cheese next (the sponge is the right colour and it has all those holes!) What types of food would you make?

If this is your first time visiting One Perfect Day – welcome! If you like what you have found, please join us on Facebook or follow us on Pinterest or Twitter where you will find lots of ideas for kids activities, thoughts on parenting, family recipes, home organisation ideas and more.

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