The Selfish Crocodile

A few days ago we read the story of the Selfish Crocodile.  If you are not familiar with this epic, it's about a rather mean crocodile who only discovers his softer side once an unlikely mouse helps him by removing a sore tooth.  My boys enjoy the pictures and the story which has similarities with the tale of the Good Samaritan. 

After reading the story, and because the boys were so into it, I decided to extend their learning with a little play dough activity.  

First we coloured the play dough together with yellow and blue food colouring, discussing colour mixing and kneading the dough.

Then with some help from me the boys moulded their play dough into simple crocodile head shapes and we added eyes and teeth from some of the wooden pieces in our Spielgaben set. 

We had fun putting the teeth in then extracting the bad one.  We talked about how crocodiles re-grow their teeth throughout their lives. 

Biscuit and I made the crocodile teeth from the wooden triangular shaped tablet pieces and Boris made his from the smallest white and black plastic sticks. 

Boris even had a go at re-enacting the moment from the story by getting his toy mouse to pull the tooth lol!

I love using stories to spark imaginative play and development of learning.  I am sure we will develop more project based activities using books as a starting point in the future. 

Fun Things to do With Toddlers - Autumn scents Playdough

Playdough is always fun, adding colour livens it up and adding a scent adds a further sensory element. I decided to create an Autumn themed playdough invitation to play by adding some spices to the playdough and teaming them with some leaf shaped cutters and some pine cones, feathers, twigs and conkers to press into the dough.

I fragranced the dough with ground cinnamon, all spice, ginger and coco powder.  I just kneaded the spices into the dough. It smelt amazing (especially the chocolate)

I didn't need to add any colour to the chocolate scented one because the brown of the coco also added colour.

I bought some leaf shaped cutters from Amazon, I am hoping to get lots of use out of them by using them to make biscuits and with clay.

Fathers from Hobbycraft 9I bought these years ago when I was at uni, not sure how ethical they are or if I would buy them now)

Pine cones gathered from one of our many walks.

Boris stuck twigs into the playdough to begin with, he needed quite a bit of encouragement initially, I am not sure he knew what to do, maybe he was a little overwhelmed by all the different bits and didn't know where to begin. 

 To start with he used to cutters with the playdough balls, but I demonstrated rolling out the dough and using the cutters that way and he imitated me.

 I stuck some of the cut out shapes to the balls of remaining clay which Boris seemed to enjoy, he also stuck some of the cutout shapes on.  He then had a good time mashing it all up into a big doughy mess.

This is the playdough recipe I used:

• 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• Up to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right)
• Poster paint for colour.
• Several teaspoons of spices till desired amount of fragrance is achieved, some scents require more spice than others.

I am hoping to do a few more Autumn themes activities as the season goes on.  Are you doing any seasonal activities?  Add a link in the comments. 

Planning For February

I think that February is going to be a busy month for us, there is a lot that I want to achieve and it makes me feel excited.
In January I planned a fun activity for Boris to do every day, I didn't share them because I didn't start it at the beginning of the month, but seeing as I am trying to be super organised I have managed to put together a similar list for February including lots new activities and some from January that we didn't manage to complete.  I have also included some fun activities that relate to holidays that occur in February (they aren't really holidays but I don't know what else to call them, days of note perhaps?) I like doing this because, even though Boris won't understand or recognise them it somehow makes the days seem more special and with time seeming to pass so quickly these days it feels like it makes them stand out within a month that is sure to fly by.

2 - Candlemas - Make an earthen candle, make a candle cake, have a candle lit dinner,

3 - Black and white zip-lock-bag painting,

4 - Put music on and dance,

5 - Make and play with sensory play doh (glitter, essential oil etc)

6 - Make tin can stilts and tin can telephones,

7 - Send a card to a friend day,

8 - Kite flying day,

9 - Throw balls into different sized containers,

10 - Play with coloured sensory rice,

11 - Potato printing,

12 - Pick up and transfer cotton wool balls with tongs,

13 - Play with puzzles,

14 - Valentines day activities,

15 - Go on a train ride,

16 - Sort stones and pebbles,

17 - Random act of kindness day,

18 - Visit a museum,

19 - Bang on sauce pans with wooden spoons,

20 - Make a cherry pie for Cherry Pie Day,

21 - Play pairs with pairs cards,

22 - Colour pasta with food colouring and thread onto pipe cleaners,

23- Play with sensory fabrics,

24 - Love your pet day (20th) let Boris play with the guinea pigs when I clean them out,

25 - Practice using cutlery to cut up play doh,

26 - Sort buttons and beads,

27 - Polar bear day - polar bear activities,

28 - Play with packing puffs.

I have a few other things planned for February, I read somewhere that February is self-care month so will be doing a few things for that throughout the month. Of course there is Valentines day, so will be doing some extra fun activities for Boris to mark that day (as well as a few for me and my husband) It's also Boris' 2nd Birthday (excited!) so am planning for that too, and we are having both our babies Baptised in March so I have planning to do for that too!  So much going on! 

What do you have planned for February?

Fun Things to do with Toddlers - Shaving Foam Play

I think, as with most ideas, I found this activity for the first time on Pinterest, I thought it was a great, fun idea and had to give it a go.  Obviously I had to wait until a time when it was unlikely that Boris would put the shaving foam in his mouth and as we had such lovely weather this summer it was no problem waiting for a good day to go outside and do it.  If you have wood or lino floors you could do this inside, but I felt it was too risky with carpet. I had put off doing this activity for ages because I was thinking it would be a waste of money because Boris wouldn't be into it, and neither my husband nor I use shaving foam, but when I saw I could get a can for 26p I thought why not?!
The basic idea is to spray some shaving foam on the mat or floor, drip food colouring onto it then allow the little one to smear the colours into the foam with their fingers or, if like me your toddler hates getting stuff on his fingers, with a paint brush.

 He soon became very interested in the little food colouring bottles and had a nice time lining them up, chewing them and trying to take the lids off. 

He picked up a plant pot the was lying around and I was very impressed by his creativity to press the pot into the foam and watch it squirt through the holes. 

It was an entertaining activity for me as well as Boris, he had a go at smearing the colours round with the brush and was fascinated by scooping the foam up onto the brush and flicking it about.  It was funny for me if he got even the tiniest bit of foam on his fingers because he insisted that it immediately be wiped off.  He is so funny about having stuff on his hands.  He was very disturbed when I sprayed a blob onto his hand!

This was a great fun activity,brilliant for sensory play and learning about the qualities of materials, but does need careful supervision, it was no trouble to clean up, I just hosed down the mat.  You could do this in the bath too, but I am a bit paranoid about all the chemicals and not really wanting them on Boris' skin. 
I think there are opportunities to develop this activity further with bowls and spoons and scooping and maybe squeezing it through different objects, also would be fun to make beards and hats and the like with it if you aren't paranoid about parabens and artificial fragrances like I am!!

Have you tried this activity or something similar?  What are you doing with your toddler now the days are getting shorter and the weather less welcoming?

Fun Things to do With Toddlers - Playing with ice

 A few weeks ago when the weather was really hot I thought I would freeze some objects in water in a Tupperware container with the idea that Boris could smash it open and dig all the bits out (I had seen something similar in Pinterest).  I forgot all about it then one sunny day last week when we had nothing in particular to do it popped into my head and I retrieved it from the depths of the freezer.
I thought I would share it with you today as those hot sunny days are rapidly coming to an end and there might not be many more chances to do an activity like this. 
In this tub I froze some sticks, feathers, pebbles, seeds, sand flowers and leaves.

At first he enjoyed scratching the ice crystals that had formed on the lid and on the surface of the ice:

He had a taste of it too,

The ice looked really beautiful filled with the different objects and you could see all the marks created during the formation of the ice inside.

Boris got frustrated because he wanted to get to the pebble straight away but couldn't,

We smashed it with a mallet, I held the handle but Boris had his hand on it too so he could feel involved,

 

I showed him how to lift up the pieces of broken ice to get to the objects inside,

He enjoyed throwing bits of ice on the ground and making it smash into smaller pieces,

One stick had a piece of ice stuck to the end, Boris licked it like a lolly pop!

He used another stick as a tool to push round and poke the broken pieces of ice,

 

In this activity Boris learnt a lot about the qualities of ice; that is is cold, wet, disappears over time and turns into water, is hard but breaks easily (brittle), you can see through it, it melts in your mouth, he learnt he could smash it with a heavy object or by throwing it,and that it was slippery and could be pushed around easily.  We spent quite a long time on this activity, we could have spent longer if it had been a cooler day, the ice melted very quickly!!  Boris seemed to really engage with the activity and didn't mind his hands getting wet.  The activity ended because we got too hot sat outside in the sun. 
I have made another one using herbs from the herb garden, it should create an interesting sensory experience when smashed open.

 

If you have a toddler then I would recommend this activity, it is fun to do and clean, very little clear up and takes very little time to put together (excluding freezing time).
What have you been doing with your toddler recently?

Fun things to do with Toddlers - Playing with Lentils

Some time ago I accidentally spilt a pack of lentils on the kitchen floor, Boris came in and had a wonderful time playing in them.  He picked them up and dropped them, swished them around and even "swam" in them!!  He loved it and we only had to end the activity because he started scooping up lentils into his mouth.  They aren't poisonous like some uncooked legumes but I couldn't imagine it being great for his little tummy.
So a few days ago when Boris was really restless and couldn't find anything to really hold his interest, I spread out the mat and poured some lentils into a bowl.  I got some metal measuring cups out and let Boris go wild.
He really enjoyed them again, scooping the lentils from one cup to another, spreading them around, running his fingers through them, stirring them, pouring them, sprinkling them through his fingers, throwing them about.  I didn't mind that the lentils went EVERYWHERE because he was so engaged with the activity.  It came to an end when he took a scoop full of lentils outside and....started eating them.

We played together with the lentils for a good 20 minutes and Boris even had a bit of fun banging to cups together and watching himself do it in the mirror.  It did take a long time to clear them up after, and there was substantially less in the pack after I had to hoover a load up that had breached the perimeter of the mat!  They got everywhere, stuck to my feet and I even found one sitting on my fat pregnant tummy when I was undressing for bed! Made me chuckle to myself.  But it was definitely worth it because he had a great time and the activity somehow really soothed him; enough for him to be able to entertain himself for some time afterwards. A highly recommended activity which I think has further potential as Boris gets older, in terms of weighing and measuring, and in craft activities.