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. 

Lion King Week - Day 3

Back in the summer last year Boris was mad on The Lion King film so I thought it would be fun to do a Lion King themed week for him with lots of sensory activities and fun things to do.  I didn't get round to posting about it at the time because it was a big project and I just never seemed to find the time to gather and edit all the photos. 

I have finally found the motivation to share it with you, (probably because I have been really lacking in activities for the boys recently so have nothing else activity-wise to share)  so here is it.  7 days of our activities to take you through the week.

Ah the joys of play dough, these days every themed week I do must involve play dough in some shape or form.  For our Lion King week I made some jungle/safari coloured play dough. 

I went with a brown, orange, yellow and a lovely bright green.  I followed a no-cook recipe and left out the cream or tartar because I didn't have any.  The dough was lovely and soft, but didn't keep. 

He had lots of fun squishing the dough in his hands, rolling it and using the cutters, lots of scope for fine motor skill development, imagination and stimulation of the senses.

It's also important not the forget the boost in confidence a toddler can get from a simple action like rolling dough and using a cutter to create an animal shape.  He was very proud. 

Of course the dough ended up in one big lump, but that was fine by me. 

Join me again for another Lion King themes activity tomorrow evening. Don't forget you can subscribe by email to my posts (on the right had side) and you can like my facebook page to keep up to date with posts.

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. 

Fun Things to do With Toddlers - Play Dough Gardens

Got a pile of playdough going hard, crystalised and smelly in a tupperwear box somewhere?  Fear not, you need not throw it out, you can give it a second life as a play dough garden.
This was such a quick, fun and easy activity, great for enjoying the last of the warm weather.

We spent sometime gathering bits of plants from the garden; well I cut and gathered and Boris just cut and let the bits drop on the floor, but never mind, he tried.

I pre arranged the paper plates with play dough squashed onto it, then showed Boris what I had in mind just by poking some of the plant off cuts into one. 

He quickly got the idea and started making his own.

He worked fast and his plate was soon full with an array of greenery, which he invited me to sniff. 

He finished off his design by sprinkling sand over it which I felt was a delightful finishing touch.

Like a mini flour arrangement or work of art.  He even included a few stones and a pine cone in his assemblage.