chicken pox creative week

M. has just recovered from this awuful chicken pox.To make her days more worth while, I took out this wonderful air dry clay and we got down to work on our creations. She loved it so much I couldn't stop her from wanting to do more and more staff. We made a pizza, a cake, a car, a pen holder, a key ring...Then we put them to dry and after 24 hours they were ready to be painted.







We then started with our vegetable garden adventure, preparing for spinach, tomatoes, basil and lattuce for now.

paper plates art

PICTURE FRAME

2 paper plates
glue and brush
things to stick on
2 photoes
scissors
a string
sticky tape

Cut a square in the middle of both plates.
put the plates upside down and let your child decorate them with a few bits and pieces.



When they are dry, get your two photoes and position them on the inside of one plate so that the photoes can be seen through the square you have cut out. You can use a bit of sticky tape to stick the photoes to the plate.
Take the other plate and position it over the first plate so to close the photoes inside the two plates.
Use sticky tape or glue to stick the outline border of the plates together.
with some sticky tape position the string on the top of the frame so that the frame can be hanged somewhere.
You know have a rotating frame with two pictures either side!



FLYING SAUCER

2 paper plates
glue
empty transparent yougurt pot
pom-pom
googly eyes

With a brush, spread the glue around the outline of a paper plate. Put the other plate on top so that they stick together.



glue the eyes to the pom-pom




Glue the pom-pom to the centre of the plate. Spread some glue on the outline of the yougurt pot and glue it to the plate so that the pom-pom is inside.

puppets

This is a nice creative activity!

Materials:

a few wooden old style pegs
woobly eyes
pipes cleaners
crepe peper
other creative materials of your choice
glue


stick eyes to a peg and dress it as you like using the materials.
You can then make your own stage and act a play using your human pegs

pasta necklace

Here is a nice activity to spend the afternoon.

Get a few different pasta shapes the ones you can put through a string (penne, rigatoni, anellini etc)
a couple of strings
paint and brushes
old paper or card board to put the pasta to dry


1.Put an apron on
2. get your paint and brushes out
3. take one pasta shape and paint it any colour you like



4. put it to dry on the paper
5. do the same for all the other shapes



6. once the pasta is dry put it in a container
7. use it as pearls to make a beautiful and colourful necklace
8. you can then put the pasta back in the container and use it again and again as a practical life activity

BACK TO WORK

It has been a long time since I last updated the blog. I have been feeling less energetic and recently the weather didn't help. Nonetheless we have done some interesting activities and outings.
M. kept on colouring, drawing and playing with the play-dough and make believe, we went often to the library and to the children's centres. M. is learning to recognise the colours and she learnt to count to 10. In April, during the warm weather we went to the Mudchute farm, the Lady Diana's memorial play-ground and we had a couple of pic-nics in the park. When the weather worsened we went to the Childhood Museum and the London Aquarium.

Today I set few activities for her to do at home.

MAKE-BELIEVE

We played with the play-dough and we pretended to make spaghetti, pizza, eggs and cakes.





We pressed the playdough onto the plastic food and felt the different impressions that were coming out.




ANIMALS PROJECT.

M. coloured in a ladybird, a squirell and a bunny.

MESSY PLAY




M. played with water, from the aquarium visit she learnt that fish can't walk and that to survive they need to stay in the water. She often repeats this when she plays with her fish, octopus and wale toys.



ART and CRAFT

M. glued some pasta shapes, rise and lentils to a paper.

WEATHER PROJECT

It is still very cold, there have been few warm days, but they were quickly forgotten. Last week was a cold one and this week is even worse.
For our project weather we have been looking at the cold weather. I drew a scarf, a hat, a pair of gloves and a coat, M filled them up with a collage of wool strings, pieces of coloured paper and tissue paper.





ART AND CRAFT

We made some cards for family and friends. M. expecially likes putting the glitter on them. I think it is a lovely thing making hand made cards.







REWARD CHART

We accomplished the porpuse of the first reward chart, which was to change the nappy as soon as mummy said that. Now we have a new chart for a baby-habit M. doesn't want to get rid off easily. This one we have done it together: M. chose to have Opsy Daisy on it and then she helped me coloured it in. It works exactly in the same way as the first one, but we have introduced a timer: for every hour she doesn't do the habit, she will receive a sticker, when she gets three stickers I will give her a piece of choccolate. It is working very well and she is so good to control her-self. This exercise is teaching her self-control and patience (cause she needs to wait to obtain the third sticker before getting the choccolate). She is really cooperative and I am very proud of her.

These past few days we have taken it easy, relaxing somehow from the previous busy week.
On monday we still went to the toddler group and then quickly to the library and in the afternoon I tried to have a nap (unsuccesfully). On tuesday we did nothing, the only special thing for M. was that I let her give a bath to her dolly.



This morning I went for the parenting course and M. stayed at the creche (and she is getting better and better). In the afternoon we did some activities:

ROLE PLAY

M. made some "real" tea. I gave her a real tea bag with some warm water and she enjoyed putting it in cups and then back into the boiler. It was mint tea so it also had a nice smell; she also tasted it but she didn't like it that much.





ART AND CRAFT

We did some painting and aqua draw. M. also glued freely some pasta and glitter to a sheet.

reward chart

This morning at the course they taught us how to make a reward chart and how to mange it. I though M. was too young for this type of things, but they showed us that you can use a chart as soon as the child is able to understand about rewards, the important thing with a young child is to keep the chart simple and straight forward. Then they gave us some time to create a chart for our children, and me and my team member came up with a very good idea. We drew a big Yo-jojo (a Waybaloon character,our children's favourite) on a poster, and the idea is that every time our child does the behaviour we want, Yo-jojo gets a sticker, which they can put on it themselves.
For me the behaviour I want to see more of is doing as she is told straight away, without me repeating myself 10 times, losing my patience and then starting threatening her by counting to 3.
I thought that the chart would help, but probably wouldn't work straight away. Surprise-surprise, as soon as I introduce her to Yo-jojo and the stickers she was so entusiast and started doing what she was told immediately or almost immediately. I didn't have to count to 3 for every single thing, it probably happended once or twice, whereas before this counting was dominating my day!!!
I hope M. will continue to be entusiast about the chart. Yo-jojo collected 6 stickers today, and for being such a good girl M. collected a piece of chocolate.





ANIMAL PROJECT

On our way back home from the course we stopped at the library. M. sat down and read some book to the library stuffed giant panda. I went to the PC and printed off the lizzard I missed yesterday.
At home M. coloured in the lizzard and the hedgehog. Later in the afternoon I showed her some videos on the internet about hedgehogs.


WEATHER PROJECT

This morning M. had another fun walk through the puddles and this made me think about another project we can do. I though we could do something about the weather that teaches her the various weather conditions, what they are, why, and what they do to us and the environment. Starting of course with the rain.
At the library I got a couple of books about rainy days. "Rainy day" by Manning, "Kipper: Weather" by Inkpen and a very good one "A stormy day" by Petty (this last one has the oldest borrower dated 1989 and this is on the one and only stamped page! My God this library needs a proper lift)
"A stormy day" tells how the plants and animals needs the water from the rain, how the rain fills up rivers, about lightning and floods. Really simple but very interesting.
When she was having her nap, and after I finished tiding up the flat, I planned how I could teach her about the rain. I thought I would associate to the rain elements that she already knows: wellington boots, puddles and of course drops of rain; in addition I would introduce her to the rainy clouds and tell her how these are full of water that fall on the ground and this is the rain.
I drew for her a picture on a paper of all these elements for her to work on. I set the cotton wool to make the cloud, some blue gliter for the rain drops, blue tissue paper for the paddle, and small pieces of red paper for the boots (M. got red wellies)




When M. woke up from her nap, we began to complete the picture with all these materials.







When we finished we read the books about the rain.

Now I will wait for the sun, or wind or anything else to teach her about another weather condition.

ART AND CRAFT

Today I baked home made pizza for dinner. M. also made some pizzas and cakes with the play dough we made a few days ago. It was really good for her imagination-skills, and I must say she surprised me when I told her "oh you made a nice pizza" and she replyed "no, this is a cake!". I didn't know she could play with her imagination this much.
She knead, flatted, and cut the dough, then put pieces of "cake" and "pizza" on plates and pretended to eat them.
She loved it!






And when the real pizza was ready she eat that too! Well done mum, a really nice pizza.

terrible 2 here I am!

The prophecy has become tue! What awful behaviour M. has having these last few days....it seems they are waiting for their second birthday to completely transformed themselves from little angels to terrible toddlers! Not a baby anymore but not quite a child...stuck in between and just becoming frustrated. Oh dear oh dear and I am the one who has to deal with this! It is getting quite tiring: all day moaning, crying for any stupid little thing, not wanting to play with her usual friends and refusing anyone. On top of this she is not sleeping enough during the night, going to sleep late and waking up early, and every mother knows how difficult a tired child can be!

Nonetheless I managed to keep her amused with some activities.

5 SENSES

I have finished the "smell" section. To the mixed dried herbs, pepper and coffee beans, I added chocolate powder, mixed spices and fennel seeds.

She tried the different smells and I hope she will go back to the box from time to time.

The "touch" section is under construction.

ANIMAL PROJECT

M. got interested in snails and their behaviour. She wanted to understand how they go inside their shells. We have a couple of books that feature snails in their tales, so I read them for her and explain to her that the shell is the snail's house and that it retreats inside when it is scared and as a defence from other animals that may want to eat it.

I drew a snail for her and she coloured that in for our wall poster.

ART AND CRAFT

We did some painting using the wheels of a toy car. Just going with the car on top of a big drop of paint and then make it run on top of a paper. This will result in lines across the whole paper.

M. liked this simple activity and played with the car and the paint for a long time.

We also made play dough from a recipe I got from the childen centres. It is really easy and M. could help me made the dough without much mess. The dough is actually much better than the one you buy because is softer and little hands can model it easier; you can also add some drops of food coloring to give it the colour you want or add essence to give it a nice smell. We had some chocolate powder to give it a yummy smell.

M. liked adding the ingredients to the bowl and mixing with a spoon. Later she had fun cutting with a plastic knife the sausage dough shapes I made for her.

Recipe

1 cup of flour

3/4 cup salt

1/2 cup water or more if needed

1 table spoon vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients and knead until smooth. It can be covered and kept in the fridge for 2 weeks.

MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS

M. likes to look at photos on the laptop or on my mobile. I thought it would be nice to have a photo album all for herself that she can look at whenever she wants without depending on me.

Also in continuation with teaching fundamental values, I selected some pictures to print for her photo album that capture M. with her family and friends, so to stress the importance of family relations and friendship.

During this week I also want to print some pictures of when she was a baby and make a chronology of her growth so that she can see herself through time. This will help her understand that she is changing and that she used to be a baby too.

ART AND CRAFT

I could have bought an album and put our photos in it, but I preferred create our own so that we could personalize it and M. could help making it too.

TO MAKE THE ALBUM YOU NEED:

As many colour paper sheets as the number of photos you want to put in the album

ruler

pencil

a cutter

cutting board

glue (Pritt)

puncher

a string

stickers, glitter, anything to personalize the album

Fold your paper sheet in half.

Measure your picture and draw its shape with a pencil and a ruler on one half of the paper. Then measure 0.5 cm from each side of the photo shape and draw another smaller shape. Put the sheet on a cutting board and cut this smaller shape out with a cutter.

On the other half of the sheet glue your photo making sure that it fits nicely on the shape you have cut out. Glue the rest of the sheet around your photo and carefully fold the cut out sheet on top.

Then I let M. chose which sticker she wanted to put on each photo and I let her stick it whenever she liked it apart from on the faces.

Then I used a puncher to make two holes where I passed through a string.

later I hang the album where she can easily reach.

M. likes the album very much and she is always looking at it, commenting on what she and other people are doing in the photos. It is especially nice for her to always be able to see family members that she can't see very often.

Later in the evening she wanted to do some sticking with the paper that I cut out to make the album. So I let her glue and stick pieces of paper freely on a sheet and she enjoyed this activity very much.

Our In The Night Garden Stage

ART AND CRAFT


This morning we went to have a tour of another nursery. I must say that I was quite happy with this one, very close to my standards! I am thinking of sending M. to the nursery next year for the government founded 12 hours...it's free so why not, it will be fun for her.









Back from the tour we had our messy art section. We made two masks, a lion face (to scary mummy) and a butterfly.














FOR THE LION MASK


YOU NEED:




paper plate


cotton wool,


yellow paint


brown felt-tip,

scissors,


liquid glue,


yellow glitter,


elastic band,


sticky tape




Draw a lion face on the plate. Take the measurements of your child eyes and cut out the eyes of the face of the lion. Spread the glue all around and sprinkle with glitter. Spread the glue around the edges and arrange the cotton wool like a lion's hair. Pat yellow paint on the cotton wool.


Let the mask dry.


When dry, make to small holes either side of the mask on the same line as the lion's nose. Cut one side of the elastic bend half way. Put the elastic through the holes and tied each side with a nought. Secure the elastic around the nought with sticky tape.


Done!






I cooked lunch and then M. went for her nap.

IMAGINATIVE PLAY

While she was sleeping I made for her a fun In The Night GArden stage, where she can make up her own stories with the Night Garden characters. This will stimulates her imagination.



TO MAKE THE STAGE


YOU NEED:





2 A3 white paper sheet


black felt-tips


crayons or felt-tips


scissors


self adhesive hook and loop press tape


card board


cereals card board or similar






On the white A3 sheets draw a simple background with the black felt-tip. Colour in as you like.

































glue your background on two cardboards and then glue them together at one edge to form a single background.



























For the character you can draw them yourself on the cardboard or print them from the cbeebies web site and glue them onto cardboard. Colour the characters in and cut them out.































Cut the hook and loop strip into small pieces. Stick one part on the back of the
character and the other somewhere on the background. Do this for all the characters and stick some other loops around the background, so that the characters can switch

places and move around the space.

Now your stage is ready, and lots of stories can be created by you and your child.