Snow Transferring activities

Happy New year to all the readers, my resolution is to blog more frequently so am starting as I mean to go on. Who knows what weather chaos (or not) the new year will bring but whatever happens I'm sure there will be more snow and snowy weather calls for snowy activities, of the non cold variety. (Don't worry the window is not on fire)

Transferring seed pods (not sure what kind) painted White between containers, a shallow spoon was available but at point of photo was being used for something else, for fundamentalist montesorians among you, I'm so sorry!

Transferring White pom poms with a peg into a container with small hole. This actually proved quite tricky for little fingers as it was not a quick transferring activity, instead requiring a pause to for pushing the pom pom into the hole with a finger on the other hand. A great activity to encourage children to use both hands and to reach to midline.

More Christmas Fine Motor activities

More Christmas fine motor activities, never have enough of these in the pre writing stage if you ask me.

Stamping with ink pad, was a popular activity to create christmas cards, but proved a little more difficult got little hands than I anticipated. I actually added a wooden coaster to the basket showing the children how they could place the stamp on paper, lay coaster on top and apply even pressure with both hands, this proved most successful.

Small bead threading with Christmas colours onto a pipe cleaner. Beads in a small tin to support fine finger muscle strength and manipulation. Initially created only as a fine motor activity but extended to creating patterns.

Father Christmas shaped tin with a large bell inside, initially designed as an infant activity for opening, getting bell out and replacing. But still accessed by the old children and does require a bit of skill opening the tin.

Christmas tag making, by far the most popular activity and I didn't get a photo! Every time I went to take the photo the resources were running out or ran out, and I never managed to get one made in action. I simply supplied old Christmas cards, a pair of scissors, a single hole puncher and curling ribbon. I showed the children the process of cutting their desired shape/ picture, punching two holes and threading the ribbon into one hole and out the other (few of the children can tie knots so I felt it best to focus on the creative process rather than teaching a new skill).

Whilst this was a hugely successful activity it proved challenging to follow the required sequence without support, I was tempted to add a picture instruction card but decided against it as felt it would reduce the problem solving/ thinking element. So by providing the occasional verbal prompt when requested or a reflected question e.g. "what do you think is next?" I was able to support to independence. If I was ever to make picture instructions I would do so in a three page book format that could be turned over to reveal the next stage of the sequence only if needed, rather than proving it to them "on a plate"

This is not a photo of my activity (far too perfect) but felt empty without a pic, so stole it from Crafting a Green World, which is a FABULOUS site full of green ideas, check it out.

Christmas Songs

Songs are an ever present part of Christmas from Slade to Ding Dong Merrily on high, and of course the cheesy children's classics. Here are a couple of songs that were on our shelves this years and have been particularly popular particularly the tree one, Snowmen were last year's favourite.

Twinkle Twinkle Christmas Star

(tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

Twinkle twinkle Christmas star

Wise men know what you are

Guided by your shining light

Helped them on there way at night

Twinkle twinkle Christmas star

Wise men know what you are.

or

Ten little Gold Stars

(tune of Ten Little Indians)

1 little, 2 little, 3 little gold stars,

4 little, 5 little, 6 little gold stars,

7 little, 8 little, 9 little gold stars

10 little gold stars for....(child's name)

Children taking it in turns to give them to their friends.

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Five Christmas Trees

(tune of Five Current Buns)

Five Christmas trees in the garden shop

Tall and spiky with a star on top

Along came.... (child's name)

With some money one day

Bought a Christmas tree and took it away

I purposefully made it "money" rather than penny in the hope that it would encourage children to say how much a tree would cost. My expectations were exceeded and we went as far as adding the right coins together and giving change some times we don't give children enough credit.

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Five little snowmen fat

Each had a funny hat

Out came the sun and Melted one

What a funny thing was that.

Four little...

I either get children to draw a sun on a piece of paper e.g. "Oh no, we haven't a sun we'd better make one quick" usually followed with "I will". Or provide them with a torch to shine it onto the chosen snowman, which is another great hand eye coordination exercise along with creating anticipation and encouraging visual tracking for other children.

Or

“I’m a little snowman, short and fat.

Here’s my carrot nose and here is my hat.

When it’s cold and icy I will stay,

But in the sun I melt away!”

Some wonderful Christmas son ideas are available at Perpetual Preschool

Christmas fine motor (hanging and transfering)

Ok, so always on the look out for ideas where children are encouraged to develop their fine motor skills whilst incorporating favoured schemas.

Bells from gift tags (complete with tags, how the survive is anyones guess) attached to small curtain rings and placed onto a wooden single stem vase. These can be used as a simple transferring activity or as often are in conjunction with a song jingle bells/ twinkle twinkle again needing a pincer grip rather than a palmer grasp as with many bell instruments

Decorative Christmas candle rings, placed onto a kitchen roll pole, another favourite. Just adapting the good old curtain rings on a pole. Make sure the decorations are safe for children you are working with.

Little wooden gift tags (of course you could use card ones short term) to hang from a cup tree. This requires a little more skill and usually requires the use of two hands and finger control to separate the thread to hang.

For a more complex activity and incorporating the enclosure schema (always a favourite) placing a large seleacion of christmas decorations and tags in a selection of boxes and bags, stored inside a larger box, creates a natural curiosity. Whilst incorporating even more fine motor skills, and then when it comes to putting it away (which is equally fun) a whole bunch of problem solving, numeracy and reasoning skills to match lids. Lots of opportunities to talk about a range of mathematical concepts e.g. size, prepositions, 3d/ 2d shape, colour, weight, pattern, sorting, comparisons etc. If you choose your decorations accordingly you can also discuss the christmas story (which was my initial motivation for the activity, just kept adding more decorations to meet demand)

Happy Fine motor Christmas.

"He who can no longer pause and wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Albert Einstein

Christmas Story

Well again been off blogging for a while, one thing and another made it very difficult the new year should (may, i'll try a resolution) be more forthcoming with posts. Anyways, hope you had a great Christmas. I know it's late but it will be in the archives for next years, christmas story related activity ideas.

Stable Craft

I'm not generally into pre-made craft ideas but occasionally and this one is rather adorable. Envelope with a triangle cut out of the flap to create a stable scene, children were provided with card cutout shapes to create the figures. No glue was needed to stick a star to the stable roof just a lick on the tope of the flap and hey presto.

Christmas Symbols Box

It is sometimes difficult for children to integrate the ideas of a baby being born a long time ago and the trappings of a modern Christmas celebration, well us adults too. But this little box was a nice talking point about many aspects of our current celebrations both religious and secular.

Clothes Peg Nativity

I love it when an activity/ resource serves a few purposes, so this is a lovely activity to be used creatively whilst developing finger strength. Made out of simple wooden clothes pegs and funky foam cut into appropriate shapes, of course you could use laminated nativity printouts, such a these from activity village. I just glued with pritt stick for speeds sake but for a longer lasting resource use a glue gun

Jesus calms the storm

Simple craft relating to the story of Jesus calming the storm. The sea is only stuck on the sides so that the boat can rock in the storm! The fold on the top allows the storm to STOP!

"The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm." Matthew 8:25-26

Advent Calendar

Helen over at It's All Fiddle Fart inspired me with her Tiny House Advent Calendar to create this Nativity Calendar. Turned out great I think and could be a simple craft for kids. I used lolly sicks fro the stable, cut with scissors. The chalk board is actually the partitions from HMV dvd displays, they gave away a while back (you could use plastic file folder cut up in a dark colour, they work well with chalk). The star at the bottom is a simple wooden decoration bought in decoration sale last yr (Tesco I think) I'm sure you will find lots in near future, if not use card. If writing on card remember to test the pen ink doesn't spread too far.

"For the Christ-child who comes is the Master of all; No palace too great, no cottage too small." Phillips Brooks

Shape Collage

I've rather taken to Shape Collage, a free upgradeable application that allows you to turn your photos into a collage of any shape in minutes (well seconds actually). Check it out!

Pound Land Presents

A brilliant gift on a budget. There is generally a good selection of cookie cutters, like this ginger bread family. To make the present look a little shabby chic, remove from packaging, tie cutters with a piece of ribbon and add a suitably themed label. Hey Presto, looks like you bought from a craft fair at a chunky price. Shhh

"I was brought up in an era when thrift was still considered a virtue." Paul Getty

Tea Painting

I've been out of blog world circulation for a while as I have been busy organising my sister's hen party!!! Fun and very creative (been attempting to come up with ways I could add the photos to the genre of the blog). But anyway when thinking of some thank you cards for people who helped saw this wonderful idea at Creature Comforts blog.

Think this would be a fabulous idea for mothers day particularly for children with visual impairment. Obviously you could use bigger cups with no design. You could even enclose a tea bag in envelope.

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea." Bernard-Paul Heroux

lollipops

Saw some fabulous lollipops on bird crafts blog, and

had a most wonderful evening attempting to recreate. Rather an unsuitable activity to do with little ones but they could decorate afterwards or you could make for parties, if you are ok about sugar overload. I'm just really excited about how they turned out, rather a mess not perfect circles like bird crafts but we did get better and I'm happy with the results.

"School is like a lollipop it sucks until it is finished" Anon

Peg Colour Match

What to do with a left over spring roll container? I can't be the only one who sees a piece of "rubbish" and thinks that may be useful, then has nothing to do with it? I had to think of something quick otherwise this "useful" piece of trash was going in the recycle bin for melting. So...

Place coloured card (you could also use patterned scrap book paper, I regretted not doing this) into each of the compartments.
Collect a peg for each of the interior walls. Stick a piece of card to each side of the pegs corresponding to the two adjacent coloured compartments of the wall that the peg is attached to e.g. the peg on the bottom right of this picture would have a purple and a green side.

This is a complex twist on basic colour matching, of course you could use the compartments for basic sorting also. I have made the card removable so that the can be taken out a put back into the correct places to ensure all pegs can be matched to colours, of course this is for extreme complex problem solving.

"There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems." Henry Ford

Paper and Magnet Construction

This ingenious construction is made using a collection of tins and jars with metal lids. The paper is stuck to each tin with a magnet. Creating a fabulous construction with lots of additional possibilities.

A great idea for developing fine motor skills for cutting and problem solving with lots of opportunities to discuss mathematical concepts such as lengths, angles and directions. The opportunity to identify magnetic and non magnetic items, cannot be missed either this is how all these items were collected and to be honest by the end of the construction I had no idea we had that many magnetic items. Great for those children who are really into linking schema. I'm thinking that next time we get the pens out to decorate the paper too.

"Life is "trying things to see if they work"." Ray Bradbury

Creative Blogs

I simply have not had the time to post a blog this weekend, as every time I begin I am distracted by someone elses blog and subsequently have ended up being inspired to make something! So thought I'd post this weekend's blog discoveries, a bit of a creative theme going down, enjoy...

• Paper and String: A crafting blog full wonderful ideas.
• It's a Fiddle Fart: Another fabulous blog with loads of creative crafts.
• I'm a Teacher Get Me Outside of Here: Some really inspirational outdoor learning/ creative projects, including some story stones very similar to mine.
• Mama Rokas: A Wonderful blog with so many amazing craft projects to make for little ones. The site is in Latvian, but if you scroll down on the left their is a translator option which does an ok translation, but even without that well worth it simply for photos.

"It never ceases to amaze me how many ideas can stem from a single seed of inspiration." Bea

Painting with porcupine balls

Had a genius moment today (can't reach the kids paintbrushes in the cupboard, there's been a landslide so came up with this idea). Using porcupine mini porcupine balls attached to clothes pegs as printers/ paintbrushes, worked very well although the pegs were a bit temperamental holding onto the balls I would probably not use the pegs in future.

We usually use these balls for a colour posting game, so thought that it may be fun to paint by choosing colours using the dice from the game. This worked well and think it would be a fabulous idea to encourage children with autism to use a range of colours.

We then squirted paint onto paper in a tray, popped a ball in. After lots of tilting and some unpredictable ball movements we had a paper full of little dots. Would be lovely with white paint on black paper for snow!!! (shame I didn't photograph the end result)

"Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation and a pinch of creativity." Bo Bennett