Snow fine motor

In England we are still waiting for snow (some more are more anticipatory than others) so here's a couple of snow related activities

 Sorting and hooking snowflakes, child places the clipboard on the edge of a table to hook the snow flakes onto.

Using sugar tongs (poundland) pick up these seeds and place into jar, tongs kept in jar to encourage unscrewing lid.

Odd shaped felt taggie rattle

An unusual shaped very light weight little rattle. Filled with and clean empty crisp packet and a bell for two noises, and ribbon taggies to chew and fiddle with. Initially saw idea on pinterest and repined

Hair Roller Posting

This has no relevance to recent posts, but have only a few minutes so this is a quick post...

Simply a dried milk can covered in paper and a hole cut out of the lid! The hole needs to be the actual diameter of the rollers NOT taking into account the prongs, this is so the child has to add a little more pressure to develop wrist and finger strength rather than the traditional drop ones!

The velcro round the edge on this picture is fluffy but the scratchy one works better. Having the velcro round the edge serves two purposes.

1. Adds another motor skill of pulling off the roller developing strength and using two hands (it won't come of if you don"t) 
2. It keeps the task together with a clear visual signal the activity has finished as this was designed to be used by an autistic child in a TEACCH workstation situation.

To make this even more challenging and add a lovely sound element use plastic spiked rollers rather than the velcro type ones above.

On our Snow Shelf

Snow Men Song and Little Robin Red Vest Story

 Little Robin Red Vest is a beautiful book about a little robin who shows true kindness giving away all his vests to the animals in need. The tray has laminated vests and each of the animals, they can be velcroed and off of robin onto the other animals to tell the story. Listen to the story told by Emilia Fox

 Five little snowmen rhyme props, made of socks!

Song Words

Kids Recipe Cards

I am and absolute fan of the British Nutrition Foundation's Cook Club resources, including these Primary Recipe Cards that come in various formats. There are also Secondary Recipe Cards which follow the same format but some more complex recipes.

 These recipe cards, with supportive pictures are ideal for older children, adults and just as a prompt.

They also have Action cards (and they have a lot)

How to  Cards

Equipment Cards

Ingredients Cards

The Owl and the Pussy Cat

 We all know the rhyme, and after seeing brilliant toilet roll owls at Creative Jewish Mom's blog I thought cats would also work so had a quick sketch and made a cat. Thought an owl on the other side would be fun to just try and then thought.... oh The Owl and the Pussy Cat...

Zoo and Map

 Super adorable Zoo with grouped enclosures

And a map for the visitors so they know where they are going and what they want to see! (L= Lizard) I must say I had a great zoo visit.

Box Bear Bedroom

 When helping my parents put the Christmas decorations away my dad found this under the stairs. This was one of my favourite projects for my NNEB (Nursery Nurse/ Child care qual) and it was only a quick insignificant one! But one that inspired me more than most of the theorists - "Create something in a box"

So I present my bear box bedroom, made when I was about 17! I still love it!

Glueless Collage Revisited

 With camera on board, some more pictures of a popular post!! 

 I love this snowy scene!

And this abstract piece

Fun Stuff

The "stuff" in the background seems to have been an interest to some. The toys are marketed for children with special needs, and have "special" prices to match!!! But they are great resources despite the price, and are suitable for all children but have the durability to stand up to some major use. I don't know where they are available from in other countries, but in England they are available from Nes Arnold.

The Tubbie is available here and seems to be a hit with children of all ages (and adults) the only problem with this is if the wrong size balls or toys get posted accidentally it is a major job to remove them.

The mirror Chimeabout is also a rather fun resource and is particularly suitable for babies and individuals with SEN, but I admit to enjoying watching this spin, and then stop especially with a torch beam aimed on the mirrors an instant light show around the room! I would defiantly buy again despite the price, available here!

Magic Snow

I bought some "insta snow" (also marketed as magic snow) from pound land before Christmas and have just got around to using it. We milked the making of this for everything we could, following the instructions to the letter (reading, doubling the instructions so a bit of multiplying.....

dividing the water needed into tens
using a syringe to add the water in 10ml squirts,
watching the immediate reactions of the powder, !!)......
Oh we had fun, then played that was a little less successful (not so keen on texture and neither was I to be honest, haven't played in a while) But I think you will agree this is rather cute (with its features nabbed from the glueless collage) The "snow" is now in freezer awaiting another play session with a twist!!! I'll keep you posted

Snow Play Scape

An imaginative snow play scene to complement our winter weather play experiences. Snow made of cotton wool balls (hill a sheet of muslin) Display above supplemented with snow men pictures (these were a favourite drawing theme over Christmas!

A poem book about snow placed alongside to enhance play, also Christmas card images of snow.

Something special magazine to support language and the play

A mirror decorative circle for pond

Glueless collage

We've got a bit of a winter weather theme going on in the playroom at the moment, how long that will last or how long it takes to evolve is a different matter! But it seemed appropriate with the weather just starting to get cold- maybe it will snow soon? Here is an art area for children to make moveable collages in picture frames and mirror.
The collage items are loosely wintery in nature, the blue picture frames containing some wintery inspiration. The black button has "can you make patterns on the frames?" recorded onto it."
The red button says "These pieces are really tiny, if you drop them pick them up" The colour paddles just add another dimension to view.

I added a children's camera to the display so pictures could be taken of their creations here are the first of two such pictures.

I also added a nice little kaleidoscope next to the mirror frame (again for inspiration and comparison)

Bumble Bee Rattle

So first post for 2012, Happy New year I hope you will Bee very happy!Cute little bumble bee rattle made for my God daughter, made out of a retro film canister with felt sewn around in a bee design with ribbons for wing (like a taggie blanket). I covered the canister with three layers of felt to make it soft and filled the canister with a single bead (about 2cm diameter) make a nice rattle and has a great vibration (bit like a bee)
With the wings you can hang the bee from a thread or off of plastic links (the ones, to stop toys getting chucked out of the buggy).