Story Stones

I found this idea for story stones here via Pinterest and couldn't resist giving them a go.  They were really easy to make.  Just cover the image with 1 coat of  Modge Podge (I got this from Ebay), I did 2 coats which wasn't the best idea in the world as some of my stones are bubbling.

The idea is that the children use the stones and images on them to create their own stories. I wanted to copy the story stones I had seen on-line as they looked fantastic when made from collage materials, but I wasn't totally convinced that these would attract the attention of the little ones I mind.  I particularly had J in mind when creating these, so needed to find a way of incorporating something that interested her.  Being Fireman Sam's number 1 fan, this seemed my best option!

So I created this set of 'Fireman' themed stones, some made of collage materials and some from images cut from a magazines (my collage skills are very limited:)). 

I made this set from material and string.

These from pictures from magazines.

And these from photographs of the children. I had my daughter beside me as I made these ensuring that I made her the tallest because 'she was the tallest'!  For J I also combined a photo of her with a fireman image.

We've had these out for the last couple of weeks and the children have definitely been interested.  My little man's favourites are the stones that carry photos of the children.  He likes finding them and naming them.

The babies have also been over for a look. (had to remove the very small stones as she is quite partial to eating everything!)

They have found the back of the stones equally as interesting as the front, hmmm I knew my collage skills weren't particularly good:)

And J, well she's had a good look at all of the stones...

...but the Fireman themed stones are definitely her favourite!  She sorts them out from the rest of the stones...

and makes up stories as she plays with them.

She speaks very quietly though, so its really hard to hear what's going on!

I find if I get too close, I interrupt her play and she becomes suspicious as to what I'm up to!

Over at Red Ted's Art Blog the children made their own stones.  I think we might have a go at this next week.

Links to EYFS:

Small World Farm

We visited a local farm last week and the children thoroughly enjoyed seeing and feeding the animals.

As a way of building on our trip and re-living and discussing what we had seen, I provided  a small world farm in the tough spot tray. I added some sensory elements to make the tray a bit more interesting.

I used a type of wood shaving for the sheep's pen.

Straw in with the cows.

Luckily we had some left over chocolate playdough that became mud for the pigs!

And we put some branches in the tray for the goats that liked to climb! 

We also raided the cous cous from the sensory tray which became food for the animals.

J loved it, the pigs and 'mud' were definitely her favourite!

I love listening to the stories children make up as they play.  This story focused around a naughty baby cow that had lost its mummy (no, incase you were wondering this wasn't part of our outing! I managed to bring them all home:))

The younger ones also came over to see what was going on and imitated the play of the older children.  I'll probably leave the tray out for another week as the children still seem to be enjoying it.

Look out for our 'Hide and Sheep' activity that I hope to be doing this week!

Links to EYFS:

CLL: Language for Communication

KUW: Place

CD: Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play

Story Sticker Boards

I look after one little girl who is very imaginative and comes up with some fantastic stories, usually when it is impossible for me to make a note of them, like when I am driving or walking up to the school.  Having a rubbish memory, I've forgotten half of it by the time we get home.  I remembered a storyboard idea I had seen someone do on their blog (please let me know if it is your blog and I will add a link) and thought I could do something similar to capture her stories and ideas. 
The idea was that the children would create a story as they added stickers to a story board.  I know I could have got them to draw on the board, but as they are quite young, I thought they would get distracted from their line of thinking whilst trying to draw and also I thought the stickers would give them ideas to incorporate into their stories.
I painted a simple background scene on some cardboard and found as many sticker sheets as I could.

Forgot to take a picture before we used the boards so this is the underwater one we plan to use tomorrow.  As I was painting the other boards my bright spark daughter asked why I was't doing an underwater one to tie in with our theme.......hmmm why didn't I think of doing that, so I have made ocean ones to use tomorrow  as the children have asked to do the activity again!

I also dug out the dictaphone I had used for revision notes for a course, as I didn't want my frantic notetaking to distract the children.  Straight away they came over to see what I was up to.  I managed to position the dictaphone where they didn't notice it, as I knew they would find this far more interesting (they can explore this another day!)  They each selected a board and I modelled how to use the stickers to create a story.  We then took it in turns picking a sticker to add to our board,  as doing it this way gave them a chance to listen to each others stories.

Well 40 minutes later they were still at it!  I really didn't think they would be engaged in the activity for so long and they came up with some fantastic ideas.  I did have my doubts about how successful the activity was going to be when the first stickers J selected were of a computer and book, which she placed in the river! But all credit to her, she developed it into quite an adventure story! This evening I have added their story to their sticker boards so that they can share it with their mums and dads tomorrow.

 Links to EYFS:
PSED: Self-confidence and Self-esteem (confident to speak out and share their ideas with each other)
CLL: Language for Communication (listening to each other / using a wide range of vocabulary / sticking to a main theme / developing a simple story)

Ocean Adventure!

We have got a bit of a fishy theme going on at the moment and to extend the children's playI thought I would make them an ocean world in our black tray.  I had been lucky enough to pick up some blue vinyl flooring at the Materials Bank a few weeks back, which once cut to size, with its dark blue, grey and glittery bits, made a perfect ocean floor  (A piece of laminated blue paper would work just as well).

I then added a couple of the large rocks I brought back from holiday (which also helped to weigh down the vinyl and stop it floating to the top), the small world sea creatures, some shells and made some plants. 

 

These were simply pieces of green plastic (a green carrier bag would also work), wrapped around small stones and fastened with elastic bands.  I then cut the top part of the plastic to look like the leaves of plants. 

These were great because the 'leaves' moved around in the water, giving a realistic quality to play and also the creatures could 'hide' or 'play' amongst them. 

I set the tray up on a blue piece of material and added some larger shells and books to make the area more interesting and to give some ideas for play.

Oh and I forgot, we added water of course!
The children have certainly enjoyed playing in this area last week.  We've made up stories as we've played, talked about the fish that can breathe under water and the mammals that can't, practised naming the fish and had a good look at all the shells. 

I did think twice about doing this activity as I look after one little boy who loves to splash in any water and too be honest, I didn't relish the idea of having a flooded dining room. But much to my surprise, he has not splashed once!   I don't know whether this is because he hasn't experienced water in this context before, or because he has been too engaged in exploring the tray so think about splashing.  I wonder if this will last next week!
This week we hope to extend play by creating our own fish to add to the blue material, visiting the beach and pet shop to see some fish, and possibly making some boats to add to our underwater tray.  We may even have a go at the oat starfish that looked fab on the Its Playtime link-up!
Links to EYFS:
KUW: Place (Enjoy playing with small world equipment / show an interest in the world in which they live
CD: Developing Imagination and Imaginative Play (Making up stories to accompany play)

Butterflies - Eric Carle style - version 2!

No, I'm not totally obsessed with butterflies / Eric Carle!  I wanted a really simple activity I could do at the Childminding Group along this theme.  Although the butterflies we already created looked fab, they were never going to work with 20+ children ranging in age from 6m - 4 years in 2 hours.  So I decided to simplify the process and print straight onto the butterfly templates.  I got my guinea pigs (oops I mean children) to work! 

First I got them to pick a colour to paint the butterfly with.  I needed to restrict the amount of paint they used, otherwise I could predict our butterflies ending up that horrible purply brown colour.  So I thought one way of doing this might be to paint using our hands, which of course they were more than happy to oblige.  This generated lots of giggles as the paint was 'cold and tickly'. 

Once we had the majority of the butterfly covered, I got them to select another colour. Again the idea should be to select contrasting colours, but I wanted to allow the children as much freedom as possible during the activity.  This time they used their brushes to make big marks on the paper, again needing encouragement to avoid focusing only on the centre of the paper. 

They then got to pick the resource they would like to use for printing and selected another colour.  We stuck to the ones we had used for the other butterfly activity - stickle brick, duplo brick, carpet square and cardboard tube.

Here are our finished butterflies.  Hmmm not bad and much quicker to do!

Links to EYFS:
CLL: Language for Communication (following instructions)
CLL: Handwriting (making lines across the paper with the paint)
PD: Using Equipment and Materials (using equipment, developing hand / eye coordination)
CD: Exploring Media and Materials (differentiating colours, creating collages)