Bubbles!

We've been having great fun with bubbles over the last week.  It started when I noticed that the children were particularly fascinated with the bubbles whilst we were playing with Soap Flake Foam.  Building on this interest I decided to get the bubble mixture out. 

The children love this and it is always popular, but it tends to be one of those activities that I forget to do!  Anyway, being on-the-ball this week, out came the bubbles.  Its surprising how many aspects of physical development are covered by such a simple activity:

There's the obvious, blowing!

Though this can be quite tricky - particularly resisting the urge to place the bubble wand on your lips!

It also provides lots of opportunities for stretching and jumping as you try to reach those pesky bubbles that are always just out of reach!

Also hand-eye coordination.

And then there's coordination - coordinating your actions so you can avoid crashing into each other as you both head for same bubble! (some of us are good at this : some are still oblivious to others!)

So with the interest still going strong and the additional knowledge that both little ones can 'blow' I thought we would try some bubble blowing painting.

I must admit I haven't had much success with this activity in the past.  Usually you can barely see the bubbles or they pop before we have had a chance to print them.   However with a little bit of experimenting I think I have got it right - see there are even learning opportunities for me!

Usually we use shallowish tins or trays.  This appears to have been my first mistake.  Small pots definitely work better.  I experimented with different quantities of washing-up liquid, paint and water and found that 4 tablespoons of paint, 1 tablespoon of good quality washing-up liquid (I used Fairy) and 30ml of water produced good prints, any less paint and they were too faint. 

So we blew....

and blew....ok I think that's enough we can print now

...no, okay maybe a bit more blowing (I think the process it more fun than the end product!)

and finally printing!

And then back to blowing!

Some of us, who were new to this did occasionally suck. Yuk!

We created some pretty impressive results! 

So what next.....well I've found this recipe for giant bubble that I can wait to try for the children to try.  And then there's blow painting or maybe we could try blowing ping pong ball through paint!  I just need more time in the week:)

Links to EYFS:

PD: Using Equipment and Materials (using the bubble wands and straws to blow)

CLL: Language for Communication (following instructions to blow and not suck!)

KUW: Exploration and Investigation (I get this one - learning how to make bubble mixture through experimenting!)

PD: Movement and Space (managing body to create intended movements - jumping, stretching etc.)

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Stress Ball Balloons

I couldn't resist making these stress ball balloons when I saw them here.  These are basically balloons filled with playdough, with faces drawn on with Sharpie markers.  These are a great for discussing emotions as well as giving those little finger muscles a good work out! 
After a bit of experimenting I found non-cook playdough produced a better dough as it was a bit more stiffer and consequently kept the squeezed shape for slighly longer than cooked dough.  Adding extra salt seemed to make the dough even stiffer.

And they have been well and truly squashed and squeezed.

Great for strengthening finger muscles!

However I had made these and I was keen for the children to have a go at making their own, from scratch!

As J was very interested in numbers at the moment, I thought creating a simple recipe card for her to follow would be a great way to incorporate numbers into the activity.

The recipe for non-cook playdough is available on my recipe page.  I adjusted the ingredients slightly as I wanted J to make only a small amount of dough, but this didn't work.  The mixture was far too wet, so had to sneakily add extra flour when J popped to the toilet!

First I helped J to read the recipe card.  As we got towards the end of the ingredients she had got the hang of it and was able to read it on her own.

J counted out her ingredients.

Poured them into her bowl.

And mixed them all together.

Then she got to the part where she needed to add hot water.  Now she had worked so hard that I didn't want to just whip it away from her at this point because of the hot water.  I knew she was very sensible and would listen to what I told her, so I poured the hot water into the bowl and explained that she needed to stir it very slowly and carefully so that it didn't splash her.  And she did.

As the dough was very hot, I kneaded it for a bit until it had cooled down enough for J, then she took over. 

Rolling her dough into a sausage shape, ready to fill the balloon.  (You need dough rougly the size of a cupcake, too much and it makes it very difficult to tie the balloon).

I couldn't take photos of the next stage as I needed both hands to stuff the balloon!  This part is easier with 2 people but if you are doing it alone, stand the playdough sausage so it stands upright, then stretch the balloon open as wide as it will go with both hand and lower it onto the dough, then use your thumbs to push the dough into the balloon.
Only fill the round part of the balloon.  Pinch and squeeze out and dough that is in the neck part as it will make tying difficult.  Also check for air pockets before tying and work these towards the opening.

Once tied J just had to add her face.

I think these are much cooler than mine!

Making Rainbows!

After we created our Colour Mixing Rainbow, there were lots of paint sample sheets left over, so thought the children might like to make their own rainbows.  I cut the samples sheets up so we ended up with lots of shades of each colour. 

I then needed a rainbow template, so downloaded one from the internet and enlarged it using Publisher. 

I didn't think the paper rainbow would take the weight of the colour sample sheets so transfered the rainbow onto card.

You could draw one by hand, but I do admit to being a bit of a

perfectionist!

The children then began to create their rainbows. 

They chose their own colours and were very focused on staying within the lines!

I mixed all the colours together in one pot as I wanted the children to identify the colours and this led to conversations about the different shades.  The rainbow closest is mine! I find the children are more willing to join in an activity if I am doing it and infact look at me very suspiciously if I try to get them to do something that I am not joining in!

The children decided themselves what colour they wanted each section of their rainbow to be.

At one point we started to run low on yellows.  So noticing me cutting some more, J was keen to join in this part of the activity as well and set about cutting her own. 

Almost finished!  J's interest was waining a bit at this point so we made the activity into a race - who could finish first!  Being highly competitive her rainbow was finished in no time!

After cutting all those little squares it seemed a shame just to throw the rest away, so I added them to our resource wall and the children can use them for gluing or anything else they can think of!

Links to EYFS:

PD: Using Equipment and Materials (using the scissors and glue spreaders)

CD: Exploring Media and Materials (talking about the shades of colours / selecting particular colours)

Paper Beads

One of the little boys I look after currently is very interested in threading, so I thought I could get the older children making paper beads that we could then use to make necklaces.  These are really easy to make.

 I used gummed paper, but these are equally easy to make with normal paper.  To make the beads:

1.  Cut out isosceles triangles from your sheet of paper (mine were 3cm wide and as long as the width of the paper).

2.  Starting with the widest end of the triangle roll them up around an object like a pen (great for small motor development!)

3. When you get near to the end of the triangle, wet down if using gummed paper, or spread glue onto the end of the paper and then continue to roll.  Once rolled, slide the bead carefully off of the pen.

We thought shiny beads would be fab, so painted ours with glitter gel.

The bead rolling, took lots of concentration!

But they looked really effective!

We then set about creating our necklaces.

We had to be careful not to squash them (but they were quite sturdy).

The children were really pleased with their necklaces.

As they found them quite easy to thread, I've made them some smaller beads to make necklaces with next week!