Bubbles - Part 2

After our recent bubble activity, Gina at Play-based Classroom shared her own fantastic bubble activity.  She got me thinking, that maybe my own activity had been too structured and the children would have enjoyed the opportunity to freely explore the bubbles more.  Bring on Bubbles part 2!

I laid large sheets of card out across the garden and got out the bubble mixture.  As I thought it was quite likely that the children would get covered in the bubbles we used bubble bath instead of washing-up liquid.  This time the children could explore the bubbles as they wished. 

Initially they blew bubbles and we explored the patterns made by the bubbles on the paper.

We found we could pop the bubbles with our straws...

.....and with our hands if we pressed down on them.

We found we could pick up the bubbles if we were careful.

And we explored how they felt.

And if bubbles can be explored with your hands, they can also be explored with your feet!

The children participated in this activity for far longer than the first one and as predicted, did get very bubbly:)

My daughter (aged 7) continued to explore the bubbles long after the younger children had lost interest.

So this time there was no end product to take home, but on reflection, I think the children enjoyed the process of making the bubbles far more.

In the afternoon we went on to explore BIG bubbles.  I found this recipe on the Its Playtime link-up:

12 cups of water

1 cup of washing-up liquid

2 tbsp baking powder

1 cup of cornflour

Pretty impressive!

Even I was surprised by the size of these bubbles!

The younger ones were keen to have a go (infact so keen, that they didn't have time to put all their clothes on after coming out the pool!)

Some were happy to just watch, fascinated.

The children almost managed to make a bubble around each other but it always popped at this point!

This is one activity that I'm sure we will do again!

Links to EYFS:

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!

Cloud Dough:))

This week our sensory activity has been Cloud Dough.  Be warned though, there is something a bit addictive about running your fingers through it that you might find it difficult to share it with your little ones!

For Cloud Dough you will only need:
8 cups of flour
1 cup of baby oil







Put the oil and flour into a bowl and mix together
with your hands.

Until you end up with a mixture that resembles
breadcrumbs.  That's it!

So what's so special about Cloud Dough?
Well it has a wonderfully soft texture (hence thename!) but has properties similar to that of wet sand. If you squeeze it together it can be formed into shapes but will then crumble apart again.

Like me, J was perfectly content to explore the dough with his hands.  Watching it fall from his fingers.

Scooping handfuls

Moulding it with his hands

Patting it.

Grabbing armfuls!

Squeezing the dough.

Reeeeaaaallly squeezing the dough - his expression was fantastic (great activity for relieving stress:))

Eventually we got round to adding some equipment to the tray.

We could then scoop and pour.

Fill and Empty

I did make some cloud dough castles, but J was intent on splatting them before I could take pictures!

WARNING: Can be quite messy so probably best to wear an apron!!

Links to EYFS:

PD: Using Equipment and Materials (using scoops, spoons etc to put the dough into containers)

CD: Exploring Media and Materials (exploring the dough with their hands and with the equipment)

Threading - Big style!

As I said in my previous posting, the little man I look after is also into threading at the moment, so at the same time as making threading tubes for J, I created a bigger version for him.  These are (I think) are carpet roll tubes or similar.  Luckily I picked them up from the Materials Bank already cut down, so that saved me a job.  I tried to go for ones that little hands could easily fit inside and weren't too deep.  It was just a case then of locating my husband's drill (when he was out, he gets very worried when he thinks I might be attempting diy!) and drilling holes in the tubes.  The cardboard bunched up on the inside of the tubes as I drilled, so needed to sand the insides down.  I wanted to ensure the children would be able to easily thread the cord through.  Then I brightened them up a bit with some poster paint (thought this would also lend the activity to being a colour recognition one later), hot glued them to a cardboard base, found some thick cord which I seletaped the ends of to make them easier to thread and had a quick go!

When he first arrived, my little man completely ignored it! Okay not the response I was hoping for, but I think it was a case of him not knowing what it was or what to do with it, because as I started to play myself (only doing it for his benefit honest!) he was keen to have a go.

Carefully push the cord through the hole..........

...find it on the other side and pull!  Yep he had the hang of it.

Well he sat there quite happily threading away, only needing my help when he didn't quite pull enough of the cord through.

He was keen to have another go when he came the following day.

Find a hole....push the cord through.....

....steady yourself on the tube if needed!....

...look to see where the string has gone.....

...get hold of it and pull!

This activity is fantastic for;

• Developing small motor skills,
• Hand-eye coordination,
• Strengthening finger muscles,

I have a feeling that J might use these tubes in her small world play with animals...we'll have to see.  I am sure they will come up with another use for them, not just for threading!

Some of you may have noticed that the base changed colour.  I found that the paint didn't attach itself particulary well to the shiny card and consequently was scratching off.  So I decided to wash the paint off and leave it white.

Links to EYFS:

PSED: Dispositions and Attitudes (where a child demonstrates a belief in themselves and their own abilities)

CLL: Handwriting (showing good coordiated actions when threading)

PD: Using Equipment and Materials (being able to use thread the needle in and out of the tubes)