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:

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)

Hungry Caterpillar Style Butterflies

We thought we would join in the celebrations of Eric Carle's birthday (author of the Hungry Caterpillar) and create some butterflies this week.  We watched Eric's unique technique for painting on his website and decided to use the simplied version  Anna at The Imagination Tree had thought up.

Luckily we already had some very thick tissue paper. Thicker is better as it tends to tear whilst the children are trying to paint it.  Although the idea is to use contrasting colours, I didn't want to be too prescriptive and let the children select the colours they wished to use.  So we chose the colour of tissue paper we wanted and then the
first colour paint and made large brush marks across the paper. 




This took quite a lot of encouragement initially as the
children both seemed to want to colour in the centre
of the paper with lots and lots of paint! We then
selected another colour and made some more large
brush marks. 

Next was the part they enjoyed the most, stamping, evident in the big smiles!  They each selected an object to use, we used small squares of carpet, duplo bricks, sticklebricks and a small cardboard tube andstamped onto their card using another colour paint. 

We went on to create about 15 sheets of tissue paper (cooking lunch in the kitchen was a bit of a struggle!). 

While we waited for our masterpieces to dry, we created a butterfly template on the laptop, blew it up and printed it off.  Okay, so I did the butterfly and they raced round the garden like lunatics! (I think those creations required more concentration than I had realised!)

However, keen to be involved in every stage of this  project, I had two very willing volunteers to help me piece the 9 A4 sheets of black together, just like a giant jigsaw!  They also insisted on helping to stick it together, consequently this part took quite a long time and a lot of unsticking and repositioning!  We then used our template to cut out some butterflies from card.  

After resorting to the hairdrier, I cut up the  paintings   into small squares and triangles (with hindsight I probably cut ours a bit too small and they would have been more effective if they were larger) and the children stuck them onto their butterfly templates.

And here are our finished creations!

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)