Small world - Construction site

For this small world scene I used a range of different texture and shaped sensory materials that had been previously used for other activities (rice, pasta, oats etc) and set up some toy construction vehicles and people.
The children had great fun pushing the trucks and and rollers around in the materials then filling and tipping just like on the construction site we had seen whilst walking to the park in the morning.

Threading

Here is a simple threading activity which encourages young children with their very fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.
I presented my two year olds with some dry spaghetti strands, coloured pasta tubes, coloured cereal hoops and some straws, I joined it with this activity and so I could closely see what they were doing and how they were using the resources I supplied them with.
All 3 children instantly explored the materials picking up handfuls of pasta and cereal. My initial thought were that because of their young age they would use the pasta tubes to thread onto the spaghetti stands as they are larger in size and have a easier sized hole to thread onto the thin spaghetti but before long I was proved wrong!
They all picked up the hoops with their index finger and thumb (pincer grip) and carefully tried to thread them individually onto the spaghetti strand. What I observed was a lot of concentration and hand eye co ordination as at first they struggled to match the hole of the hoop up With the tips of the spaghetti strand, no one got gave up they all continued to keep trying and successfully achieved it once they had done it once they all went back for more hoops.
I later spotted one of the children pushing spaghetti into the straw she had already achieved one piece and was attempting to push another strand into the same straw, she eventually managed to get 4 whole strands in plus a few broken pieces too.
There was definitely more interest in the hoops and spaghetti than the pasta tubes and straws but the three of them all had a go exploring the different shapes and techniques whilst developing their fine motor skills for a good 30-45 minutes.

Small World Play

"Old Macdonald had a farm" create a farm with a selection of dry crushed up cereals and some animals and farmer figures.

Small World Play

How about Snakes Sssliding in amongst Sssssome yellow Sssssplit Peasssss......and hiding under the pine cone trees.

Small World Play

How about adding some Small World Play to Sensory play activities?
We've been driving cars through a snow storm! 

Mark making in mash potato flakes

Cover a tray with a thin layer of mash potato flakes (instant mash/smash) add a variety of different tools to mark make with. 

We used different brushes, feathers, lolly sticks and golf tees each tool will create different types of marks in the mash potato flakes. 

Perfect activity to encourage young children with their pre-writing marks and creativity over and over again. 

For older children you could also write letters or numbers in and get the child to read them to you for a number and letter recognition activity 

Lentil Play

I presented this simple tray filled with orange lentils to 3 children with just a few basic tools - 1 funnel 3 spoons and an ice cube tray.

They all dived in instantly scooping up the lentils using the spoons and tipping them off again listening to the calming sound they make as they hit the tray again 

One of the children then discovered the funnel, placed it on their lap and used the spoon to carefully transfer the lentil from the tray to the funnel, whilst one of the other children used the ice cube tray to divide the lentils into the individual sections, 

all the children were kept engaged in carefully transferring, tipping and pouring for quite some time taking turns to use different objects and skills, the lentils all help to develop those pre writing skills and the children use their fingers to mark make in the tray  leaving their marks.

Box and Feather play

Toddlers love to explore and can be very determined to succeed in what they set out to do, they are very inquisitive and interested in those simple things which a noisy all singing all dancing plastic toy doesn't always offer - a world of imagination and creativity! 

Whilst the toddlers were out of the room, I collected a range of different shaped boxes and tins I found around the house and presented them together on the floor, some of the boxes had lids and flaps and one even had a see through window in the lid so a hid a few feathers in amongst them.

When the toddlers returned to the room I allowed them to discover the new items themselves. This didn't take much waiting! They instantly noticed the pile of boxes perfectly positioned and waiting to be explored.

I sat back and observed the toddlers whilst they explored. They spent around 40 minutes poking small boxes inside big ones, determined to get the lids of the boxes and explore the feathers, filling and emptying the boxes with more boxes and/or feathers and throwing the feathers up in the air and watching them float, before showing any sign of getting bored and wondering off.

Fine motor skill development and Playdough

Playdough is a good way to develop those fine motor skills that children need to start on the road to write and gain pen control. Here we used cotton reels and spaghetti strands, the cotton reels become very versatile as they were used as mini rollers and also a printing tool. 
I then observed the children using the spaghetti strands to carefully thread through the cotton reels, creating another unexpected fine motor activity themselves. 

Oats

Green rice, funnels and spoons

Yellow split peas

Yellow split peas and small cups 

Mess free mark making

A great way of mark making without the mess of paint or for those
children who don't like getting messy.

You will need;
Zip lock bags
cello-tape
food colouring
hair gel

1. Place 2-3 tablespoons of hair gel into the zip lock bags,
2. Add a few drops of food colouring
3. Seal the bags and cello tape then seal to ensure they can not be opened.

Coloured Cheerios and Pipe cleaners

This activity is great to encourage the use of fine motor skills, hand eye co-ordination, and pure creativity. 

I filled a tray with coloured Cheerios (Find out how to colour Cheerios here - http://nanniescreated.blogspot.co.uk/p/messy-play.html) and a few pipe cleaners and then presented it to the children. At first they just explored the different textures shapes and colours with their hands and eyes. I then sat with them and started to thread the cheerios onto the pipe cleaners myself, this encouraged them to copy me and carefully slide the cheerios from one end to the other. I then encouraged the children to count the cheerios as they threaded them  to encourage some simple numeracy skills. 

Scented mark making tray

Here's a another media to mark make in which can also stimulate the children's sense of smell, A great alternative to coloured salt or fine sand......

Angel Delight powders 

We used one tray of strawberry and one tray of butterscotch 

Simply line a tray with some tin foil and sprinkle the Angel Delight onto it, We then used different types of brushes and small craft match sticks to draw and writing with. 

Through out this activity we gradually discovered other tools which we could 

mark make with, these included Fingers, Hands and Golf Tees.

Dry Spaghetti strands

How to colour your spaghetti strands ...

I have read a lot of different techniques on how to colour pasta and rice for children to explore. I wanted to see what the difference would be when 

I coloured these dry spaghetti strands. 

*So I placed the spaghetti strands into a pot with a lid and added a few drops of 

alcohol hand gel and mixed it around 

*I then added my chosen colour adding enough to create 

darker and brighter shades, 

*replaced the lid and gave it a good shake until all the spaghetti was covered, 

*I then turned it out onto a tray lined with baking paper and allowed it dry overnight  

Don't forget to use a different pot for each colour.

 Here I used Red, Orange, yellow and purple 

Feathers!

It's those simple things in life that make a child smile! 

Practise those throwing and catching skills, colour matching, 

blowing (great for supporting speech), counting, Tickle those Tums and toes the list if endless watch and see what happens when you present your little ones with a tub 

full of feathers your have a room full of laughter and very happy children! 

Got a fan? then hold a hand full of feathers in front of it and watch 

them fly away and float down to the group. 

Odd socks?

Fun with Odd socks! 

Are you forever wondering where that other sock has gone?

We always keep the "odd" one because the other one will turn up! Before you know it 

your have your very own pile of odd socks for the little ones to explore. This kept the babies occupied for ages whilst they explored all those different textures and materials. 

This activity can also be a lot of educational fun for older toddlers too,

 they can learn the colours, pairs, sizes organising and role play 

or life skills by even trying a few on for fun!  

Pasta Necklaces

You will need;

zip lock bags 

pasta tubes 

vinegar

food colouring 

a tablespoon

paper towel or newspaper 

threading laces or string 

How to prepare; 

1. Put the pasta tubes into individual zip lock bags for different colours 

2. Add 3tsp of vinegar to each bag and a few drops of colourings of your choice 

3. close the bags and shake to evenly colour the pasta tubes 

4. pour the pasta out onto layers of paper towels and allow to dry over night 

5. once dry you can thread onto the string to make different pieces jewellery 

(To dry the pasta quickly you could place on a baking tray in a low over 
for a few minutes remembering to turn several times)