A Pirate Adventure in the Bath, featuring Jelly

                  

This week’s theme is the sea, I had thought up this activity last week as a boat trip featuring Pirates, Mermaids, Sailors and whatever other sea related things we had been doing this week. I was aiming to sway our week and the bath adventure towards mermaids as I had seen a fantastic competition by Taming the Goblin to win a mermaid waldorf doll she had made.  However the Pirate theme has lasted longer than expected  (I have posted about our pirate lunch and walking the plank),so today became a Pirate adventure, in particular based around Luath's favourite book of the week "Tim, Ted and the Pirates".  A story about a boy and his Ted who drift off into their own adventure while the teacher reads a story. 

I thought it would be fun to combine our love of jelly (we’ve done a couple jelly based things lately, jelly playdough and jelly play in the bath, with a previous imaginary boat trip.    I  came up with a few different ways I could set up a sea themed boat ride in the bath. Realistically I have a daughter who is awake most of the hours I am, sleeps best if I am very nearby and wakens frequently at night, so most things are done with Luath by my side or at high speed and quietly!

Last night I made up a big tub of jelly.  I had wanted to fill it with treasure but they kept floating to the top.  I left some letter cutters floating at the top..  This morning once the jelly was set I pushed some more cookie cutters into the jelly.  I had also filled some ice cube moulds with jelly (yet again I couldn’t get the jelly out). 

A few nights ago I drew an underwater scene on some lining paper. I did this on the floor and with crayons so it is no work of art, but I was guessing it might not last long.  I attached this to the wall opposite the bath. (The drawings didn’t photograph well, but I have included them anyway and will upload a better photo once they are in Luath’s room)


some seaweed, a fish and a seahorse



a mermaid, a shoal of fish



jellyfish, treasure chest, a crab


I also drew a sea level scene, Luath helped me colour it in.  Well I coloured, she had  a few scribbles but mainly enjoyed walking along the picture.

  I attached this to the wall next to the bath.

Nessie, buoys with a cormorant drying it's wings

a diver, a boat

a canoeist, a lighthouse, rocks, seals, birds, a crab

I put some blue/sea life towels over the side of the bath and attached some undersea pictures we had drawn earlier in the week.  I placed a towel with fish over the undersea level of the toilet.  I hung up a duvet cover (that I specifically bought second-hand as a play mat) over the window and down to cover the bath taps and the toilet to sea level.  This wasn’t as effect as I hoped as it let in too much light.  I covered the radiator with a play mat, the floors with a bathmat, a throw and towels.

I then placed Luath’s bath in the bathtub, as this was to be her boat. I filled the bathtub with cold water coloured by some green jelly and food blue colouring to well below the rim of Luath’s bath.

I placed some towels over the sink to act as rocks.  I put our mermaid - this is actually a dress up doll that Luath got handed down from a cousin, for our previous boat trip adventure I had given the doll a mermaids tail (which I had made for Luath when she was a few months old for a party), we both liked the mermaid so she has stayed..  I covered the mirror with another seashore towel (we seem to have so many sea themed towels, this one is very old and is now a dog towel!)  I attached a parrot to a picture hook.

I added some sea creatures to the bath and the surroundings.  I had contemplated taking some dried seaweed from above the tide line, but changed my mind.  I cooked up some noodles and used that instead.  I had thought about some stones and shells, but the big shells around here tend to still have live seaweed attached and Luath has plenty interaction with stones everyday (this week she even picked a stone up to give it a cuddle).  I also added a treasure chest, filled with gold (sweet wrappers I have been saving for ages to use for art) and milk bottle tops.  I had used all the food colouring from the bottle so that went into the bath as a perfect message in a bottle.

I did this all quite quickly, Luath helped me, but still each time she came into the bathroom she said “wow” (she knows just what to say!)

Then the most important addition – Luath.  She was decked in her Pirate AIO nappy and  a vest, just what all the toddler pirates like to don.    . 

Luath had another look around and then I placed her in her bath.  She seemed happy for the first few minutes and then she wanted out and was quite upset.  I took her out and thought “oh well, we can try later”, but she actually wanted to go into the bathtub with everything and not be in her bath boat.  I added some hot water to make it more pleasant, stripped her (naked Pirates are all the rage) and in she went. 

The noodle seaweed was the first thing she grabbed.  I am sure she knew it was noodles but she went along with mummy and called it seaweed.  Next the jelly treasure tub.  This took a lot of exploring.  Taking our the cookie cutters, delving in to find more, adding other creatures to the mix, squeezing the jelly.  I told her she could eat it, but she wasn’t sure.  I showed her me trying some, again she wasn’t convinced, so she stuck her hand in and offered it to me.  After a little while she did try some, she had a few tastes, but not sure she liked it that much, or just found it more fun to play with than eat.

I read her “Tim, Ted and The Pirates”, and acted out the parts we could.  I used a teddy cake mould as Ted.  Once the story was over we opened the treasure chest, which gave Luath some more items to add to her Jelly.

Luath had enough by then, so our adventure was over.  I left some of the bathroom decorated so daddy could see it when he came home.  The pictures were undamaged.  I am going to draw round the outlines of each object in them so you can make out the picture a bit more clearly and then put them up in Luath’s room.  There is plenty space to add more images to both pictures.

We (and I do mean we) had lots of fun.  I am sad that the photos didn't come out as I would like to have a good visual memory (other than in my head) of activities like this.

(Luath is 17mths)

linked Tuesday Tots, see what other tots are up to,
read learn explore at JDaniel4's Mom, see what other activities have been inspired by children's books

taming the goblins mermaid project

Jelly Playdough – fun play and a sensory bin

Luath is slowly finding it easier to sleep without me next to her, she still tends to be a late bedder if she has had a daytime nap and for a few months has been taking about an hour to settle to sleep.  So what did I do when Luath fell asleep at 8pm, very quickly and so soundly that I could leave her, and daddy was out?

Inspired by this weeks playdough pledge \(link up here with lots of ideas) by The Nurture Store, The Imagination Tree and Sunhats and wellieboots, I cooked up a big pot of jelly playdough.

Jelly Playdough

I used a bag of flour (which I measured in cups to make it easier to work out the amount I needed for the other ingredients.  I didn’t have quite enough salt.)

The basic recipe:

2 cups plain flour

1 cup salt

2 tablespoon cream of tartar

2 tablespoons oil
2 cups water

I just put it all in a pan on a slow heat, stir until formed into almost a ball. 

I then tip it onto a pastry mat, wait for it to cool slightly, then knead like bread for a few minutes.

Since jelly was fresh in my mind after last week's jelly fun,  I added 2 packets of strawberry flavoured jelly crystals to the mix.The dough turned a light pink colour and does have a strawberry aroma.  I only had two sachets of strawberry and for the amount of dough I made I would think six packets would have been best. I just and no more managed to squeeze the dough into a box and placed it in the fridge overnight.

Playdough fun

Next morning I (quickly )gathered up some items that fit with our week’s theme (exercise/movement with music).

Some sport cookie cutters
A jingle bracelet, with some loose jingle bells
A ribbon
A referee whistle (ssh don’t tell daddy)
Some golf tees
Luath added a bird cookie cutter.
  

I took some of the dough off the big block and placed it on a second tray.  I flatted a couple of pieces.  I placed both trays on the floor and let Luath explore while I washed the breakfast dishes.  Luath is still putting things in her mouth so she was very closely watched.

 

After Luath touched most of the objects she picked up one of the bells and was planning to leave the kitchen.  I showed her pushing a golf tee into some dough and that took her interest.  It was a bit hard for her to push the tee in far, but she enjoyed pressing the tee against the dough.  She also attempted to place the tee in a hole made previously – you need fine motor control for that.

I showed Luath a few other things, wrapping a bell in the dough, using the cookie cutters, using the ribbon, but she wasn’t that interested.  So we covered up the dough and went out to fly a kite and walk the dog instead.

Sensory bin

Before lunch I rolled up the playdough into balls  Luath watched and then went to find her soft dog and a book. We lost one ball to the real dog, she must have liked the taste as she spent the rest of the afternoon eyeing them up.

After lunch I put the balls into a shallow plastic tub and added the objects from the morning’s tray.

Luath was more interested now. whether it was the time or presentation.  She even tested the bin with her feet.

A few weeks ago I had picked up a bag of playdough utensils in a charity shop, I added some to the bin.

 

Luath loved one that had a removable disc, she played for a long time, putting the disc in and letting it fall out.

While she did this I made a gingerbread man.  Luath did join me in making him run around the tray and say “run run”

 

I put the lid on the box and have left it put to use another day this week.  Luath was keen for me to open the box in the evening until she discovered that climbing on and off the box was a great game.
What a fun time we had, I am so glad I spent a little time making the playdough.

see what else Tuesday Tots have been up to
(Luath is 16 months)

Frozen Jelly and some water play

The is the first time I had set up water play (done when Luath started eating the lentils I was showing her draining  through the salad spinner, as posted previously).  She has water play at bath time and in the hydro pool, but I've not set up water play other than those times. She was a little unsure, mainly stuck her hand into the water and took a few things in and out of it.  She adores the bath and the pool, and is so keen to play with the water when we set her bath out, I was quite surprised how unsure she was of water in a new setting.

I took the frozen jelly lollies (from our jelly painting ) out I had made two days ago, well frozen now, I had difficulty getting them out. I put one in the water, gave Luath one and I held one. Luath was very intrigued. The texture was odd, some bits jelly like others ice. After a little while I showed her that you could put the lolly in her mouth (actually it was quite a pleasant lemon and lime flavour). This then was a huge hit and Luath enjoyed mouthing it for a while.

see what others having been playing at this week at the play academy

Jelly - fingerpainting and slush

I've seen a few posts on jelly (jello) painting  and after our recent yoghurt finger painting, I thought we would try jelly. I made up a small amount of jelly using some jelly crystals and some boiling water. I popped it in the freezer to help cool it down quickly. It was pretty thick, next time I'll add a little more water. I had strawberry in one egg cup and lemon and llime in another. I put some of both flavours on a piece of paper and left the egg cups to the side.

I didn't say or demonstrate anything to Luath.  I just let her decide what she wanted to do with it. She spent most of the time playing with the egg cups. She did do a little bit of picking up the jelly, putting it into an egg cup. I showed her some finger painting and she did a tiny bit of painting.  I was surprised that she didn't try to eat any of the jelly. The egg cups were in her mouth a fair bit, her fingers went into the cups and the jelly.

Jelly Painting this year's Turner Prize Winner?

I also put some of the jelly, made up "properly" into icicle moulds and left in the freezer to set. It hadn't set very well when I took it out later. I let Luath have a play with it while I made dinner. It was a bit like a jelly slush. It was actually a better texture for moving about her chair's tray. Still no eating, maybe she is like me and doesn't do jelly!

I quite like the idea of jelly body painting, but I'll wait until Luath seems a bit more interested.