Indoor Play - A bag of golf tees

Daddy ordered a big bag of golf tees and they were too tempting to ignore.

We pushed and hammered into styrofoam.

We connected the tees using elastic bands, making funky art.

We made shapes.

Sorted into colours.
   
Sorted by size and arranged in order.
Balanced objects on them, then hit the object off.
And a few other silly things.
(Luath is 30 months)

Play - A teddy bear’s picnic

Luath loves having pretend parties/picnics/adventures.  Recently we have had these play sessions with the bunny rabbits but today it was the bears turn.  We placed some small wooden trees around the blanket, added some green cushions and some flowers.

We sang “If you go down to the woods today”. Luath enjoyed scooping and cutting up all our food.  She also enjoyed taking the plates in and out of the picnic hamper.
 
Once we had eaten Luath went to look for a book to read and pulled out Little Bear Lost by Jane Hissey , which includes a picnic and playing hide and seek.  After I read the story the bears played.
 
The picnic ended with us all hiding along with picnic food under a blanket.

(Luath is 30 months)

Making finger puppets easier for a toddler

Luath loves the different puppets that we have but the finger puppets are difficult for her to use.  The simple solution I came up with a few months ago was to use a craft lolly stick instead of a finger.

It actually makes them easier for an adult to hold too.  It also means that you can have them peeping over/around objects and make them appear much more lifelike than when your hand is visible.
 
(Luath is 29 months)

Play - Excavating sand castles

We added an extra element to building and knocking down sandcastles by hiding varies objects inside the castle.  It is very simple but here is what we did:

You will need

sand

a container to use as a bucket to make the castle (any shape or size)

objects that are smaller than container that you don’t mind getting sandy and slightly damp i.e. stones, blocks, toys

surface to turn castles out onto

optional – different objects to help excavate sand i.e. spade, spoon, brush, twigs

How to

Put some sand into base of container.  Add object and fill around and on top of it with sand.  Turn out.  Luath enjoyed both knowing what was hidden and also having me secretly hide an object.  We did this on Luath’s sand table so we only hid one object per small castle.

Have fun uncovering object with fingers or using various objects.

I tried to demonstrate slowly and carefully revealing the object but Luath preferred to get in and get it done.

Indoor Play – Banana Box Trip

A supermarket nearby leaves banana boxes at the end of the checkouts.  They are really sturdy and we have used them often in play.  It takes a lot for them to break and when they finally do they work well in the vegetable plots.  A much loved game of Luath’s is when we attached a dog lead to the box and pull her around the house. The box has been every vehicle and we have gone on many different trips.  It is a great game that you can play on/off all morning.

Usually we have a few different locations to travel to – petrol station (just an area of the room), school (the easel), library (where we put some books), roundabout (a stool), doctors/vets (Luath’s doctor’s kit) etc 

The length of time spent at each location varies, it might be a quick visit or we may stay there and pretend play for a long time.  The library and the doctors are popular places to linger.
  
(Luath is 27 months)

Practical Life Play – Pouring Afternoon Tea

One afternoon Luath spied the tea set that we have used for play and asked if we could have tea.  We were enjoying our pretend drinking and pouring when I thought we could fill the teapot with liquid.  Luath does do a lot of water play, mainly in the swimming pool or bath.  This week she tried to fill a small vase from a water jug.  She missed completely.  On the third go she was getting closer.

I placed the tea set along with a water (cold) jug on an upturned box lid to contain any spillage.  We had some used teabags awaiting composting so I placed these on a plate.  I put the teabags in the teapot and poured some water in.  I demonstrated the first pour and then replaced the teapot on the tray.
   
Luath immediately said I had forgotten to remove the lid of the teapot.  “Silly me” as Luath would say.  She loved the real pouring and could actually fill the small cups well and could stop before they overflowed.

She did miss sometimes, although I think not necessary always by mistake as she filled a few saucers.
 
I brought a cloth and sponge for cleaning up.  She had fun soaking up the tea on the sponge and then squeezing it back into the water jug.

Along with the act of pouring, pretend drinking and eating.  We talked about the tea bags changing the water from clear to lightly coloured and finally a dark brown.  We also talked about cups overflowing when filled to the top.
(Luath is 26 months)
Shared at Living Montessori Now

Play@home book

Luath recieved a packet in the post and it containd this booklet.

 It one of a series of  booklets given to all children in Scotland.  It's aim is to encourage exercise (body, mind).  The three booklets are age 0-1, 1-3 and 3-5.  The books are then subdivided into ages, 12-18 months, 18-24 months etc

I really liked the baby book and the toddler one looks useful too.  A lot fof the things  I probably know alreadynd alot of it you can read online, but it is nice to have a book to flick through and great for daddy.

The booklet comes via the Care and learning alliance.  Here are a few more Scottish sites:
 play highland
play scotland
play talk read
booktrust

This is aimed more at early years educators in Northern Ireland but is a good resource on play - water, sand, creative, small world, dramatic, tabletop, dough/clay and constructive.