We just love playing and creating on a Sticky Easel. You can see how to make one here, they are so simple and yet so much fun! 

Today I set up a quick Invitation to Play with the sticky easel and ribbons and string.

Ages: 2-6+

(M is 3 years old here. See Tips at the bottom to simplify or extend to meet the needs of your child)

 Materials: Contact paper/Sticky-back plastic (the stuff you cover books with), sticky tape, string, ribbon, wool etc.

I provided the string/ribbon in different lengths. Some short, some long. 

Maddie got herself into a bit of a tangle here :)

We talked a lot about different lengths, patterns, colours, designs, weaving, manipulating and more while we played

Adding in different widths. Easy to talk about the contrast with children. 

"Wow, that is a thick ribbon. It is so much wider than the string" etc

Use ribbons and string to make letters, words, numbers, designs, pictures and so on.

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by providing materials for sticking that are appropriate for your child. If strings provide a hazard for your child, be sure to supervise and/or switch for shorter lengths. Also, if sitting/standing at an easel won't work, try sticking the contact onto a baking tray and giving them that to play with on the floor.

- Extend this activity by having your child test the strength of the stickiness by trying to stick other objects from around the room on there. What weight or size becomes too much? Use the sticky easel for early literacy practice such as making letters, writing words etc.

-Ask questions to help connect their understanding and use vocabulary to give them words to describe what they're creating, eg. "That looks great, tell me about it" "What are you creating?" "Why did you choose that?" "How are you going to fill this space?" "I love how you've lined them all up in a row" etc.

- Listen to your child talk as they go through their experiences. This will help you determine where they are at with their learning, knowledge and understanding and help you to develop the activity (or future activities) to their level and interests.

Here are some more fun activities using contact paper

Craft Sticks and Straws on the Sticky Easel

15 Fun ways to use Contact Paper

15 MORE Fun activities with Contact Paper

Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Ever since seeing this fun post on Teach Preschool, I have been wanting to try a "Sticky Easel"

It's so easy, tape down some contact paper or sticky-back plastic (sticky side up), on an easel or any other surface, and let kids stick materials to their heart's content. The possibilities for learning, creativity and skill practice are wide and varied.

Ages: 2-6+

Materials: Contact paper/Sticky-back plastic (the stuff you cover books with), sticky tape, coloured craft sticks & straws

I set up the easel with the contact paper/sticky-back plastic and provided two tubs. 

Coloured craft sticks and cut-up recycled straws

There was no instruction necessary, she was straight into it after touching it for a bit

Working with small materials. Fine motor skills being practiced

Making a house and putting straw tiles on the roof

Even I was surprised by how long she sat there working away

"I love this" she declared and hugged the easel.

We had a lot of great discussion about her creation and her thought processes.

At about this stage she wanted more room so we popped them back in the containers and she started all over again.

We hope your kids enjoy it as much as we did and keep coming back to it over the week for a great progressive art/exploration.

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by providing materials for sticking that are appropriate for your child. If cut up straws pose a choking risk, try keeping them at a longer length or switching them for other light-ish materials. Also, if sitting/standing at an easel won't work, try sticking the contact onto a baking tray and giving them that to play with on the floor.

- Extend this activity by having your child test the strength of the stickiness by trying to stick other objects from around the room on there. What weight or size becomes too much? Use the sticky easel for early literacy practice such as making letters, writing words etc.

-Ask questions to help connect their understanding and use vocabulary to give them words to describe what they're creating, eg. "That looks great, tell me about it" "What are you creating?" "Why did you choose that?" "How are you going to fill this space?" "I love how you've lined them all up in a row" etc.

- Listen to your child talk as they go through their experiences. This will help you determine where they are at with their learning, knowledge and understanding and help you to develop the activity (or future activities) to their level and interests.

Here are some more fun activities of ours using craft sticks

Make a simple Magic Door

Pipe cleaners, Craft sticks and Play dough. An invitation to play!

Free Play with Craft and Recycled Materials

Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Week 4 of the MeMeTales Readathon focuses on one of my favourite areas, Imagination.

There are a number of free books for you to read this week on the topic, and one of them, “Doors in the Air,”  inspired this fun activity. Give this activity more meaning by adding in some Early Literacy Skills. Perfect for all ages to listen to.

(read here for free!)

If your child enjoys lift-the-flap books, this is sure to be a winner.  :)

 Materials: Piece of thick paper, craft/paddle-pop sticks, glue & anything you'd like to decorate the sticks. 

(We used paint, sequins and glitter and a mini pom pom door handle)

 Measure your door to fit your craft sticks and cut around 3 sides as shown
(Ours is 8 craft sticks wide)

Encourage your child's creativity and let them decorate their "door panels" as they wish

Squeezing, hand eye coordination, pincer grip practice and more. Oh, and just a tiny bit of glittering!

Once decorated, let your "door panels" dry

Glue onto your thick paper flap and finish with a little door handle

Now, on to the imagination....

What's behind the door?

A cat?

Somewhere special?

The possibilities are endless....

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by assisting your child with the processes needed to decorate the sticks and glue them onto the paper

- Extend this activity by encouraging your child to attempt as many of the processes individually that they are capable of. Have your child write (or dictate) a story using the prompt, "What's behind the door?"

- Pride- Making things that look visually pleasing as the end result help your child feel proud about what they have created.

- Talk with your child about what they are doing. This will help them understand the physical and mental processes they are going through as well as giving them the vocabulary to describe it.

- Use new language and descriptive words like, "imagination" This will help with their language development. Discover your own child's understanding.

- Read the book/s together on the topic of opening doors and imagination to give this activity more meaning and your child, more understanding, learning and depth.

- Demonstrate and discuss particular skills, such as gluing, sticking sequins etc. if your child is new to these techniques

- If you don't want your table covered with the entire contents of the glitter jar, stay with your child ;)




Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Open ended activities (meaning there is no specific end result required and children can take the activity to whatever level they desire) are my all time favourite types of activities with children.

Whilst we always have a lot of fun learning new skills and creating decorative and useful items when crafting or cooking, providing an activity that I don't know exactly where it's going to lead is when I witness the most authentic learning and where I experience the most delight watching.

Providing 4 materials for my daughter to manipulate and explore on a mat is how I created this invitation for play. The rest was up to the child.

 Here is the invitation to play

 Bypassing all the animals, it was "plant making" time with the pipe cleaners and playdoh

 Using coordination and fine motor skills to wrap one pipe cleaner around the other

 The beginnings of a sculpture. Giving their brain a workout and using problem solving to make things stand up, stay upright, keep balanced etc.

 This is perfect fine motor skill practice for young children. Simply wrapping pipe-cleaners around craft sticks

 She spent a long time wrapping and wrapping and wrapping to create this beautiful "plant," using the playdoh as a stand

"I'm making a sun"

Some tips:

- Notice she didn't use the animals at all. Not once. This is fine. Allowing them to choose which materials they deem necessary to whatever they are creating is important for their own creativity and problem solving. Letting them know they don't have to use everything they see could be valuable for your child

- This activity really doesn't need to be simplified or extended. That is the beauty about open-ended play.

- Listen to your child talk as they go through their experiences. This will help you determine where they are at with their learning, knowledge and understanding and help you to develop the activity (or future activities) to their level and interests.

- This activity can be repeated time and time again with a different end result each time. You can also mix around and change some of the materials that you provide each time to inspire new ideas

- Use this time to demonstrate particular skills to them that they might be attempting unsuccessfully. Just learning to wrap something around an object might need some guidance. Wrapping a pipe cleaner around something solid and stable like a craft stick is easier than wrapping one around another pipe-cleaner. Start with the easier experience first and work up to the harder experiences.

- Make your child aware of the problem solving they are doing with questions and comments. "How did you get that pipe cleaner to stay on the end of the craft stick?" "Using the playdoh as a stand was a good idea to get your plant to stand upright" etc


Debs :)

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