Here is a simple little activity, quick to set up, that can have children busily creating for ages.

When I set out this invitation-to-play with playdough and pasta, it was with the intention to use it to further our interest in building and design. We talked about architecture and the different ways buildings are made these days. If you like, you can have a look at our engineering activity and use the pictures of different buildings as inspiration.

This activity can encourage creative thinking, problem-solving, fine-motor skills, literacy skills, hand-eye-coordination, mathematical concepts, design, concepts of gravity and more.

Continue reading...

For some quick and easy, holiday inspired play, I whipped up some peppermint scented Candy Cane Playdough. The whole activity took me about 10 minutes or less to set up (including making the playdough from scratch) and kept the kids busy for well over an hour. And, being playdough, they've been back using it every other day this week. (Although, it's more a pink coloured playdough now.)

Ages: 2+

Skills: Creativity, fine-motor, language, sensory, etc.

To make our Peppermint Scented Candy Cane Playdough I made a batch of our no-cook playdough. (Takes about 4 minutes to make)

I then divided the mix into two and coloured one half red (using red food gel colouring) and left the other half plain so that it would be white.

To the mixture I also added some Peppermint Extract to give it a candy-cane scent. Extract is meant for flavouring more than the smell so it's not super strong but safe if a small amount is consumed. For a stronger scent that will last longer I would recommend using Peppermint Oil. (I used the extract as that's what I already had in the pantry)

Continue reading...

Are you following us on Pinterest?

We have many pine trees around where we live so every time we go for a walk, the kids are bound to come home with at least a couple of pinecones to add to the collection. 

In a simple Invitation to play, I set out some of the pinecones alongside some of our homemade playdough and pompoms. 

We used this activity to further fine motor skills, creativity, sensory development, language, learn colours, textures, letter sound knowledge and more. Mainly just for fun though. :)

Ages: 12 months+

(See the handy tips at the bottom for ideas to suit your child's needs)

Continue reading...

Are you following us on Pinterest?

Here is a fun construction building invitation to play that I set out to occupy my toddler (currently aged 2.5). The main components for this easy set-up activity are simply playdough and blocks. Making the playdough a grey colour to simulate concrete and providing a couple of little construction tools all added to the scene but aren't necessary to still have a fun and creative activity for kids of all ages. My kids loved this little bricklaying activity.

We used this activity to further language skills, fine motor skills, building skills, knowledge of gravity, understanding of bricklaying, sensory development, imagination, role play and more.

Ages: 12 months+

(See the handy tips at the bottom for ideas to suit your child's needs)

Continue reading...

Are you following us on Pinterest?

Last Easter, I bought a whole lot of little chicks in different colours to use for an activity. (I actually bought them after Easter when the price was reduced and shops were trying to get rid of all their Easter stock. For some reason I packed them away and completely forgot about them until we started approaching this Easter and I saw them in the shops again).

As I couldn't remember the originally activity I'd had in mind, I decided to create a simple Invitation to Play with the chicks and some sensory materials. This activity was open ended so that it allowed for creative, imaginative play for both my 2 year old toddler and 5 year old.

We used the activity to further language skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sorting, counting, colours, classifying, story telling, model making and more.

Ages: 12 months+

(See the handy tips at the bottom for ideas to suit your child's needs)

Continue reading...

Are you following us on Pinterest?

As a little end of year gift for the children in Maddie's preschool class, we made some lovely little "Make your own Playdough Christmas tree" bags. 

There are so many variations that you could make of these playdough bags. We made some Very Hungry Caterpillar playdough bags for a birthday before and found them to be a fun, different and economical gift for kids.

Continue reading...

Are you following us on Pinterest?

Welcome to TUESDAY TOTS for this week.
Brought to you by Learn with Play at home (that's us), Rainy Day Mum,
and One Perfect Day

This Week:

Learn with Play at home is showcasing

8 Creative Playdough Ideas

These great posts came from last weeks Tuesday Tots linkup
where we featured 10 Awesome Homemade Ideas for kids

FEATURED

We use playdough at our house on a daily basis. It is such a useful and fun, sensory material that you can make easily and cheaply yourself at home. Here is our no-cook playdough recipe that should set you up for hours upon hours of fun and learning for your kids.
Below are a collection of 8 fun and creative ideas that you could use to add to your playdough play.

Continue reading...

Are you following us on Pinterest?

Once again I have been trying to come up with activities that are easy and open ended enough that both my 18 month old toddler and 4 year old preschooler can do together.

Playdough is one of our most used materials and today's Invitation to Play and Learn provides a number of different experiences and practice of skills for various age groups.

Toddlers will be working on using their senses, fine motor skills, manipulation and cognitive skills whilst in addition to that, Preschoolers are working on letter recognition, imprinting, patterning, creativity, spelling, letter sounds and more.

Continue reading...

Welcome back to the "Playful Maths" series brought to you by

  Learn with Play at home (us) and The Imagination Tree

Together, let's make MATHS FUN!

............................................................................................................

Last week I shared a Playdough Flower Mat.

This weeks Playful Maths Activities also uses the sensory material Play dough (playdoh). 

In this activity we are focusing on length, measurement and patterns.

Other skills involved include fine motor, comparing and ordering.

Continue reading...

Welcome back to the "Playful Maths" series brought to you by

  Learn with Play at home (us) and The Imagination Tree

Together, let's make MATHS FUN!

............................................................................................................

Last week I shared Acorn Number Balancing Game.

This weeks Playful Maths Activities use the sensory material Play dough. 

In this activity we are focusing on numbers, counting & addition.

Other skills involved include fine motor, one-to-one correspondence, subitising, counting-on, number recognition etc.

Continue reading...

Play dough is a staple material for play at our house and as we use it very often, it's much more economical to make it ourselves then to buy it. 

We have tried many, many different play dough recipes over the years but our favourite, and the one we always came back to was this no-cook recipe from the Imagination Tree. They have a secret ingredient they add for extra shine so be sure to check it out. 

We've modified the method slightly over time to make it so super easy that the kids could make it with you.

With playdough this soft, silky, quick and easy to make, you'll never need to buy playdough again.

Continue reading...

Today I'm writing over at my friend Andie's great blog, Crayon Freckles.

To see all the details of how we got the most learning out of this simple activity (as well as the rest of the pics) click the picture or HERE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's some other activities that may take your fancy.

To go to the activities below, click on the pictures.

Here's another playdough activity that Andie from Crayon

Freckles shared on Learn with Play at home

Here's how you can use playdough and pompoms to

learn your name and letters

Happy playing,
Debs :)

New Here? Subscribe to get all activities sent directly to you

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Are you on Facebook? We are and we'd love to see you there. You can also find us on Pinterest, Twitter  and G+ too. :) 

Continue reading...

I sure do love a good "Invitation to Play" You can read more about what an Invitation to Play is here.

The things I loved the most about this particular activity were the language development, creativity and imagination used through out the activity. Throw in fine motor skills, a sensory experience and more, and you have a good fun learning experience.

Ages: 2-6+

(M enjoyed this at 3.5 and you can see ways to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs at the bottom in the Handy Tips)

Materials: Playdough, pompoms (with tweezers), patty pans, feathers, chocolate tray (but you can use the materials you have on hand!)

Fine motor skills and co-ordination to separate the patty pans (you can separate for younger children)

Creativity, fine motor skills, colours, patterns

Learning new skills. Rolling to make a ball and applying pressure. 

More pressure, less pressure? Discovering what is needed.

Imitation

Talking about "layers" and "sizes" 3 layers. Large, medium and small.

Creation and creativity

Faces, expressions, emotions, creativity, imagination....

A whole wonderful sweet shop. Language and Imaginative play.

That's a lot of learning from one simple play idea and a few materials...


Handy Tips

- Simplify this activity by providing larger pompoms to avoid choking hazards and leaving out things like the tongs. Helping preparing things like separating patty pans and demonstrating how to roll balls, etc, will all assist.

- Extend this activity by introducing some letter or number cards and seeing how these are used within the invitation. Pretend to be a customer who is requesting some sweets made using the letters of your name etc

- Problem Solving. Make your child aware of the problem solving involved. "How do you know how much play dough to pull off to fit in the containers/patty pans?" etc

- Use any other materials you may have around the house. Allow your child to request additional items they may require.

- 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, "layering" This will help with their language development.

- Supervise your child when using small items such as mini pompoms.

More Invitations to Play

Dried Playdough and Water

Pipecleaners, Playdough and Beads

Boxes and Tools

Pipe cleaners, Craft sticks, Playdough and Animals

Happy playing,
Debs :)

New Here? Subscribe to get all activities sent directly to you

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Are you on Facebook? We are and we'd love to see you there. You can also find us on Pinterest, Twitter  and G+ too. :) 

Continue reading...

Play dough is a wonderful sensory experience for children and one that most will thoroughly enjoy.

Today we're combining a couple of our favourite tactile materials 

with an easy way to practice Name Recognition, Letters and Spelling. 

This activity is also great for promoting fine motor skills and can also be used to focus

on colours and patterns.

Ages: 2-6+

(Maddie is currently 3.5. See the Handy Tips at the bottom of the post to either Simplify or Extend this activity)

Materials: Playdough, Pompoms, Rolling Pin and Pencil

Roll out the playdough and using the pencil, write in your child's name

Start covering the lines with pompoms to show your child what to do. We used mini pompoms here.

Children place the pompoms to cover the lines to spell out their name using their pincer grip. 

Add tweezers for an added challenge.

Pom-pom name. Discuss the letters and order. 

Use to practice single letters

Using larger pompoms

Handy Tips:

- To simplify this activity, start with single letters, such as the first letter of your child's name. Using larger pompoms will be easier for less advanced fine motor skills as they are easier to grab. When teaching single letters try to start with letters that have meaning to them (like the first letter of their name) and letters that generally have only 1 sound (eg S, M, F etc)

- To extend this activity, have your child do the writing in the play dough with the pencil. You could always do a very faint outline and have your child trace over the top to make the lines themselves if they're not confident at letter formation

- To begin again, simply scrunch the dough back into a ball and re-roll out.

- Use this same idea for teaching sight words or numbers

- Mix it up by providing different materials to cover the lines with such as beans or beads etc.

- Include further areas of learning by talking about and focusing on covering each letter with a particular colour or by encouraging simple patterns.

Want more ideas for Learning Letters?

Try our most popular and comprehensive post ever on the subject: The A-Z of Learning Letters. 90+ Activities

or, try making some fun Alphabet Goo!

How about some different fun Learning with Playdough?

Our Playdough Imprints. Texture and Pattern Exploration activity was really fun

or, how about this fun Invitation to Play with playdough and some other materials?

Happy playing,
Debs :)

New Here? Subscribe to get all activities sent directly to you

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Are you on Facebook? We are and we'd love to see you there. You can also find us on Pinterest, Twitter  and G+ too. :) 

Continue reading...

Playing with peers is so important for children. The amount of peer learning that takes place is amazing as is learning an understanding of self within a group and the best ways to deal with and cooperate with others.

Here I'm sharing some activity and food ideas for a play date that was set up for 4, three year olds (3 boys and 1 girl. Obviously the food and activities could be used with children of varying ages.

Invitations to play 

(Activity ideas)

Water Beads, cups, bowls, spoons, containers

Playdough, popsicle sticks and wooden farm animals

Imaginative play. Dress Ups. Doctors

Home made playset. Blue glass beads, rocks, sticks, twigs, felt, leaves, flowers etc

Baby Play

Let's Play and Learn Together

 The boys exploring the water beads for the first time. Quite the sensory experience

What are you doing with the play dough? Learning new ideas from one another

 Collaborative imaginative play

(t's pretty funny for everyone when the "sick patient" has a "sore butt" and therefore needs a butt injection.

Burning off a bit of energy

(Three year-olds certainly have A LOT to spare!)

 Fun for baby too!

The Food

Exploring Apples. 

Tasting plate. Apples 4 ways. Back- 3 types of apples. Granny Smith, Pink Lady and Golden Delicious. Which is your favourite? Bottom Left- puréed apple, Middle- Apple chips, Bottom right- apple cinnamon crumble mini muffins.

 Nutrition for busy, growing kids

 They dug right in!

Who knew that Pirates ate Purée? 

This was the only time our fabulous 4 were quiet!

Want more food and activity ideas for a playdate? Check out some of our other ideas here.

Handy Tips:

- A little bit of planning and thought before your house is descended upon will help make your playdate run more smoothly

- Depending on the age of children, modify the snacks and activities accordingly

- I buy my Water Beads off ebay (love shopping from home!) but they are also available at flower shops, markets and more and more variety shops. I recommend waiting for a good day to do this outside if it's the children's first experience with them.

- Don't be upset if the children are more interested in everything else in your house than the activities you've set out. Just being in a new environment is a learning experience for children and they will get to your activities eventually

- To contain mess, try setting out individual activities on their own blanket/mat. This can help the children see and recognise boundaries and can keep toys with lots of parts (eg Lego) all together and a breeze to clean up at the end.

***- Water Beads should not be ingested so parental supervision with children who might be tempted to eat them is required***

Happy playing,
Debs :)

New Here? Subscribe to get all activities sent directly to you

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Are you on Facebook? We are and we'd love to see you there. You can also find us on Pinterest, Twitter  and G+ too. :) 

Continue reading...