Ocean Playdough

 
Last month I attended a professional development day for StrongStart facilitators from the north island.  Each person that attended left with a draw prize.  Mine was this wonderful sectioned basket which contained shells, jewels and sticks.  I added blue play dough and watched the children play.
                

 
        
Play dough offers many opportunities for children.  Storytelling, fine motor, experimenting (will the sticks stand straight up), sharing, creativity, understanding how materials can work together, are just a few.

Potato Cooking

From our two spud tubs we harvested approximately 60 potatoes
which gave us lots to make several recipes.
  
But which recipes should we try? 
Yes, I do have a cook book dedicated to potatoes.
  
We started by boiling some of the potatoes and having a taste test.
 
Then we mashed some of them for our first recipe.
 
            
Added some cheese, a bit of flour and made potato pancakes.
 
Our second recipe also used mashed potatoes and cocoa.

After mixing in all the ingredients, enjoying the fragrance of the cocoa,
we scooped the cookie dough on to the pan. 
                 
Yum, we made chocolate potato cookies and we shared them with our big buddies.
 
Lastly we made potato chips in the microwave.
      
Slice the potatoes thinly and soak in water for a few minutes to help remove some of the starch.  Microwave for a few minutes and flip them over then microwave until they are brown and crisp.

Mermaid Dreams

              
Mermaid Dreams by Mark Sperring is about Meriam who doesn’t
like getting ready for bed.  But as her mom brushes her hair, shells
and other ocean items fall out.  They are all hints to the end where
we learn that she is a mermaid. 
  
The illustrations in this book flow across the pages. The picture of Meriam’s tail has been created from a variety of paper, layered on top of each other.
         
                  
I was inspired to try to copy the mermaid.  I began by making a stencil
on styrofoam for the children to paint and print.
                     

Yarn was used for her hair.  Old greeting cards and scissors with
scalloped blades were used to make the scales of her tail.
They also cut crabs from a special hole punch and used those to
decorate their pictures.
       
We also used shell and star shaped sponges to paint the background.
            
            
The children’s creations turned out lovelier than I could imagine.
        


 

Fairy Update and Happenings

A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk through
Fairy Lane and was disappointed to see that someone
had removed several fairy doors as well as all the
gifts that were left for them.
      
Today is International Fairy Day and also was our
last day in session so to celebrate both we made
new doors.
      
My husband once again cut out about 30 rectangle doors
and drilled a hole in them so they can be mounted.
  
These doors may end up in Fairy Lane or in the children’s
back yards or in another special place.
      
Or as one little girl said “there is a secret, secret spot in my yard”.
 
Judging by the popularity of this craft there will many
new fairy doors around our community.
         
               Each with its own story.

  Each brightly painted to invite a fairy to move in.

Ocean Guessing Game

Do you remember the memory game we use to play as kids?  
Take one item away and lift cloth to guess which one.
It was a favourite of mine.

Here's the how-to-play.

Place several items on the table, talking about each one,

place a cloth over top,

everyone covers or closes their eyes,
 
you remove one item,

and they guess which one is missing.
It’s great for working their memory skills and paying
attention to details.

I’ll challenge them by taking two or three objects away at once.
I encourage the families to play this at home with household items;
fork, spoon, cup, etc.