Smellydough

I know, i hear you say..."Not another play dough recipe!" But wait, this one is my favourite. Great texture and smells delicious, give it a go!
I found this recipe in a cookbook called "Gifts from the kitchen" by Company's Coming, If you can get your hands on it, its a fabulous book with so many beautiful ideas to make and do
So for this recipe you need
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
1 pack of fruit flavoured drink mix
2 tsp. cream of tatar
1 cup water
1 tbsp oil
Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium saucepan then stir in water and oil. Heat and stir until thickened to the consistency of mashed potatoes. Cool for 5 mins then knead it on a floured surface until dry.

We made a lime and an orange smelly dough and it smelt lovely. We found we didn't need any colouring added to it as the drink mix was vibrant enough but you could add your own colours.

Browning apple experiment

Tara has had an interest in experiments lately and a fascination about browning fruit so we did a simple little science experiment that she really enjoyed.
She helped cut up two apples and one lemon. We placed the sliced apple onto plates and labeled them "lemon juice" and "no lemon juice". Tara squeezed the lemon juice on the one sliced apple and we waited a day to see the result although she had already had her own hypothesis
Which she proved to be correct. Lemon juice will stop her apple from going brown!

Ladybug play tub

This sensory play tub was made up of from our previous post when we made a sensory farm. The grass is coloured coconut and i added some wooden ladybugs of varying sizes and some leaves, along with a wooden pond with green frogs.
Making the most of the afternoon sun in the cold winter, sensory tubs are always a hit!

Pom Pom's for Baby

Mason is now 6 months and really enjoying his play time so Tara decided to make him his first pom pom.
A great soft toy that he can explore and manipulate with his little fingers.
First we needed to make the template which consists of two circles on a thick piece of cardboard. We used a glass for the outer circle and sticky tape roll for the inner circle then cut them out
The template should look similar to this

Now for the fun bit! Cut your wool into strips of about 1 metre or whatever your child can manage, starting from the outside weave the wool into the center and out and around again making sure always to finish your wool length on the outside. Do this until all the cardboard is covered in wool

Next step is to use scissors to cut all around the outside of the circle. It's easiest to keep your scissors tip in between the two pieces of cardboard to guide you through. It will then look like this..

Take a length of wool and wrap it around the centre of the pom pom and knot it as tightly as possible, this is what will keep your pom pom together. Lastly cut through your cardboard disc and removed it completely. Trim your pom pom so it is even and you have a simple, homemade pom pom that will delight your little one!

Nut and Bolt matching

I have had this on my list to do for a while now and when our easel broke it gave me a perfect piece of wood to use. A few leftover nuts and bolts that hubby no longer needed and we had our own nut and bolt matching activity
I used superglue to keep the bolt in place on the wood and i placed the nuts in a container next to the activity when i presented it to Tara. She chose one nut and guessed which one it would fit until they were all on the correct bolt. Like most Montessori activities this is self correcting so there is no need for the parent to be involved in the activity.

A2 homemade ice-cream

We are big fans of A2 milk http://www.a2milk.com.au/
So when i found a simple recipe for homemade ice-cream i thought we would give it a go with our own milk to make A2 Ice-cream!
The recipe is easy...
3/4 cup of A2 milk
1 tablespoon of sugar
A tray of ice-cubes
6 tablespoons of salt
1/2 cup water
powdered flavouring if you wish, milo/nesquik etc
To prepare it...
Combine milk,sugar and flavouring in a small zip lock bag. Seal it and shake it until combined.
In a large zip lock bag place your ice cubes, salt and water.
Put the small zip lock bag into the large zip lock bag and seal.
Gently squish the bags together for 5-10 minutes. This will start to freeze the milk and the longer you do this for the thicker your ice-cream will be...

Yummy homemade A2 strawberry ice-cream!

Geo Matching slab

I had always wanted to make our own Geo board and to make it one of those activities that can be used in different ways to get its use from it so this is what we came up with-our Geo matching slab!

As we had no spare wood around the house i used some leftover air drying clay that of course got warmed up by Tara and her tools!
After she had finished i just moulded a rectangle slab of clay with some nails pressed into it evenly and let it dry overnight.

When it was dry i added some small markers down the side which i wrote on with whiteboard marker to create a matching game. Tara was working on matching her big and small letters here...

Matching colours here...

You can see how her little hand is using all its muscles to maneuver the elastics around the nails. Fantastic for fine motor and pre writing skills

It can still be used as a classic Geo board with a triangle, square or rectangle shape made...

But whatever the activity is, it always comes back to animals when Tara is involved! hehe now we have a farm with fences.....

Carrot Stamps

We have tried potato stamps when Tara was younger but now she is older stamping is still a hit but this time we tried carrot stamps!
I top and tailed a few carrots and then carved some shapes and letters on either ends with a sharp knife. Dipped into some paint we had 6 fun stamps to play with
Finished art work..

Baking tray magnets

Are you magnets on the fridge getting ignored? Grab one of your baking trays out and you will be amazed at the sudden excitement of a 'new' activity!

Sensory baby cloth

These micro fibre cloths are found very inexpensively from dollar shops. They make great a great sensory toy for infants. Unwrap and give a good wash to ensure all chemicals and dust is out then fold in half length ways. Stitch up both sides to create a pocket shape. You can add rice or seeds if you want a heavier and thicker toy but for young infants leaving it empty will make it a light weight toy they can really get a hold of. Sew up the last edge to make it a completely sealed rectangle.
Soft and furry this texture toy is a favourite of Mason's...

Cheerio bird feeder

We have plenty of bird life around our area and when we saw a fun way to make bird feeders we thought we should give it a go.
Use a pipe cleaner and thread on some Cheerios's. Threading is a great activity for toddlers as it practices patience,completing a task and the wonderful fine motor skills for writing. Make sure to leave room for a loop or hook so you can hang them
We hung a few from a tree outside

And shared two with our pet "Pete" who nibbled on it all afternoon

Spaghetti Words

While we don't usually allow playing with food at lunchtime, when i came back to Tara after giving her some spaghetti for lunch and found her name spelt out on the table i had to smile....
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with our food :)

Letters,numbers,words,shapes, the imagination runs wild.....

Fossicking for gold

After our Dino land adventure we used the clean up as a fun way to discover the art of "Fossicking"
Sifting through a tub of sand,water and pebbles, Tara separated the heavier pebbles from the soft sand with a strainer, shaking side to side, round and around just like in the gold rush.

Cannelloni sleeping beauties

Cannelloni sleeping beauties are fun and easy to prepare for your little ones dinner...
Fill your Cannelloni will spinach/ricotta or minced meat and place them laying flat onto a baking tray. Pour over your tomato based sauce and bake for 20 minutes until pasta is soft. While they are cooking get your little helper to peel mushrooms and remove stems for the beauties heads.
Use tiny olive triangles for eyes and tomato skin for smiles.
When Cannelloni is cooked add a row of cheese on top to make it look like a blanket. Place back in the oven just until cheese melts then take out and add your mushroom heads and add some cooked egg noodles for hair.

Decorate with whole olives as feet and use cucumber and carrot for designer hats or hair clips on your sleeping beauties

Packing material play

We had a parcel arrive full of these packing peanuts that i stored for a rainy day and when Tara found them we got out a mat and started building some structures. If your lucky enough to stumble upon these, with just a touch of glue these make great igloo's or tunnels
Then they were turned into Antarctica with icebergs galore!

We added some ships,submarines and boats and played some great inventive games

Cupcake liner flowers

What can you make on a rainy day with left over cupcake liners?
.........A cupcake garden!!!
Just use paint or a marker for your stems and glue a cupcake liner on top. These make lovely presents for mums or grandmas for mothers day!

Volcano Dino Land

Dinosaurs are a popular part of Montessori lesson plans. To engage in some dinosaur discussions i made up this Dino land. The base is a terracotta pot plant saucer which i covered in fish tank pebbles. For the volcano you will need a plastic bottle and some sand. Then add some plastic dinosaurs

For our little science experiment we used a funnel into the plastic bottle and added about 1/2 cup of Bi-carb soda and a squirt of dish washing liquid. Tara also requested red glitter!

Make up a bowl of vinegar mixed with food colouring (we chose red). Use a baster or medicine dropper to add into your volcano and wait for the chemical reaction to start and you have an erupting volcano with bubbly red hot lava

You control the lava with the amount of vinegar you add

For more explosive lava just pour a cup full of the vinegar straight in. Watch out dinosaurs!!!!!!!!!!

Coconut Grass Farm

This play farm is made with shredded coconut and green food colouring. Use a zip lock bag to put all your coconut in-a great opportunity to practice those transferring skills Add some drops of green food colouring

And squish/pat/rub with your hands until all the coconut is covered

Find a tray with deep sides. Even an oven tray will make do! Lay out the coconut flat and put in the sun to dry for an hour

Set up your farm using animals,tractors,fences and a pond

Have some little rakes and shovels handy so the "farmer" can work on his/her property. Very therapeutic-a new take on a zen garden!