Glowing Sensory Glitter Bin

Using my newly found play essential, a UV black light globe, I put this super cool sensory bin together for Dimples and he literally sat and played for an hour in the dark.
If you have missed it we have done glow play with experimental glowing-vinegar- & with Glow water bath-play

I kept my mind open and looked for anything that glows in the dark or that was neon or fluorescent to put in the sensory bin and this is what I came up with.

Neon Play dough
Neon glitter dust
Glow sticks
Neon straws
Glow in the dark Plastic stars
Fluro pom poms
Fluro pipe cleaners
Fluro hair elastics
Fluro highlighters on white paper

Before: Flash on - UV light off

After: Flash off - UV light on

 Under the black light the neon/fluro play dough looked awesome, Dimples played around making caterpillars and bugs with the pipe cleaners and cut straws.

He threaded some of the pipe cleaner through the cut straws and then sprinkled the glitter everywhere. We were sitting in a dark room with a large mirror and he was laughing at the glitter on his finger tips. It was a crack up- Something good about the UV light, you REALLY see where all the mess goes, that normally you would not notice (like thousands of minuscule glitter dust specks).

Then he brushed by his face and looked in the mirror. Yep, he was covered in glow in the dark specks. Then he laughed & seen his teeth,  "Look at my teeth Mummy" they were glowing under the light as well.

 

He done some scribbling on white paper with the fluro highlighters and traced around some stars and then started with the glitter again.  He covered the play dough and filled some star shapes up.

After managing to sprinkle out all the glitter into the box I started to pack away some of the other bits so he had more room for the glitter.
Have you ever seen sand on a light box? Well the neon glitter under the UV light is by far much more interesting, bright and appealing but with the same affect.

Dimples used his fingers to draw in the glitter, do prints and so on, all the glitter glowed under the light and where ever he traced his finger, swished the pipe cleaners or pressed the play dough it was dark.

You must try it - Go on you know the kids (and you) will love it!!
Happy Adventures

Painting the Bath Tub

Painting the Bath Tub

Dimples loves getting paint all over his hands, arms & face.

So instead of giving him his tressle and tubs of paint, brushes and sponges, putting his art shirts on & trying to get him to keep the paint only on the brush or the paper (& failing in doing so) I let him go.... In the bath tub!

The rules were that he could paint the sides & bottom of the tub, keeping all the paint inside the tub.  He could paint any part of himself as long as he washed & cleaned it all off when he was finished.

That is what he did, he followed the instructions clearly and cleaned himself up.

I gave him a sponge, a brush and a roller then splatted paint through out the bath. He was in it and also had a paint tray full of paint. It got messy and watch out if you are trying this, it gets very slippery so we also said another rule of sitting / kneeling down to prevent a nasty fall.

He painted his feet, his legs and his hands as usual and then realised he had full range so he grabbed the roller and painted his belly aswell. He was covered in paint from the tip of his toes up to his chin. Then once he got that out of his system he painted a "beautiful waterfall" up the side of the tub and a shark.

It went well and the best thing was it was so easy to clean, as it was still wet it just washed down the drain & then he was in the tub already so he was clean and spottles within a matter of minutes. If you are a multi-tasker like I am, it is also too easy to clean the bathroom at the same time. While he was painting away I cleaned the shower and the vanity, Sorted through the washing and then cleaned him :)

Great fun.

FOSSILS

We Made Fossils.

This was a quick & easy activity, my little man has done this before at daycare & we have experimented with play-doh but this time around it was time to get down to business.....   This is how we made our realistic fossils!

Recipe:
*1.5 cup flour
*2 cup salt
*1 cup water
*1tsp oil
*1 cup warm water with your choice of food colour.

Mix it up, knead it like a dough. I think I added some ingredients as i was going so just experiment with the texture. It needs to be dough consistency, thick & not overly sticky.
This is a great opportunity to get the kiddies helping with mixing recipes & baking.

Pre-heat your oven on low. I think I had ours on 100 degree. You need to slow cook it for a couple of hours, not too hot or they may crack/crumble or you can leave them in the sun to dry for a while, the oven is quicker & it was a rainy day so we used it.
Remember: its only flour & salt so it will get taken away by birds or ants and wont last if its rained on so don't stick them out on the balcony to dry & forget about them, or they may disappear :-D

Divide your fossils pieces up into small balls & softly flatten. Try to make them roughly the same size & not too large or the dough in the centre will cook unevenly or stay too soft.
We did palm sized balls & placed them on baking paper to cook.

Choose your Fossils: What type of fossils will you do?
In this batch we did an elephant, dino heads, dino feet, animal feet & some realistic shell fossils.

Once they are cooked let them cool & test they are solid.
& now you have some great fossils to play with. 

Dig with them:  My little man is right in to his dinosaurs so we will be burying them in a sensory box to dig up & re-discover, like we did with the dino skeletons here in our digging discovery boxes. 

As a gift:  Half of them were given to my little ones nan as a gift, she has collected real fossils for a very long time & has a good collection of interesting artifacts so these were a little humorous for her and a nice surprise. My little monkey wrapped them in pink tissue paper in a stack & i tied a ribbon on top. He was very pleased to give something home made....

Please be warned: Since you mix these like cookies, bake them like cookies & they kind of look like strange cookies younger kids will no doubt test them out to see if they taste like cookies :)