Rainbow Gelatin Exploration

Jello, jelly, gelatin its all the same to me.
Its a cool sensory material that never gets boring.
Have you ever used it in play?

 

 

This was our first attempt of gelatin using the jar of powered gelatin and the colours of the Rainbow.
I can announce that we will definitely be trying it again, in bigger better ways....

 
Just the way it jiggles, shakes and wiggles, the smooth texture and the sense of the cool temperature on the tips of your fingers is enough for any child to want to play with it (and adult).

 

I prepared some colourful sheets of jelly using gelatin, all it needs is to be heated (not boiled) and dissolved in water and then add some food colouring and let it set in the fridge. I just poured a cup of individual colours on cooking paper in a tray the night before, not knowing whether it would work or not. Success! I'll have to get more of this stuff, that was so simple.



Dimples and his best buddy explored the wriggly texture of the jelly with their fingers pretending to mix and cook with it. They used measuring cups to "measure" it and some plastic knives and forks to slice it in to pieces.
























Funnily enough, they held the bigger thicker pieces up to the light shaking and wobbling them, laughing at the funny movements it made. They experimented with tearing it up, squishing it between their fingers, chopping it with the knife and squashing it into a bowl pretending to make each other dinner. Mmmmmm Yum flavourless gelatin for dinner.



The gelatin is very fun used this way, its thicker and more pliable than your usual eating jelly, it is more like rubber and handles more from the playful preschooler than any jello would. It doesnt turned liquidy either, it stays in clumps and lasts much longer.
The boys tried mixing it and blending it together but the only success in that was making smaller pieces and more of a mess. They had a ball splatting it about and mucking around with it.



After the rainbow fiesta of wiggly wobbly fun, they piled it all back on to the tray and helped me clean it up like little angels......
That was until we arrived at the park later in the day and they were giggling and pointing at me, to their amusement I found the tiny rainbow chunks of jello they had put in my hair while i was down under the table and chairs trying to clean up.
Little Angels :)

SPLAT Painting

Splat painting was probably the funnest thing we did this week.

We got to get outdoors, let off some steam & Splat paint EVERY where.

I lined the brick wall outside with large paper, sticking it up with blue tac.

I then got 4 large cups and mixed up some water colours with some water, so that it was a smooth yet runny consistency.

Using some water (pool) sponge balls, and some circular sponges dimples soaked them in the cups of paint and used all his might to throw them at the paper.

As the hit SPLAT they went, the paint effect was great, as was the sound when they hit.

He squeezed them, and practiced throwing them as hard as he could both over & under arm.

It was lots of fun and he got to burn off some steam.

The harder you throw them, the bigger the SPLAT.

I had a go & let off some steam pelting the balls at the wall, it was good Messy fun.

Happy Adventures :)

Pirate Party - Invites & Decorations

A Pirate themed Dress-up Party for one fabulous 3 year old & his fellow Mateys!

Part 1 - Invitation & decorations
For Dimples 3rd Birthday I planned him a Pirate Party, big extravagant parties wont be a yearly occurrence that's for sure but this year we tried to go all out for his special day.
Dress ups, Buried Treasure, Pretend Pirate Play with a real Pirate boat and a Pirate Treasure chest Cake. Everything was themed in Red & Black from the table decorations, the food and the buckets of treasure...
What follows are the party ideas, food ideas, play ideas, decorations and the Pirate themed fun we had with our high spirited Pirate Crew!  this may take a couple of posts, so this is PART 1 & keep your eyes open for Part 2

First the Invitations:
A message in the bottle was given to guests. The Invitation was a scroll, printed on beige paper with a photo of Dimples holding a sign "I'm turning 3" & popped inside glass bottles with some sand, shells and a cork on top. Each was personally labelled by name.
The Invite was in Pirate Language with phases like " Set the date, dont be late or youll be shark bait" - "don ye best Pirate outfit or walk the Plank"

Decorations-

Fish net & skeletons

Red & Black Birthday Canvas-
 Dimples covered a big cardboard #3 with red & black buttons and glue for me, then I further glued it on red cardboard cut out the number 3 and stuck it on a black canvas we had painted the week before.
& little sculls & cross bone sequence were scattered every where.



Bubbles & Balloons and Streamers Everywhere.

(not that they lasted for the day)

Pirate flags-

Real ones and some I painted on old bed sheets.

Table decorations:

I didn't get very many photos of the table but one had a red table cloth with a black vinyl runner and the scull/cross bones scattered over it.  I wish I got some photos before the chaos began, when it was set up and untouched.

It had golden chocolate coins scattered up the centre as well and this table had a Pirate boat blow up drink cooler in the centre that held toddler pops in ice and some soft drinks for the adults.

The other Table was a Pirate table cloth with 2 red square place mats in the middle, one had "sea water" in a jug & the other had " Pirates Punch, again the table was laced with skull & cross bone sequence and golden chocolate coins.



Keep an eye out for the rest of the Pirate Party, including Games, Dress up Costumes and food ideas.

Mud is good for you, right?

Playing in the Mud: Our Mud Pies.

In Australia at the moment we have had a record amount of rain, with no break from the wet for over a week we have been doing lots of things inside and I was slowly running out of ideas and motivation as inside play for so long can become very mentally draining.

I promised Dimples that when the rain stopped we could play in the mud and make mud pies.

When the rain stopped for a short while over the weekend we were straight out there.

I gave dimples a couple of old containers and some digging tools. I put a heap of mud into a container next to his play surface and he got busy making me some mud pies, he put grass sprinkles on top with a few stones. mixed it all up and splatted it around until he found a worm to play with, then he let it go free.

Enough with the tools, he went hands first squishing it in his hands, squeezing it through his closed fist, splatting it into the bowl, tipping it out, mixing it with more water, playing with worms, and burying his hand under the mud. If he found any dirt chunks he made sure they were smoothed right out. It was a lot of fun!

By the end of it he was stomping and jumping in the mud puddle.

To tell you the truth I don't know why we haven't done this before, it was too easy to throw his clothes straight in to the laundry tub for a wash and take him in for a quick warm bath before the rains hit again.

Did you know that playing in the dirt & mud is good for kids.

I think with the modern day plastic toys, cool kids movies and all the stress about cleanliness mothers forget that the most simplest fun can be had with some tools and a bit of dirt.

If you give your child some old pots and plates, cooking utensils and tools with a bucket of wet dirt then let them go without stressing over how dirty their clothes will get or if they will rub mud in their hair you will find quite possibly that they will have fun for hours.

I recently read an article about the benefits of playing in the dirt, a-dirty-kid-is-a-happy-kid and I must admit I was surprised about how good it actually is. I knew it was great for sensory and tactile abilities but did you know that the (good) living bacteria in dirt can help improve mood, has been linked to higher iq's and boosts a child's immune system.  So now you have an excuse to let your kids get dirty and play in the mud!

 

Another thing that I must point out, that i personally think is very important is that this dirty messy fun play builds a stronger bond with nature and the outdoors which is very important in raising the next generation. With all the technology, on line activities, video games, cool kids movies and a million reasons to sit in front of a screen for most of the day parents need to be reminded of how beneficial outdoor play is in the long run, it can influence the health and well being of a little person by reinforcing that being active and outdoors is alot of fun and is really enjoyable.

If you have a chance check out the article above, a dirty kid is a happy kid and this one, let-your-kids-get-dirty. and the mud center for info on the benefits of playing in dirt and some mud ideas.

CAT in the HAT photo

This is pretty self explanatory!  It was lots of fun-

First we read the cat in the hat and then we spread out a large white sheet & collected things that resembled the cats first trick.

it's fun to have fun, you just have to know how.

I can hold up a cup & the milk and the cake and the fish on a rake, I can hold the toy ship and a little toy man and look i can fan with the fan as i hop on the ball"  Dr. Seuss (the cat in the Hat).

OK so its a little different, but you make do with what you have. I wasn't going to give him a huge dirty garden rake so instead his little broom and I wasn't going to make him a cake so a cup cake with a paper candle will do, and I drew the fish in the bowl. I didn't trust giving him milk so a empty sippy cup worked well enough & well the hat is simply red paper strips glued on an A4 paper that dimples glued together himself- It was so funny.

I did have a toy ship. a ball& a toy (lego) man on hand.

After I showed him the pictures he declared "That was FUN, lets do it again!"