Mirrors, Eucalyptus Cloud Dough & Smurf Pretend Play

 

Play ideas using mirrors have been popping up every where

 Paint on the ceiling - Learning about symmetry  

 An everyday Story - loose parts & mirrors 

 One Perfect Day - Exploring Loose Parts on Mirrors  and I fell in love.  

 

It gives play such an interesting visual, brightens the surface, gives the objects another dimension and reflect the child and what they're doing. I thought to myself, if I think this looks cool and interesting as an adult imagine how intrigued a child must be. 

 

This was Dimples first play using a mirrored surface.

I mixed up some green eucalyptus cloud dough, Dimples is still fighting off one of winters last flu's so it was nice to take it outdoors in the sun and breathe in the fresh smell.

I crushed some green chalk, mixed it with a few cups of flour and added a few splashes of oil & a dash or eucalyptus oil, until it was the right consistency of cloud dough. It smelt nice and felt smooth & on the mirror it looked inviting. 

 

Even the smallest of specks were reflected.

It looked very visually inviting.

Using some silicon moulds and jelly cups Dimples build some 'stands' or pedestals for each of the smurfs and he noticed how it doubled, making a symmetrical image reflecting underneath. 

He was focused on seeing the reflections of his hands also, and what he was doing with his fingers.

 

Interesting stuff, Dimples moulded and shaped smurf huts, and made a tunnel. He buried some smurfs and explored the concept of the mirror, peeking peering and moving everything and himself around as he played.

The dog and miss cherub found it all very interesting aswell. 

 

Little Miss Cherub observing everything from my lap, was keen to put her fingers into the cloud dough, she mainly swiped it from one side to the other and inspected her hands in the reflection. Dimples allowed her one cup cake mould only and one handful of dough (which got swished around and off the side in less than one minute) however it was a nice act of kindness on his behalf. 

The cloud dough can be shaped, moulded, flattened and crumbled in

Many ways. It works great compacted into small jelly cups in particular. 

Remember that you can store it by putting it in a zip lock bag and saving it for another day. 

I think there are endless ways to play with mirrors and it gives such an interesting dimension to the objects.

 

Learning concepts;

Mixing and moulding

Sensory Play

Symmetry & reflections

Observation & visual attention

Creativity & Imagination

 

Ideas for Extension;

Cloud dough tunnels and Lights

Pretend Play - Ice cream Dough

Loose Parts on Mirrors

 

Happy Adventures

 

 

 

Ice cream Dough and Sprinkles

Today's outdoor activity was a messy, sensory play all rolled into one fun dramatic pretend play session. We took it outside to enjoy the fresh air and the lovely smell of spring flowers while saving on the mess factor.  I made what I will call Ice cream dough from a large cheap bottle of baby powder and 1/2cup of baby oil, coincidental both were lavender scented. Our ice cream dough smelt wonderful and felt silky soft.

Delicious Looking, sweet Smelling, Silk soft to play with and oh so fun.



I mixed it up in a large tub and served it to Dimples outside with some small different shape bowls, a measuring cup, an ice cream scoop, some plastic spoons, some sprinkles and some Pom poms.

First I made him a bowl of Ice cream, a few moulded scoops with a cherry on top and gave him the spoon. He grabbed the spoon and hooked in (instantly falling into his dramatic pretend play mode) 'yum yum delishhh-us!' he said. It was a funny moment because I had never heard him say this in context before.

 

He took the role as ice cream maker very seriously and set to work making me a bowl of ice cream, 'try it' he insisted, watching me when a huge dimply grin. 

The game went on and on, Dimples enjoyed scooping it all up and patting it into bowls and the measuring cup, as you would with sand castles then carefully putting them upside down to get them out. I think he mostly enjoyed smashing the balls of ice cream I made up and of course generously sprinkling on the 100's & 1000's.

 

The ice cream dough looked so appealing with its rainbow sprinkles and it smelt so fresh. I am glad we took it outside though, it was definitely an outside activity. There was white powder and crumbs every where, Dimples tends to throw his hands up when they are covered on something and flick them over head like a chopper so that stuff flies off in every direction.

Tap and flatten the bowl full of Ice cream face down.



Dimples had an awesome time building, forming and patting the dough into ice cream and mastering how to scoop it packed in to the bowl or scoop and then slowly sliding it out. Through experimenting he learnt how to perfectly build a dome using a bowl and had lots of hands on play with scooping, pouring, smashing, patting, measuring, using the spoon, measuring cup, sprinkles and bowls to pretend make ice cream. He also learnt that the dough was very fragile and cracked easily.

slowly does it







Big smiles. Successful!





Happy Adventures :)

Cloud Dough Tunnels & Lights

Cloud Dough & Lights: Making Tunnels on the moon.

I am sure you have heard of Cloud Dough, if not you can make it with 1 cup of baby oil & 5 cups of any flour. Mix it all about & it will becomes a silky consistency, it will look a lot like soft sand but can be packed and shaped like smooth dough. You can add glitter or sequins to it if you want, we had some star sequins that got mixed in.

I poured the ingredients in to a tray and let Dimples mix it up & play, he told me it was the moon. So we went with that and made some moon craters, he had some little transformers & robot looking figurines that resembled the space men, aka Astronauts who were on the moon exploring.

Using a couple of small gelato dishes and silicone cupcake cups we made some moon boulders.

I gave dimple some battery operated tea lights, these are really cheap (a pack of ten for $2), I just happened to have them laying around but hadnt used them for anything yet so this was perfect- They are sealed so I let him explore with a couple of these, "Fires on the moon" he called them.
He experimented with burying them, it worked well, under the fine and light cloud dough they gleamed through little gaps and flickered through holes in the "moon sand".

Dimples buried them & buried them, seeing how much dough is needed until the fire went out, it was a fair bit!  The effect of the lights under the dough worked well and they did actually look like little fires in a caves.

Then I got the idea of tunnels, we put the fire together and then put an ice cream scoop with the handle side next to the light. Dimples buried his lights, also burying the tip & handle of the ice cream scoop, I packed it down firmly over the handle & then slowly removed it out, leaving a circular tunnel leading up to the tea lights. It worked well, kneeling down and getting his eyes level with the entrance of the tunnel Dimples could see the lights flickering, then he examined the top of the mound- No light!  He looked back down through the tunnel  "Look mummy the fires are on in the tunnel".

The Flash on the camera mucked up the photo, it does it no justice,  but you can imagine how it would look- no light on top & the flickering of tealights shining only down the tunnel.  It was pretty cool!  Dimples enjoyed playing with the lights under the dough and then experimented trying to make tunnels with his finger & with the handle of the ice cream scoop. Then he would squash them all out and start again.