Construction Theme Party Games

Piñata: A construction Themed Piñata stuffed with lollies, Dimples was five so he went first with 5 hits and each child got 5 swings at the piñata.

Dance Freeze: This was the game that Dimples insisted we played, I put some music on and the boys danced away showing us there best dance moves. It was such a happy sight seeing a bunch of kids enjoying them self, they looked so cute wearing construction vests, hats and boots grooving away.
Then Using a Stop Sign, I paused the music & held up the sign, they had to freeze and who ever moved was out, and so the game went until there were 2 left.  They had a few goes and everyone ended up being a winner.

Wrecking Ball Game:  With a beach ball wrapped in contact and hanging above a grassy mat the boys stacked up towers of boxes we had wrapped as bricks and took turns demolishing them.

Pass the Parcel: Most people know this classic Party game. A parcel of news paper with hidden prizes inside each layer. The children pass the parcel until the music stops and if it stops on them they get to open a layer. The prizes were construction themed stickers, balloons, bouncing balls, removable tattoos, notebooks, chocolates and crayons.

Construction Theme Play Station:  In the week leading up to the party Dimples create a diorama kind of backdrop for the play station, it was a construction site with a bowl of construction toy cars, diggers and trucks, then using a bag of coco-pops and rice bubbles it was set up for some pretend play and digging.

Free Play: Of course until all the initial excitement wore off a little the boys explored the garden and found some smurfs, then looked at the Dinosaur hide out , they played in the sand pit together getting to know each other & tinkered around in the Mud Kitchen.  They played together in the tree house and went over the balance stumps and ran around all dressed up in their construction gear.

Jelly Bean Bounce & Pop Game: We blew up a heap of balloons and in some we put jelly beans, then we put them all in the trampoline. The boys enjoyed this game the most, they had to jump and pop the balloons by sitting on them or jumping on them. There were plenty of giggles and they continued until there were no balloons left in the trampoline, a couple of boys asked for more and wanted to do it again.

Digging Work Zone: Of course no Construction Party is complete without digging in the dirt. After a couple of weeks of rain we were lucky to get a sunny day and the have the mud dry out a bit. Dimples had spent the days before digging and burying little skeleton dinosaurs, little treasures and wishing stones for the kids to find. We decorated the area like a real construction site and had a bunch of diggers, dump trucks, excavators and shovels ready. It was a huge hit and the boys kept returning to find more hidden treasures.


Happy 5th Birthday Dimples.

Dinosaur Fossil Discovery

Dimples has been doing some Dinosaur Activities at preschool so I thought I would extend on this at home.  He has always loved dinosaurs and we have done Dino fossils before but this time I tried to make them more realistic so he can link the fun he has had preschool to the fun he has with his dinosaurs at home.

It was a success, they turned out much better and looked real!

My little master Chef helped mix up a batch of Salt Dough, see the directions below. To make them look as realistic as possible we added some black food colouring, so that they looked like real rock fossils. It worked well, they turned into a dark grey rock colour. We made some extra fossils so he could give them to his preschool group and we did a little palaeontology digging with his favourite ones.

They were so easy to make and Dimples loved pressing his dino toys into the dough and inspecting how they looked, he looked closely at the details and did a few experiments with some foot prints before deciding which ones worked best.

 How to make Realistic Salt Dough Fossils

Ingredients:      
1 cup cooking salt,
2 cups of flour
1 cup hot water,
Food colour or tempura paint (we used black food colouring)

Directions: 

Mix together salt and flour, gradually add the hot water.

If you want to add tempura paint or food colouring to your fossils add it into the water first.

Mix into a dough consistency and then knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth. 

Divide the dough into small rock shapes, make them roughly the same thickness and size so that they bake evenly.

Gather some toys that can be pressed in to form your fossils (plastic animals & dinosaurs feet and body parts work well). We had some skeleton Dinosaurs which worked perfectly and some plastic dinosaurs with realistic feet shapes.

The salt dough can be air dried but for a better quicker result bake it slowly on low heat until rock hard.  We baked them on 120 degrees for an hour and a half but this depends on the size of your fossils. You can double check if they are dried properly by inspecting the bottom, it should be hard and evenly cooked all over without the 'dough' look. 

Once they're cooled  off they can be painted and decorated or left as is.

Play Idea:

Bury them in a sand box to be “discovered” (if you have a large sand box you could put a small flag above where they are buried). 

Then provide your pre-schooler with a small spade, pick and some paint brushes.

Once they find it, they can un-cover it and brush the sand off.
You can ask them to be very careful not to break or damage the fossil and get them to brush around them as a real palaeontologist would.

The discovered fossils can then be added to small world play and put on display.

Note: If the salt dough fossils get wet they will turn back to dough and crumble away.




Happy Adventures

Alternatives to Dirt Digging Construction

We have been doing lots of mud play since we have made the New Mud kitchen.
Dimples has 2 new Dirt trucks, an excavator and a dump truck that he got for Christmas and he has been keen to take them out side into the dirt.
However, as they are brand new and will be coming back inside on the carpet. I am afraid they will get wrecked, stained or unable to get completely clean again, I am sure they will end up out in the dirt soon enough but for now we did this alternative to digging in the mud that was just as fun without the mess.

For what ever the reason, whether its new toys, new clothes or just the mess factor, I understand not everyone is comfortable letting their child run amok in the mud. Sometimes its not appropriate or realistic!
This was a fun tactile alternative that was very clean, hands on and still provided some independent free play in the outdoors.
Hands-on Outdoor Construction Play without the grubby clean up. win win!

I placed some Large flattened cardboard boxes down outside and filled a plastic tray with unpopped pop corn kernels and an old bag of lentils (that would never get used) and Dimples got to use his 2 new toys for digging without the mess and the dirt.
You could use any dry ingredient: Rice, Pasta, Lentils, corn, split peas or out of date cooking ingredients after you sort through your pantry.
Dimples enjoyed digging, scooping and loading the dump truck, dumping it out and driving over the yellow work site.
The corn and lentils made a sprinkling scattering sound as they were dumped on to the cardboard. It was also alot more productive then dirt, Dimples could easily scoop large tubs full and see them pile up as he dumped them out.

It was a great tactile experience outside, he enjoyed fiddling with the corn peices and getting right in there with both hands (this would also work well with the sensory challenged who wont get their hands dirty to begin with) and the best part was after his toys got shaken off, they were still good as new: No mess, no scratches, no broken pieces and no clean up. It was relatively Quick and Easy!
I just picked up the cardboard, poured all the corn & lentils back into a container and saved it to reuse next time.

Happy Adventures

Mud Rally Sensory Box

If you are reading this you must be interested in making a Mud Rally Sensory Box?
This was a fun outdoors activity that I set up for Dimples near his Mud Kitchen.
It has all the Sensory and Tactile benefits of playing outdoors with dirt and mud, as well as these 8 benefits of playing in Mud with one appealing difference; It is contained in a Sensory Box.

 

 

I realise not everyone has a mud kitchen (or wants one) and many parents aren't open to letting their child freely explore mud but they still want to provide the learning experiences and messy fun that mud provides for their child.

The solution? The Mud Rally Sensory Box.

Its all the fun and mess but contained in a box.

This means it can even be bought inside on a spill mat or done on your back patio as a quick and easy messy play activity that can be emptied and cleaned out afterwards.

Simply mix a little dirt and water into the tray, add cars and once the messy play is finished, return the mud to its original place, rinse out the tub and rinse of the cars. Easy Peasy!

 



Dimples gathered some of his diggers and carted them up the yard. I wasn't keen to do the entire messy play thing on this particular day and we had limited time, so I put a shovel load of dirt into a plastic tub and mixed in some water, I sat his cart next to it and let him play.
It wasn't long before he came down from his tree house and came over to start exploring.
Initally he was very delicate, mixing the mud and carefully pushing a car around slowly and then inspecting its wheels. It didnt take long for him to warm up into his usually imaginative self.

Diggers, dump trucks, monster trucks, bull-dozers, tractors, jeeps and 4wd cars were lined up into the mud. The tractors were great at pushing the mud and clearing a path, Dimples experimented a while with this, looking intently at the cleared path. He added a little more water and watched it wash mud back over the paths.
He made some rally tracks and imagined that it was a race circuit, thrashing the monster trucks through the mud (with sound effects of course). Pretending they were doing all sorts of "tricks", flipping, rolling and skidding.
He used his diggers and dump truck for some track construction, even going to the extent of burying a car under dumped out mud.

 

Looking for some more Messy Play ideas?

Mud Kitchen: Recipe for Marvellous Mud Play

8 reasons to play in the mud

fun- green-monster-slime-mess

D is for Digging

Happy Adventures

Mining for jewels

Ever heard of smurf village for I-pad?  I have it, I love the smurfs. They're so cute, it's a bit like FarmVille & those games on Face book (that I've never got into) but with smurfs they grow crops of fruit, bake cakes and build a hidden smurf village.  In my smurf village I have miner smurf and a game where you mine with a pick, finding gold, silver, rubies and jewels in rocks....
Dimples loves it, he always asks if he can check my smurf village just so he can mine for Jewels,  this was the inspiration for the mining activity I put together for him!



Using a small chisel and hammer, dimples mined for treasure just like mining smurf.  Days in advance I prepared his rocks using homemade play dough that had almost had its day. I got a palm full of dough and inserted a lucky stone, a pretend jewel, a marble or a foam shape in the centre and rolled it in so it was completely covered. once I had a dozen I put them on the window sill to dry!



After a few days of full sun, the dough rocks were hard all the way through and ready to be mined.
Miner dimples used his chisel and hammer to chip away at the rocks until he found a jewel. He told me he would mine out a crown for me as this is the highest scoring treasure in the smurf game that we haven't been able to find!  Unfortunately for me there were no crowns but he enjoyed mining the hidden jewels and imagining what could be.

 

 

 

 

My little miner found some treasures, cleaned them off & put them away in his treasure box.  It was good fun and a good activity for pretend play, imagination, hand/eye coordination & spatial concepts. Not to mention messy outdoor play



Happy Adventures  :)

X marks the spot

lots of loot

My little Dimples loves Pirates.

Just have a glance through this blog and you will find lots of Pirate inspired play ideas:

 From his Pirate room , to his Pirate birthday party invites , Pirate Party games , Pirate Party Grub to his Pirate theme tree House & fun things like Treasure Hunts & small world sand dough pirate play .

This one is a fun simple outdoor activity that we do often.

Buried Treasure in the back yard sand pit.

Burying the loot using a tonka dump truck

We have a collection of treasure that we use all the time.

It is just a bunch of shiny stuff like....  lucky stones, blue jewels from the craft isle, fake coins from Pirate dress ups, some kids plastic dress up necklaces cut into strands of jewels from the party section of the bargain shop, some fake pearl ribbon cut into strands, old junk jewelry and bits and bobs that I had for some reason kept from my teenage trend years but would never wear again.

A large X gets drawn in the sand pit over the buried treasure

Dimples Draws up a treasure Map, and has to put a Large X that marks the spot.

We have done this so many times that he can now draw perfect X's

Sometimes we get dressed up, all out in Pirate gear and some times he is happy just to pretend.

He announces that we are going to sail the seven seas and hunt for buried treasure, Once we find it we need to hide it from Captain Hook and mark it with a X

Here he is pointing out the X and telling me that is where he has hidden the treasure.

This is a regular game at home, I can speak fluent Pirate now. Adventures Dad was laughing at me last week saying how good my Pirate Tongue is, I quite often break out some Pirate jargon is a rusky Pirate voice to get Dimples to eat all his lunch "Pirate Grub" and if he is not co-operating for some reason and it usual works a treat. He gets in to the Pirate mood and the Pirate goes along with what Ive asked. 

We have played this game so many times and it never fails to bring out Dimples imaginative play.

He runs around the yard pretending to sail the seven seas, see islands and enemy pirates, Captain Hook and the dreaded Croc. He spots light houses and sails through rough storms, gets onto skull Island where there are skull caves that he ducks through and rushed to bury his treasure before anyone can find his secret hiding spot. Then he rolls up his map for safe keeping and sails away.

Its quite simple, yet there are so many possibilities and every time when he re-discovers the treasure, its a completely new game and a completely new treasure hunt.

Magical Gnome Garden

This is Dimples Secret Garden.

It has been a work in progress and our peaceful corner of the yard where mystical talk and magical imagination begins. We add bits here and there, Dimples plays with the gnomes and tells me stories of all the mythical creatures who live in his Secret garden while he swings under the tree.

Come on a Tour of our Magical Gnome Garden....

There is a Hungry Troll that lives under the bridge (of course)
He has claimed many fishing boats that try to sail into his territory.  You must remember to ask permission before you cross his bridge and you will only be allowed to cross if you know the secret word. Only Dimples knows that the secret word is Abra-Cadabra so he is allowed to play with the sunken ship when ever he pleases.

There are fairies living in Dimples garden, although he has never spotted any.  They live in a Large Blue Fairy house with a lovely double wooden door.  This was painted blue, it is just a tree stump cut down the centre and on an angle at the roof. Dimples and I got messy and blue in the process of painting the large trunk. 
These fairies have pet cats and dogs who sit by their door.
They also have a washing line with pegs and a basket so they can hang out their fairies gowns to dry, however they like to hang their clothes out every full moon so we don't get to see what they like to wear.

  

These fairies like to swing on their wooden swing as they sing along to chirping birds but only while no one is around and they laze on the beach in the morning sun, before the humans wake. They have a relaxing sandy beach area with a Umbrella and a hammock.
Dimples often collects shells that he saves and puts on their beach.

Did you know that fairies love to garden?
The fairies in our garden have their very own gardening patch, they use small spades and rakes. They have a tiny watering can and their very special wheelbarrow to help them around their garden.
Dimples loves to "help" them with their garden.

Over the other side of the secret garden there lives a Grumpy Gnome who sells slug skins and aphids.
He has a gorgeous hand crafted door & small log stepping stones that go past some glowing toadstools and some bright blue mushrooms. 
Dimples Helped with the making of the garden, including placing the stepping stones down, the small pebbles and setting up his super cool toadstool seat but there is always lots to finish.

The Grumpy Gnomes path leads past his court yard area and fire place, where he stacks wooden logs & enjoys magical potion by a warm fire at night.

Past his fellow Gnome friends Twig house, they live under a rosemarry plant & need a ladder to get into their white yard. There are 5 little Gnomes who arent like the Grumpy one, these gnomes have great big smiles and enjoy their sunny garden. Dimples loves to get them and trot them along all the paths and the next time he comes to play, they are always back waiting for him in their garden, by their twig house. Hhmmph, I am stumped, I wonder how that happens ;-)

Past a Peaceful hobbits hut, These hobbits enjoy eating their tea under a small hill. Their house is built into the hill. Dimples made this out of paddle pop sticks and generous amounts of glue, I then lined it with plastic before planting it.

Over the trolls fishing hole Bridge (Dont forget to ask permission to cross) and along a pretty blue stepping stone path.  This will take you past the fairies swing and to a fork in the road where a hand crafted wooden sign For Dimples Secret Garden that reads < Trolls fishing Hole - Gnomes lookout >
If you follow the path to the Gnomes look out it leads you to a bamboo ladder that Dimples & I made.

This ladder takes you to the Gnomes look out where the Grumpy fellow sits all day keeping look out for any humans, he does not like humans and will hide as soon as he sees any.

We all know that magical creatures dont like to be seen by humans and hide away when we are about, they particularly like to come out as the sun first rises, when we are all still asleep and they like to dance around as it goes down, when we are inside eating tea.
That is why we have some very special lights in our garden, it is full of solar powered light up magic mushrooms, toadstools, snail lights, butterfly & dragon fly lights and some bright lanterns.

Under the rainforest canopy next to Dimples Secret Garden, is PixieVille. This is where the Leprechauns and Pixies live in harmony. 
Dimples painted some blue stones with white dots to put in the garden, they look like toadstools & match all his favourite blue things.
There are several Ceramic Castles that were made by myself while I did my yr 12 Certificate that now live in the rainforest.

Throughout the garden there are mirrors, and garden statues, things hanging in the trees like dream catchers and chimes, gecko plaques and jewels.

Dimples enjoys imaginary play in the garden, he plays with the gnomes and the fairies garden, he helps me plant new plants and rearrange things.  His favourite game of all time is crossing over the bridge.

We will continue to grow The Secret Garden.

Linking up to the Fairy Garden Competition @ The magic onions