The Grassy Farm Barn - Enhancing imagination and learning

Are your children fascinated with Animals? Mine are.
Its a great idea to follow a child's lead and provide them with enriching play areas based on their interests. If they're interested in something they pay more attention, enjoy themselves more and this means that they learn more.
Both Dimples & Miss Cherub love animals so I set up this little Pretend play barn yard.
If you missed it, I have this post that goes through WHY Pretend Play is so important in early childhood and the benefits of it.

I still strongly advocate the benefits of pretend play  so following the interests of both Dimples and Miss Cherub I set up this Farm barn play area on a low lying coffee table that they both could access freely and explore easily. I aimed to use materials that resembles a real life farm yard in order to capture their imagination and attention for longer more enjoyable pretend play. I think it worked! They love it.
I added some artificial grass covering the play table to give it a realistic look and feel. This enhances the imaginary play experience and makes the play area more inviting. I then added a pebble patterned mat (it was a small shower mat), a blue foam cut out in the shape of a pond and a fake silk plant to really give the Grassy Farm area a realistic feel.

The farm area is complete with a little plastic barn and of course a variety of plastic farm animals. Both Dimples and Miss Cherub have enjoyed the area and engaged in pretend play together and alone at different levels of play. Dimples, nearly 5 has a vivid imagination and pretends it a real working farm, the dog does the herding, the sheep need to be sheared and the cows eat grass, the rooster crows at the crack of dawn, the tractor maintains the pastor, the pig rolls on the edge of the pond and so on. He labels the animals and is learning the different names based on the animals gender eg. a sow, a boar & a piglet.  In the book shelf next to it I have some farm yard board books for him to expand on.

Where as Miss Cherub (nearly 1) explores the texture of the grass with her finger tips (and sometimes her mouth) and the feel of the foam pond, she is following Dimples through imitation and makes Moo sounds, "roff roff" barking sounds and she gets the horses to trott up and down clicking her tongue and jiggling around as if she is riding a horse. Its so cute to watch her learning through observing the way big brother plays. This also gives me an opportunity to introduce new vocabulary to her by labeling the animals for her.

Learning Concepts:

Pretend Play & Developing imaginary play scenes

Early vocabulary

Turn taking and sharing,

Learning animal names, sounds, diet and place in the farm.

Exploring real life concepts

Other ways to create a play space to enhance imaginative play
A fun Science Lab conducting real experiments
Magical Gnome Garden
Banking & Sorting: using real money & a trip to the bank
Sensory Play: Ice cream dough

Have you used any materials in a play area to immitate real life?

Happy Adventures 

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I love reading your comments 

Mint Choc-chip Ice Cream Play

Does this look real or what?

After seeing some Ice-cream Dough Pinspiration Here I started craving for my favorite flavored ice cream; Mint Choc Chip. 

I thought it would be pretty cool to make this play Ice cream dough, that looks so realistic your kids might try to taste it in a minty green mixtures with choc chips, looking through my play supplies I also found a large tub of ground coffee so I decided to make a coffee scented ice-cream dough as well.

Working with corn flour can be difficult and messy (just a warning) what you need is a bowl with 1 1/2 cup corn flour, then you add 3/4 cup of cheap Hair conditioner your colour and your extract. Here I used a green food dye and a peppermint essence. For the coffee flavour I simply added ground coffee with the conditioner. Depending on the shop your at you may find some suitable conditioner that smells like.... Berries for instance if you were doing a berry ice cream dough. Then Mix; Its a good idea to get some little hands in there mixings it up for a bit of extra sensory experience. It smells so good!

As stated by the creator Play, create, explore, the secret to make it look real is to scoop it roughly and break it off, if you roll it in a ball and use it like a play dough it goes Super smooth and silky. It looks really cool and feels soft but not like real ice cream. See the original ice cream dough post by play -create -explore here: http://www.playcreateexplore.org/2013/01/ice-cream-dough-new-play-recipe.html

For our Choc-Chips in the Mint flavor I added some black and brown beads. 

Then a selection of pom-poms, straws, cardboard cut into triangle wafers for decorating our ice creams.

Using scoops and ice cream bowls Dimples played with the dough and put together some funky looking Ice creams. They look so cool & they smelt really yummy. He put one into the fridge and when Adventures Dad came home from work he looked very puzzled as he opened the fridge and Dimples laughed Hysterically "I tricked you!"

I have tried this several times and failed, but we wont go there! Many bottles of conditioner have been sacrificed. The key to getting the mixture right is don't be like me, don't try and "wing it" you need to go off the recipe and have the cornflour in the bowl first. No water & measure your conditioner, if you have too much liquid it goes more like a goop than a dough. 

So now you have a super yummy scented Ice cream dough that looks very realistic, pop it in the fridge while you set up your pretend ice cream parlour, just long enough to chill it. Once the children are ready to play you will be providing them with an awesome sensory play experience; smells good, visually interesting, feels nice and cold. the only thing they cant do with this stuff is eat it.

Learning Concepts:
Measurement
Mixing
Creativity
Sensory exploration
Imagination
Pretend Play
Imitating Real Life

Ideas for Exploration:
Make your own wafers and ice cream cones from cardboard
Experiment with different flavors; chocolate (cocoa), berry (red color & berry conditioner)
Try our Ice-Cream Sprinkles Dough
You could make real ice cream, search pinterest or google for ice-cream in a bag
and Of course after all that ice cream play you could go ice cream taste testing at a real ice cream parlor.

Happy Adventures

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A Coloured Rice Quarry - Pretend Construction

Last week I colored some rice, adding some Peppermint essence so it smelt super Yummy. 

I had no idea what I was going to do with the rice but Dimples hasn't had a Tactile Play tub in a while so I dyed some red, yellow and green. I dyed the rice by getting 3 separate bowls of dry rice, adding a smidgen of water and some color, mix it all around and let it sit for at least half an hour, then spread it evenly out on paper toweling and let it dry for a day. 

Dimples had seen it and asked to use his cars in it, so I set up a mini Construction Quarry. I kept the rice in a tray on top of a spill mat and laid it out separately (knowing that it would get mixed up- but that's part of the fun), collected some dump trucks and construction vehicles, trailors, some plastic trees, traffic cones and traffic lights. It looked very bright and visually appealing but it smelt minty and fresh also.

Dimples transferred colors dumping one lot on top of another color then he used the roller to flatten piles, and the snow scraper to clear a path. He went through and worked out which vehicles made the best tracks and which ones carried a trailer full of rice. It was a pretend quarry and there was lots of clever narration from Dimples being heard as I let him play freely.

He had his go at mowing the green rice and eventually all the colours got mixed together, he made a huge pile that was a hill then rolled it flat. He did try to separate and sort some colours out into dump trucks once they were all mixed up but it proved to be too time consuming.

Dimples did a great job at containing the rice in the tray, even after lots of trucks had to have a go at making burn out tracks and " skids" through the rice, then he parted the rice down the center. All the tipper trucks got loaded up and made a big pile, they were dumping and hauling rice from one end of the tray to the other, Dimples was pretending it was a Dangerous Construction site and had his sign at the site of danger.

Dimples keep mentioning how yummy it smelt, at one stage the little plastic trees were pine trees because it smelt so nice. The pretend construction quarry, clever and cute narration and imaginary play went on for a hour or so. He thoroughly enjoyed it and when I left him to have free play it was nice to listen to his little imaginary world come to life.

Learning Concepts:

Colour identification

Tactile/Sensory Play

Developing imagination

Imitating real life through play

Fine Motor

Colour sorting

Ideas for Extension:

Large Construction Play in Corn

 Pretend Rally Car Tracks in Mud

Car & Construction Ideas:  Playdough tracks, Tire Paint Printing, Dirt digging & more
A pretend play car wash

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

The Benefits of Small world play - Penguins in Ice and Snow

Dimples adores Penguins. He has gone through many phases with favourite toys and animals but Penguins have always remained a favourite and he loves all the Happy Feet Movies.
After Christmas was over we still had a batch of the fake Snow to play with so I threw together this Small World Sensory tub for him.

Small world play is an easy and cheap way for children to play.
You can use anything really; recycled materials, natural materials, bits and bobs that are laying around or a theme of small toys mixed with other materials. Anything that can represent the real world and that can aide in independent play.

With the Happy Feet Small World Sensory Tub Dimples played with Fake Snow, Water Beads, Real Crushed Ice & Ice cubes, Styrofoam pieces to represent ice capsules, his penguin figures, some small plastic seal animals & sea creatures and some rocks.

He played independently for a long time making up stories about his penguins.
The Ice cubes were used as stepping stones through the melted snow.
The sticks and rocks were used to build planks across melted snow.
The Styrofoam was used as ice capsules, or land for the creatures. Dimples made them "float" through the melting snow and made capsules collide together. Some of the baby penguins got stranded on the ice, crying for their dad.
Then there was a blizzard so Dimples made a cave for all the animals to be safe in.

Benefits of Small World Play:

• Builds on Imagination
• Encourages independent Play
• Sensory and tactile stimulation
• Develops story telling skills
• Encourages role-play where the child can re-enact real life scenarios or familiar experiences.
• Abstract thinking; cognition related to logic and reason as the child makes up real life scenarios and solves 'problems' in their play 
• Promotes creative thinking

Other Small world ideas we have done are:

Penguin Sensory Play

2 Ocean boxes for small world play

Echidna craft: Imaginary Australian Play

D is for digging.

Small World Sand dough Beach Play & Sea creatures

Magical Gnome garden

Happy Adventures into the New Year

Reindeer Run-Way Sparkle Dust

3 Sleeps til Christmas and the Magical Elf Buddy left Dimples something very special because he has been such a good little boy - Magical Reindeer Runway Sparkle for Christmas Eve.
The magical Dust was made from layered oats, green glitter, salt, red glitter, pink ground chalk, oats, small star sequins, sprinkles and cake decorative silver balls.

 There was a little note that read along the lines of
"Sprinkle this Reindeer Dust on Christmas Eve so Santa's Reindeer can see the sparkly trail and know where it is safe to land. You don't want them to miss your house! Remember to leave some carrot out for them and some Milk and cookies for Santa"

The Magical Reindeer Dust was left for Dimples in a hide away that Buddy the Elf had built through the night. An Elf Fort!  Inside was a little camp fire with battery operated tea lights, a small Elf bed, a small Elf door mat and the jar with a little note.

For more Elf Adventures check out: Elf Adventures & Elf Adventures Take 2

Merry Christmas

Magic Elf Adventures - Take 2



Dimples woke one morning to see Buddy swinging on a candy can swing from the ceiling fan.

Another night Buddy left Dimples some Magical Snow Powder (desicated coconut, glitter and sprinkles) and some magical beans, there was a note telling him to plant the seeds in the magical snow powder and water them before bed.
They grew the next morning into Christmas Lollipops. Magic!!




Lots of Mischief: Buddy made a sled for the reindeer and had been pushing toilet paper down the stairs.
Then it looked like he had been watching Christmas Movies all night & eating popcorn.
He decorated the tree with toilet paper and was found in the tree
What a messy elf!

Dimples woke one morning to find a recipe pinned in the kitchen, lots of ingredients and cooking mess on the bench
Buddy wanted some ginger bread cookies by the looks of things so Dimples the Mini Master Chef got cooking
Here is the Post & Our recipe: Child Led Baking & Decorating

The door way Trap. Through the night Buddy wrapped up Dimples Door way with Christmas paper to trap him in.
Magic Elf's get bored when they are not with their friends.
Our Elf has made a friend, and decided to wrap him up as well.

Sick Night: Poor Buddy came down with the flu and took up rest in the tissue box.

Buddy made a camp out fort through the night & left Dimples a special treat.
Christmas is 3 sleeps away so he left some Reindeer sparkle Dust

Happy Elf Adventures

If you missed our first Elf Adventures Post click HERE to see the fun.
and I hope you have a great Christmas.

Outdoor Play - The Spider Cave Maze

Creepy Crawly Spider Cave Fun

  Try not to get caught in the web!

Spiders hanging from all around.

This Outdoor activity was a great physical fun way to get active, get moving, have some imaginary pretend play and build on those all important gross motor skills. Dimples mastered the way he moved his body to trick the hanging spiders, creep, crawl, duck down low and climb around the web without getting caught. He had to stretch his legs and balance as he climbed through and move in all different directions as the spiders danced around above his head trying to get him.

 

Over the past fortnight, as Dimples has been enjoying some Spring time outdoor play, I have been carefully spinning an intrinsic Web. I initially started with 2 posts, a large hoop and some wool. I strung the hoop in the centre and weaved the web around it, locking it on and securing it with wool up to the 2 posts that i had firmly whacked deep into the ground.

Then I randomly added some connecting bits of wool so it resembled a web.

I hung a very large, prickly spider down through the hoop and Dimples made a fun game of jumping through the hoop without getting touched by the Spider.

This went on for many afternoons and he enjoyed it so much that I decided to belt another post into the ground so that there were 2 connected walls (in the shape of a right angle). 

With the second one, I used a small hoop that he can through balls through and i left a open space on the bottom so that he can crawl under.

Dimples chilling out under a spiders web

 Dimples spent lots of time playing in his web, trying to jump through the hoop and crawl under the web without getting caught by the spiders. It was a great imaginary game he had going on.

I would rest the large spider up in the web, and just as he went through I would tap the post so that the spider swung down, launching itself towards Dimples. He thought it was hilarious and wanted more. The way the spider quickly swung down after him must have been so realistic from his view and he would excitedly squeal that he had tricked it, and that he was too quick for it, and "You missed me! ha ha!"

It didn't end there!

 

A large Hoop is on one side of the structure, with a very large hairy spider covering it.

I added one more side so that there were now 3 web walls and one open side. With this web, i just used wool, making sure a majority of the web was down the bottom and some was up the top, i then strung the connecting centre pieces of web (wool)  so that there was a large gap pulled open. Large enough that Dimples could climb through.

With the left over wool I strung it up over the top, zig zaging and connecting all areas like a web roof. Some pieces were up higher to a near by Shade Umbrella.

I dangled 30-60 cm pieces of wool randomly through out the roof of the web and near the openings and hung plastic and rubber spiders and scorpions.

 

Jumping through the hoop without getting touched by a spider can be tricky.

We made a few games up with the maze, one where Dimples had to use it as an obstacle course, climb through the hoop duck under the other side, through a ball through the small hoop and carefully climb through the other web opening without touching the web all the time staying clear of the spiders.
Another where I would shake the top of the web so that all the spiders shook around like crazy and he was a distressed fly, trying to find his way out of the web with out getting eaten by the spiders.
Then he got some stuffed toys to join in and he would try and throw them through the large hoop without hitting the spider that dangled over the centre.
Dimples loved the Spider Maze so much that we left it up for the Halloween Party we had over the weekend and all the kids enjoyed jumping through it and tangling things in the web.
They kept busy and active manoeuvring around so that the spiders couldn't get them.

Room to crawl under the webs... WATCH OUT!

 

I couldnt capture the entire web in one photograph so this is the design of the 3 sides with the back wall completely open.

 

 

Happy Outdoor Adventures :)