Salad Spun Solar System - Extreme Paint

Apparently Pluto isn't important any more?
I know I learnt this stuff at school but my memory has failed me.
When Dimples got his Tag reading system on his 4th birthday I also got him a solar system booklet, he loves it and often plays, well "reads" by himself so it shouldn't have been a surprise when he told me that Venus was the hottest planet.
Silly me jumped in and said "isn't Mercury the one closest to the sun" well yes but Dimples was quick to tell me Venus is hottest because its cloud keep the heat in.

This conversation lead to my 4 year old teaching me all these things about our solar system that his tag reader had taught him. Fancy That! Then this lead to putting together a large floor puzzle we had and pulling out a space poster with matching stickers then some extended learning through Extreme Painting; The Salad Spinning technique.

Using a salad spinner, some circle paper and paint. We put the paper in with the right colours on top, shut the lid and spun. Dimples though that was the best part, he was rapidly spinning the planets around with wide open eyes telling me this one is going to be awesome! This one is going to be the best, I am spinning it so so very fast. Its a pretty easy painting technique and all the mess is confined in the salad tub making for easy clean up. We went through pointing out the planets on the floor puzzle, the tag reader diagram, the poster and then the ones we put in the salad spinner reading all the facts as we went. Dimples really engaged in the process, even to the extent of repeating anything I read to him.

All the Salad Spun Planets were put out in order and he set out his own solar system drawing rings around Saturn and the asteroid belt between Mars & Jupiter. Saturn and Earth worked the best in the salad spinner, it works best with running blobs of paint and with some even spread over your planet otherwise the paper can end up flying up the side of the salad bowl.

I think I learnt more doing this then I did at school, or my memory has failed me. One thing I noticed was the Pluto wasn't even on any of the solar system info anymore, apparently it is a dwarf planet with several others.

Happy Adventures

Muddy Play Round Up

Things have been quiet around here, Miss Cherub is now 4 weeks old and we are still settling in.   Dimples has been a great little helper and his usual active self. We have been having lots of fun, so although the blog may be getting a bit quieter we certainly aren't and life is very busy at the moment until we find our new rhythm.

 

In recent months we have been experimenting with mud.

Here is a round up of the Muddy Posts to convince you its not so bad :)

 

Dimples loves to get messy and loves the outdoors.  In the backyard he has his very own mud pit, right next to his sand pit and a very cool mud kitchen (see below) this feed the messy outdoor play addiction. It provides endless avenues of play and learning experiences, playing with mud doesn't have to end with mud pies! 

 

I realise not every one is keen on letting their child play in the mud but we here in the Australian country are used to the dirt and mud, we embrace it.  You wont see a door step that doesn't have a muddy pair of gumboots sitting by the door. 

 

Let me try and convince you that it is a good thing with a round up of our Mud play.  Take note, as you look through, to the lovely happy and cheerful expressions on Dimples face as he plays away.

  

 

Mud is good for you right?

This was one of the first adventures we had with mud. I was sceptical and had to do a little research to reassure myself it was OK to give him free range of mud. We started with the classic mud pies and gumboots. Dimples had a ball, he enjoyed it so much; This post has info on why mud is good for kids to play with.

Mud Rally Tub

If you aren't comfortable with free range of mud and after a quick clean up, or if you're in an apartment or city where mud just isn't easily accessed this one is for your children. A mud sensory tub, keep it all in the tub and it can be tipped out and washed after the play is finished.

 

 

 

8 benefits to playing in the mud

Another post that includes information on why it is good to let the children get messy and play in mud. Its a free and endless resource with many benefits, check out these 8 reasons.

 

The Mud Kitchen

 

This is the marvellous Mud kitchen that Dimples Adventurous Dad built him. It is awesome and has been one of the best gifts he has. He loved his outdoor play and this kitchen, which cost next to nothing has provided him with so many memorable play experiences already.

Mud Painting process Art

Something different where the child gets to explore mud without getting absolutely covered in it. This post was Dimples mud painting, or should I say splatting? Art is all about the process and this one, done with mud was really process art. Have a look at the different tools we used to create it.



 

How to make and play with Mud bricks

The most recent Mud adventure that is by far my favourite is How we made and played with Mud bricks. Dimples really enjoyed constructing mud brick huts, houses, walls and stairs with the mud bricks that he made himself. It was also a good lesson on how materials are formed.

 

 

So there you have it.

Lots of muddy fun in lots of different ways.

Mud play doesn't have to be simple mud pies, it can be what ever you want it to be.

Have I convinced you yet?

 

Happy adventures

 



Counting by Cars - Number Recognition Car park

Dimples had lots of fun with this one.
He loves cars, a typical boy! When he is asked what he would like to do his reply is usually ride bikes or play cars. When he goes to Nannies and she asks what are they going to do, as always his reply is just play cars. Usually he draws up roads or sets up car parks and makes awesome glug glug sound effects as they get petrol. To make the usual car play a little interesting with a dash of learning I quickly threw together this car park.

You will need: A large piece of paper or cardboard as your canvas, markers, dot stickers numbered.

I drew up the car park and numbered the car spaces. Use as many or as little numbers as your child is comfortable with. I added some different coloured spaces, to coordinate coloured cars with and labelled some dot stickers with corresponding numbers.

Instantly Dimples got to work, with no instructions he understood the aim of the game. Pretending to make engine sounds as the cars drove through the car park to find the correct space. This was a good activity for number recognition, ordering and matching numbers. I went through and practised counting with him.

Dimples is great at pretend play, it was delightful watching him and listening to him chatter away as engines revved, trucks had reversing beep sounds and the cars precisely drove around the car park and then reversed into the right spot. Next he would chant as he grabbed another car. At first it was any old car but then he started looking for the one that came next and we started counting through the ones that had been parked playing "what comes next?"

Just for the fun of it I numbered the spaces 1-15 and then 15-1. I must remember to identify 6 & 9 the right way up and to write clearly and large enough as there were a few numbers he asked what is that! whoops! I did say it was a quick throw together activity didn't I?

Letter & Shape Matching Puzzle

So simple and easy for any age. This DIY puzzle takes just 5 minutes to gather and draw, you could do a new puzzle every day and it would never be a bore.
All you need are some coloured, numbered or shaped objects a piece of paper and some markers.
This Easy DIY puzzle could be adapted depending on the age and ability of your child. Try it with numbered fridge magnets, of coloured blocks. You could try it with different shaped toys or similar shaped items of different sizes.

I used a variety of alphabet blocks, different size and shaped triangles and different coloured blocks.
I traced them onto a piece of paper and put them all in a small basket for Dimples to sort through.
This was a great quick floor activity that used letter recognition, colour matching and cognitive manipulation of objects.

The Triangles were a little difficult, they were all different sizes and different angles. Dimples had to put his thinking cap on to work out which way they faced, to the right? to the left?
No, it still wouldn't fit, he figured out that he needed to flip the block to make it fit.
I put in some small blocks and balanced them on their ends, trying to outwit Dimples but he worked it out straight away.
If you use your imagination and go with your child's interests to see what type of puzzles you can make from every day objects, it'll provide a new fun way to learn and keep your child's mind active.

Happy Adventures

Making a Mud Brick House

Marvellous Mud, it really is an endless resource with endless ways to play. Mud was used back in the day to make mud bricks to build houses with, there are very few still standing but I think its a neat and easy idea for outdoor play, we might do this again when Dimples is older and make a large scale mud brick building. Now that would be an awesome experience.

I have wanted to make mud bricks with Dimples for a long time but was unsure how to approach it & with the birth of Miss Cherub, I've been a bit behind with planning projects for Dimples. Ever since we made the Marvellous Outdoor Mud kitchen I have been planning to do this with Dimples as a different experience to teach him about the formation of materials and how the elements effect materials, like mud.

He just adores construction activities and has lately been questioning how things work. How was that built? How does that spin? He has been fascinated with the mechanics of things and the structure.  So this was a different outdoor play experience still utilising messy sensory play and the fun of playing with dirt but a great lesson in construction and something he is really interested in at the moment.

First we needed to make our mud brick moulds; I collected the bases of milk bottles for a few weeks as they are square and perfect shape and always the same size.
Next we needed to make our Mud "Cement"; This was an interesting lesson on materials and how certain materials are made. As I said before, Dimples has been asking me how things are made like for instance  what is cement, how are houses built, where do drains go? everything really.  He always comments on bricks and relates it to the big bad wolf. So using this story we discussed how bricks are made to be strong.

Now the learning unfolds!
We had a great talk about how mud bricks are made. Too wet and they are sloppy and wont hold together, too dry and they will crumble apart. How can we make them stronger? Dimples came up with the idea to add sand, as I had told him sand was in cement. Great! Then we mixed together our dirt and water. I went on to tell him how mud bricks need to be held together by grass or hay so that they are nice and strong right through the middle once they are dry.  We added some dry grass and mulched it up so they would hold, a little more sand, a little more grass until it was nice and gluggy.

Further, we talked about how they formed into bricks and the drying process, how they would become strong enough to keep out the big bad wolf and how they kept their shape as bricks through completely drying out and cooked in the sun.



Then, Dimples as cheeky as always decided it was a good idea to splat mud on my leg. I warned him that if he was going to splat mud at me I would have to get him back. With a big Dimpled Grin he splatted me again! I was still heavily pregnant when we made the Mud bricks and didn't really feel like chasing him around but alas he was after a mud fight so that's what he got.  I got a handful and splatted his legs before he could run away, then he came back for more. He thought it was hilarious throwing mud at Mummy and then trying to escape my mud covered hands.

The mud bricks took about 3-4 days to completely  "bake" in a dry Sunny covered spot in the yard.
After I had been home for a couple of days with the new arrival, Dimples little sister Miss Cherub, I thought it would be nice to do something special with Dimples and spend some quality time with him as I always did. I didn't want our relationship to change so I put Miss Cherub in her Sling and headed up the yard.
Dimples cracked them all out - Mud Bricks, they worked well. He was straight into building mode

Mud Brick Huts and Houses.

Dimples made a flight of stairs, he stacked them up, he made a real house with a stick roof.
We collected some bits and pieces from around the yard from nature to make the mud brick houses real natural pieces of art. He loved it, once he had made a building, he unbuilt it and asked to make a different one.

Dimples balanced them on their sides and experimented with different shaped bricks at different angles then he build a cool house and had to cover it over with the box, and leave it there so he could show Adventures Dad, he was very pleased with his creations. Not only did he made the bricks but he made the house, the roof and the path and decorated them.

Happy Adventures 

If you are looking for Mud Play ideas have a look at these:

MUD Painting - Process Art

Mud Rally Sensory Box

8 Benefits to Playing in the Mud