Alphabet Activities for Playtime (A-D)

This term at Playtime, we are learning about the alphabet. The kids and the parents have been really positive about the activities and songs. I have noticed Mr Fun singing the songs and pointing out the letters while we are out and about. 

We have been using the songs and actions from the Jolly Phonics program (http://jollylearning.co.uk/). I have made a poster for each letter (with just one letter and a picture cue on each poster). I really like the Jolly Phonics program because it appeals to different types of learners - visual (the posters), auditory (the songs) and kinaesthetic (the actions for each sound). You can find the songs on YouTube, and buy the book (Jolly Songs) online.

Each week at Playtime, we focus on one letter; we do a craft, a story and teach the relevant song from Jolly Songs.

Aa

Craft: Salt-dough ants

I pre-made the ants and baked them in the oven. I used a skewer to poke holes for legs and antennae prior to baking. At Playtime, the kids inserted pipe-cleaners into the holes and glued on googlie eyes with PVA glue. I had planned to get the kids to paint them too, but they were happy with them unpainted, so I decided to save myself some cleaning-up. ;)

Song: Ants on my arm 

Story: We read a Sam the Ant book from the Reading eggs series.

Bb

Craft: Butterflies

We gave the kids a butterfly outline. We placed blobs of paint on the paper, then folded it in half. The kids spread the paint around to create beautiful butterfly pictures. 

Song: Bring your bat and bring your ball

Story: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (the caterpillar turns into a butterfly). 

Cc

Craft: Castanets

One of the other lovely Mums planned this craft (thanks Cara!) We made castanets from cardboard, stickers and buttons. The kids decorated strips of thick cardboard with crayons and stickers. They then glued buttons inside with PVA glue to make the clicking castanet sound. This craft has been really popular with Mr Fun - he loves clicking his castanets and singing the song.

Song: We are clicking castanets

Story: Cookie Cat

Dd

Craft: Drums

This was a really popular craft! Even the kids who don't normally participate in craft time wanted to do this one! I spray-painted empty baby formula tins with gold spray paint. The kids stuck foam pictures to the drums with PVA glue. We then used cheap chopsticks as drumsticks. During story-time, we said a rhyme that involved drumming, so the kids got to test out their new drums.

Song: See me play on my drum

Story: Maisy's Band

Pirate Treasure Hunt

The boys had a treasure hunt on Sunday while I was out. It was lots of fun! I have included the clues so you know what is going on (please excuse the poor poetry - I had to write them very quickly before I left!)

 

Clue 1:
Clear the lunch things from the table,
Find the next clue if you're able.

Clue 2:
Autumn leaves fall from the tree,
Collect some in a bag for me.
When twenty leaves you have found,
Find the next clue on the ground.

Clue 3:
Go to the place we keep our supplies,
Make sure you're wearing a pirate disguise.
Look next to the box of self-raising flour,
You can't use the light - it has no power.

Clue 4:
Make sure that Sammy and Pepper are fed,
Then go to the place where you lay your head.

Clue 5:
Stop on your bed for some tickling fun
Then go to the place where the washing gets sun.
Dig in the dirt straight under the cross,
Help your brother to dig - be a kind boss.

4 year old pirate treasure - a matchbox plane!

Mr 4 enjoyed the pirate game so much that Franky helped him to make a pirate picture (complete with burnt edges for authenticity!).

Early Numeracy: Counting songs

Mr Sociable is really interested in counting at the moment. I think they have been doing lots of counting and counting songs at Prep. The other day he randomly just started counting while he was playing with his drums and counted to 39! (He did leave out 15, but otherwise, he did pretty well).

Songs are a great way to practise early counting skills. Some songs teach counting forwards (eg Dr Knickerbocker), others count backwards (eg 10, 9, 8, God is Great!). I started making a list of all the kids counting songs I could think of. This is what I came up with:

Counting forwards

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I caught a fish alive

Dr Knickerbocker

One potato, two potato

This Old Man

1, 2 Buckle My Shoe

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Five Fingers on my Hand - Peter Combe)

One Grey Elephant Balancing

Counting Backwards

10, 9, 8, God is Great

10 in the bed

5 little speckled frogs

10 green bottles

5 little joeys/5 little monkeys

6 little ducks

Alice the Camel

Can you think of more? 

Ideas for teaching counting songs
1. Using puppets, toys or foam shapes to represent the characters in the song makes the song fun! It also allows kids to get involved in the "story" of the song and teaches them to represent numbers with objects. Mr Sociable played with some foam frogs and a stick today, singing 5 Speckled Frogs (he actually sang for us at the dinner table, while waiting for everyone else to finish).

2. Teaching kids to use their fingers while counting is good practise for addition and subtraction (eg take away one finger for each verse of 5 Speckled Frogs as the frogs jump off the log).

3. Reading books that illustrate these counting songs. Mr Fun loves to look at books while I sing. Mr Sociable likes to "read" this sort of book to Mr Fun too. If you don't have any of these books, you could write your own - just put one verse of the song on each page and draw a matching picture (or use foam shapes).


Do you remember singing these songs as a child? Do you sing them with your kids?

Will my weaknesses be their weaknesses?

Do you ever think about your areas of weakness? Do you wonder if your kids will inherit your messy hand-writing? or your terrible ball skills? or your dislike of maths? or your unco dance moves?

I recently read a FB/blog comment in which the author criticised parents who allow their children to start school without ball skills. It occurred to me that I could be one of those parents next year! I have no aptitude for sport and Mr Sociable has shown little interest in ball games - as such, we don't spend a lot of time throwing, catching or kicking a ball.

That comment has made me think about all the things that I am not teaching my kids. All the things that they could be learning, but don't. There are things that come easily to me as a parent - teaching Mr Sociable to read, creating fun learning activities, involving my kids in cooking and doing craft together. But there are some areas in which I feel pretty unskilled - particularly in sport. I don't watch sport, I don't play sport. I can't tell you the rules of soccer or basketball, I can't tell the the best way to learn to throw overarm. So how can I encourage my kids to overcome their sport handicap?

I've been thinking the example my Mum gave me while I was growing up. My Mum is not very interested in craft - she would rather do just about anything else than complete a scrap-booking or card-making project (I suspect she would even rather do the ironing!). But, my sister and I really loved it. So, she encouraged our interest by buying card-making equipment and doing card-making projects with us. She learnt how to do stencil embossing, paper-quilling and stamping. I remember spending lots of time at the kitchen table together, working on Christmas cards and other projects. Despite not being very interested in craft, my Mum learnt new skills and shared them with us.

So, last week, I decided that Mr Sociable and I should kick a ball around in the backyard. He was not very interested in the aimless kicking that I suggested. So, I created a goal against the fence, using our empty sandpit. Then he really started to enjoy the challenge of scoring goals! We weren't competing - just taking turns to kick the ball into the goal. He was able to start out pretty close to the goal and to try moving backwards as he got more confident. He did this task over and over again (and was keen to try again the next day!).

The thing that surprised me the most was that I actually enjoyed this activity. Even though I'm not very sporty, I enjoyed the time spent doing sport with my boys. Even though I felt out of my depth teaching Mr Sociable how to kick, I loved seeing his excitement when he managed to kick a goal! I'm not pretending to suddenly be a sport-lover, but I am keen to spend more time together in the backyard, kicking a ball around (I'm also planning to dig out my "Fundamental Movement Skills" information from school to make sure I'm actually teaching him the right thing ;)).

So, what about you? Can you see areas of weakness that you inherited from your parents? Do you have areas of weakness that you can see your kids are developing too?

 

Rainy day craft: Cloud dough

Have you ever made cloud dough? It moulds and crumbles like sand, except that it sticks together (like the topping for apple crumble). It is much softer than sand & you can make imprints in it like playdough.

I saw it in this blog last week, so the boys and I had a go at making some. It was super easy and a great way to use up some of the baby oil that hangs around in my bathroom cupboard. Just mix 1 cup baby oil with 8 cups flour. I unsuccessfully tried to add food dye (yes, I know, food dye is water-based and not likely to mix with baby oil & flour - but I thought it was worth a try). So you may notice a few yellow globs in my dough - next time I will just embrace the "cloudiness" of the dough & leave it white!

Mr Sociable loved getting his hands dirty!

Mr Fun loved tipping in the cups of flour, but was not so interested in the mixing.

Cloud dough

Some ideas for playing with cloud dough

Squish it in your hand to make a hard blob, then crumble it

Roll a knobbly ball around to make imprints

Press it into a spoon to make flat, smooth shapes

Make "sandcastles" (I found this worked better with a soft plastic cup that I could squeeze a little to get the "castle" out).

Make animal or dinosaur footprints

Find interesting things to make impressions in the dough

Mr Sociable spent a long time playing with the cloud dough. Mr Fun quickly lost interest - he spent a long time "watering the garden" with the rainwater we collected last week.

Have a brush handy for cleaning up the flour that goes on the floor (Mr Sociable brushed off his arms and pants too!)

DIY edible paint

A few weeks ago, my friend told me about making edible paint for her 1 year old to play with. I was keen to have a go! So I found this recipe and made some paint with the boys. It was really easy! My colours are much more vibrant than those pictured in the recipe - I think I must have used a lot more food colour!

First, we mixed the cornflour and cold water (2 cups cornflour, 1 cup cold water). Next, we added 4.5 cups boiling water (2 cups at a time) & mixed it all up.

I divided the mixture into 7 smaller containers and used food dye to colour them. Mr Sociable helped to mix in the colour. Mr Fun mixed a little, but mostly tasted it ;)

As you can see, this recipe makes quite a lot of paint. I have put the leftovers in the fridge to use another day. You may want to halve the quantities if you don't want so much!

I scooped out small blobs of paint into an egg carton. Once the boys had finished painting, I scooped the leftover paint back into the containers to go in the fridge. Then I put the egg carton in the compost. Easy clean up!

Mr Sociable painted some flowers, experimented with mixing colours and making handprints.

Mr Fun painted a little, ate a little and then wandered off. He came back for more after a while and then decided it was more fun it paint with the water from the cup. 

This was quite a bit of prep for a short time painting. But, making the paint was half the fun! I really like knowing exactly what is in it - no big deal if Mr 1 eats a spoonful of the paint! Thankfully we have a lot left over, so should get another couple of painting sessions before we need to make more.

Have you ever made paint? What are the funniest things your kids have painted?