Take a cardboard box, a couple of wooden spoons and a couple of puppets. Add a small child and you have hours of fun, imagination and creative learning.
Don’t waste time making it ‘pretty’. If the kids are enthusiastic let them use it immediately. Decorations an£ backcloths can wait!
‘ i Light Marina Bay’ is an amazing light art festival. For three weeks each year exhibits from talents around the world illuminate the urban areas of Marina Bay. with interesting, fun and beautiful light/art installations.
Many of these are interactive and one of my favourites (above) appeared in the 2014 event.
The next event is in March 2018.
For information see this link:
BLUE!
While we are on the ‘blue’ theme let’s look at some fun art and science activities.
Younger children will have fun and learn about making pastel shades of blue by simply moving a paintbrush filled with blue acrylic paint about in a dollop of white paint. The paint moves much better on a plastic paint. Don worry that they are ‘spoiling’ the effect by carrying on too long. They will do! It’s part of the learning process.
To limit the choice of colour to just one plus white is a good exercise for older children. It’s amazing how many different ‘blues’ can be made with just one shade plus white. This encourages them to be much more imaginative in their paintings especially of subjects like skies and water.
White glue and be added to the white paint before. This enables paintings to have a 2D effect. So once they are dry the painting can be felt as well as seen .
Older children will enjoy using this technique to represent mountains or waves in the sea.
Blue painting or drawings deserve a nice blue frame to set them off and what could be nicer than one made by hand.
The on3 below was made by rolling pages from a magazine round a straw. Then they wee cut to size. Looking through a magazine for pages which are predominately blue is a good observational exercise
Making a string bauble:
These are good as Christmas decorations but can also be made into bowls and lamps.
For details go to the link below:
Last but not least!
Changing the colour of a white flower to blue. Chicory and white cabbage leaves can also be used. This is where art meets science. Children enjoy the magic of watching as the blue food colouring Ives through the veins of the flower or vegetable leaf. They also learn how the plant gets its water.
To watch Lizzie performing this experiment an£ for some variations, watch the link below:
You can even join in and make a blue lamp! 
For instructions see this link:
Sorry I don’t do quantities which is, I know is very annoying (the family continually say this) but I just throw a bit in, look, taste and adjust! They like the result so what!!
So, is it healthy? Well it depends which advice from our dear UK Government you are referring to! Was it the year they said that cream , cheese, butter and all saturated fat was bad? Or the year they said sugar was the enemy?
So for Happy Chicken which is creamy and delicate but has a great earthy garlic taste and a hint of lemon, look at this link:
Warning: Sharp knives are required.
This is a fun twist on the old favourite, oranges decorated with cloves.
Although children can’t hollow out the orange, they can insert the cloves. They could also make the tiny oranges while you make the centrepiece.
They will definitely want to insert the ice cube !
The flashing light inside the orange is a lite-cube. A fancy party item available on Amazon. It is designed to drop into drinks and lights up and flashes on contact with water or liquids.
If you prefer an ordinary candle can be used instead.
This is a ‘sharing’ activity. I suggest you watch the video with your child then make the Lamp together. A glass jar is used and so care and supervision is essential. Children learn so much by sharing an activity. As you are making this together you will talk and ask and answer questions introducing new vocabulary. Memory will be improved as will their organisational skills and ordering and fine motor skills. Children will learn how to use different glues, about cutting and sticking, about safety., about making mistakes and trying again.
Very small children will be able to stick blobs of cotton wool onto the ball to make the head and will enjoy placing the eyes and buttons in 0lace.
What you need:
A glass jam jar.
Some cotton wool or stuffing from inside a pillow.
For the head: I used a string bauble I had left over from last year but a plastic ball would work fine.
For the hat: – Sticky backed foam sheet in black and a glittery colour (I used red) you can manage with black card and ribbon
White glue plus a stronger glue for the eyes and the hat if you are using card.
Eyes.
A scarf. I used the glittery red foam but you could use ribbon or a thin strip of fabric.
An LED light . I used a LITE cube.
A tip:
Only use a thin layer of cotton wool on the body so the light shines through.
A fun, simple and effective investigation with eggs.
All you need is two eggs, cider or white wine vinegar and two clear containers.
The experiment needs to be left for 18 to 24 hours.
All my programmes are designed to motivate children to ask questions, to predict, to reason.
This video is in two parts. The first explains how to set up the experiment and asks children to predict WHAT they think will happen to the eggs. Then they do the experiment and try to think WHY it happened.
The second part is the explanation put very simply. I suggest you stop the video between the two parts.
Adult supervision is required
Easy and fun.
Bought musical instruments for young children are very colourful and adaptable but you can’t beat helping your child to make a musical instrument and a good first one is a drum.
I made this one it’s my little granddaughter from a burst balloon and a coffee mug but an empty canister would do just a# well. She played with it for ages. We tried out different drumsticks, wooden spoon, metal spoon, chopstick, paintbrush and achieved very different sounds. Then I clapped out simple rhythm patterns and she tried to copy.
Then all the toys arrived and had a go! It was great fun and that’s where learning starts , with play.
Fun for kids and adults.
Choose large tools like spoon handles an£ forks for younger children .
The homemade alternative to scraper board.
Click here for the demonstration
This is the culmination of previous posts showing how to make spooky noise effects, ghosts, spiders and witches.
A warning for parents. Children may be frightened by this video. Please watch first!
If however your family has been involved with the previous posts then they will understand how the effects came to be.
Make a Spider’s Web for your Jumble Tuft Spider.
This is a bit fiddly plus I use wooden skewers which have sharp ends so it is not suitable for young children and older children will need help and supervision. I suggest clipping off the pointed ends o& the skewers before you start or pieces of wooden doweling could be used instead.
Creative Learning for Young Children 