January 26, 2014 by tinyadventure

Bug and Grit Discovery Boxes

If you are looking for some inspiration for discovery boxes for your toddlers here are a couple you might like to try.

This box contains coloured grit for flower arranging which I picked up cheaply from Dunelm Mill. It’s great for mark making and scooping for fine motor skills. I added strips of coloured paper on the clear bottom of the box to give a rainbow effect. Hidden in the grit are buttons to discover and count. Tots can place them in the plastic treasure cups using large tweezers and tongs. I also added discovery balloons containing play dough, rice, sand and chick peas to compare.

Next is a Mung Bean Bug Box!

Great for sieving, pouring and scooping. I added plastic bugs and a few real ones in resin from Tiger UK
For just £1 each. I added magnifying lenses and tweezers and a mirror card bottom. Plenty to discover and talk about!

January 19, 2014 by tinyadventure

Simple Reflections Kaleidoscope Discovery Box

This is a nice activity best for a quiet moment or rainy day with your toddler. It’s cheap a easy to make! We’ve lined thick cardboard rectangles with mirror card and taped them into two and three panelled mirrors. We lined the box with highly patterned wrapping paper. Next we added plastic lenses from our local scrap store, some kaleidoscopes and small toys. Let the experimenting begin!

January 15, 2014 by tinyadventure

Toddler Tapestry Project

I took inspiration from Sewing School’s blog and decide it would be fun and a challenge to bring tapestry to toddlers! I saw this lovely tapestry table Sewing School had created.

I loved it. But how to get toddlers sewing? I repurposed a large empty picture frame and chose some netting I’d picked up from Gloucester Scrap Store. This left the problem of needles! With no budget for this I found a perfect solution knocking about in the garage. Plastic plant seed labels!

These have pointed ends but aren’t sharp and they have a ready made hole that wool can be threaded through. I sewed the netting to the frame with wool and attached needles with various threads including ribbon, wool, curling ribbon, and string. We clamped the frame between two chairs to stand it up and…

It’s good team work, passing the needle through to each other!
We quickly got the hang of it and over a couple weeks lots of Tiny Adventurers added to it!

I added buttons to the netting and shapes that could be buttoned on or sewn on and after a while its started to look really lovely!

This is a great collaborative project that can be added to over long periods!

Creative messy play toddler classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Cheltenham.

January 14, 2014 by tinyadventure

Dough Circuits Pre-School STEM Activity

Early Years STEM Activity:
Inspired by Squishy Circuits website we decided to play around with dough and the simplest equipment: Dough (shop bought play-doh or homemade salt dough), LEDs (from your local electronics shop or some old Christmas tree lights) and 9V batteries. If you have some crocodile clips it helps but it’s not essential!

Here is a circuit with out crocodile clips! To get your LEDs to light you need two separate pieces of dough connected to the two terminals on the battery and the LEDs have to connect the two pieces of dough to complete the circuit. LEDs only allow current to flow in one direction, so if they don’t light turn them around!

Avoiding problems:
Don’t test the LEDs by touching them on the batteries directly as this will damage them! We tried AA batteries but the current was too small. We also tried Christmas tree bulbs, but the current was too small to light them (LEDs need much less current).
Now add curious toddlers and parents!

Dough play with a new twist! Could this be used to get daddies involved in dough play?

Toddler activities, toddler classes, baby activities, preschool activities, creative play ideas preschool science,

Creative messy play toddler classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Cheltenham.

January 11, 2014 by tinyadventure

Big Art for Young Artists

Tiny Adventurers enjoyed Big Collaborative Art this week. They were presented with some large random objects and trays of paint to freely experiment with.

We saw lots of printing and rolling!

Well done everyone! We love putting Big Art up on the wall. It’s so striking.

Creative messy play workshops in Cheltenham.

January 9, 2014 by tinyadventure

Drawing With Home Made Robots!

This is great fun and a nice progression from our Brush Robots!
Small motors are cheap at any electrical store as are the battery casings. I got mine from Maplins. Adding a plastic bottle top off centre causes the vibration. These can be easily and painlessly stopped with a finger while in motion. Here is a little video of one in action.

We’ve tried taping ours to margarine tub lids, paper cups, sponges and so on, observing each object glide across the floor. I was inspired to add the coloured pens to make three and four legged bots by this post from Science Buddies! I had to make adjustments to make it safe and accessible to 1-3 year olds. Thank You Science Buddies! It was great fun!

My favourite thing, Science and Art combined!

Equipment

Small motor
Battery casing with wires
Tape
Plastic cup or lunch box
Pens
Batteries
Plastic lid
Toddler
Paper
Enthusiasm

Science for toddlers!

Tiny Adventure

Creative and Messy Play Toddler Development Classes

Month: January 2014

Bug and Grit Discovery Boxes

Simple Reflections Kaleidoscope Discovery Box

Toddler Tapestry Project

Dough Circuits Pre-School STEM Activity

Big Art for Young Artists

Drawing With Home Made Robots!

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