February 23, 2014 by Forgetful Katy

Combining Art Techniques for Toddlers

We are all about Art rather than craft. Free expression and experimentation and if the outcome looks good that is a bonus! Lately we’ve been building up interesting techniques over the top of one another which helps to produce something that is really visually interesting and dramatic (and saves on paper). This lovely piece of paper has had water colour washed over it, it has had painted objects rolled down it, been stencilled with spay paints and had large shapes printed onto it.

Firstly we washed water over it and used water colours.

Secondly we rolled painted objects down it!

Thirdly we printed large shapes on it.

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Thirdly we printed large shapes on it.

Fourthly we used stencils and spray bottles.

Finally we we used wool in glue and paint to do string painting!

After we dragged, dropped and flicked our string, we left some of the string on to dry. Here is our very striking final result.

February 21, 2014 by Forgetful Katy

Two Ingredient Bread Recipe

Simple and brilliant!
1cup of Greek yoghurt to two cups of plain flour! That it! Kneed it and you will get a great pizza dough. Spread a thin strip with Nutella and roll into a swirl or make cheese topped buns! This is fab and hassle free!

It’s also great for play time!

http://lessonslearntjournal.com/bread-recipe-2ingredient-bread/

February 20, 2014 by Forgetful Katy

Brain Building While Making Colouring Pens MORE Fun!

We’ve been playing around with pens and ways to make them more interesting. We’ve taped pens to coat hangers to make a pair of compasses and to rulers for rainbow drawing. We also tried three pens taped inside a cup to produce triple images!

It is lovely watching them play with the coat hanger compasses, discovering what happens with one pen also happens with the other.

The rainbow pens are taped in a line. It is tricky to get them level but worth it. She worked out how to use it fairly quickly.

The three legged cup is a nice idea and produces triple lines and images. I could almost see her brain expanding as she tried everything out!

Perfect for a wet morning!

February 19, 2014 by Forgetful Katy

Moving Sculpture Bots Toddler STEM Activity

Early Years STEM Activity:
This is a simple, fun, cheap and never gets old! We used our motors and OFF CENTRE wheels for this activity which we have used in previous robot building activities. A small plastic lid is used as a wheel for a small motor driven by a couple of AA batteries. This is mounted on a lightweight foam or polystyrene body. Here is a video of them in action!

A motor and battery box can be found at your local Maplin electrical store for a couple of pounds! We use a plastic lid as it doesn’t hurt fingers when it is in motion or if it comes loose. Good duck tape is need to secure the motor well so the vibration from the wheel is transferred to the body to make it move!

We allowed our toddlers to work with their parents to build a bot using foam from our local scrap store, sticks, golf tees, matchsticks, wooden beads and cotton reels! This gave them the chance to problem solve, easily modifying their bots changing the number of legs and leg length for example.