March 2, 2014 by tinyadventure

Drip Dye Fabric Design for Toddlers

For this you will need some spare fabric (we cut up an old sheet), food colouring and cotton buds.

We watered down our food colouring and set about spotting it onto our cotton squares. As the colour is absorbed by the fabric it created perfect spots of colour.

We experimented further by folding the fabric first and dipping the corners in the colour to produce regular patters, overlapping colours and adding water to spread the colours further.

Some lovely results!

Tiny Adventure toddler workshops Cheltenham.

February 23, 2014 by tinyadventure

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.

<img src="http://
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 tinyadventure

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 tinyadventure

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 tinyadventure

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.

Happy Bot Building People!

Tiny Adventure Toddler and Pre school workshops Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

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.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: