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!
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!
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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.
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!
We’ve made a sensory car race track out of scraps! We chose corrugated card and lade it with the ridges in different directions. We also use craft foam, packing material and sand paper. We added some pop sticks to make a noisy click clack train track along side one of the roads.
This was very popular with my three and nearly two year old, and created lots to talk about!
It’s also fun to walk round with your shoes off apparently!
All in all it was worth the effort and we get it out repeatedly. I had to make sure all edges were well glued with a glue gun, as it would be far to tempting for youngest not to peal everything off, which would be fun for her but upsetting for the other.
Creative messy play toddler classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Cheltenham.
One of this weeks creative play activities.
First thing is first you need some pistols, so pop to your pound store! Or don’t ! Actually a small pop bottle with a hole in the lid is easier for young toddlers to use, and fires further! We made small holes in each lid using a hammer and a nail.
We pegged up a sheet and watered down some washable paint. Off they when improving their co-ordination while making pretty patterns!
Careful!! This may bring out the toddler in you! Spot the parent above having a little go 🙂
Introducing Motors and Batteries for some Early Years STEM.
We’ve attached little motors and offset wheels to brushes. The wobble of the off centre wheels caused them to vibrate and glide around.
Simple Motors to observe in action!
It’s great to have the motor and batteries visible for supervised play to really help children to piece together how things work.
Here is a video of them in action!
We’ve also made a vibrating table using the equipment.
Creative messy play toddler classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Cheltenham.
There is just something great about this activity. It never gets old! Children simply love washing objects down a tube. We have a full drain pipe and a half pipe.
Washing people down the shoot is great fun but also improves co-ordination, links cause and effect and involves gravity and friction.
So what have we washed down our water spout? Spiders (of course), ice cubes, wooden beads, cut drinking straws, play people, chop tinsel, rubber ducks, boats, sea creatures and plastic fruit and veg…so far!
If you’ve not got one I recommend a trip to your local DIY shop. We got our half pipe for around a fiver!
Creative messy play toddler classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Cheltenham.
After Big Sponge Fun, this week at Tiny Adventure we decided to get a GIANT SPONGE from the haberdashery. Lots of dishwater at look…
…foamy foot squashing fun!
Creative messy play toddler classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Cheltenham.
Frozen water balloons for tomorrow’s workshop! Water paint squired into a balloon, topped up with water and frozen over night.
Results to follow after tomorrow’s session!
Melty slushy fun!
Creative messy play toddler classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Cheltenham.
We’ve found another use for our old picture frame at this morning’s Tiny Adventure workshop. Weaving! As a collaborative activity this is lovely.
We used anything we could get our hands on including pipe insulation and bubble wrap!
Creative messy play toddler classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers in Cheltenham.
Tiny Adventure 