Words for Life - Technology and under 5s

Words for Life - Technology and under 5s

Interesting  article about the use of technology with under 5's.  What are your thoughts?

Butterfly squishy bag

I love messy play activities when working with my families.  However not all children like the feel of some of the messy play activities on offer. Lots of sensory activities and ideas are used but I am always looking for more.

I have just come across this amazing site: Building blocks and acorns.  Wow! It's amazing.  This butterfly squishy bag is a great quiet time activity.  I think I am going to have to make a few of these. Use the link below to find the page...

http://buildingblocksandacorns.com/2014/05/01/guest-post-butterfly-squishy-bag-from-life-over-cs/

Printable sea creatures for play dough

I love using home made play dough and showing the families I work with how easy and cheap it is to make.  (You can find out how in a previous post...look up play dough in my search)

I was searching for some new ideas to use with it, when I came across these fabulous printable sea creatures from the nurture store  You can download the pdf document and print the creatures.  If you then laminate them or cover them in sellotape to make them stronger, they will last a lot longer and can be wiped down in between.

This is a fantastic site with lots of great information and ideas.  Follow this link:

http://nurturestore.co.uk/printable-sea-creatures-ocean-play-dough

Home made books

I have just come across this fab idea for interactive paper bag home made books.  These can be made for any topic and are really cheap to make.

Pop over to: https://reliefteachingideas.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/paper-bag-books/ to find out more : )

Humpty Dumpty finger puppet

 

Humpty dumpty is another one of the characters from the eight week rhyme challenge.  This little character has been made using the template which you can find the link for below.

 



 

 

http://www.makinglearningfun.com/Activities/NurseryRhymePrintables/Humpty%20Dumpty/HumptyPuppet.gif

 

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great all.

All of the kings horses and all the kings men,

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

 

 

Along came some children with brushes and glue,

And made Humpty Dumpty as good as new.

(Because we all like a happy ending!)

 

 

Other Humpty rhymes that you may like:

 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair,
While the barber cut his hair.
They cut it long.
They cut it short.
They cut it with a knife and fork.
~ Author Unknown

   Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
I wish they had had super glue way back then,
They could have put Humpty together again!
~ Author Unknown

  Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall eating ripe bananas,
Where do you think he put the peels?
Down his new pyjamas.

Humpty Dumpty went to the moon on a supersonic spoon
He took some porridge and a tent but when he landed the spoon got bent
Humpty said he didn't care
For all I know he's still up there.



Two little dickie birds

 

 

One of the other latest props made for the eight week rhyme challenge is this lovely two little dickie birds finger puppets.

 

The template for the birds has been taken from http://4.bp.blogspot.com

They were cut out, coloured in, sellotaped together to make enough space for fingers to go through and then had feathers and googly eyes added.

 

The wall has been made from an old printer cartridge box and some printed brick wall paper.

 

To make this resource you will need:

• Template of two birds(you will find a picture of the one we used below)
• Colouring pens
• Feathers
• Googly eyes
• Glue
• Sellotape
• Old box suitable to make a wall
• Printed brick paper or similar



 

 

 

Two little dickie birds

 

Two little dickie birds sitting on a wall,

One named Peter and the other named Paul.

Fly away Peter, fly away Paul,

Come back Peter, come back Paul.

 

Incy Wincy Spider

 

This is one of our new props made by a lovely lady called Lyndy.  Incy looks so happy and the children will love him when we take him in to sing with.

 

Included in the three programmes is the eight week rhyme challenge.  Each week we have a rhyme of the week.  When the programmes are completed, children receive a certificate for completing the eight week rhyme challenge.

 

The reason for this is because of the research and evidence which shows that children who know eight rhymes by the time they start school are more likely to read and write easier by the time they get to juniors.

 

To make Incy you will need:

 

• A wooden spoon
• Black wool
• Black material for the front and back of the body
• Glue to stick the wool onto the spoon and the material on top
• Googly eyes or similar
• piece of pink or red wool for the mouth or similar

 

Animal shakers....

 

We have recently been updating our shakers that we use with the children in the groups we run during our song time.   We decided to go with an animal theme this time.   The children love choosing which animal they want to be.

 

To make these simple shakers you will need:

 

• A clean empty drinks bottle
• Dried rice or pasta
• Glitter, sequins  or similar to make the rice or pasta colourful
• Wooden lolly sticks
• Pictures of animals (cartoon or real life), cut out and laminated or use sellotape to protect them for longer
• Glue (preferably a glue gun) to attach the animals to the lolly sticks but also to seal the bottle to make safe for young children 
• Masking tape, which seals the edge of the bottle



 

 

 

One of the most popular songs we sing using the shakers is...'Leader of the big brass band' to the tune of the wheels on the bus.

 

(Child's name) is the leader of the big brass band,

The big brass band, the big brass band.

(Child's name) is the leader of the big brass band,

Listen to what they can play (encourage your child to shake)

Family faces...

We have been working on some new resources in the office lately as we have rebranded and have three new programmes that we will be running with our families.  We are now called Chatterbox 'Learning to Talk' and run an eight week baby, eight week toddler and eight week pre-school programme....so lots of fun times ahead!

This resource 'Family faces' gives lots of opportunities for talking and playing together and can be used with all age groups.  Include pictures of family members as well as pets.  This particular set was made for babies.

Items needed:

Box with a lid - simple gift boxes or similar

Jam jar lids washed out and dried

Photographs that can be cut up -use the jam jar to draw around the faces, cut them out, laminate or use sellotape to protect them and stick them into the lids.

A great resource which can be used time and time again : )