The one aspect of Cakes' Yellow Art Party I came up with on my own (without any input from Cakes, haha) was to paint the white concrete wall in the back yard. When Cakes was very small I painted the wall white, painted a small section with blackboard paint and never really did much with it. I thought about painting a nice mural on it (but who wants to look at a painting their Mum did?), then getting her to paint a block each year as she got older (but what if she ended up with a sibling and we started to run out of blocks?) and that is when it hit me this party was perfect for her to get some art from her friends she could keep forever (or until she wants to repaint the wall).
The first hurdle was how I was going to ensure each child only painted on one block. My first thought was to newspaper it up (but somehow every newspaper I kept, ended up in the bin). I then decided to use a table cloth (one of the plastic ones we use as an art mat occasionally). I had intended to precut this into pieces for an easy stick up on the morning though got caught up with everything else and never got to it. So early on the morning I headed out and stuck it up with what I thought was awesome packing tape (but it wasn't great and fell a little). I cut out the holes of each block with a stanley knife (following the grouty bits) and taped it up with Cakes' painting tape (so now I owe her a new pack). Each child took to this activity easily and it was clear they felt no pressure. Even though only one painting was a recognisable picture from Big Cousin H (who painted a dinosaur that breaths fire that has a name I really just cannot spell), I was impressed by the three girls painting their names over their beautiful patterns and the other two boys just enjoying the colours and painting. The next hurdle was how I was going to allow the children to access the paint. It needed to be the house paint we use in the garden to ensure it remains there for many years to come. As this is a paint that will stain I had to ensure all children would be in their aprons when using it. As there was only going to be a few children at the party it should be easy to monitor, right? Noooo, they were every where. As I am cheap I also didn't want too much paint to be wasted so leaving the pots out was not happening. But if I pour paint into another container I might end up with left overs or worse run short. I ended up using 6 yoghurt containers, 1 for each of the primary and secondary colours. This was a great option as I could just cling wrap them and use them for some small work later (like painting river rocks). The only problem was I forgot and when I did remember they had all grown a skin. I still wrapped them in cling wrap and will try save as much as I can (I am so cheap I know). So here is what it looks like. Other posts from Cakes' Yellow Art Party
Cakes had her third birthday party today. Seeing I still haven't blogged about her second birthday I thought I better get a crack on with this one and start straight away (I will catch up, and do her second birthday sometime this year as I know rainbow horsey parties are all the rage, haha). Her party is going to be a series of posts so I can bite off small bits at a time and really show case her hard work in planning and implementation. Yes you read that right this little almost 3 year old planned and implemented most aspects of her party with a little help (when skill and time became a concern). So where better to start than the invitation.
Cakes wanted something "arty" for her invitation. She had many ideas that she threw around, once she saw a crayon box (which as she pointed out "is perfect because it is already yellow" on Pinterest that was it she was having it. So luckily enough we were able to get great editable printables from Makdoodle for both the crayon packet and the crayons. As we were only inviting a few children this year and no adults were getting physical invitations we only had to print a few so we printed these at home. If you were going to make heaps I would suggest heading to a printing shop to keep costs down as they did use a fair bit of ink. We were also cheap with our crayons and bought a 96 pack from the cheap shop for about $3 rather than using crayola crayons. We were lucky enough to be able to hand deliver a few of the invitations saving us a little on postage. I really thought they would cost heaps to post but was pleasantly surprised when the post office sold us prepaid envelopes for $1.20, only twice the cost of a normal invitation.
My favourite part of these invitations was the photos and stories of the recipients using the crayons as replies. Cakes loved getting the crayons ready and didn't think anything of them as to her this was a completely normal invitation, I dread to think what sort of invitation she will want next year.
Keep your eyes peeled for more posts about activities, food and games over the next few weeks
Cakes has been in birthday party preparation mode for a few months now. Late last year she decided she was going to have an art party. With one of her new interests being bead threading, she suggested we do some at her party. With most beads being tiny, threading can be very difficult for young toddlers. With that in mind we decided to use pasta for threading. The best thing about this is it meant we had an extra activity to do in preparation. With yellow being Cakes favourite colour it was inevitable we would do primary colours. We set out following a simple procedure. First we separated the pasta into three ziplock bags and then added a spoonful of vinegar, spreading it by shaking or rubbing the bag. The vinegar gives the pasta a nice coating that softens them allowing the colour to stick a little better. The next step is to add a few drops of colour and shake like crazy (and rub to get an even spread). Lay out to dry on paper towel and bright coloured pasta ready for threading.
| | Tonight while cooking dinner Cakes set up an invitation for me to supervise. She alerted me to the fact we did not have any secondary colours for the threading activity at her birthday party. So between dinner and bedtime tonight we had to spend a small amount of time colouring more pasta. Now we have two packets of coloured pasta ready for her 3rd birthday art party. I hope this activity is a hit or I might have to research more pasta activities. If you have any suggestions for the left over pasta please share them with us. | Learning:- small muscle development
- colour recognition/mixing
- following step by step process
- patience
| What you need- Penne pasta
- vinegar
- ziplock bags
- food colouring
- paper towel
|
I'm sure some of you have seen this picture of Cakes and cringed (I sure did as she tipped the half of bucket all over the floor). This innocent mess turned out to be a wonderful learning experience that we did several days in a row. As Cakes tipped the sand out she looked at me, smiled and asked "Can I play with this?". Well yes, but it might have been preferable if it was contained in one way or another. Seeing it was all over the floor there was no point in trying to contain it. Was there?
Cakes spread it out (it really didn't spread too far), feeling it in-between her fingers (much more focused then at the beach or in the sand pit) and using it to make marks. She made hand prints, lines, sqiggles, shapes and drawings. She did this for a long time before heading into her room and getting her "cleaning brush". After she had tided it up she requested the bucket remain so she could play again "next day" as she calls tomorrow.
The next time she played with the sand she spread it out and said it was a beach. She invited me to play and showed me the umbrella I could sit under, the buckets I could use and showed me how to dig in the sand. Though still only a thin layer of sand Cakes was imagining an entire beach and items in great detail. She continued this imaginative play for many days until the amount of sand dwindled away and she returned the almost empty bucket to the sand pit.
As messy as this activity is I recommend it and would bring it back into our house if Cakes requested it. I could contain it in a sensory tray, a small pool or on a mat but I don't want to stifle the amazing play she created. Learning- independence
- small muscle development
- imagination
- sensory development
- attention span
| | Other posts you might like -
Who doesn't love shopping? Well actually I don't and I am sure Cakes isn't too keen either, but if you have ever been to a Reverse Garbage I am sure you could shop until you drop. Cakes and I carefully travel down every aisle to ensure we don't miss anything cool or a bargain. Cakes has two rules to follow when shopping on top of all other outing rules. 1-don't touch anything that can get broken including putting things back nicely, 2 -make sure you have some idea of what you can use your find for before adding it into the basket.
We got a great selection of things today and lots of learning occurred spontaneously as we shopped. Cakes did some letter and number recognition as she searched through boxes of letter and number cards for her name and age. Counting and adding as she selected items and put them into the basket, "1, 2, 3, .... 10, is that $1 Mummy?". Lucky guess but yes. Courtesy as she moved our basket out of other shoppers way. Looking at items and describing a creative use for it.
As I picked up some rectangle pieces of plastic with small holes, Cakes says "What are you going to use them for Mummy?". I had a quick think and had nothing, "I'm not sure but they are only 0.20c each". That was met with a quick reply of "put them back Mummy, no use no purchase". I quickly came up with a use and the purchase was approved, phew! Several moments later Cakes wanders over with a block of laminated wood and a screwy bolt type thing. When asked what it was for and giving a shrug I said "ow no use, no purchase" to be met with an even quicker "I will think of something good or give you your money back". How could I not get the 0.80c purchase for her?
Any suggestions for how we could use these resources? We do buy the odd thing with out a preconceived purpose just to add to our collection of resources (much to Daddy's disgust). Learning- letter recognition
- counting
- resourcefulness
- sustainability
- small and large muscle development
| What you need:- a Reverse Garbage shop (or local rubbish dump shop, op shop)
- a small amount of money to spend
- space to store all your goodies
| Other posts you might like -
| When I was little I remember doing potato printing at Kindy (and loved it). As an adult I have never done this at school or at home with Cakes as I had been guilted into believing this would be wasteful with perfectly good food. (I am still undecided where I stand on using food for art, I use pasta for threading so I should know where I stand). We recently had a potato go rotten in the cupboard and threw it into the worm farm, instead of breaking down and feeding them, it grew into 3 new potatoes. Potatoes I wasn't willing to eat so we used them for painting.
A quick wash, cut in half and carefully cut shapes (while Cakes was busy in another room). And there we had it another fabulous painting tool. Cakes and Princess S did potato stamper printing for a long time making different patterns, talking about the colour, the shapes and counting. The large printed pieces of paper were great sheets of wrapping paper for gifts. I think Cakes was more excited about giving the paper than the presents.
| | Learning- shape recognition
- colour recognition
- counting
- patterning
- small muscle development
- hand eye coordination
| What you need- trays
- sponges
- paint
- potatoes
- knife
|
No one goes to the doctor very often in our household. Cakes has rarely been sick (touch wood), Daddy has a great immune system and is rarely sick more than 12 hours and I am just too lazy or busy most of the time (I have been pretty healthy of late). Through books, television and experiences children seem to have a rather good grasp of how different occupations within the community work or what they are for.
The different doctor sets you can buy from cheap ones at Kmart to the more expensive, all have very easy to use equipment. Daddy sat down at the Cakes doctor surgery and got a full medical, his heart checked, blood pressure, eyes checked and even a bandaid for his fingers. She said he was very sick when he came in but was all better when leaving. We might need to have a few more conversations about the healing process next time we play. Learning- language development
- social skills
- empathy/sympathy
- health
- understanding of community roles
| What you need:- cheap doctors kit from Kmart
- a willing patient
|
| | Light tables have been something I have seen in big schools, libraries and the odd play centre. Having a simple home made one has given Cakes and I the opportunity to experiment and get messy with it. Salt as been the most enjoyable (and messiest) resource we have used on it so far. Using the salt was fun for sensory play and gave Cakes the time to make marks and patterns with her hands. Adding playdough cutters was a fun mark making resource as it left a clear picture outline for the light to seep through. As this is best used in a dark room or at night it was a great activity to bring out one night when Princess S was visiting. I was pleased to see some team work and turn taking emerge through their play. The conversation between the girls was about shapes, pictures, texture and possibilities. | Learning- attention span
- language development
- shape recognition
- small muscle development
| What you need:- Light table (or DIY light box)
- salt
- playdough cutters
- mat
| Other posts you might like -
Our $3 foam letters and numbers made their way to the bathroom recently and Cakes spent time sorting, ordering and 'reading' them. She told me all about each number, it's colour and "how many it was". Her favourite thing about the numbers in the bath was the way that they stuck to the wall when wet. She tried each number while it was dry, wet it and placed it on the wall. We talked about the ways she could move it; pulling it off, sliding it and flicking it. Learning- letter and number recognition
- colour recognition
- sorting (colours, numbers, letters)
- ordering
- patterning
| What you need:- $3 foam letters and numbers
| Other posts you might like -
|
RSS Feed
