Christmas Fun: What is in the stocking?

This was a little game I threw together for Neevah when she was desperate to play a 'Christmas Game'. It was semi successful but I think I needed to find some more unusual items as some of them she guessed very quickly

You will need
Christmas Stockings
Fun or Unusual objects that fit in the stocking

To Play:
1. Put 1 item in each stocking
2. Invite your child to play
3. Get them to put one hand into the stocking and feel what is inside - you may need to remind them not to look
4. Describe what you can feel
5. Guess what it might be
6. Pull the item out of the stocking and see if the guess was right

I filled 6 Christmas Stockings - I included a book, a soft toy, a toy car, a headband, a small handbag and a toy Dinosaur
After you have played once send your child off to refill the stockings with different objects and have a turn yourself :)

Christmas Crafts: Christmas Tree Playdough

I have missed blogging! While we have still been creating (not nearly as often as before) I really haven't had a chance to blog any of our creations. But it is Christmas time and one of my favourite times of year so fingers crossed I will have a few feastive ideas to share with you all between now and Christmas Day. Here we go ......

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are your branches!
In beauty green will always grow
Through summer sun and winter snow.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are your branches!

What you will need:
Green Playdough
Beads, Sequins anything small and a bit festive
A Small Plate

Playdough Recipe
2 cups of plain flour
2 tbs Cream of Tartar
2 tbs Cooking Oil
1 cup Salt
2 cups of Water
Food Colouring

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan (except food colouring) stir over medium heat for 3 - 5 mins or until the mixture congeals. Once cool add food colouring.

To Make:
1. Place playdough onto a plate and fashion it into a cone shaped Christmas tree
3. Decorate your tree
4. You could put a star on the top and presents around the bottom

Neevah's creation is on the left and Liam's on the right

Looking for something a little more permanent you could try Salt Ceramic Dough and make a snow white tree. We tried this recipe in August last year to make Handprint Keepsakes

To Make Salt Ceramic Dough
Mix 1 cup of salt, 1/2 cup of cornstarch (I used white wings cornflour), 2/3 cup of water in a pot and cook/stir over a medium heat until all the liquid has been adsorbed (will look a bit like cooked playdough).
Once cooked place it onto some foil to cool as it is quite hot. Once cool kneed the dough until it is soft and pliable. It will be a little bit sticky so put some wax paper or something similar down before letting the kids loose.

This may take a while to fully harden depending on your climate - our handprint took roughly 5 days and I would think a Christmas Tree would take a week if not a little more

Magic Potions - Colour Review

This is lots of fun, a wee bit messy and kept the kids playing for ages. I setup this activity as basic colour identification for Liam but added some colour labels for Neevah to match to the potion colour.

You will need
Glasses or Jars
White Vinegar
Baking Soda
Food Colouring
Syringe or Baster
Baking Tray

Optional
Paper
Coloured Pens to match potion colours

To Make
1. Prepare the potions by adding 2 - 3 drops of food colouring to the bottom of the glasses and then covering it with approx 2 teaspoons of baking soda so you can't see any of the colour underneath
2. In another container put the white vinegar
3. Put the glasses and white vinegar on a baking tray this will help contain the mess
4. Suck up the vinegar with the syringe
5. Squirt it into the potion glass
6. Name the colour
7. Do it all over again until all the colours are revealed

Optional
Make up some small cards with the names of each colour on them and ask your child to match them to the potions

Neevah and Liam then continued to add more and more vinegar to each potion jar. Neevah loved watching the reaction of the vinegar and baking soda and kept adding more and more vinegar until the glasses where full and then asked if she could start all over again. Liam loved pouring the potions and mixing the colours up. Altogether Liam stayed at this activity for roughly 20 mins and Neevah was enthralled for almost an hour!

Magic Tape Painting

It is fun to add a little bit of magic into our daily lives for ourselves and for our children. We tried this technique in July last year when we made Z is for Zebra but Neevah didn't seem to remember the process and was truly excited when it came time to remove the tape. We choose to do this activity as free art time but you could easily use it with shapes, letters or numbers

You will need
Paper
Paint
Painters or Electrical Tape

To Make
1. Cut off lengths of tape and let your child stick them wherever they like on the paper. I took this opportunity to reinforce the words long and short by asking would you like a long or short piece of tape? and Did Mum cut you a long or short piece of tape?
Of course you can let your child cut their own tape to stick on the picture
2. Time to paint .... encourage your child to cover as much of the white paper as possible
3. Let Dry
4. Carefully remove the tape to reveal the white stripes underneath. Neevah removed some of the tape pieces a little bit fast and the paper came away with the tape a little but this didn't dampen her enthusiasm for the activity.

Little Ghost Puppets

My kids have well an truly out grown their plastic baby spoons and forks but we still seem to have a few hanging around. We have used the little spoons for scooping glitter and beads in the past but Neevahs new found love of puppets inspired me to turn the last of the baby spoons and forks into little ghost puppets for her.

You will need
Plastic Baby Spoons/Forks
White Tissue Paper
Ribbon/String
Black Marker Pen
Scissors

To Make
1. Cut the white tissue paper into squares
2. Place the spoon/fork in the center of 2 tissue paper squares. A double layer of tissue paper just helps hide the colour of the spoon underneath. If you are using forks make sure they have rounded ends or they will tear the tissue paper
3. Pull the tissue paper around the spoon
4. Tie ribbon at the top of the handle - this was a little bit fiddly but you don't have to make little bows if you don't want to
5. Draw a face on the ghost using a black marker. I found the back of the spoon was better for the face.
6. Time to play

If you are a Ghost and you know it just say Boo .... Boo!
If you are a Ghost and you know it just say Boo .... Boo!
If you are a Ghost and you know it and you really want it show it. If you are a Ghost and you know it just say Boo .... Boo!
(sung to the tune of If you are happy and you know it)

Neevah thought this song was very funny

She made her ghost puppets do something funny everytime the song says Boo

Ten Thumbprint Apples

This idea has been floating around in my head since my last blog post in June and I am so pleased we got a chance to give it a go today. Neevah still loves the book Ten Apples Up on Top (thankfully she has moved on to a different book for her bedtime story) and she thought this quick Art and Counting activity was a lot of fun.

You will need
Paper
Crayons
Red Paint
Shallow Dish
Baby Wipes (great for cleaning up paint covered fingers)

To Make
1. Ask your child to draw a picture of themselves at the bottom of the paper
2. Put the red paint into a shallow dish
3. Let you child dip their thumb into the red paint and then place a thumbprint apple on top of their head
4. Count out loud as you add more and more apples up on top

How many apples can you get up on top?

Neevah counting her apples

She was very happy to have ten apples up on top just like the story

Apples Up On Top

Bedtime Story ~ Ten Apples Up On Top + Shopping Day ~ one big bag of apples + Neevah = A Lot of Fun! Today was food shopping day or should I say food delivery day since we now shop online (so much easier for us) in the shopping was a large bag of green apples .... sometime after all the food was put away Neevah comes running up the hallway .....
'Mummy how many apples can I put on my head?'
Me with a somewhat puzzled look 'Why do you want to put apples on your head?'
Neevah sighs 'like the book Mum like the book!'
Click we are now on the same page
'Well lets try it and see'

One apple up on top!

Can you do two?

They balanced for a second and then

they fell
but don't stop after one go
try again and again and again

and after all the apple balancing of course we had to eat the apples

I am so pleased Neevah thought of Apples Up On Top as it was a lot of fun trying to balance the apples and just as much fun for me trying to take photos of the action