Sometimes, in an effort to think creatively when it comes to keeping kids amused (what do they say – the days are long but the years are short? amen!), I like to have a bit of a theme. That’s suddenly when I think of 50 things to do – I seem to work better with a few parameters.
Abby mentioned something recently about a boat, so I thought it would be fun to make one. Then I thought about making hats. Then I thought about making sea creatures, and blue play dough with shells and things to stick in, and colouring pages, and math games… and all of a sudden it was Under the Sea week.
You better believe we listened to The Little Mermaid soundtrack. (Walking around on those… whaddaya call ’em? Oh. Feet.)
We went around the house and found all our ocean-themed books. Anything would do! We kept them in our “boat” (a big, flat box from Ikea) and read from them during the week. We wore pirate clothes, found a “talking” parrot, and ate lots of fruit so we wouldn’t get scurvy.
We printed out sea animals colouring pages (just from Google Image search), and we played this letter-matching game I found on Pinterest (I cut out the pieces and laminated them).
We made paper hats (I had to Google that too, I couldn’t remember!) and ate snacks in our boat while watching David Attenborough narrate some ocean documentaries, and sometimes we just had the Amazing Ocean 3D DVD on in the background.
I tried to find some Goldfish Crackers when I went to the USA Foods store, but they were all out :(. You can make your own with this recipe. If you don’t have fish-shaped cutters, use the star and call them starfish! You could also eat seaweed snacks, and cut fruit and veg or even sandwiches into marine shapes. I’ve even seen a yacht made with some sandwiches and a square slice of cheese. We had water with a drop of blue food colouring in it, and twirly bendy straws with mermaids on them (from my last trip to Daydream Island).
We talked about what kinds of animals live under the sea, and I put all the animals we’d coloured around us on the carpet, and pretended to look at them through binoculars. We had an inflatable pair that came with a pirate wading pool we bought a while ago, but I also taped two cardboard rolls together for Pepper to look through. Ahoy! We also were careful to steer clear of the hammer-head shark (all 10cm of it) which was another refugee from the Daydream Island gift shop. His soft, cuddly body was mighty frightening!
We didn’t get around to these activities, but I like this printable ocean counting book, and these painted handprint fish. We just painted blobs and called it a day.
It was a lot of fun to stretch my imagination into things that we could incorporate through the week. Even the Target trolley became a boat! Two little girls, sailing the ocean blue.
You HAVE to get Pepper out of my face. I will bite her. Gosh your girls are gorgeous.
She is the best!
We had summer and the ocean as our theme for all of January and my boy keeps going back to it over and over. Nothing better than a cardboard box to get their imaginations going! We also had a ball with paper plates. Here’s the round-up for our watery month: http://lilybettandboy.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/intentional-play-our-month-of-summer.html
I was thinking of doing a month! I also want to do cultural/food holidays. so much fun. will have a look at your post!
I set out themes for each month this year because I’m such an unbelievable geek like that (there’s a link somewhere in there with the full list). I was really starting to struggle with play ideas and it’s helped keep us both entertained. It’s also been great to get out and about and explore Melbourne and its surrounds a bit more. We’re off apple-picking either this weekend or the next. Yeeha!
What lovely ideas and what fun! If you don’t mind I would like to take some of them to the preschool I am doing my work placement at and hopefully they will think I am amazing!
http://www.zinniablue.com/
Haha I bet you are already amazing! Feel free to use whatever you like! You will love Pinterest, go have a peep at that for wonderful ideas.
Sounds like a mighty fun week Stacey and I’m thinking you should go into being a pre primary teacher, you seem to have the gift. I can’t wait to Francis is a little older to do these sorts of things though he does love giggle and hoot and the octonauts.
Oh you’re so lovely Michelle! Thank you. I actually studied primary education and was a teacher aide and vacation care teacher for years. I get waaaaay excited about fun kid activities and I’m so glad the girls are getting older!
Sounds like fun … I especially love the “cardboard box boat”. It used to amuse me when my kids were little because I would buy them an amazing toy and then they would spend hours playing with the box! Such lovely memories because they used to surprise me with the depth of their little imaginations.
I love your creative ideas! So much fun in here. The next time I get stuck for things to do, I’m going to try a theme. I think that like you the parameters would help direct my creative thinking.