Baby Sensory Bottles

Baby girl is nearly 5 months old already and so keen to touch and explore anything she can get her hands on. 


Clear plastic bottles can be filled with a whole range of objects that baby can safely explore, just make sure the lid on on super tight!! 







This particular bottle has been filled with water, daisies and colourful sequins from one of the pound shops. 


Fascinating!

Pumpkin Finger Puppets

Firstly thank you to Twodaloo for this idea that I found on Pinterest, or maybe it was Facebook, but wherever I came across it, I've been meaning to make these little cuties since last Halloween so when my little one came home from playgroup with the 5 Little Pumpkins rhyme I was determined to make them this year!  

Here's the rhyme....

Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate.

The first one said, “oh my it’s getting late.”

The second one said, “there are witches in the air!”

The third one said, “but we don’t care.”

The fourth one said, “let’s run and run and run.”

The fifth one said, “we’re ready for some fun.”

Ooooh went the wind and out went the light.

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Here's the link to Twodaloo on how to make them......  Felt Pumpkin Finger Puppets

I used Twodaloo's idea to make my own puppets but stitched them by hand instead of machine because sometimes it's just nice to do a little hand sewing in front of the TV at night.

If you want to make them, you'll need black, orange and a little green felt and I added the gate with some white felt.



Although they are actually finger puppets and can be used as such, I set them up on our felt board and created a little Autumn scene too - just to add to the creative fun.  

Happy Halloween!!

Dolls House Makeover

It's finished at last!  Well, it's as finished as it's going to be.  
This dolls house has been taking up too much room in my house for the last few months and as school starts back next week, this is where is will be heading, so I HAD to get it finished.

I'm fairly pleased with it and have to admit it does look much more modern, clean and inviting but having spent literally no money on the makeover, it is somewhat lacking in detail such as accessories, lighting etc for the rooms.  However, it does have the basic furniture - I guess you could call it minimalist!

If you want to see the house in detail before I started click here 

I'm sure you will agree, it was quite depressing.

Bedroom with paper bunting

As I explained in that post I pulled out the broken windows, scraped up the carpets, ripped off the wallpaper and coated everything in white paint.  

Second bedroom with printed rug and wall art

Then I printed some pretty paper and glued it to the walls (this was the only cost involved).

Simple kitchen with large printed clock

I painted the furniture and made colourful covers from scraps and then finished the rooms with some paper rugs and art which were also glued down.  

Most of these I printed from the Ikea website!

Colourful lounge is so much brighter!

I'm glad it's done.  I wondered about curtains, window boxes and so on but I've spent enough time on it for now - it needs to go back!

I painted the front a beige/cream colour
with white trim and grey roof

Have to admit though, I saw a dolls house on Gumtree a while back complete with loads of furniture and had to have it....

....it's currently in the loft waiting for a makeover for my little one, possibly for this Christmas or next?  

We will see. 

Left side of the house

 

Right side of the house

Construction Site Small World

Today we were inspired when reading our Hide and Seek book to make our own construction site.  The construction page is Monty's favourite in the book and the one he always goes straight to.

 
So we gathered up some building blocks, pebbles construction vehicles and a big piece of yellow fabric to represent the sand.  We could easily put all this stuff in the sand pit too which would be loads of fun but as we were playing inside today, this was far less messy.



We also found some tools and signs to add to make it all even more realistic.
When he is a bit bigger we can make our own signs and traffic cones too.


This was great fun and very quick to set up and you'll notice that he was keen to add his own touch - did you spot the large car transporter in the middle?!

Dolls House Makeover

This sorry sight for a dolls house has been languishing in my classroom for a while now.  

At the beginning of the year it was sitting on a table top looking a bit sad but for the past few weeks it's been downgraded to the floor where it has been pretty much ignored.





















I've looked at it and wondered about it a couple of times these past few months but yesterday I actually lifted it and loaded it into my car with the intention of giving it a makeover!

It's actually quite a nice size and shape with decent rooms but the inside is a bit depressing and the windows are all smashed.











It's not going to be a mega restoration with loads of dosh lavished on it though unfortunately.  

It will have to be a quick fix with some fresh paint and maybe a few soft furnishings? 

I'm not sure yet but watch this space....the filthy dolls are currently in the washing machine with some heavy duty stain remover to see if they can be salvaged!

It's a week on and so far I've managed to spray paint the roof grey and paint the outdoor walls a creamy white.

The roof has been spray painted 

 Both colours were leftover paint I had from my playhouse makeover last summer - remember this is a makeover for my classroom so I am trying to do it for next to nothing!

You will also notice that I pulled out the window panels, they were yellowed from the sun and also very brittle which made them sharp and difficult to remove.  The house looks so much better without them!

The living room carpet came out without a problem but the red one on the upper floor was absolutely stuck down and wasn't going to budge.  I discovered on a forum that if I used a hairdryer on it, the glue would melt and peel away, but this didn't work so I pondered for a while and then wondered if nail polish remover might work. 

Bingo!!  


As you can see I've had to scrape but it's come away really easily. I've still to see if I'll be able to paint on top of it, but if not I can stick down paper flooring.

The only other thing I did this week was peel the brown felt covering off the chairs - better already?!

That's the update for now!

Playdough

What great fun we had today (on yet another rainy day)!  

Little one's fingers are getting bigger and stronger and he's becoming more confident with playdough and not eating it as much either....bonus!





Today the playdough turned out a very dark shade (red and blue mixed together) so it was perfect for adding these really colourful buttons, spools and matchsticks.



He spent ages pushing the objects into the dough and then taking them out and moving them around.  This is the longest he's played with playdough yet!  (20 months)




Playdough is great for loads of reasons and if you want to learn more about it's benefits click here.

And if you're looking for a super easy playdough recipe I can recommend this one....

1 cup flour
half a cup of salt
a spoonful of cream of tartar (increasingly difficult to find in the supermarket so I'm using a little spoonful these days)
1 cup of boiling water
food colouring (optional)

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix til they all come together.
You can play with it when it's cooled a bit.

It will keep for a week or so in an airtight container.