Dinosaur Pasta Necklace

My boys adore dinosaurs. They love they way dinosaurs look. They love dinosaur names. They love playing with their dinosaur toys. They love pretending to be dinosaurs.

You would think this love of dinosaurs would lead to absolute joy when visiting our local dinosaur museum. Instead, you can find our boys cowering behind us, hugging our legs as they gaze up at the gigantic dinosaur models. When dinosaur roars echo through the exhibit, our little guys want to scurry and hide.

Still, they do love dinosaurs! As I do our weekly grocery shopping, I spot dinosaur pasta. How could I resist?

With so many varieties of pasta, the pasta craft possibilities seem endless. Make a pasta necklace that tickles your fancy.

Obviously, the dinosaur pasta tickled our fancy!

Materials:
* Dried pasta of your choice. We had some nice large penne and adorable dinosaur shaped pasta.
* Paint of your choice. We couldn’t go past our glitter paint.
* Stiff elastic or cord.

Method:

Paint your pasta. My boys had two methods of doing this: using the paintbrush; and dumping it in the paint to cover it with paint. Surprisingly, the dumping it in paint method seemed to yield better results.

Let the painted pasta dry. We left ours on a plate for a few days. As it dries, the pasta soaks up the paint and becomes wonderfully vibrant.

Thread the pasta onto the elastic or cord. Experiment with different colours and patterns – this is the creative part! Play around with the possibilities. At first we alternated the dinosaurs and penne; then we decided to place all the dinosaurs together in the middle of the necklace. We grouped the dinosaurs into colours and threaded them on in a ‘rainbow’ sequence – lighter colours on one end and darker colours on the other. We finished the necklace by placing the penne on both ends of the necklace.

When you’re happy with your design, knot the ends together to complete your necklace.

Can’t get enough of dinosaurs?
Check out these other fun dinosaur activities for a roaring good time.

N & M: 4 years, 2 months
E: 2 years, 1 month
August 2012

(I first published a version of this post on KidsActivitiesBlog.com)

The post Dinosaur Pasta Necklace by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

 
Only a year ago he happily sat wherever we plopped him.

 
Now, his little feet take him where his curiousity wills, which has been to the art & craft table.

 
Set up the invitation to play with block printing:

 
Toddlers innately want to explore the world around them. They’re figuring out cause and effect relationships. When doing arts and crafts with them, expose them to as many different materials and processes as possible.

 
Place a variety of small dishes with different coloured paints and blocks on the table.

 
Vary the paints each day. Use different colours. Use paints with or without glitter. Offer thick or thin paint.

 
Use different kinds of paper. You can use plain, coloured or textured paper. Don’t forget to use three dimensional mediums like boxes or rocks for variety.

 
Helpful things to remember when doing arts and crafts with toddlers:

 
It’s about the process, not the product.

 
Step back and let him do the whole project himself.

 
Repeat experiences are invaluable so resist the urge to pack things away.

 
What about block printing for older children?

 
To extend the activity for Big Brothers N and M, we explored the beginnings of patterns and algebra with block printing.

The post Art for Toddlers: Block Printing by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Painting Feet: Painted Socks

 
There’s something odd about the experience of putting paint on ourselves. I find it calming and relaxing. Eg, when painting my nails, I forget about the world for about 15 minutes. Likewise, face painting my kids keeps them still for 15 minutes. All we see and feel for those 15 minutes is the paint on our bodies.

 
One day, while Master N and M were at preschool, I decided to take out our face painting box to paint Master E. We were just about to have lunch so I didn’t want to paint his face. I saw his chubby little feet and couldn’t resist the idea of painting feet.

 
So, instead of face painting, we painted on some socks.

Materials

Face paint
Small makeup brushes & sponges
Towel
Wipes

Method

Lay down a towel to protect your floors.

Start painting socks, avoiding the soles of the feet.

Try different patterns. Just wipe off the paint and start again.

Master E admired his painted socks.

 He even had a go himself.

 
Painted Socks. Instead of face painting – try painting feet. It’s easy for toddlers to see and try themselves.

Another Keep It Short & Simple (KISS) play idea.

E: 1 year, 9 months

The post Painting Feet: Painted Socks by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Messy Play: Four Ways to Play with Goop

 
To make goop you need 1 cup corn flour and 1/2 cup cold water. Place corn flour in a basin and add water very slowly, stirring. Stop when damp but not liquid.

 
We had goop. But very, very watery goop. I don’t even think it qualifies as goop. Nonetheless, we proceeded with our goop play. I had a couple of ideas of what we could do with our tub of watery goop.

1. Feely goop box

 
Place a few blocks in the goop box and have the kids get the blocks out using their hands. Great for stereognosis (or recognising objects by touch); bilateral skills in hand manipulation and tolerating the slimy feeling.

 
N & M didn’t like the slimy feeling so they used  their wooden spoons to get the blocks out. They were very quick at getting the blocks out. E loved making big splashes and he figured out quickly that the wooden spoon was the most effective tool for that. Oh well, there are benefits for playing with spoons too: great for using both hands together; hand and finger strength; and shoulder, elbow and wrist strength and stability.

2. Colour the goop with paint.

 
Inspired by The Imagination Tree’s Marbled Oobleck, I was keen to add some colour to our goop. Too chicken to use food colouring because of its possible staining factors, I opted for tempera paint placed in spray bottles. Because our goop was so watery, the colours weren’t very vibrant and disappeared quickly – especially with little E keen to mix the goop. However, as declared by N, the colours as they swirled in the watery goop were “Ooo… so pretty!”.

3. Add glitter to the goop.

 
At first we used little glitter shakers. Little E started to drop the glitter shakers into the goop tub, thus blocking up the holes in the lids of the shakers. So, we took off the lids and created little  mountains of glitter in our water goop. Ah – such a visual delight!

 
This was little E’s first really messy play experience. Boy did he enjoy stirring and splashing!By this point in time, M had had enough messy play and went inside to clean himself. N continued to experiment with placing paint and glitter into the goop tub.

 
N & E have very similar personalities but rarely play together or side by side well. This watery goop play was one of those rare times when they both enjoyed doing the same thing whilst being side by side.

4. Pouring

 
Our last activity was to pour the goop (since it was so watery) from one container to another or into our water wheels. Great for improving their accuracy of the pouring action.

N & M: 3 years old.
E: 15 months old.
September 2011

This post was shared in the following parties:

The NurtureStore Play Academy

It’s Playtime

No Time for Flash Cards Link & Learn

The post Messy Play: Giant Tub of Goopy Goodness by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.