Octonauts Water Pool Hunt

We had a fun afternoon in the sun pretending to be Octonauts. With the help of Peso, Dashi, and Tweak we used our fishing nets to hunt the pool for missing objects :)

I filled the activity table with water and a little bit of bubble bath to obscure their view slightly. I threw in some foam alphabets, sea creatures and random little items. I then gave the children little missions  to use their nets to find certain letters, items, or to spell words.

Under the sea

Mr Squid 

We painted paper plates and decorated them to look like sea creature. :)

Mr Crab 

Mrs Octopus

Mr Turtle 

Hand print fish

Hand print pictures are adorable and make lovely little keepsakes. We made some bubble print backgrounds and stamped some little hand print fishes,

Bubble Printing 

Bubble printing is a really fun technique using materials you will probably have around the house. 

Using a small container we filled 1/3 of the tub with water and added a blob of paint and washing up liquid. We then blew through a straw to create lots of bubbles/

Next  we placed a sheet of paper over the top to create our bubble piece of art.

Car Park Lotto

Car Park Lotto was a fun little game we made up to practice number recognition and adding up. 

I  drew six car park spaces on a sheet of paper and asked the children to pick numbers between two and six. (For children who are not confident with recognising numbers yet  add dots to help them along) 

We then rolled two dice and the children added the numbers together. If they had that number in their car park they get to park a car in that bay.

First person to fill their car park is the winner :)

Alternatively use numbered cards. You could shuffle the cards and call out the numbers or place them face down in a pile and let the players take turns to pick a number

Cardboard princess shoes

My daughter like any little princess loves clip clopping about in her play shoes and was mortified to find that her beloved shoe collection were getting too tight. To turn her frown upside down we grabbed the craft box and set about making her some new shoes.


First of all I drew round her feet on a bit of cardboard and cut them out slightly larger.

She then mixed some paint colours and painted them.

Once the base colour was dry she added polka dots :)

We then cut out some straps by placing a strip of card over her feet and cutting it so there was a cm extra at either side to tape underneath.

She then decorated them with foam shapes and feathers.

Exploring track marks

My children love exploring track marks, it really appeals to there inquisitive minds. I was hoping to do this outdoors today so we could get a bit messier but the weather was a bit of a let down. Instead we taped brown paper to the top of the dining room table.

We then rolled the cars through the paint and pushed them across the paper to discover what kind of track they left.

When we do this outdoors we usually sent up a car wash using a tray of shaving foam, a ramp, a bucket of water, and a few plastic cups and funnels. Next time we get to do this outdoors I will share pics.

Sometimes we play detectives. I tell them a little story about a robbery or crime  that took place and the only clue is this track mark I found outside. I show them a picture of the track mark and their job is to find out who committed the crime by finding out which car has a track that matches the one from the scene of the crime.

Practising reading and writing with Flashcards

Making writing fun can be really tricky especially for children who don't want to pick up a pencil. I have found my kids prefer writing on small pieces of paper.

One of the activities my daughter enjoys is making her own flashcards. I give her a pile of small sheets of paper, various pens and pencils, and a pack of flash card for inspiration and to help with words she cannot spell
She will sit for a hour or so drawing pictures, reading words, and writing. She has a great sense of self achievement and is always really proud of her finished pack of Flashcards.

Easter Sensory Box

A sensory box is an activity where  the children are given materials and tools in a table or container with no instruction on what to do with them.  The children are given a chance to explore whats in front of them and decide what to do with it themselves. This self directed play allows children to be creative and gives them confidence and a feeling of self achievement. 

Today we set up a Easter themed sensory box using porridge oats, crunched up Shredded Wheat, fluffy chicks, plastic eggs, and feathers.

The plastic eggs I used split in half. The children used these as scoops and also mix and matched them together. They  used the eggs with holes in as sieves. 

Sensory activities  build on cognitive development. This is a mental process that includes memory, making decisions, problem solving and understanding language. It is the part of our brain that helps us process information and apply knowledge.

Maths can be applied to count, size, match and sort items into groups. They can grasp a better understanding of full and empty, more or less, and whether things float or sink.

Science concepts are used when predicting outcomes and experimenting with materials such as cause and effect. Children have the opportunity to explore and build a better understanding of gravity and speed.

English and language can also be improved. Children build their hand eye coordination and fine motor skills which are used for holding a pencil to learn how to write when pouring stirring, whisking and manipulating the materials. The activity gives a child a sense of self awe which they want to share. It gives them something interesting to talk to others about because each child will use the materials differently. It builds on their vocabulary as they try to express and share their ideas.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmazingLittleMinds

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/littlemisskirst/

This Day in History - The Eiffel Tower Opens

On the 31st March 1889 The Eiffel Tower opened

The Eiffel Tower is in Paris. The capitol city of France

We painted the flag :) 

The tower is 320 meters high. To help the children understand how big this is we compared it to the size of a average two storey house which is roughly about 6m high meaning the tower is as high as 53 houses stacked on top of each other.

There are 1710 steps to get to the top of the tower.

The tower was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel whose company designed and built the tower.

Gustave Eiffel 

We attempted to build the tower out of Wafer biscuits and icing sugar. It was a little tricky it took a couple of attempts. We had a giggle trying to balance the biscuits without them falling down.

 Once you have assembled the bottom part leave it a few moments for the icing sugar to set and it will stay in place better and you will find the second layer a little easier. Also it prevents the first layer from falling if the second layer collapses. We learnt this the hard way :/

Macey had a go making the first layer of the tower and Drew made a tower of his own.

We then looked at the pattern of the panels and assembled matchsticks in a similar way.

After we finished the activity the kids decided they wanted to draw some towers

Princess sunflower tower 

Wizards Magical Tower 

They then decided to get the lego out and build some towers of their own.