Harry Potter bookmark

There is something magical about snuggling up with your child and delving into the cover of an amazing fantasy or adventure story. I was ten when the first Harry Potter book was released and I remember staying up all night because I couldn't peel myself away from the book. I was lost in a world full of magic and now I get to experience this again with my own children. The way their faces light up when I am  reading to them. The excitement and anticipation they feel as they too are transported into a world where their imagination is their only limit.
I read a chapter of a book  at a time, (maybe a little  more at times when they just need to know what happens next) so bookmarks are very handy. I decided to do something a little different to the cardboard bookmarks we normally make so we weaved  some little Gryffindor scarves instead  :)

Weaving on a cardboard loom is super fun and easy to do. My little girl is 6 and managed to do this pretty much on her own.

To make the loom board I used cardboard from a cereal box. I then cut notches evenly spaced along the top and the bottom edge. Then take your yarn and wind it around the notches

The front should look like this

The back should look like this

I took some pics to write up a tutorial on how to weave but then I found this fab little video which I think explains it a lot better than I can in words.

Under over. Under Over :) 

To make Harry Potters Gryffindor scarf weave blocks of burgundy and yellow

To remove from the loom unhook the warp one at a time snip apart and tie in a double not. This will leave you with a little fringe on the end of the scarf. We tied extra bits of wool onto the end to thicken the fringe.

Dinosaur fossils

Dinosaur fossils are great fun and  simple to make. They can be used to entertain in so many different ways. Hide them around the garden or sand pit for little explorers to find. Crafty kids can paint and decorate their fossils and make gifts, garden ornaments or jewellery out of them. You could even make a puzzle game and get the kids to match the dinosaur figures to the correct fossil.


We made our Dinosaur fossils using this simple Salt Dough recipe.

1 cup of plain flour
1/2  cup of salt
1/2 cup of water

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl

Add the water a little at a time until the mixture starts clumping together like the picture above. You may not use the whole amount. (the mixture should not be soggy)

Squish the mixture into a ball the same as you would when making cookies. The dough should not be sticky. If it is add a little more flour.

Flatten a bit of dough with a rolling pin or your hand.

Use some toy dinosaurs and squish them into the dough to make a imprint.

Put your fossils onto a try and bake in a oven at the lowest temperature for 3 hours. Alternatively pop them in the microwave for 3 minutes. If they are still soft pop them in for anouth 30 seconds and repeat until ready. For best results I would recommend using the oven.

Phonic Daisies

Phonic Daisies is a little activity I made for my daughter to practice her phonic knowledge.  I wanted a little activity that would help her recognise the different spelling of words that have the same phonic sound. This is something that she sometimes finds tricky. 

I cut out a pile of yellow circles and a pile of white petals. 

I wrote a phonic sound on the yellow circle and used 5 petals per circle to draw pictures related to the sound. Additional petals can be made for each sound to expand vocabulary and change it up each time the game is played. 

I choose to start off with the ee/ea and ai/ay sounds.

We concentrated on the separate pair of sounds individually  before grouping them together as a four. I gave her the two sound circles and scattered the ten petals across the table for her to assemble into pretty phonic daisies 

ai vs ay 

ai words: snail, train, nail, rain, paint   

ay words: spray, ray, say, tray, hay 

ee vs ea 

ee words: green, bee, three, tree, sheep

ea words: tea, sea, pea, seal, meat

I used a empty icecream tub to store our daisies and each week a new set of  phonic daisies with new sounds will be added.