Father’s Day Chocolate Bar Card

Here’s a sweet idea for the sweetest Dad in your life!

Call into the supermarket and buy a range of chocolate bars. Then make up a list of things about dad and glue on the chocolate bar where appropriate!

Here is one we have made, you will be able to add in extras based on what other bars you can find or what your dad will like!

You may want to cross out some words (like cross out the mal in malteaser…to leave ‘teaser’!) or leave as it is! Have fun and get creative! I’d love to know what extras you have added in!

Tip: The fun sized bars are much easier to work with! (Or get a big piece of paper like I have, so dad can enjoy the big sized chocolates!)

Dear Dad,

Even though you are a (smartie) pants
And you can be a real (malteaser)
You are a little (golden rough) around the edges but I still think you are in (mint pattie) condition!
Thank you for always giving me a (boost) or a (twirl) when I have needed it!
You are every girl’s (Dream) father!
I think you are out of this world! Maybe from (Mars)
So this Father’s Day, relax, have some (Timeout) and know you are the sweetest dad ever!

I love you!

Making Coloured Pasta Necklaces

So easy to make at home!

Threading activities are wonderful for children. They help develop hand-eye co-ordination, patterning, colour recognition and finger dexterity. You can make necklaces, bracelets and even measuring strings. Make sure you talk to children during and after this activity, language is so powerful!

How to Make Coloured Pasta

Materials:
Hollow pasta with tube shapes (penne, macaroni)
Food colouring
Hand Sanitiser gel or rubbing alcohol
Zip Lock bags

Instructions:
1. In each zip lock bag, place a few squirts of hand sanitiser and a few drops of food colouring. Seal the bag and mix it well.

Mix hand sanitiser and food colouring

2. Add enough dry pasta to fit in the zip lock bag comfortably. Seal the bag and move the pasta around carefully until all the pasta is coloured.

Seal and give the bag a gentle swish!

3. Place coloured pasta on a tray to dry. These could dry within an hour, but I prefer to leave for a few hours, or overnight. (The food colouring will stain your hands and clothes if you don’t let it dry completely!) If you find your pasta is still wet underneath, transfer it to another tray lined with paper towel.

Allow to dry on a flat tray

4. This pasta will keep for months in an airtight container (Don’t eat it!)

Tips for Threading with Children
1. Make a ‘needle’. An easy one to make is with a cotton tip. (ear bud) Tie a piece of string onto the bottom end of the cotton tip. The top end becomes the needle which is easy to thread through large pasta shapes. (May not fit through smaller macaroni)
2. Have a ‘stopper’. Tie another cotton tip onto the end of the string, this time horizontally so the pasta cannot fall through it.

Threading needle(left) and Stopper (right)

3. Don’t make the string too long; it will be harder for small children to manage threading.
4. Talk about it! What colour are you using next? Why have you used this colour? Tell me about your pattern. What are you going to do with this necklace/bracelet? What is tricky about threading? What else could you make?
5. You can also thread strings of pasta to measure things! (Let’s make a one metre pasta string, how many lengths will our lounge be?)

Family Garden Craft

Here is a simple but lovely idea for home or school. Children can make the entire project themselves, and depending on the age of the children, they can be as fancy or detailed as they like!

My Family Garden!

Materials:

Coloured patty pans or cardboard to make flowers (two for each person)

Coloured Popsicle sticks (one for each person)

Photos of each person (family or class members) cut into circles. We used a milk bottle lid to trace around the photo to make them fit perfectly.

Instructions:

1. Turn patty pans inside out. Flatten one slightly, but leave one inverted.
2. Glue the inverted patty pan (we used a yellow one) onto a flattened patty pan, coloured side up. (We used a different colour for each person)
3. Glue a photo into the middle of the inverted patty pan. (This is now your flower!)
4. Glue each flower to a coloured Popsicle stick (The “stem”).
5. You can add cardboard leaves if you like!
6. If you like, you can put them into a garden (vase, flower pot, cardboard box etc)   Fill the pot with wishing stones, river rocks or coloured rice! You may need to use play dough or blu-tac to hold them steady.

Glue a photo into an inverted patty pan(yellow) then onto a slightly flattened patty pan.

Ideas for using and displaying:

Gratitude Garden: on the stems or leaves, write one thing you are grateful for or love about  that person.

Garden of Goals: write a goal or a hope to achieve on the back of each flower.

Friendship Garden: write names on stems/ leaves or petals.

You can also make a sign or your pot:

The Jones Family Gratitude Garden… Year 2 Learning and Growing Together

This was a nice weekend project for my bigger girls. It was a pleasant reminder of how much we love each other and how unique we all are.

My girls could do this by themselves!

Tips for Making, Storing and Playing with Play Dough!

Play dough is fun! Please have a go at making it yourself…it is so quick and easy to make at home! The kids can help you make it and in a few minutes you will have your own stash ready for play time! It is also great fun mixing colours! Kids of all ages will love playing, creating and stimulating their learning!

Play dough Recipe (So Easy! So Cheap to make at home!)

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour
1 cup salt (use table or cooking salt)
4 Tablespoons of Cream of Tartar (You will find this in the baking aisle at supermarkets)
2 Tablespoons of oil
2 cups of water
*Food colouring (see note)

Method:

1. Add all ingredients into a saucepan and stir constantly over a medium heat. After a few minutes the mix will become thicker and more difficult to stir, keep stirring until mixture comes away from the sides of the saucepan. (A good muscle workout!)
2. Allow to cool. (see storage instructions below)

*If you want one colour, add a few drops of food colouring at step 1. If you would like more colours, wait until the play dough has formed. Before it cools, divide mixture into bowls and quickly add a few drops of food colouring into each bowl. Using a rubber glove (or plastic bag on your hand!) quickly knead the dough until the colour is mixed evenly. You may need to add more food colouring to make your dough brighter.

Storage

Roll each colour into a ball and wrap individually in plastic wrap or place into a ziplock bag. Store it in the fridge and it will keep for months! (Be careful to remove the plastic when giving it to little ones to play!) Storing it this way will avoid the dough drying out or getting mouldy.

Ideas for Playing with Play Dough
Kids love play dough but you may need to give them ideas on what to do with it, or else you may find they will only play with it for a little while, which is fine too!

1. Have a set place where children can play without worrying about the mess. I suggest having a place mat that must be used every time and the dough can only be used on the mat. Give them a range of tools to play with. You can buy play dough tools or use many home recyclables: plastic cutlery, biscuit cutters, bottle tops, string and anything with an interesting patterned surface, for example steel wool and combs. Also have items to ‘decorate’ such as googly eyes, dry pasta and buttons.

2. Begin by letting kids have about five minutes of free play. Let them squish it, roll it, cut it or whatever they like!

3. Then involve your child with a game or idea of what to make. This will keep them busy and give them ideas for using play dough by themselves. (Play dough is great for when you need some time out!)

Here are some fun ideas:

Cafe: let’s make some food/ I would like to order (hot dogs, pizza, burgers, ice cream, lollies….anything!)

Monsters: make monsters or aliens by creating unusual shapes and pressing on googly eyes.

Puppet show: make faces and stick onto paddle pop sticks. Make a puppet show!

Choose a theme and create, examples: dinosaurs, animals, gardens,

Roll out the dough and use a stick to draw a picture.

Make alphabet letters or create things that start with a certain letter.
School age children can use play dough to help learn spelling. Physically spelling out words uses different brain paths and really helps children to remember how they are spelt.

Have Fun! Get in and create alongside your kids, they will love having you ‘play’ with them!

So many ideas!

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