Hi everybody! I’m Sarah, and I blog over at The Natural Momma in Me, however Amy had been kind enough to allow me the chance to share one of my posts with you today.
I’m Mummy to Isabelle, 20 months, and also a full time teacher living in Northern Ireland. During the time we have at home together I like to set up as many sensory play activities as I can for Isabelle, and we are nearing the end of a ‘50 Active Days’ challenge during which I have aimed to make our play more structured to provide Isabelle with as many learning opportunities as possible. The activity I’m going to share with you is one of the activities we have done as part of the challenge.
Christmas is creeping up quickly on us now, I’m sure you’ll agree! This year we are going to Simon’s parents in England and so we decided not to decorate the house. However, I still wanted Isabelle to have something Christmassy, and something she could play with, so decided to make a felt Christmas tree for her to decorate over and over again.
Making the tree was simple. I bought a large roll of green felt, and a pack of multicoloured felt, from eBay.
The green felt was cut into a basic triangle shape for the tree, and I attached it to the wall with masking tape that I doubled over, and it hasn't moved despite some enthusiastic tugs.
For the decorations, I cut out bauble shapes, presents, a candy cane and shapes for a Santa and snowman. To make them more realistic, I added some details onto each decoration, which are also made of felt. I used a hot glue gun to attach the details to the main decoration as this helps it stand up to the rough handling of a toddler. I am definitely not artistic, so if I can make this, anyone can!
Felt is great as it sticks to itself, so once the decorations were made and the tree was up, that was it! I placed the decorations onto the tree before showing it to Isabelle, who has played with it every day since. She prefers to take the decorations off the tree and move them about, which is part of the transportation schema she is currently working through. The decorations have been wonderful for talking with her about shape and colour - something she is just beginning to get to grips with. This activity has also helped teach Isabelle about appropriate force - if she is too enthusiastic when putting the decorations onto the tree, some of the others fall off, so she has to get it just right.
Our felt tree has been so much fun for Isabelle over the last few days, and I know she will play with it for the rest of the build up to Christmas...before it’s packed up and put away for next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment