Hooray - we are officially in Spring from today! Have you noticed the buds appearing on all the bushes, trees and flowers outside? I have already seen beautiful blossom trees and daffodils in bloom! There is nothing that I love more than seeing everything starting to wake up after a cold winter. Cloudless blue sky days, visits to the farm to see the baby animals - a new season and lots of new adventures and places to explore with the children!
You may have started to enjoy some Spring themed play in your homes and settings. Today we have the lovely Sue Baxter sharing with us the Tuff Tray she has been enjoying with her children!
I purchased the oil cloth from Dunelm. I paid around £2.99 for a metre. I made brown playdough to represent the soil. The children really like playing with playdough so I do try to incorporate it where possible. I had brown pots available that I brought from BnQ. It was only £1.69 for 9 pots. I included a variety of artificial flowers that I had brought from various pound shops.
I made a 'water bottle' using a recycled plastic bottle and blue ribbons so children could 'water the flowers. It was great for discussion about what flowers need to grow big and strong. It was a great introduction before we hit the garden to plant seeds together.
I love adding opportunities to explore using the senses and these flowers bottles were perfect for smelling. I picked them up from a local hardware store. They are actually sugar and icing shakers. I filled them with tissue and added flower oil scents. I sealed the pot with a glue gun and labelled them with pictures and names accordingly. These were really popular with the children. We are planning to go outdoors and find some of the flowers over the coming weeks. We will be using scissors to cut some of them and bring them indoors.
They were a great addition to the Tuff Tray! Tuff Trays are brilliant for providing activities in! They keep activities contained and the size is perfect for a small group of children to stand around and enjoy together.
We also had a range of books available to read including:
Spring
Kids Gardening
Other fun Spring books you could add to your reading collection are:
Over the next few weeks we will be on the look out for Spring Flowers. We will also be planting real flowers seeds that will hopefully attract bees into our garden just before our bee topic starts.
I also have this bright, sunny Tuff Tray skirt that I had made for me. I am planning on putting some artificial grass under there and making a den for the children. I am sure they will be really keen to eat their snacks under there!
It is great having Sue join us again. She has shared some fantastic activity ideas and inspiration including activities for:
We love her work and would like to thank her so much for sharing her ideas with us!
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