Our Summer Bucket List - bubble painting

I have absolutely NO idea why we haven't done bubble painting at home before. It's been an activity I've had 'pinned' for years but just completely forgotten about until Tommy came home from nursery the other day. He isn't usually very forthcoming when it comes to sharing what he has been doing at nursery. So on the occasions when he does start to tell me about his day, I know he'll have done something really exciting. Tommy was so excited to tell me all about his bubble painting activity and went into giving me a detailed set of instructions as to how it is done. As it was something I've wanted to do for ages and something Tommy really enjoyed, we decided to add it to our Summer bucket list.

We had a lovely warm, sunny day the other day so we took the opportunity to do this. Ideally, bubble painting does need to be done outside or, at the very least, in an area of your house that isn't carpeted. It isn't hugely messy but there is the temptation to go really crazy with the bubbles (as Tommy did!) and it absolutely has to be done!

I set up a table with paints, paper and the ingredients needed to make the bubble mixture. I used plastic cups to make each colour, as it saved on having to clear up later. I love messy activities, but I like to keep any preparation and cleaning-up to an absolute minimum.

To make the bubble mixture, I poured poster paint into a cup to a depth of about 1cm. Using enough paint is key to the process and impact of the finished piece of artwork. If you don't use enough paint, the colour will be too diluted and end up not making a print on the paper. I added some washing up liquid to the cup and topped it up with water and then mixed the ingredients together with a spoon. I tried a test print at this point to make sure the mixture was frothy enough to bubble up and I had used enough paint to make a bright print.

To make your artwork, you simply put a straw in your cup and continue to blow through it until the bubbles reach over the top of the cup. You then place your paper gently over the bubbles to make your print and then repeat with lots of different colours.

We did this activity twice in one day and did it again a few days later using the same bubble paints. Bubble painting is so quick and easy to do, sooooooo much fun and the resulting piece of artwork is really beautiful too. We were really delighted with ours.

Foil Painting

As a child, I loved nothing more than to sit down with a colouring book and some pencils or a pad of paper and just draw/colour away for hours on end. Whilst Tommy definitely looks like me, he certainly isn't like me in terms of the things he enjoys doing the most. He is just an outdoorsy kind of boy; he loves nothing more than running around the garden, playing football, chasing Daddy or the dog and just generally being active. Although he enjoys anything and everything, painting and drawing are probably his least favourite activities. Some people say it's a gender thing, others an age thing but I tend to see it as a personal thing - he's just not really as interested in doing it as he is other things. I am fine with this to an extent, but whilst I want to obviously try and do activities with him I know he will enjoy and not try and force him into doing them, it is important for him to draw and paint regularly to help with his fine motor skills and creative development. Therefore I do build regular opportunities for doing artwork into his time at home.

Whilst Tommy can read a huge number of high frequency words, 'read' numbers up to 100 and knows all of his sounds, he is more reluctant to write and it always feels like I'm pushing him to do it rather than encouraging him. We're trying lots of fun ways of getting him to write at the moment, most of which have been successful, so I really think that I multi-sensory/more practical approach is going to be the route to go down. With this in mind, I've been looking for lots of different ways we can incorporate mark/making and emerging writing into our play. 

We found the idea of foil-painting on Pinterest and thought it would be a good one to try with Tommy. To set it up, we placed long lengths of tin foil in a tuff tray and stuck them down using cellotape. I then drew lots of different patterns on individual coloured cards so that Tommy could practise drawing a range of different shapes. This provided him with a starting point and gave him a little inspiration as to the kinds of patterns he might create. Tommy is getting really good at copying shapes and patterns without having to trace. We used ordinary poster paint for this activity. I was a little worried about how quickly it would dry but it actually surprised me how little time it took. 

I pretty much expected this activity to last for just a few minutes - I always prepare myself for this when we paint or draw, knowing how little Tommy enjoys it. However, we managed to continue this activity for ages. It even warranted me to remove our piece of artwork and replace it with another blank foil canvas and there was a request to do it another day! 

We really enjoyed this activity and it would be lovely to do with a younger child too - the tin foil makes a lovely noise when it's painted on and it's a lovely surface to swirl the paint around on. Here is one of our masterpieces:

Blossom Tree Printing

We haven't been doing an awful lot craft-wise lately, as the weather's been so nice and we've been taking the opportunity to have some lovely days out instead. I've had all kinds of ideas for Spring-related projects but we're only just getting round to doing some of them. We made these beautiful blossom trees the other day and I was thrilled with how they turned out so I thought I'd share them with you all.

To make them, we cut a large piece of scrap wallpaper and then I painted a tree outline that filled the paper. We then pressed a 2 litre bottle into some pink and blue paint and pressed it onto the paper lots of times to make it look like blossom. Tommy really enjoyed doing this activity and it's so easy it could be done by a really young toddler.

We'll continue sharing our Spring projects with you. I'd love to hear your ideas for Spring crafts too. It really is such a lovely time of year - I'm enjoying all the beautiful colours and general prettiness it brings.

Bird's Nest Craft

We've been well and truly throwing ourselves into Easter crafts recently. Tommy has really started to get into creative activities over the last few months, which, as a teacher, I really take pleasure in seeing. We tried this activity today. It was really simple and quick to make and the finished product is so cute!

To make it, you'll need: several pipe cleaners cut up into short sections; small strips of foam; small strands of wool; yellow card circles; googly eyes and orange card triangles; several feathers in various colours; a large semi-circle cut out of card.

To make our nest, we glued the strips of wool, pipe cleaners and foam onto the card semi-circle. Next, we added the yellow card circles to make chicks. To finish our chicks, we added eyes, beaks and some brightly-coloured feathers.

I told you it was cute! Why not give it a go this Easter? 

Playdough Easter Chicks

We haven't really done very much in the way of Spring/Easter crafting so far this year so I thought it was about time we started! I set up this playdough activity for Tommy to do after nursery and he spent ages doing it.

To make our Spring chicks, we used a variety of materials: one quantity of yellow playdough; an assortment of buttons; a range of googly eyes; orange pipe cleaners; different-coloured feathers and some beaks cut out of card.

I was impressed with the range of different chicks Tommy created during this activity. He really showed a lot of imagination.

Sock Monsters

I wrote a post a while ago about how we are trying to make more of our time together in the evenings, particularly on the days Tommy is at nursery. I've really been making an effort to have something ready for Tommy to do as soon as he gets home. This might be a puzzle, a craft activity, a new colouring book, a collection of books, basically anything that encourages us to sit down together, have some quiet time, chill out and chat about our days.

I don't know about you, but we are always inundated with odd socks. Every time a load of washing goes into the washing machine, it seems to devour at least one sock, rendering it's matching one completely useless. So I came up with a little fun project to make use of them. Sock puppets would have been the obvious choice but we opted to make sock monsters that would stand up on their own. 

To make them, you will need a range of different socks, cotton wool balls, PVA glue, googly eyes and a range of different facial features cut out of foam or card. We also used self-adhesive foam shapes to add spots to our monsters. 

First, we cut off the foot of our socks just below the heels. Then we stuffed the toe part with cotton-wool balls, folded over the open end of the sock and then glued the edges together. 

 

To make the feet, we cut their shape out of a circle of card and glued it onto the bottom of the sock. Once dry, we cut eyes, noses, teeth and arms out of card and glued them onto the socks.

The possibilities of this activity are endless. You could make a range of different weird and wonderful monsters or even a range of different animals. We found these so much fun to make.