Day #20 ‘Boo’ Lightyear To Starfleet Command!

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

I love that there are some children’s movies that are simply timeless.  We have movies on DVD that I remember buying on VHS when I was in my teens – yes, I am guilty of buying ‘children’s’ movies like ‘Bugs Life’ and ‘Antz’ and howling with laughter whilst I was studying at University.

My absolute favourite has to be ‘Toy Story’.  I adored this movie when it first came out in 1995 and it always amazes me that the toy shops still sell out of all the merchandise from the films.  Boo is crazy for ‘Woody’ and ‘Buzz’.  If we’re out and spot one of the toys he drags me over to look at it – don’t worry, Grams is on the case for a Christmas ‘Toy Story’ surprise’!

His latest thing is to run around the house and pretend to ‘laser’ us by pointing his arm at us and pressing on his wrist – like Buzz Lightyear does.  What my ‘Boo Lightyear’ needs is some laser cuffs!

What You’ll Need

• Toilet roll tubes x 2
• Paint/Felt Tips – we used paint sticks for a change – the same effect as painting without the mess!
• Something for your laser button – we used some of these acrylic gemstones in lovely bright colours
• Double sided sticky tape – unless you want to glue your gemstones on – Boo couldn’t wait that long!
• Scissors

Boo decided that Mummy should also paint one of his cuffs so we spent some time putting lovely bright colours onto the cardboard tubes.

Next we added our gemstone ‘laser buttons’ and all that was left to do was cut down the tube lengthways on the opposite side to your ‘button’s – this is how your little one will put the tubes onto their wrists.

Zaaaaaaap! Laser Mummy!

Hmmmm next stop jet packs?

Day #20 DONE! 80 to go!

Sara x

 

 

Day #18 Watery Wax Creations!

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

So I handed over the creative reins to ‘Daddy’ today whilst I was cleaning my equipment from this week’s classes.  I’d set things up for them to explore ‘wax resist’ painting as I thought Boo would be intrigued by the ‘magic’ pictures that appear – plus I didn’t think that my husband would appreciate me throwing him into the deep end with an exploration of glitter and stickiness!

What You’ll Need

• Card
• White wax crayon/wax candle – we used an old candle
• Water colour paints – I didn’t have any watercolour paint so I watered down some Crayola ready mix paint
• Brush

I could see Boo looking very confused as his colouring wasn’t showing up on the card – I think that he thought his ‘crayon’ was broken.  My husband encouraged him to keep going and when they were done ‘drawing’, they switched to the paint.

He showed Boo how to use the watery paint mix to lightly ‘wash’ over the card to reveal the picture.  I noticed as they were working that the candle we’d used wasn’t as dense in colour and weight as it maybe should’ve been to create really clear lines on the card.  I would recommend using a white wax crayon or white candle to get really clear results (we use a translucent candle).

As the paint was brushed over the card, it didn’t stay on the waxed areas.  Boo could see the ‘missing’ lines in the pictures and kept trying to paint over them! 🙂

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 10 minutes

Safety Tips: Be careful that your little one doesn’t try to make a snack out of the wax crayon or candle!

Day #18 DONE! 82 to go!

Sara x

Day #17 Alphabet Explorations

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

At my son’s pre-school they use the ‘Jolly Phonics’ approach to teach literacy to the children.  As part of this, Boo brings home a ‘Letter of the Week’ sheet with activities for us to practice and do together.

I thought that it would be great to use one of our ‘days’ to explore the letters each week.  We’re a few weeks into the school term, but we can always catch up!

What You’ll Need

• Paper mache letter – Luckily I already had a letter ‘I’ left over from when I was decorating letters to spell out my children’s names (for their bedroom), but you can pick them up from art and craft suppliers like ’Hobbycraft’ or even from Ebay.
• Paint brush – we like these chubby handled brushes
• Paint – we used Crayola washable
• Decoration – sequins, buttons etc
• PVA glue and glue spreader

We’d not had the paint out for a little while now, so Boo got quite excited that we were going to be getting messy.

He worked away on the paper mache letter covering it in different colours of paint, and then used sequins and buttons to decorate it.

I used our activity time to ask him about the letter ‘I’ and what it looked like – the activity sheet also explained that the letter sound is formed by making a noise like a squeaking mouse – our kitchen sounded like we had a room full of the noisy critters! 🙂

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 15 minutes

Day #17 DONE! 83 to go!

Sara x

Day #14 Rainbow Rice Shaker!

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

As many of you know I operate one of the awesome ‘Creation Station’ franchises here in the (sometimes) sunny South & West Yorkshire region.  Our programme has three terms and each follows an overall theme – this term it is ‘Textures’.

I’m not brave enough to take Boo along with me to my weekly classes – except when my Mum is on hand to closely supervise him.  I know him too well to think that if left to his own devices he would simply sit quietly – and not try to paddle in the water tray, paint his hair blue or some other typical pre-schooler mischief that he gets up to when Mummy is trying to work.  In one of our recent classes we made some fantastic rainbow rice shakers and I thought Boo might enjoy making one too….

What You’ll Need

• 2 x plastic cups – the disposable ones you use for parties
• Sellotape or masking tape – to seal your shaker
• Rainbow rice
• Additional bits to make the shaker extra noisy and bright – we are using buttons and sequins
• Crepe paper – entirely optional but we used it to make streamers to tape to the ends of the cups for extra effect.

If you’ve never made rainbow rice before its super simple.   Pour a cup of white rice (not cooked!) into a bowl and add a dessert spoon of white vinegar.  Then add some ready mixed paint and stir, stir, stir until all the rice is covered in paint.  Alternatively you could put the ‘ingredients’ into a sandwich bag or Tupperware box and shake it up until it’s all mixed.  Pour the lovely painty rice onto a flat surface – ideally covered with a baking sheet or grease proof paper – and then let it dry.  It only takes about 30 minutes and then you just need to give it a good stir around to separate any bits of rice that have stuck together.  I made three different colours of rice for my classes and just used up the leftover rice on Boo’s shaker – the painted rice stores really well in a sealed container.

I poured the painted rice into different bowls, along with a bowl of sequins and a bowl of buttons.  I handed over the ‘ingredients’ to Boo and gave him a spoon and one of the plastic cups.  It was really interesting to see the care he took whilst choosing what was going into his shaker.

After he was done choosing his shaker contents I used the masking tape to tape around the two cups so that his shaker was sealed.  We then chose some streamers to decorate his shaker which were fixed using sellotape (lots of tape!).

Ta Dah! Noisy Rainbow Rice Shaker!

Prep Time: 5 minutes (30 minutes if also making rainbow rice)

Activity Time: 15 minutes

Safety Tips: Ensure that you have securely taped the shaker together before you pass it to your little one 🙂

Day #14 DONE! 86 to go!

Sara x

 

If you loved this activity and want to join our creative classes simply click here to find your local Creation Station.

Day #13 Incy Wincy!

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

We don’t have spiders in our house – Boo has scared them all away! Woe betide the arachnid that dares to venture past our doorstep – they are met by a very excited pre-schooler who insists upon shouting at them from a few centimetres away and tries to examine them through his magnifying glass.

Every time we sit down to do some colouring Boo insists I draw a ‘Spiiiida Mummy!’

What better choice for todays ‘make’ than a spider finger puppet!

What You’ll Need

• A5/A4 Black Foam Sheet
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaners – 4 x black and 1 x red
• 2 x wiggly eyes – self-adhesive ones ideally
• Marker pen
• Lid from a coffee jar or something equally as big as this will be the template for your spider body

This activity does need some assistance from an adult but there are lots of opportunities for your little one to get involved so it’s a great shared creative experience.

First we had to make our spider ‘body’ so I asked Boo (and Grams) to push the jar lid down onto the foam sheet so that we had an impression of our ‘body’ to cut out.

The cutting out part is a little fiddly so I stepped in and cut four finger holes along the bottom edge of the foam circle and then two more small holes on either side (left and right) of the body.

Boo enjoyed threading the black pipe cleaners through the smaller holes and these became Incy’s legs.

I cut another two small holes just above the finger holes so that Boo could poke the red pipe cleaner through them making Incy’s mouth – plus no need for glue or sellotape so yay! The ends of the red pipe cleaner were twisted together on the reverse side of the body and the excess was snipped off.

Boo stuck on the big wiggly eyes and we were done!! He then proceeded to run around the house pretending his spider was roaring at everyone…….?

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 10 minutes

Safety Tips: Encourage safe scissor use especially if you are letting your little one have a go

Be careful not to leave any sharp edges of the red pipe cleaner sticking out – bend them inwards towards the foam to prevent scratching your little one

Day#13 DONE! 87 to go!

Sara x

 

(Spider finger puppet tutorial found on lalymom.com)

 

Day #12 Noodle Doodle Doo!

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

If you’ve never used maize noodles (a.k.a ‘magic maize’ in some stores) then you are missing out on an awesome crafting experience.  They can be used for all sorts of collage activities, and are great fun when used to create maize sculptures.

Maize noodles are completely safe, biodegradable, and stick together with plain old water! Hours of fun with no sticky, gluey mess to tidy up afterwards!

What You’ll Need

• A Noodle Doodle Activity Pack – if you can’t get your hands on one of these packs you could always buy the maize separately and use some colouring sheets
• Water – we used a wet paper towel so that we didn’t have a puddle on the table!
• Colouring pens – we used Crayola washable markers

Boo has never had a go with noodle doodles before so I was really looking forward to this.  The first place to start was to have a go at colouring the dinosaur sheets – remember we’re trying to encourage him not to bash the felt tips when he is using them 🙂

Unfortunately I had also left the maize noodles on the table so I was fighting a losing battle when it came to getting Boo to ignore those!

I showed Boo how to ‘dip dip’ his maize noodle onto the water and then stick it to the paper.

So with a careful ‘dip dip’ every few seconds, Boo happily collaged his picture whilst Mummy had a go at some noodle modelling – not too shabby eh?

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 15 minutes

Safety Tips: Although the maize is safe to use, make sure your child doesn’t mistake them for cheese wotsits and try to eat them all!

Day #12 DONE! 88 to go!

Sara x

Day #10 Twirlie Wheeee!

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

Boo was in a total funk today and just wanted to curl up with his blanket on the sofa and watch ‘toons.  I’d never try and force him to get creative, as it’s all about fun, curious exploration, but I certainly wanted to get my little man smiling again!

I remembered that when we visited ‘The Great Yorkshire Show’ in July (soooo awesome!) he was crazy about the circus skills stand and in particular the twirling ribbons.  After a quick rummage I had everything I needed to create a twirly, swirly, ribbon stick.

What You’ll Need

• Ribbon – a couple of metres (or thereabouts)
• Stick – anything like a piece of willow, garden cane, drumstick, magic wand or chopstick!
• Something to cover the sharp end – I used a piece of maize noodle but you could also use bubble wrap, cotton wool, folded kitchen roll, foam etc
• Sellotape

This is a really quick and simple activity.  I managed to tempt Boo to the table after I produced the ribbon – time to practice those sellotape dispensing skills again Boo. Tape the maize noodle to the end of the stick and then wrap the ribbon around the same end a couple of times before securing it with tape too.

DONE!

SIMPLE!

Boo was squealing with delight, twirling round and round and racing around the house like a mini gymnast – definitely got that smile back 🙂

Unfortunately all the photos came out a complete blur as he was twirling around so fast….I’m sure you can imagine 🙂

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Activity Time: 5 minutes to make

Play time…STILL GOING!

Safety Tips:

DO NOT leave your child unattended to play with this.  Any ribbon or string longer than 6 inches is considered a strangulation risk for children – please be careful 🙂

Day #10 DONE! 90 to go!

Sara x

Day #7 Sticky Stained Glass

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

So I reeaaally didn’t feel like getting the paint out today so I opted for a ‘mess-free’ activity for us to do. I love sticky backed plastic – it’s easy to prepare and it reminds me of ‘Blue Peter’ creations.  I always enjoy watching my ‘Little Explorers’ using sticky backed plastic to make colourful creations in class.  They look like stained glass windows – with a bit of extra sparkle thrown in!

What You’ll Need

• Sticky back plastic – very reasonably priced HERE and also available from many stationery stores
• Scissors
• Hole Punch – in case you want to create a hanging piece
• Strips of paper/card for the frame – any colour!
• Collage materials – anything you have in your stash! I’m using feathers, tissue paper (cut up), curling ribbon and also some rolls of ‘sequin cut-outs’.

I really have no clue what these ‘sequin cut-outs’ are actually supposed to be called so if you know please do message me.  I got them from our local ‘Scrap-Store’ and they are made from the same material as sequins and actually look like a big roll of what would be left over after all the sequin shapes had been punched out of the roll – VERY WEIRD!

If you’ve never been to a Scrap Store then definitely look them up.  The Scrap Stores are social enterprises focused on helping the environment by reusing waste materials from businesses as resources for art and play. You never know what you will find! These places are an absolute treasure trove for your collage box for things like cardboard tubes, egg trays, bubble wrap, cellophane, material and all sorts of lovely crafty bits and pieces.  There are numerous stores across the country and we have a fab one near us in Leeds.  They normally charge an annual membership (ours was £6) and then in some you either pay by the basketful, and others (like the one in Leeds) charge by the item – in quantities such as ‘a big handful for £1’ (take someone with you who has big hands!).

The sticky back plastic needs to be cut out to the size that you want (we used diamonds) and then peel the backing paper away.  I decided to use a little piece of sellotape to secure it to the table after Boo tried to stick it to his face(!) and I had to explain a little bit about choosing colours and how ‘less is sometimes best’ after he began grabbing handfuls of tissue paper to stick down.

When he was done decorating, the second piece of book covering was placed on the top to trap everything inside and then we used strips of card (and tape) to create a frame around it.  A few bits of ribbon tied onto it by Mummy and……..

Ta Dah!

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Activity Time 15 minutes

Safety Tips:

Ensure that any collage materials that you are using are age appropriate and safe to be used by children

Encourage safe scissor use – especially if you are letting your little one have a go

Ensure that any ribbons which are tied to your creation are not long enough to cause a safety concern

Day #7 DONE! 93 to go!

Sara x

 

For updates on Sara’s 100 days of creativity become a follower of the Enjoy Creative Fun blog.

Day #6 ‘Puffy Paint’

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

So I have to admit that I’ve been wanting to try this for ages and just never got around to it!  There are quite a few different recipes for ‘Puffy Paint’ on the internet but I decided that we would try the microwavable one – just because it sounded pretty fun to ‘cook’ our art!

If you’ve never seen puffy paint before imagine what your paintings would look like if you could suddenly fill the colours with air like a balloon! 3D Art!!

What You’ll Need

• Card – something a little thicker than normal as the ‘paint’ mix is quite wet
• Paint/Food Colouring – you can use either but we wanted to have a go with both – as many colours as you like!
• Plain Flour – 1 cup
• Baking Powder – 3 teaspoons
• Table Salt – 1 teaspoon
• Water
• Bowl and spoon/spatula
• Re-sealable plastic sandwich bags – you could also use piping bags but I just figured that the clean-up would be quicker if I could just throw them away 🙂
• Elastic bands – so that I was doubly sure that the top of the bag wasn’t just going to pop open and ooze liquid everywhere!

So I realised that it would probably take me 10 minutes to get the paint mix ready and if I got Boo involved in the mixing, things were going to get a little frazzled so I decided to do the prep by myself.  I mixed the flour, baking powder and salt together and added enough water to make a consistency close to pancake batter.

Next I divided the mix between 4 bags and added a few drops/squirts of each colour into each of the bags before sealing them and tying around the top with an elastic band.  Squidge and squish the mix inside the bag to get the colour all mixed in and you’re ready to go!  If you’re using the disposable bags then just snip one of the corners off the bag – just a tiny bit though otherwise it will go EVERYWHERE!

Hand over the bags and some card to your ‘Little Explorer’!

It was like Boo was icing a cake! Look at the pretty colour mixing!

When you think that you have enough on each piece of card you simply pop it into the microwave for about 25 seconds – microwaves do vary hugely though so I did 5 second intervals until I could see that the ‘paint’ was no longer wet…

Ta Dah! Puffy Perfection!

Before cooking…

Before…

After!!

Before…

After!!

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Activity Time: 15 minutes

Safety Tips:

Ensure that your child is supervised so that the ‘paint’ doesn’t become an appetiser before dinner!

Wash hands thoroughly after finishing the activity

This activity is not suitable for babies or small infants

Day #6 DONE! 94 to go!

Sara x

Day #4 Shake Shake Shake!!

 

by Sara le Roux,  Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District

 

I came across the idea of ‘calm down’ jars whilst I was at our local Sure Start Children’s Centre over the summer holidays.  They’ve been around for years but are so useful in helping to diffuse some of those ‘moments’ that little ones often have.  They also work for adults too – who could possibly still feel all stressy after watching that glittery galaxy in a jar!

There are so many different ways that these can be made that it’s worth taking a look on websites like Pinterest to see what works best for your needs.  I decided against the lava lamp option using alka seltzer or vegetable oil and went for the simple water and glue route – just in case we had a creative disaster!

What You’ll Need

•  A Jar – I used a 1 litre glass ‘Kilner’ jar we already had in a cupboard but you could just as easily use a jam jar (which would actually be better for little hands) or a plastic bottle if you’re nervous about it hitting a hard surface!
•  Glitter Glue – enough to cover the bottom of the jar.  If you can get coloured glitter glue then this will add even more to the effect
•  Warm Water (and a funnel) – not too hot though!
•  Food Colouring – just a few drops of any colour that you have in the cupboard to add to the ‘interest’ factor
• Glitter – to give it more sparkle
• Sequins – optional, but always lovely to watch swirling around (they also help to agitate the water mix)

Boo squeezed the glitter glue into the jar.  I’d recommend picking up some tubes of glitter glue rather than bottles as it will probably be easier for your little one to squeeze a tube rather than trying to scoop big dollops of glue into a jar.

Squeeeeeze!

Next, fill the jar almost to the top with the warm water – the funnel was really useful as it meant Boo could have a go at pouring and the mess was minimised.  Add a few of drops of food colouring (I did this as I knew what would happen otherwise…. 🙂 )

Lastly, add the glitter and sequins for extra sparkle…

Put the lid on really tightly and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE!!! I would definitely recommend that YOU do this initial shake up – the more shaking the better and I actually found it quite therapeutic!

Wow did I get some squeals from Boo!

He was totally transfixed with the swirly glitter and every time it settled I got requests for ‘More, Mummy, More!’  Eventually he figured out the secret to making it work and happily played for quite a while which gave me enough time to clear up!

Prep Time:         5 minutes

Activity Time:     10 minutes to make and 10 minutes of playing

Safety Tips:

Check your bottle carefully before filling it to ensure that there are no sharp or broken parts.  Always re-check the bottle each time you get the ‘Calm Down Jar’ out to play with.

Ensure that your little one is supervised during the activity so that they don’t eat the glue or food colouring.

Wash hands thoroughly after finishing the activity

I would recommend that you seal the top of the jar or bottle with either hot glue from a glue gun, or super glue.  This way your little one can play with the ‘Calm Down Jar’ and you won’t worry about them opening the top and pouring the contents out onto your carpet.

This activity is not suitable for babies or small infants to make, but they can certainly enjoy the jar after it is put together – always supervise young children though.

Day #4 DONE! 96 to go!

Sara x