Clare and Arty’s Creation Station Journey

Following Clare and her 2-year-old son called Arty’s experience of Creation Station classes. To read Clare and Arty’s first and second week at their Creation Station Classes- click here and to find out how they get on in future classes follow our blog.

Week 5 Little Explorer Classes: 

“Arty was on holiday this week and so we missed ‘Creation Station’ today.”

Week 6 Little Explorer Classes:

“Final week and sadly we were unable to attend due
to ill health. Arty was so poorly and I had so wanted him to go but in the end he just wasn’t well enough and I didn’t want to give his germs to the other children. This was our last session of the 6 week block, but we will be
definitely attending more sessions when the new term starts.”

                 

Summary

As a family, we’ve really had a great experience so far at Creation Station. We really enjoy being around Helen as she is such an easy, relaxed person to get along with and always has a smile for everyone. Arty is a really energetic two year old. Whilst the other children were happy to sit and do some art activities, Arty enjoyed them for a short time and then would be looking to run around and we often had to keep bringing him back to the art, but once focused and concentrating on something, he would be fine. Even for energetic and restless children like Arty, there was still much to glean from the experience and he would always finish something and be very proud to bring it home. He has 4 pieces of Creation Station art around his room and he loves it. We often see Helen around town at events and promoting Creation Station in some way or
another and we pop over and do some art and say hello. I think she is a face of the ‘promotion of creativity in children’ in Haverhill now, and that’s so nice. We do still go to some sessions and enjoy it. I think Arty gets so much out of it developmentally, his fine and gross motor hand and eye co-ordination, maths with colours and shapes, literacy – paintbrush strokes and language and communication, listening to the music. The emotional benefits are tremendous as he gets complete autonomy to express himself through the medium of art and creativity, he gets a sense of self-worth and pride in his accomplishments and of course, he benefits socially, by interacting with Helen, the other children and other parents.

I would like to say thank you so much for the gift of Creation Station. I’m so glad it’s come to our town and I can see it being a big part of children’s events and on the clubs timetable for many parents and little artists alike. I hope you like the blog and photos, all that’s left to say is thank you and best of luck for Creation Station!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love from,

Clare, Arty, Poppy (who has done art activities with Helen at town events) and sometimes daddy!) 🙂 x

Classes are designed to help inspire your little one through journeys of exploration discovery and development.

Creation station has the following classes and events available:

If you would like to come along and enjoy the fun with your little one pop your details below and we’ll let you know the details of local classes and events.

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Clare and Arty’s Creation Station Experience- Week 3 and 4

Following Clare and her 2-year-old son called Arty’s experience of Creation Station classes. To read Clare and Arty’s first and second week at their Creation Station Classes- click here and to find out how they get on in future classes follow our blog.

Week 3 Little Explorer Classes: 

“Arty discovered the colour yellow this week. So sunny and bright! Everything was yellow, shapes, paint, bricks, balls, lots of different textures and interesting toys and other things to use in making a wonderful ‘creation’. Arty was a little bit hyperactive this morning. He enjoyed doing some painting and then he enjoyed running around the room much to my horror, but Helen was great, she put me at ease and told me that it’s okay, he’s just being a little boy and lots of children are like this. Not a problem at all. Phew! We painted our feet and made sunflowers. It was a lovely session and even though Arty was on the move a lot during this one, he still got lots out of the art on offer :)”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 4 Little Explorer Classes: 

“This week, Arty was a lot more settled and eager to see what was in Helen’s box. He sat with the others and did the ‘Creation Station’ song with Helen and he did all the actions as well. Love the use of words like ‘creation, station, imagination and develops’ in the song. It sets the mood and lets the children know that it’s time to settle in and get ‘creating’ for the next hour. Then, of course the familiar Creation Station CD is played and this always sets a lovely tone for
the whole session ahead. Right, down to business and today’s theme is the colour… Blue! Arty is excited. He sits straight down in his little red overalls and gets to work, smearing large splodges of blue paint all over a huge piece of wallpaper. He rolls blue balls through the paint and he paints blocks with letters of the alphabet raised on them, then prints them onto the paper and we say each letter as he does it and encourage him to have a go too. Helen tells us to ask him what colour the sky is, what colour the sea is and then we start to make ‘sea’ and watery scenes onto smaller pieces of paper for what will be our aquatic picture scene. Arty is given tissue paper and we roll it into little balls and use PVA glue to stick them onto the paper as well. We cut little pieces of coloured paper, triangles, circles and then we also stick them onto the picture. Arty is encouraged to have a go. He loves cutting and sticking now and he didn’t know how to do this before. He is really keen to try now and is better every week. We went home with a very nice, colourful ocean scene picture. And a very proud two and a half year old. I love how Creation Station encourages parents to get involved and sees the importance of developing parent creative skills and confidence in doing Art with their children. We also, feel a huge sense of pride and building bonds with our children and understanding their individuality and needs.”.

Clare Reeve- Artys proud mummy

Classes are designed to help inspire your little one through journeys of exploration discovery and development.

Creation station has the following classes and events available:

If you would like to come along and enjoy the fun with your little one pop your details below and we’ll let you know the details of local classes and events.

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Clare and Arty’s Creation Station Experience – Week 2

Following Clare and her 2-year-old son called Arty’s experience of Creation Station classes. Here’s Clare’s story of their second shared weekly class.

To read Clare and Arty’s first-week click here and to find out how they get on in future classes follow our blog.

Week 2 Little Explorer Classes: 

“We are into week two and Arty is eager to get started! Once again he puts on a red all- in- one messy suit and sits down to see what Helen has in her treasure chest this week. Squares! So we get down to explore making squares with various materials such as tissue paper, paint, maize and lolly sticks.

Helen encourages Arty to print squares using the sides of wooden blocks, we make picture frames using flat sticks (lolly sticks) and Arty paints his feet and hands on paper and we position them inside the frames. A lovely keepsake to take home and put on his wall. In the background there is Imagination Station music, it really makes the room seem rather magical, with a happy, buzzy energy! Again, Helen got down with Arty and encouraged him to take part in everything and was good to anticipate what he might like to explore next, jumping up and grabbing a bottle of blue paint or more lolly sticks. Really generous with materials, there are no boundaries here and imagination is stretched and explored without limits or restraints on anything. Very relaxing environment where our pretty lively toddler can play through art and we can get involved, feeling included and recognised as an important participant in our child’s learning and play. Roll on week 3”.

Clare Reeve- Artys proud mummy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classes are designed to help inspire your little one through journeys of exploration discovery and development.

Creation station has the following classes and events available:

 

If you would like to come along and enjoy the fun with your little one pop your details below and we’ll let you know the details of local classes and events.

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Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child. For local award winning classes, parties and events visit your local creation station for hands-on inspirational classes.

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Clare and Arty’s Creation Station Experience

As parents, we want to know exactly what we are signing up for when it comes to children’s classes and how it can benefit our children. Clare was one of those parents. Clare had won The Creation Station “Why do you think creativity is important?” competition. Her competition entry was the following:

“My son is called Arty  We come from a family of creativity, my hubby’s mum is a music teacher and his dad, a keen artist. Children need art now more than ever, in an age of electronics and gaming. It’s all too easy in our hectic lifestyles to just sit kids in front of tv’s, phones and tablets to be ‘babysat’ whilst parents get on with chores. That’s why it’s fantastic to have discovered #CreationStation, you don’t have to set up activities or plan or get messy at home, plus there are no flashing lights or other electronic distractions! Its been proven that children can benefit so much from art activities, just a little bit every day, or week has been known to help children grow and flourish in so many areas and gain confidence and pride in their achievements. It also helps to calm and soothe those with behavioural difficulties as well as help children who are struggling to cope in a world of SATS and long school/childcare hours, our children are simply not allowed to be children anymore. Exercise and creativity. As crucial to children’s well-being as food and air. And love, of course.  I’ve not been to a session yet but would love MY Arty to try it because he needs something like this in his life and loves to be creative. We’ve been waiting for you… #CreationStation. Bringing children’s ideas and visions to life “ 

The prize was six free sessions at her local Creation Station in Haverhill & Surrounding Areas. Clare then asked if she could share her experience to tell you first hand what it felt like as a mum to go to The Creation Station Classes:

Week 1 of the Little Explorer Classes:

I have to be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into our first ‘Creation Station’ session. My 2 and a half-year-old is very lively and I wasn’t sure if the group would be for him, even though I desperately wanted him to do some art and crafts as I believe it’s good for nurturing and developing a happy and wholesome little human being! I needn’t have worried however. Helen, the group leader is so lovely and friendly and immediately put us at ease. My son, Arty, got into his special red splashproof all in one, (there are many sizes available) and he got down to business straight away. Helen got the children’s interest by asking them to sit with her and guess what is inside a big, Creation Station treasure chest. Then she reveals that week’s theme. This week, it’s circles.

Arty was able to use various media to learn about circles and he painted and printed on a large sheet of paper that covered the middle of the floor! So much space and paper to go wild on, lots of different coloured paint and circles made from paper and card and circles to print with, whilst I didn’t have to worry about paint on his clothes or on my furniture or floor! Hoorah! I think I enjoyed taking part and having this special creative time with him as much as he did.

Helen encouraged the parents to speak to their child whilst they were taking part in the activities and it really made such a difference. Big plus points for that!

After painting his feet and hands and half of his face, Arty’s work here was done and we went over to stand in a basin of water and take his overalls off. The paint washed off easily and then we went over to the next task on the table. There is always a large painting activity on the floor, followed by a second activity at a table. This week the children made paper plate friends (making faces on paper plates, with pipe cleaner ‘arms’ and ‘legs’ threaded through holes, plus an extra one for hanging).

Arty was very proud of all his ‘work’ today and we went away with a sense of satisfaction and happiness. Looking forward to week 2.

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Ten top benefits of how creative play can help your child’s development.

Play-Doh is great fun and maybe you’ve wondered about the other benefits of playing with Play-Doh? Well, wonder no more – we’ve identified 10 amazing benefits of getting stuck into Play-Doh.

1. Improves self-esteem

You can poke it, pat it, squash it and squeeze it. There is no right or wrong way to use Play-Doh. This helps to develop your child’s self-esteem, as they can’t ‘get it wrong’. Whatever your child produces is a positive achievement.

2. Stimulates imagination

As Play-Doh is a sculpting material, your child has free rein over what their imagination creates. Your child can create whatever you want with Play-Doh – a sausage, a seal or a spider. Then, they can play with ‘toys’ they originated and made themselves.

3.  Encourages experiments with pressure and texture

The tactile experience of playing with Play-Doh works on many levels with a child’s sense of touch. They can create and feel the textures they make, then explore applying varying amounts of pressure to create these textures. Play-Doh responds to even the lightest of touches.

As children increasingly use mobile devices and tablets, the ability to build their sense of pressure and perform screen gestures becomes more important as part of modern life.

4. Strengthens motor skills

Play-Doh strengthens both fine and gross motor skills and allows children to experiment with gentle and powerful touch. In our classes, we see lots of children strengthening their hands, through the range of textures and tools that are used. The Play-Doh sessions give children a great opportunity flex their creative muscles in many ways.

5. Develops self-expression

Play-Doh is all about self-expression, so it can be really therapeutic for children who may not be able to express the range of feelings they’re experiencing, in words.

6. Promotes stress relief

Rather like one of those squeezy stress balls, Play-Doh can be stress-relieving for children.

7. Improves hand-eye co-ordination

Using tools like the extruder, cutters or scissors supports a child’s development of hand-eye co-ordination, which benefits them in all kinds of activities from sports to brushing their teeth.

8. Enriches your child’s education

A fun way to build on your child’s education is to experiment with mixing colours, making shapes, letters or numbers – the possibilities are limitless.

9. Develops social and communication skills

Once your child is creating or has completed their project, discussing it with an adult or child, develops their social and communication skills.

We are very proud of our partnership with  Play-Doh and will be running ‘Play-Doh Imagination Classes’ to help  foster co-operative play, as children share colours or work together to build a creation, such as layering or decorating a cake.

10. Encompasses a wide age range

Play-Doh also appeals to a wide age range of children and our classes cover ages 2-8 years old.

To enjoy all the amazing benefits of playing with Play-Doh, sign up to the Play-Doh Imagination Classes at a Creation Station near you and you’ll get:

• free Play-Doh
• to take home your child’s creation
• a Play-Doh activity booklet
• to enter our Play-Doh competition
• to know that your child is experiencing these benefits

During 17^th to 28^th October 2016, we will be running Play-Doh ‘Open A Tub Of Imagination’ classes for children, at 800 locations around the UK. Join in ‘The Great British Play-Doh Tea Party’ classes and inspire your child with their own unique ‘Cake-Off’ creations.

Plus, you can enjoy ‘Squishy, Squashy, Spooky Halloween Fun’ classes – inspire your child with their own spooky monster creations.

To find your closest class all you need to do is leave a comment, email us here, visit our website and put in your postcode, or call Creative Hub Head Office on 01395 239 700.

And remember – you could be a winner! Enter our Facebook competition to win yourself a Play-Doh Ice Cream Castle and some tubs of Play-Doh. Like our Facebook page and post a picture of your Play-Doh creation using the #PlayDohCreation – we’re looking forward to seeing what your child creates!

 

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Join us to raise money for the Save the Children appeal in Syria

Come and join The Creation Station for some special ‘Sing-Along for Syria’ art and crafts classes for children aged 6 months to 5 years to raise awareness and funds to help the frightened, homeless, refugee children from Syria.

Join us for some creative fun in sessions across the country

We have teamed up with a host of TV stars to have a ‘Sing Along For Syria’ in our award winning and educational art & crafts classes. “It’s been heart breaking to see the the children and families struggling,” said Sarah Cressall, Managing Director of The Creation Station. “We really wanted to do something to help so we have incorporated the Sing-Along songs into our sessions to help raise awareness of this fantastic project.”

Our classes will feature a group sing-along with fun songs recorded by a range of popular children’s TV presenters recorded especially for the fund raising album. Sessions will run between the 12^th and 30^th October. Find more information about your local Creation Station sessions visit www.thecreationstation.co.uk.

You can download the album by visiting www.singalongforsyria.com and every penny raised from purchases of the album, will go directly to the Save the Children’s Child Refugee Crisis Appeal.

Download the album at http://www.singalongforsyria.com

The Sing-Along for Syria album was born from the imagination of the Preston-based entertainer known better to his young audience as Mr Yipadee, ……………………. and a galaxy of stars from the world of TV who have all donated their time and talents in the recording studio at Salford’s Media City to lend their voices to the compilation of children’s songs. “As a parent, I couldn’t just sit by and watch what is happening,” commented Mr Yipadee. “We wouldn’t allow this to happen to our children, why would we sit by and watch while the Syrian children suffer?” All money raised from purchases of the album, will go directly to the Save the Children’s Child Refugee Crisis Appeal.

Stars singing on the album include: Tina O’Brien, as seen on Coronation Street,  Cerrie Burnell as seen on CBeebies, Andy Day as seen on Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures, Rebecca Keatley as seen on Let’s Play, Kate Thistleton as seen on CBBC, Alex Winters as seen on CBeebies, Katy Ashworth as seen on I Can Cook, Cat Sandion as seen on CBeebies and Hi¬5, Luke Roberts as seen on CITV, Craig Smith of number one selling hit Wonky Donkey, Derek Moran and Jen Pringle, both seen on Channel 5’s Milkshake, Sid Sloane, as seen on Let’s Play, Emma Nowell, from CITV’s Hi¬5 and Cartoonito, and Dean O’Brien, Mr Yipadee.

“Everybody has been heartbroken by what’s happening and particularly as a parent, it’s unimaginable to think what’s happening to those children,” said CBeebies presenter, Alex Winters. “I hope that this album spreads joy and laughter for kids here in the UK, and spreads resources, hope, and love to the refugees.”

To find out more about your local ‘Sing-Along For Syria’ Creation Station classes visit www.thecreationstation.co.uk.

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 #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 #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 #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