EARLYBIRDS PLAYSCHOOL
Birds in Cape Town

The kids loved it and the final product was beautiful. and this little group of mine just loves to work with paint. Take your potatoes, cut them in half and use your craft knife to cut out shapes. Our toddlers were having so much fun they wanted to do more so we did some on white paper and then some on orange paper. Everybody likes to get their hands dirty and feel squishy paint run through their fingers: ). This paint is the best as its got a nice creamy texture and dries with little salt crystals, giving it a rough texture to the finished product. Mix the salt, water and flour together with a whisk. Add colour paint to each one, mix and pour into squeezy bottle. Give the children each a nice large piece of cardboard. Help the younger ones squeeze on the coloured paint, older children can squeeze it on themselves. Show them how to use their fingers to draw shapes in the paint, etc. The salty crystals will show up when dry and the children will enjoy touching the new texture. Allow the children to spread the peanut butter all over the outside of their toilet rolls. Its great for practicing fine motor utensil skills with a blunt knife in a safe environment. The next step is to help the roll their now peanut butter coated toilet rolls in the tray of bird seed. you have a delicious bird feeder to hang in your garden and attract beautiful birds. Paint the back of the leaf (the veiny side so you get the nice detail when you press leaf down onto paper). Lift the leaf and you will see the fabulous leaf print left behind. Cheerio’s are a fun crafty supply for young toddlers to work with as they are small and finicky to pick up and hold, therefore encouraging children to develop their fine motor skills. In this activity they are threading the cheerio’s onto a pipe cleaner which is great practise for hand eye co-ordination. Give every toddler a pipe cleaner and a few cheerio’s. It works really well to keep them focussed on their own activity. Once they have a nice amount on the pipe cleaner you can shape and secure it into a circle. We kept them aside for the day and gave it to them when they went home and most of them put it on as a bracelet and munched away at the cheerio’s happily. This is a very simple craft to do with little ones (from 18 months and up) and the final result makes a fabulous noise, which let’s be honest, ALL little ones want to make. Get your little one to put the dry beans (or whatever you have chosen to use) in the toilet roll. Help your little one glue the cut to size paper onto the toilet role (stickers facing out).