Paper Plate Chickens

Not so long ago, the Queen gave a great message about how Easter isn't cancelled, just because of the Coronavirus lockdown. In the same way, neither is Spring, or, for that matter, Summer!

Blossom is bursting out, and whether we can see it or not, young animals are being born.

So, today I thought I'd share our chicken craft, that we did this time last year.

You can accompany this craft with Dora's Chicks, if you have access to the book, or you and your child could have great fun, singing, 'Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, Chicken lay a little egg for me!'

Song

Spot the missing feature!

Equipment:

• Paper plates

• Googly Eyes

• Feathers

• Red Cardboard to cut out wattles and combs

• Yellow card for beaks

• PVA glue & glue spreaders

• Scissors

Preparation:

Cut out some Wattles and Combs for your paper plate chickens, from red (or maybe even pink) card.

Cut beaks from yellow card.

Gather some pictures of chickens for the children to look at.

Method:

1. Fold Paper plate in half.

2. Assist children to look carefully at the chicken pictures and think about where to place, eyes, wattles, combs and beaks. You may end up with all kinds of variations, including multiple eyes, but I tend to let that go, as art and craft should really be about allowing the children the opportunity to express themselves. It can also be a great way to assess their understanding.

3. Attach feathers, as desired, using PVA glue.

Easter Gardens

Let me just stress, this isn't something we've tried at toddler group... yet!

However, I think this is a great activity to try out at home with young children and could be a great starting point for discussing the story of Easter.

This one was made by my daughter.

The great thing is, that this garden was made completely with things we already had at home, or found on a walk.


Equipment:

• Tray or pot of some kind (small or as big as you like)

• Small flower pot (this one came from a pile that I have amassed)

• Stones/gravel

• One large stone to cover the mouth of your flower pot

• Moss

• Twigs

• String

• Scissors

• Embellishment (this can be natural or man made)

• Soil/compost

Method:

1.  Choose a tray or pot for your base. You may have an old flowerpot or seed tray hanging round in the garden, but you could also use a tray from a ready meal, if it's been washed out.

2.  Fill the pot with soil or compost.

3.  Take a small plant pot and half submerge it in the soil/compost, to create a little cave tomb.

4.  Use some stones to create a little pathway to the pot/tomb. My daughter added a little sand to hers.

5.  Place clumps of moss around the tomb, to look like grass. 

6. Use string, to join two twigs to make a cross shape and place it in the soil above the 'tomb'.

7. Embellish your scene with small plants/plant material. We used some man made flowers.

8. Find a big stone/pebble to place beside the mouth of your pot, to be the stone that was rolled away.

9. Find a spot to place your little Easter garden, where it can be enjoyed. Don't forget to keep it watered, to keep it looking fresh!

Easter Nests

Strictly speaking this is not of course a craft, but hey, it's Easter and making these must surely be a young child's rite of passage. 

Anyway, it's such an easy recipe, and involves chocolate, and who can resist that?

Yum! Yum!

Equipment:

• Baking tray

• Muffin cases*

• Silicone spatula

• Saucepan

• Mixing bowl

• Hob

*The original recipe calls for 10 paper cases. I use 12, as although it's nice to have great chunky cakes, I think a little goes a long way, especially with little ones! If you'd like yours to be bigger, I'd suggest using one and a half times the amounts given above, except for the pack of Mini Eggs.

Ingredients:

225 g  Chocolate

50 g  Margarine/Butter

2 tbs  Golden Syrup

100 g  Cornflakes

1 pack Mini Eggs


Safety Notes:

1. If doing this with young children, you may wish to do the heating and stirring part yourself. If you allow children of any age, please supervise carefully. Obviously you want to avoid the children being burnt by the pan as it heats up and once it's been taken off the heat and also be aware of the danger of catching hair/clothing on the flames.

2. With younger children, you may want to halve the mini eggs, lengthways (as we do with grapes at toddler group), to reduce the chance of choking. However, take care, as Mini Eggs shells are brittle and quite tricky to halve with a sharp knife!

Method:

1. Place the muffin cases in a baking tray. 

2. Place the chocolate, margarine and golden syrup in the saucepan. Gently heat the mixture, stirring the ingredients with the spatula as they melt. 

3. Place the cornflakes into a mixing bowl and add the mixture from the saucepan. Mix together, thoroughly.

4. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases. 

5. Make a little well in each little blob of mixture, to form the 'nest' shape.

6. Place 3 mini eggs in each 'nest'. 

7. Place in the fridge to allow the chocolate to harden.


Recipe taken from Topmarks

Incy Wincy Spider

There can't be a playgroup in the land who has never sang Incy Wincy Spider. 

This Song is certainly a favourite of ours, and surely quite topical, with the the wet weather we've been having this year.

We've made various versions of Incy in the last four or five years, but I think this one is my favourite!

Each one is unique!

Equipment:

• Play dough 

• Googly eyes

• Pipe cleaners

• Paper plates/small pieces of card

• Felt pens

Preparation:

• Make play dough (recipe link*). 

• Cut pipe cleaners in half and then in half again.

Method:

1. Take a small lump of play dough and roll into a ball.

2. Add two googly eyes. We provided a few different sizes, to choose from.

3. Add pipe cleaners as legs. Children may decide to add as few or as many as they like, but that is totally fine!

4. Place on paper plate/card and write name on the side, ready for home time.

* We used the Kids with Food Allergies rice flour recipe, so that it would be suitable for anyone allergic to wheat/gluten. We used black food colouring, to make the spider, but actually your spiders could be quite colourful, if you like! Play dough can be made a few days in advance but will need to be stored in the fridge in a air tight container.

Springtime Daffodils

One activity that always goes down well at playgroup is planting. Usually we'd plant seeds, but this activity coincided with St Patrick's Day, so we decided to opt for daffodils. 

All very well and good, but bulbs actually need planting in November, so we cheated and bought some that were ready sprouted, for the children to plant in their pots!

All potted up!

The question was, what song to sing? Not knowing any St Patrick Day songs, Mary Mary, Quite Contrary, seems a good choice to me!



Equipment:

• Pots of young daffodils (we got ours at Asda*)

• Tuff builder's tray

• Compost

• Plastic trug

• Small trowel/large spoon

• Paper cups (we bought a selction of coloured cups from Baker Ross*)

• Stickers

• Felt Pens

• Washing up bowl with soapy water (for hand washing)

• Towel

Preparation:

• Buy daffodil pots & compost. Open the compost bag and empty into plastic trug.

• Lay out planting equipment on Tuff tray. It makes a good base that will contain some of the mess.

Ready for action

Method:

1. Decorate paper cup with stickers & felt pens.

2. Fill pot halfway with compost.

3. Place bulb in pot.

4. Add more compost around the bulb and press down firmly.

5. Wash hands thoroughly, to make sure all the compost is cleaned off.


*Any indication of where we sourced products is just to help you find suitable products and materials. We are not affiliated to any companies. We do not profit by mentioning them..

Marching Drums

One of the songs our littlies love to sing at playgroup is The Grand Old Duke of York. So it seems only natural to make our own drums, with which to sing along!

Ready to march!

If you need a reminder, the words of the song can be found by following this link.


Equipment:

• Used container with lid

• Coloured paper circles

• Felt pens

• Stickers - we ordered some instrument stickers from Baker Ross*

• PVA glue and spreaders

• Plasticine

• Short sticks

Not that attractive in its original state, you can see why it needed covering!

Preparation:

• Collect suitable tubs/containers.

• Cut coloured paper/light card circles for the top of the tub. You could also do as I did, and cut card to fit the side of the tub, or if you're feeling brave you could use poster paint mixed with PVA glue.

Method:

1. Use PVA glue to stick coloured paper on the tub, to prepare the surface for decoration.OR paint decoration using paint mixed as above.

2. Decorate coloured paper using felt pens & stickers.

3. Roll a ball of plasticine and mould it round the end of a short stick, to form a drumstick.

4. Don't forget to try them out at song time! The children are sure to enjoy marching round with their drums!

*We sourced ours from Baker Ross. We are not affiliated to Baker Ross in any way. We do not profit by mentioning them. Baker Ross are mentioned merely to assist sourcing of materials.

Chinese Lanterns

Our second week of Songs and Rhymes and the aim was to introduce a new one. Well, its actually quite an old one, but new to me and certainly to the children. Quite handily, it tied in with Chinese New Year. So, the craft just had to be... 'Chinese' lanterns!!

The finished article

I can't claim any credit fro the idea, we used a printable from Twinkle, a UK based teacher's resource site. It's full of great ideas. You have to register to use it. Some ideas are available for free, but for others you have to pay a subscription fee.

Incidentally, the song we decided to use alongside this activity was called, 'My ship sailed from China.' It has some great actions, so if children don't know the words, they can always join in with the actions. If you'd like to learn them, this clip from You Tube is quite handy.

Equipment:

• Paper cups 

• Pipe cleaners

• Stickers

• Paper strips

• PVA glue & glue spreaders

• Scissors with sharp points

Preparation:

1. Make two small holes in the top of each cup. I used the sharp points of scissors to do this.

2. Cut thin paper strips.

Method:

1. Show children how to thread both ends of a pipe cleaner through the two holes in the top of the cup. 

2. Look inside the cup and pull both ends of the pipe cleaner towards you and twist the ends together. 

3. Pull the loop at the top of the cup. The twisted ends should prevent the pipe cleaner from coming all the way back out.

4. Embellish the lantern with stickers of your choice.

5. Spread a line of PVA glue around the inside rim of the cup. Stick one end of the paper strips to the line of glue, to make a tasseled edge to your lantern.

6. If you, can, hang to dry.

Work in progress

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom Rocket Craft

This term, we're focusing on crafts linked to some of the songs we love to sing at coffee and snack time. One of the children's favourites. is 'Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We're going to the Moon'. To be fair, it's one of my favourites too! 

The finished article

The craft is a simple one, that we first used for Bonfire Night, a few years ago. Now that some of our older ones have moved on, it seems the perfect time to revisit this craft.

Equipment:

• cardboard rolls (kitchen roll tubes, cut in half)

• coloured/shiny paper

• card circles with cut to the centre

• PVA glue/glue spreaders

• stickers

• shiny or brightly coloured paper

• curling ribbon

• washi tape/stickers/embellishments

• sellotape/scissors

Preparation:

• cut card circles

• cut coloured paper to cover tubes

• cut short lengths of curling ribbon

• collect cardboard rolls

Method:

1. Cover cardboard tube with coloured paper, using PVA glue to stick. *

2. Form paper circle into a cone, use tape or glue to fix overlapping parts together.

3. Apply glue to one end of the cardboard tube. Place the glued end into the paper cone and press into place.

4. Use sticky tape to fasten short lengths of curling ribbon into the other end of the cardboard tube.

5. Embellish the sides of the rocket, using stickers and washi tape.

6. Ensure each rocket is named, before being left on the 'Home' table to dry.

Work in progress

* Alternatively, you could paint the rocket, suing a mixture of PVA and poster paint, but you may run the risk of it still being quite wet by home time and also, it might be hard to apply some embellishments, although the glue in the paint might help them stick.

Autumn Leaf Plaques

This craft was inspired by a jewellery workshop I participated in during the summer in which we made pendants and earrings using a form of porcelain clay. 

One of the ideas we were encouraged to try involved pressing plant materials into the clay, then colouring the impressions with under glaze paints. The pieces were later glazed and fired for us.

For the purposes of our craft, firing was not going to be a possibility, neither would painting the pieces once dry. It needed to be an all-in-one process. So we came up with the idea of using leaf stamps, to make plaques like these:

Just like the jewellery project, this craft proved extremely popular.

Leaf Plaque

We used air dry clay for our project. I would imagine that salt dough clay could also be used, but it would require a little baking.

Equipment:

• air dry clay (we used white, but you can also buy coloured clay, although this is likely to be more expensive)

• poster paint/plastic trays/sponges

• leaf stamps (or you could use natural leaves)

• rolling pins

• paper plates or small piece of card

• pens (to label paper plates with names)

• cutters - ours was 10 cm diameter (optional)

• ribbon

• drinking straws (cut in half)

• scissors (to cut ribbon)

• PVA glue to act as a 'varnish' & brush to apply

We used these leaf stamps*

Preparation:

In advance:

• order/buy clay 

• order/buy leaf stamps (or gather leaves, you need to dry them a bit before use, but not too dry, or they will become brittle and fall apart)

• cut ribbon into short lengths

• cut a few drinking straws in half (these will be used to make a nice clean hole in the top of the plaques)

On the day:

• pour poster paint onto sponges and work into the sponge, so that it isn't just a blob on top, then place in a plastic tray. I provided just two colours: yellow ochre and brown.

Soaking the paint into the sponges helps to prevent blobby prints

• roll lumps of clay into small balls

• make an example, to show the children, before they begin

Here's the 'one I made earlier'

Method:

1. Help children into paint overalls.

2. Give each child a paper plate, ball of clay and a rolling pin. The paper plate will be used to roll out the clay, but also to take home the finished piece. This avoids making too much mess on the table, but also avoids lifting the clay plaque before it has dried, which could lead to the plaque becoming deformed. A small piece of card could be used as an alternative.

3. Children roll out clay. A round cutter can be used to make a distinct shape, or it can be left as a 'free' shape, which also looks quite visually appealing. Excess clay can be peeled off from around the edge, once the cutter has been pressed in firmly. 

This plaque is a 'free' shape. No cutter used. 

This plaque has been cut to shape with a round cutter.

4. Children make their designs, by pushing collected leaves or leaf stamps into the paint, then into the clay. As you can see from the illustrations, some used more than one stamp, creating various effects.

Another 'free' shape.

 5. Children press the end of the drinking straw into the top of the plaque, to make a hole for the ribbon, which may or may not need to be threaded by an adult. Some of the older children may be able to do this completely by themselves.

6. Write the child's name on the edge of the paper plate, on which the children will take their leaf plaques home to dry.

7. Place the paper plates on the 'home' table, until the end of the session, then use baby wipes to clean up. It is important to be thorough when cleaning up clay, as tiny dry clay particles aren't great for you, when breathed in.

8. If parents and children are returning the next week, you may wish to provide PVA to 'varnish' over the clay, or to quickly varnish them yourself, for them to pick up the following week, although this is not entirely necessary.


*We sourced ours from Baker Ross. We are not affiliated to Baker Ross in any way. We do not profit by mentioning them. Baker Ross are mentioned merely to assist sourcing of materials.

Autumnal Leaf Wind Spinners

The idea for this craft was acquired from a group I helped with the other year, who were putting on a Light party. 
I carefully stored the idea in my head and up it popped at our Autumn Term planning meeting. 

Unusually for me, I'm posting it BEFORE we've done it, as I'll be missing from the group next week, and wanted to leave my instructions where they could easily be found!

Hey presto...

The original completed flat 'Spinner' that inspired this week's craft.

The craft is based on those snake spinners you may have made as a child. You cut out a spiral, which once decorated and opened up, looks something like this:

Hanging 'Spinner'.

Unfortunately, this one has dropped slightly. The more you stick on it, the more it will stretch and drop, so you might need to warn the parents that this could happen.

Hopefully, the cute little foam stickers that we ordered from Baker Ross*, which are smaller than the leaves in the original version, will drag our spinners down less!

Equipment:

• Card in Autumnal hues

• Scissors

• Hole punch

• Ribbon

• Leaf stickers/shapes

• Paint in Autumnal hues

• Paint trays

• Baby wipes

• Overalls

Foam stickers are great for little fingers

Preparation:

This craft is quite prep heavy!

• Order/buy leaf shape stickers.

• Photocopy spinner onto light card in Autumnal hues (eg. red, orange, yellow).

• Cut spinners out.

• Use a hole punch to punch a hole in the end of the spinner. Or you could stick yarn on with sellotape.

• Cut short lengths of ribbon or wool (ours is from Baker Ross*).

• Pour poster paint in Autumnal hues into some paint trays.

Painted fingerprints add additional skill and interest.

Method:

1. Help children put on overalls.

2. Give each child a spinner with their name written on the back first. It may help to add the ribbon at this stage too!

3. Show children how to finger print paint along the spiral (great for practicing the kind of motor skills they need for tracing letters).

4. Give children a selection of Autumnal leaves to stick on their spinner. I would suggest doling these out, once they've finished their painting, to avoid running out before the end of the session.

5. Place on 'Home' table to dry. Wipe sticky fingers off with Baby wipes.


*Please note: We are not affiliated to Baker Ross. Any mention of brands is purely to aid sourcing of materials. There is no financial gain from running this blog.

Leaf Puppets

It's funny how some crafts are real crowd pleasers, and often it's the ones you wouldn't imagine that really spark interest, like these leaf people puppets that we made last year.

How d'you do?

This is a great craft for those who don't like too much mess.

We only provided the bare minimum of materials, but somehow these leaf creatures have a real life of their own!

Equipment

• Photocopier card in autumnal colours (red/orange etc.)

• Googly eyes

• Twigs

• Lolly sticks

• Selloptape

• Felt pens

Preparation

Somewhat more laborious to prepare than some of our crafts, unless you can buy pre-cut leaves online. 

• First photocopy leaf shapes onto Autumnal coloured card and cut them out. 

• Gather leaves and twigs.

Method

1. Children choose the leaf shape that appeals to them.

2. Help children fasten lolly stick to the back of the leaf, with selloptape.

3. Children stick on googly eyes and add limbs to their creatures, using twigs and sellotape (children will need help with sellotape).

4. Name leaf creatures on the back and place on the home table.

Autumn Wreath

I don't know about you, but I love seeing art 'in progress'. 

There are so many decisions to be made; over colours and composition. I love watching little ones working this out for themselves. Sometimes the art produced is not what you had in mind, but its all part of the learning process for those little brains, eyes and hands. 

This particular craft created so much opportunity for taking pictures, I couldn't help myself. I hope you enjoy them too, as I take you through this simple and effective craft. It was another one of 'those' that the parents loved straight away. It was inspired by our Holly Wreath craft from last Christmas, and was just as fun to make.

Focus on the process

Equipment:

• Paper Plates

• Leaves cut from light card in various autumnal hues

• Autumn Leaf shapes (bought pre-cuts)

• Ribbon

• Scissors

• Sellotape

• Poster paint in autumnal hues

• PVA/pots/glue spreaders

• Paint trays

• Paintbrushes

• Painting Overalls/shirts

• Wet wipes

Preparation:

1. Buy pre-cut leaves* and/or cut leaves from light card stock. We had a mix of both, to keep costs down, but you could use all card, or all bought.

2. Cut out centre of paper plates.

3. On the day, when setting up, mix poster paints with one at least third PVA, so you can stick leaves directly onto the paint. We gave the children a choice of a mustard yellow or brown, to paint onto the wreath.

4. Cut short lengths of ribbon for hanging, and stick them to the back of the cardboard circle shape, using sellotape.

5. Make an 'example' so the children can see what you're aiming for.

Easy craft for little ones

Method:

1. Make sure each child is wearing an overall and has sleeves rolled up before they start. This one is going to be messy!

2. Give each child a card circle and help them to write their name on the back (you can do this at the end, but it will be a lot more messy).

3. Show the children how to apply the paint to the card circle and then to stick leaves on to the paint.

4. As the children begin to layer leaves, they may have difficulty making some to stick, this is where the pots of glue and spreaders come in to play.

5. Once the child is finished, place the wreath to dry and clean up. At this stage it is advisable to clean the child's place before the next child comes along, otherwise their work well may stick to the table.

A completed wreath

*We got our leaves from The Works (£1 a packet). You can also buy them at The Range. We are not affiliated to these stores, but mention them purely to aid sourcing. There may be other places that also stock them.