We are so lucky to have this wonderful Winter sunshine continuing in our neck of the woods at the moment. So of course we are making the most of it and my little outside loving girls have been having a ball!
We picked a whole lot of purple beans on the weekend from this lovely tower…..
and there were a few that weren't really great for eating so i thought we could use them for a little fun before passing onto the chooks!
The toddler twosome love to collect and play with sticks and leaves from our big gumtree when outside so i decided to join them together with some of the beans and our playdough (which has nearly reached it's day as you can see by the colours!) and see what they would do……
There was lots of arranging first….
then poking of sticks into the playdough…..
The choosing of each stick was an important process you understand! Sometimes we had to look around on the ground for just the right one!
They then began pressing the sticks into the dough and marvelling at the imprints they made….
Suddenly Tara discovered that she could take the sticks off and roll them back and forth……
Doesn't hurt to have a little taste of your masterpieces of course!!
Pressing leaves into big lumps of dough was lots of fun and great for our eye/hand coordination…
Fascinating creations were made…..
and then pulled apart and changed…..to make way for some purple beans…
they spent a lot of time pressing the beans into the dough and lifting off again…i think they enjoyed the way they were so flexible after the hardness of the sticks…..
But i think the favourite part of the activity for Tara was rolling and pressing the twigs into the dough…
And for Ruby it was pressing twigs into the dough and pulling them out again to discover holes!
What a fantastic open ended activity for them, they showed me quite a few different ways to use the natural materials! I love it when children teach ME something while they play…..it was a lovely morning in the sunshine…we also did some painting as you may have noticed from the colour of their hands….but that's a post for another day!
What did your children discover outside today?….can you use it to make some simple fun together?
Warm Wishes….
Love the idea of playing with play dough outside and incorporating a bit of nature in it! Dino boy would love this 🙂
What a really great idea – as our playdough has seen better days and I keep meaning to try and make our own – so what a one last use – fab. Thanks for sharing. And besides she makes it look so much fun :O)
Jode I know I say it often but you really are inspiring to lots of Mums out there with little ones wondering what natural activities they can provide for their children to do. This is such a fantastic idea I bet the girls were occupied for quite sometime with all of these discoveries. Today we’ve bunking down inside, absolutely miserable weather here. The girls have been very creative making a cubby house to enjoy while watching a movie or two, they’re having lots of fun. Enjoy your Wednesday. xx
What a wonderful idea!! I’m so glad I stumbled upon your blog. I’m excited to try this with my 17 month old. I’m always on the lookout for new activities to do with her!