Resuming our monthly play roundups

So, now that we’re well under way into 2017, time to roll up my sleeves and get back to play work. Here are some snapshots and notes on some of the things we’ve been doing so far over the past month…

 

Rainy days and rainbows
Rainy weather is back now that summer is over.

Making drip art rain picture: We used a pipette to drop paint onto paper then slowly tilted paper forward to make paint drip/roll down across paper (children were fascinated observing the paint drip down slowly, and exploring tilting paper in various directions to observe trajectory of the paint dribbling down).

Making a rainbow picture: Colour exploration painting with cards (we dolloped on some paint onto paper and used some old plastic cards to mix and scrape the paint across the paper).

We read a story about a rainbow and talked about the specific colours of the rainbow as well as the number and order of the colours. The children had a go at colouring in a rainbow picture. The activity focused on observing the various colours in a rainbow and practicing pre-writing skills of colouring their rainbow within the lines of each row of the rainbow.

 

Donuts, donuts, donuts!
Chillier weather calls for some baking.

One of our favourite books this month was ‘The Donut Chef’ by Bob Staake. And of course we got us craving for some real donuts. I used my favourite pretzel recipe to make the dough which we shaped it into donut shapes. We made them glazed (with a simple icing sugar glaze) just like in the story.

We also made some cardboard donuts which the children decorated to their heart’s content with lots of colourful and sparkly embellishments and sequins.

The colourful, sparkly cardboard donuts went on the display at our very own little donut shop on sale for one dollar a piece.

 

Scissor practice ideas
Some simple ideas I did with the kids for scissor skills practice.

Giving haircuts to paper-towel roll people.

Simple lines and patterns drawn on coloured paper for children to cut along.

(P.S. Some information on scissor skills development and practice for preschoolers you might find helpful)

 

---

If you enjoyed this post, you can check out  our last roundup of activities and more of my other play and learning ideas. Stay tuned for next month’s roundup!