Monthly play roundup: November

It’s November! That time of year when that holiday feeling is just around the corner. It’s been quite a busy and interesting month, packed with lots of fun activities. Here’s a glimpse into some of the things we’ve been up to this past month…

Moana month!
A number of children in my group have been very much into Disney’s Moana lately. I decided to extend on this current interest of theirs and we ended having quite a Moana month.

We made…
‘Heart of Te Fiti’ necklaces with salt dough;
Shiny paper plate ‘Tamatoa’ crabs, which tied in perfectly with Eric Carle’s book ‘A House for Hermit Crab’;
Funny ‘Hei Hei’ chickens from paper roll tubes;
Fierce ‘Kakamora’ paper plate masks, which I used as a lead in to talk about managing angry feelings together with this book.

I also extended on the sea turtle scene from Moana to do a little featurette on turtles. We learnt a new turtle song and I told them the classic Aesop’s fable of the turtle/tortoise and the hare, then we made some turtles with paper bowls and green crepe paper.

Gardening project
We have a big backyard makeover project happening at the moment (which I will share more about down the track). So to tie in with this, I ordered some flower seeds to get the children involved in this whole project by growing some flowers to plant in our garden.

We recycled some egg cartons to use as seed trays (remember to punch a hole at the bottom of each section for drainage). We had a bit of drama at the beginning with a bit of overwatering. But in the end we managed to balance things out. And we were super stoked when the first little baby seedling finally emerged!

Recycled tyre play plots
Our backyard makeover includes putting together a nature-esque play area for the kids. Here’s one of the new things I’ve included in our revamped outdoor area: using recycled tyres to make little play spots for natural loose parts and small world play.

Rainbow toast
Our favourite cooking activity was making rainbow toast. The edible ‘paint’ is made from milk and a few drops of food colouring, and cotton buds for ‘paintbrushes’.

Sensory finger painting
This activity was set up at the family day care playgroup we sometimes go to. The finger paint is made from a mixture of water, cornflour and food colouring, heated up in the microwave to make a thick pasty texture.

As you can see from the videos below (scroll to the right to view the videos), the texture of the finger paint is perfect for mixing and smearing to make different patterns and pictures.

A post shared by Serenely (@livingserenely) on Nov 17, 2017 at 4:46am PST

---

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