Threading beads

Last week on yet another rainy day, I provided a few different activities for the children to take part in, one of which was threading beads.  The younger children have threaded big beads onto shoe laces before, but nothing as small as this.  They were great at it, each child sat silently concentrating on the task in hand, it was lovely to observe.  The fine motor skills displayed were great!  And the children loved the end result and wore their necklaces and bracelets with pride!

Drawing Castles

As it was a rainy morning we decided to have a break from parks, and go to the cinema for a Friday treat, however we had a few hours to kill, so I got one of the children's craft books out.  H chose his activity - making a knight themed wall hanging decoration.  And then he told me he couldn't do it!  So I showed him how....


I drew a castle, and with each line I drew on the paper H copied mine.  Eventually H had a great looking castle!

We both then drew a sword with H copying mine.

Then we drew a shield.

H then painted his pictures using watercolour paints, something he hadn't used before.

Here is H's finished piece of art, I love the watercolours, and I think his drawings are fantastic!  He was very proud of his masterpiece!

The painted shield.

The painted sword.

The painted castle.

Shields

"Goodies and baddies" has been the favourite game here for a few weeks now, occasionally it veers off and the children play "Peter Pan", this is generally the same game but with character names!  The children are all very good whilst playing their game; they know that they are not allowed to hurt anyone; only those involved in the game join in; they swap teams happily and include others in their play; and although they may "kill" each other and they may "die" and "be dead", somehow they always come back to life and this is an acceptable part of their play.


We decided to make shields to defend ourselves from the baddies - some of the shields contained "force fields" and "laser beams" - the imagination being used was fantastic!


The children cut pieces of sticky backed foam to decorate their shields - this was a good activity to develop children's fine motor skills and hand muscles.  The children here have access to scissors from a young age, they are taught about scissor safety and are supervised appropriately.  I believe that it is important to give children opportunities to use scissors and learn how to use them safely.