Memory Clay Tile - A walk on the beach

Finally we had a sunny and not completely freezing cold day so we went for a walk on the beach. We collected stones, seaweed, sand, bits of wood, a feather etc and when we got home pressed them into a clay tile to make marks and a record of out afternoon. You could do this with a walk in the woods, things in your garden, items to represent different seasons, things that are important to your child. The objects don't need to be natural they could be man-made things too - toys, jewellery etc. We made a wavey tile to look like the sea. If it was a tile of things to do with your child it could be a hand print shape or a walk in the woods tile could be in the shape of a leaf.

things we collected at the beach

 

Mati really enjoyed seeing what marks the different objects made and using them as drawing tools too. She experimented ith pressing the objects into the tile in different ways using more or less pressure. She talked about her walk on the beach as she made the tile. She decided to leave some of the objects pressed in to see what would happen.

Have a look at my easter egg tiles post for more details about rolling out the clay tile, creating patterns in clay and painting clay tiles.

Frootiful Flutterflies

 

 

Inspired by a charlie and lola's butterfly gallery on the Cbeebies website this is a really simple activity. Everyone remembers making butterfly prints as children!

 

We had some sheets of thin card but the inside of cereal boxes would work well or cartrige or sugar paper. It would also be fine on printer paper but may be too flimsy to hang on the ceiling.

 

Paint on one side of the card/paper and then fold it over and press down and rub to create a mirror image on the other side. You can use hand prints, finger painting, brush strokes, paint flicks etc. Any paint will do, we used childrens finger paint which is quite thin and creates a nice effect when overlayed but you could create brighter colours using a ready mix paint or acrylic if you are feeling brave and wearing old clothes!!...I couldn't resist adding some glue and glitter...I never seem to be able to resist the glitter! You could add collage using cut out or foam shapes or stickers. Mati's butterflies have had glo in the dark stars added to them in the last few weeks!

 

I didn't cut out the butterfly sheets until after we'd done the painting so I could choose the best part of the painting to use.

 

We then stapled them (using a staple gun) to Mati's bedroom ceiling which had the added bonus of her being very keen to go to bed for the next 2 or 3 nights!

 

A nice activity to go with reading The Very Hungry Catipillar

 

 

Rainy Day Jars

I've been busy making these today...will post in more detail later as I'm planning on using them for birthday presents and I want to keep the contents a suprise!

There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in, the holes are small and that's why rain is thin.