Little Cakes

Delicious looking aren't they? Little sweet looking cakes. They are far from edible but so fun to make. This is sensory play at it's best made in our Toddler Classes.  Using a combination of glue, shaving cream and liquid watercolor or food coloring.

Mixing and stirring, squishing and giggling.  Sensory play is so important at this age to develop and refine their senses and aids in stimulating their brains and they have so much fun in this exploration.



To make the cakes I used oatmeal boxes that I had cut in half. They were just the right size to mimic a small cake.  Each child had their own way of adding the "frosting" onto the "cakes", some love using a tool so a spoon was desired and used and some like to smudge and smear away continually squishing the solution through their little hands.

After washing hands, which is also a wonderful sensory activity in itself, the children decorated the cakes with ribbon, dots saved from hole punchers and colored sand. The kids wrapped and sprinkled and poured away.

Good enough to eat!!!

Fabric Flowers

The days are getting longer. The light is beautiful in the early evening as the spring showers continue to aid in the growing flowers which are blooming away. The theme of seasons is a never ending resource for classes, camps and projects for us. It's a great theme that allows children to understand their environment. Creating projects around the season is a way for the kids to collectively celebrate in there surroundings, in something they all share. 

  

In celebration of Spring we made giant fabric flowers. I can not take credit for the idea. It came from an wonderfully creative woman , Bonnie Scorer and her husband Galen Scorer, who are the creators of Make-It-You-Own website, which has so many ideas that one can alter with materials one has on hand or to their own interests.  Here is a link to the instructions for these big gorgeous blooms.

Since we have so much fabric at the studio, so many beautiful fabrics that I decided to use fabrics in substitution for paper (which is what she uses with her children. We offered the children many different varieties of already cut gigantic petals  to choose from. I also used a fabric stiffener but I am sure you could use the acrylic medium she uses for the paper or even Mod-Podge.  

I also used chopsticks with wire wrapped around them it to make the stigma.  I love the black paper to make the stamen. That's Bonnie's great idea. It stands out beautifully and graphically against the colorful petals. This project allowed us to talk about the different parts of a flower and their functions.  We all enjoyed both the process and the results. Thank you Bonnie for the idea.

Happy Spring!!!