Using Shaving Foam for Painting

We all know that the time after the holidays can be a bit difficult when it comes to waiting for supplies in the first deliveries. We had planned to do a whole week of creative activities in red – but no one had noticed that we had run out of red paint. We tried mixing something that looks sort of red from other paints but it just wasn’t convincing, so my colleague had a great idea. She suggested mixing shaving foam with red food colouring. The effect was amazing.

We used watercolour paper which is rather thick, so that the paper wouldn’t break. The children loved using their hands and brushes as well as different textured rollers with a huge bowl of shaving foam. We painted for almost 45 minutes and everyone joined in, just because it was different.

The beauty of the activity was that we could repaint on top of previously painted shaving foam to draw different patterns. The finished paintings had a great 3D effect and the patterns painted dried up clearly visible. The clean up was much easier because the shaving foam did not stain their hands like paint would have.

We will definitely repeat the activity next week.

 

 

Introducing children to Pantomime

We recently had a staff training day where everyone shared ideas of what they do in their own nurseries and what the children enjoyed about it in particular.

One of our staff, a trained actor, showed us some ideas on doing drama with children. He works mainly with children over 3, so we had to adapt his ideas to work with slightly younger children. After doing some research I found the idea to introduce children to pantomime, so I worked on a plan, how to induct the older children into this topic. I tried it yesterday with a group of children between 2 and 3 and it has worked quite well, so I thought I’d share my lesson plan.

Firstly I need to explain that I work in a setting that uses the Montessori approach, so the children are very much used to doing things independently and listening to each other.

Firstly I invited the children to join my group and to take a chair and carry it to the separate classroom and start a semi circle.

After the children arrived and had arranged their chairs I explained them what we are about to learn about and set out the requirements (listening carefully, taking turns etc.). It works very well if children have their own chair to sit on, rather than sitting on the floor, since they have their own allocated spot and it stops them from getting up. If things get out of hand you can also invite them simply to sit back down on their own chair.

I introduced the children to the word “Drama” first. I asked them to share their experiences about cinema, theatre, movies and television. I gained their interest by getting everyone to share something that they have seen or heard of. One girl explained that she had been to the theatre to see “The tiger who came for tea”. When everyone had shared their ideas, I came back to “the tiger”. I asked the children if they think that it was a real tiger in the theatre and whether they think real tigers can talk and we all agreed at the end that it was someone “pretending” to be a tiger, to tell a story.

After this first step we had linked the words “drama” and “pretending”. I then referred to things we had done in the past such as our nativity play and showed them how we were pretending to be someone else.

Next I introduced the word “pantomime”. I gave everyone a turn to practise saying the word and we all had a laugh. Some children said that this is a very long or difficult word. Then I went on to explain what “pantomime” is, always keeping it simple: “When we do pantomime, we show things to people without using our voice. We use our bodies and faces.” Of course, always showing surprise and huge interest!

I had to think of  a way to visualise the idea of “switching our voice off”, so I invented a magic button behind our ear, that turns our voice off. I show them that when I press the button, I can still “talk” but there is no noise. Then I invited every child to the front to show us how they can use the magic button that switches their voice off. We all had a turn and a good laugh.

Generally I would have stopped the first lesson here.

BUT our children were very interested and their concentration was still good, so I continued on.

If you do stop here just continue on another day with recapturing the thoughts about drama, pretending and pantomime as well as the magic button.

We then took turns to show different animals to our friends of course without using our voice. So I invited the children to the front one by one and reminded them to push the magic button and show us an animal without using our voice. They did great and the other children were involved in guessing what animal it is.

Then we discussed some emotions. I showed them how I was feeling and they them showed each other how someone might be feeling, again without using their voice. We talked about being happy, being sad, surprised and angry.

Then their concentration faded, so we recapped and moved on to something else.

Overall we spent almost 45 minutes involved in this activity, which is unusual. I would keep the general introduction to about 20 minutes in particular with this age group.

Try it out with your children, they will surely enjoy it. I will repeat this activity next week until the children reliably get to the stage of knowing what it means NOT to use our voice, but our body. Let me know how it goes if you try it and feel free to share your ideas on topics!

Reflections

Taken this summer in Edinburgh.

Feeling a bit grumpy today since it’s finally time to head back to work. We are waiting for OFSTED any day now, so it’ll be a busy few days for us. Fingers crossed its not going to be today!

Messy Play Ideas

Messy Play is an important part of play with older babies and young toddlers as it gives them the chance to experience the sensation of different materials mixed with each other. It will allow them to make marks and observe their influence on materials (eg. mixing turns flour and water into a thick paste) – and overall its fun!

I thought I gather some ideas for messy play that can easily be done at home as well as in Day Care or at playgroup.

Preparation

Make sure the child is wearing an apron or old clothes that will only be used for Messy Play – or in summer it may be best to wear nothing at all. Best cover the floor underneath the messy play table, or let them do the messy play on the floor right away (or simply be prepared to mop up with your toddler afterwards).

For the individual messy play ideas you will need different materials, but generally you should have a tray (such as a deep baking tray if you’re at home or your messy play tray at nursery) that has a border about an inch high to prevent materials from leaking too much as well as items to stir whatever the playing with. If eating the mixture is fine you may provide spoons, if you want to discourage eating you might want to use little wooden sticks (the ones we know from ice cream lollies). Obviously young toddlers should not play with materials that can be dangerous if swallowed or ingested! They will very likely try  to eat whatever you “serve” them, even if you closely supervise them. Other items to enhance any sort of messy play are for example food colouring and glitter. Just let your imagination run free and look through your kitchen and bathroom.

Messy Play Ideas

Flour

A very simple Messy Play

We need

Flour

Set up

Pour flour on the table or a messy mat (cheap shower curtains make great mats) on the floor and let your children explore. You can add various toys such as spoons, different sized containers as well as small world toys, animals or even cars.

Shaving foam

We need

A cheap can of shaving foam (eg. Sainsburys basic)

Set up

Spray the shaving foam onto your messy tray, the table or a mat on the floor,

Don’t forget to add your favourite toys again.

Jelly

We need

A few packages of Jelly in storage. Try different colours and tastes.

Set up

Prepare the jelly following the instructions. If your child is old enough let it help. To add even more interest to this messy play you can leave items in the jelly before you put it in the fridge to set. You could use anything from pasta to fruit, just make sure that the things do not provide a choking hazard for babies.

Pasta with food colouring

We need

Cooked and cooled pasta

Different containers and spoons

Set up

Prepare some pasta following the packet intructions and leave it to cool down. If you add oil to the water while boiling it the pasta wont stick as easily. You could use different types and shapes of pasta.

Put the pasta on to a table or into a tray and leave it for the children to explore.

Don’t forget to add your favourite toys.

The pasta can also be coloured with food colouring or paint to add more interest.

Coloured sand

We need

Sand

Water

and Food Colouring

Set up

Mix a jug of water with food colouring. Place sand in your messy tray. Add the coloured water to cover the sand. Leave it to dry. You can now add different toys and animals for pretend play.

Wet Sand

(leftovers from sand tray and water play for instance)

Mix some water and sand on your messy tray and let the children make marks in the wet sand.

Don’t forget to add your favourite toys.

Play with Mousse

We need

Mousse

Different containers

Spoons etc.

Set up

Prepare the mousse according to packet instructions. Leave it to set. Place the mousse on the table or in your messy tray. You can now add various toys and spoons.

Dry Pasta Play

A less messy messy play.

We need

Dry pasta

Different sized containers

Set up

Pour some pasta (different shaped) onto the table or your messy play tray and let your children explore.

Don’t forget to add containers, spoons and your favourite toys.

Custard Play

We need

Tins of custard (Sainsburys basic etc.)

Animals and favoruite toys

Different sized containers

Set up

Empty the custard into your messy play tray and allow the children to explore the custard with spoons, containers and their favourite toys.

Spaghetti Play, Baked Beans Play, Mushy Pea Play, Mashed Potatoe Play

We need

Tins of spaghetti or Baked Beans (Sainsburys Basic etc.), Mushy Peas or Mashed Potatoes

Different sized containers

Spoons

Favourite Toys

Set up

Pour the Spaghetti (or your chosen product) onto the table or into your messy tray (Please remember to prepare the mash beforehand and let it cool down). Allow children to use different materials to explore and taste.

Homemade Play-Doh

We need

Flour

Water

A little oil

Extras:

Food Colouring

Glitter

Rice or Porridge Oats etc.

Preparation

Pour some flour (1 cup) into a bowl and add your sensory items such as rice and porridge oats or glitter. Add 1 teaspoon of oil. Mix 1 cup of water with some food colouring of your preferred colour. Then slowly ad water the water to the flour (you won’t need the whole cup!) and knead the dough until it feels right to you and is not sticky anymore. If it is to liquidy add more flour. If it is too dry add a little more water, if it is too sticky try adding some oil (again very little otherwise it will feel too oily). It is ready to be used immediately. Please store in an airtight container inside the fridge to enjoy your play-doh for up to a week.

Set up

Place the Play-Doh onto the table with various cookie cutters and rollers for the children to explore.

Water play

Set up a water play inside a deeper messy play tray, or in your sink if you are at home. If you still have a baby bath tub somewhere that might be great to be used as well. In summer I suggest a paddling pool.

Enhance your water play with boats and ducks, bubbles (baby bath), food colouring (be careful to mix the food colouring with a little water before adding it because it tends to colour childrens hands quite a bit), glitter or use a straw to blow bubbles.

Add different sizes of sponges and cloths to the water play and let them experience the different textures

Ice Cubes play

Make ice cubes of different sizes and shapes and let the children see them melt

Painting with balls

We need

Large pieces of paper (IKEA sells cheap rolls of paper)

Small trays for the paint

Paint in different colours

Balls

Set up

Attach the large pieces of paper to the floor (preferably outside or on a surface that is easily cleaned), cheap big shower curtains could be an option. Fill the little trays with different colours and place them at different ends of the paper. Use a variety of different sized balls. Dip them in the paint and roll them over the paper to make different patterns.

Shredded Paper

Let the children play with shredded paper.

Gloop (Cornflour and Water)

We need

Cornflour

Water

Set up

Mix the cornflour with water on a messy tray until it turns into a thick paste. Let the children explore the paste with a range of materials. You can also add glitter or food colouring to it.

OR

Pour cornflour as well as water onto the messy tray but let the children mix it with the spoons so they can watch how dry and wet transforms into this funny paste.

Phew. This is currently all I can think off when it comes to Messy Play. If you have any ideas I haven’t thought of please post.

And now its time to enjoy the weekend.

Nursery vs. Nannying

So, it has been quiet for some time again and this is mostly due to the fact that I have no energy and brains left at the end of the day to actually even turn my computer on. I have now downloaded the wordpress app for my android phone, so maybe I will be able to write some short posts on my break. As I think I have already posted I made the change and started working in nursery again, mainly to get more experience with babies and also to get qualified.

I have been looking to write this post for some time showing the differences between working in Nursery and working as a Nanny as I think a lot of people are not aware of the fact that they might love one but would never want to do the other. So here we go..

I suppose at first I want to give you an insight into Nannying (you’re probably working as a Nanny yourself or have read many other articles on my blog already – so I try to keep it short). As a Nanny you’re being employed by your family (properly or not) and you work mostly by yourself during the day. You are pretty much responsible for the activities the children you care for attend (with parents consent and following their suggestions of course!) and there is nothing official to follow. When it comes to Arts&Crafts your flexibility entirely depends on the budget the parents give you to shop for paper etc. or the materials that you can regularly find at home. I have worked in positions where there was not even a kids pair of scissors at home and the budget to buy things was so ridiculous that we could just not make any Christmas crafts. Thats what you will have to tell the family if they expect you to do Crafting. Then of course you will also be cooking or at least reheating the food and when the child sleeps you might be doing some cleaning or you might have some free time.

When you now look at nursery it seems that everything must be better when you’re working in a team because you are not the only person responsible for everything anymore – but think twice.

When you’re working in nursery your day follows a strict and rigid routine and being spontaneous is no bonus as you usually haven’t got the time to do anything with the little ones whenever an idea actually crops up. In other situations you have to force yourself to be spontaneous but are not able to come up with anything good, so you can hardly manage to keep them busy. The workload when it comes to cooking might be reduced but your tasks now also involve official things concerning the EYFS such as daily recordings of childrens activities, nappies, food etc.  as well as Observations. You try to integrate these as much as possible into the day and try to get them done while babies and toddlers are sleeping but often there is just not enough time which means rather than playing with the babies while they are awake you end up desperately trying to finish your paperwork. When you are just in the middle of an activity you might have to stop because tea time is looming and you still need to manage to tidy up and clean the table before tea is coming.

Also you will be working in large groups of children and the younger the children are the more supervision they obviously need, so you’re job is suddenly not limited to 1-3 children but to about 12. Watching 12 babies while you’re trying to do an activity with one of them is difficult as you might not be able to leave this activity even if you observe one of the little ones trying to climb the furniture as, as soon as your leave your activity this child will start eating the paint etc. etc.

And the most important thing when you work in nursery are probably your colleagues, and I tell you its not easy to work with people you do not get along with in the same room every day..! Also your nursery can be part of a big company and you can feel quite lost when you join them in the first place and it will take you months to figure out the politics at work. The fact that you’re part of a big company often comes with other benefits though such as a pension scheme, private health insurance, discounted memberships in some cases, staff parties, uniforms (i think it’s a benefit others will disagree) and also the chance to do qualifications.

So should you wonder whether you would enjoy working in nursery more than being a Nanny apply to a Nursery (consider one of the bigger chains as they have more positions and also take unqualified staff) and see if you can do a trial day if they like you to make sure you would really want to.

Should you like your pay the most about your Nanny job do not consider switching to nursery. Pay is poor.

So, that’s what I would consider the most important factors when you’re making a decision like this of course there is so much more to say, feel free to post your comments and opnions or feelings about working in nursery or as a Nanny and last but not least enjoy the sunshine!