Creative Family Fun

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Pretend Play

Antarctica Fun

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We just got back from an exhausting, but very fun trip to Antarctica.

We even captured some incredible penguin pictures. Don’t you like that little guy above?

Well… we didn’t actually go to Antarctica, but we did recreate it in our kitchen!

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We had a pile of penguin books we’ve been reading and thought it would be fun to add in a little sensory play.

After seeing all the fun that Mama Smiles had by bringing the snow indoors, I knew we had to try it sometime! This was the perfect opportunity.

I took a couple of bowls and froze some water in them, then went outside and gathered some of the (quickly melting) snow we had outside.

I grabbed some toys from our water table and a cookie sheet and set up this cute little snowy scene.

Yes, I do realize that polar bears and penguins don’t actually live on the same continent… but we did need a few more animals to play with than that one lonely penguin!

The girls had a blast.

They played, made snowballs, tasted the snow, and played some more.

All the while, I read a couple of our books from the penguin pile.

One of the books we read was The Emperor’s Egg by Martin Jenkins, which I highly recommend. It is a nonfiction choice, which tells the story about how the male penguins guard the eggs until they hatch. The author did an amazing job relaying the facts in a storytelling mode that had my girls hooked from the first page.

We had a lot of fun playing with our little Antarctica play scene. While it’s a whole lot of fun to play outside in the snow, it was also a lot of fun to bring it indoors!

Have you ever brought snow inside?

A Pretend Snack Bar

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I can’t think of anything my girls like better than a pretend play setup, unless it’s a messy craft project.

We’ve made forts, stores, and even a zoo in our living room. Recently, we decided to create our own snack bar.

We were following a suggestion from Let’s Explore on their Ways to Play in October printout (yes, we are a few months behind). Each month Let’s Explore offers a new printout with about 10 fun ways to play. We print it out every month. It’s great to have around when we need new ideas for something to do!

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Our snack bar set-up was simple. I gave Lizzie the wood crate and asked her to go through all of her play food and find some items that she thought would be good to sell at a snack bar.

She picked out nine different things, which turned out to be the perfect amount. We then decided we needed plates, cups, a bowl and spoon, and a few napkins.

We constructed the bar by setting a wood trunk across two chairs.

After we had that set up, we made a sign and the menu. I wrote out the name of each of the foods, and then drew a picture next to each.

Since neither of my girls can read, I wanted them to use the pictures for reference. The girls then took their crayons and decorated everything.

They had a blast playing snack bar!

The girls would take turn being the “chef” or the customer. They would pour over the menu, make their selection, then have a seat at the table. The “chef” would then come serve the food.

I was impressed by my 2-yr-old’s ability to remember the orders. They even managed to rope Mommy into playing with them several times!

We’ve had a lot of fun with this, and I’m sure we will set it up again soon!

What kind of pretend play does your child enjoy?

Snow Sensory and Small World Play

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I’ve seen wonderful ideas for sensory play all over blogland, but up until now, I haven’t set up a sensory bin for my girls.

Last night, I decided it was time to do it, and I set up a small sensory bin for the girls.

Instead of filling a large bin, I decided to put the items in a small basket and provide a piece of fabric for them to set up their own snow scene.

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Sensory Basket Contents:
Cotton balls
Blue puff balls
Clear white and blue glass marbles (vase fillers from the dollar store)
Cardboard snowmen (made from a cracker box)
Small polar bears (a toy we’ve had for years)

The girls got busy making a snowy wonderland.

They spread it out.

They made the snow fall.

They stacked snow on the polar bear’s head.

And, they even made a river from the glass marbles.

That, my friends, is our little river!

After playing for awhile, Lizzie found our painter’s palette and decided it needed to be a part of our sensory bin.

I did lay down a couple of rules while playing. I certainly didn’t want the little pieces all over the house!

I told them they could play with this at any time as long as everything remained on the table and there was no fighting over the pieces.

So far so good!

Note: I did let my 2-year-old play with the little pieces. I was sitting at the table with them and she doesn’t have the tendency to put things in her mouth. Please know your child’s limitations and supervise carefully!

The girls had fun and so did the polar bears! I hope they continue to enjoy it for the days to come.

Do you have any examples of sensory play? I enjoyed setting this one up and hope to do more in the future.

The Zoo In My Living Room

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Yesterday we worked hard.

We decided that we really needed our own zoo and the living room was the perfect place for it.

It was a day long project to put it all together… and boy, did we have fun!

The first task was sending the girls through the house to find zoo animals. They looked and looked until we had quite a pile.

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Now, it was time for the signs.

The girls helped me figure out what animals we had.

We sorted all the animals. We had lions, bears, monkeys, horses, a whole lot of rabbits and more.

I wrote the names on the signs and the girls started decorating them.

After a break for lunch and naps, it was time to set up that zoo.

At this point, I did have my own secret plans… we had to clean up all the other toys in the living room in order to set up our zoo. I’ve never seen the toys get picked up so quickly!

We found a spot for all of our zoo animals and then found the matching sign for each.

Lizzie worked on determining the beginning letters of the animals and building a zoo provided a lot of motivation for her. (I love it when I can sneak learning into our play!)

Once every animal had a spot, we had one more thing to do. We needed a map. After all, every zoo we’ve been to has had a map.

I did the drawing and the writing, but Lizzie helped me every step of the way. When it was done we had to walk through the zoo by following the map. In fact, she had that map in her hands the entire time she was playing! Lizzie loves maps.

At one point, I even let her take the camera around and take pictures of our zoo. You can see some of the pictures she took below. If you notice, our cat plopped her self down on the couch and took a nap all afternoon. We made her an exhibit in the zoo. After all, she is an animal!

When Daddy got home that night, the girls were eager to give him a tour of the zoo. Before bedtime, all of the animals got fed and put to bed. We still have the zoo set up today… we’ll see where the fun leads us!

Farm Animal Charades

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Things get a bit silly when you start imitating farm animals!We played a game of farm animal charades recently and had a blast.

I found several clip art images of farm animals, then printed, laminated and cut them out. We borrowed a pot from the play kitchen and put all the pictures in.

The rules were simple. We took turns drawing a picture and then had to act like that animal while the others tried to guess.

Yes, the guessing part was easy, but pretending to be the animals was a whole lot of fun!

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We were chicken, horses, cows and sheep.The concept was easy enough that AJ, at age 2, was able to play and understand.

Plus, she’s a pro at animal sounds!

By far, the most popular animal was the rooster.And yes, there was some rooting around in the pot to find the rooster card because who doesn’t love saying “cock-a-doodle-doo” as loud as possible?

To round out the fun, we found a great book called Moo Who? by Margie Palatini. It’s the hilarious story of a cow named Hilda Mae Heifer who gets knocked in the head with a cow pie and loses her moo. She talks to a series of different farm animals and tries out all of their sounds until she finally figures out that she does indeed moo. It’s a fun book to read aloud and it encourages laughter and silliness.

Have fun!