alljoinin.net blog

Odd shaped felt taggie rattle

2012-01-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

An unusual shaped very light weight little rattle. Filled with and clean empty crisp packet and a bell for two noises, and ribbon taggies to chew and fiddle with. Initially saw idea on pinterest and repined

Hair Roller Posting

2012-01-21T17:14:00.000-08:00

This has no relevance to recent posts, but have only a few minutes so this is a quick post...

Simply a dried milk can covered in paper and a hole cut out of the lid! The hole needs to be the actual diameter of the rollers NOT taking into account the prongs, this is so the child has to add a little more pressure to develop wrist and finger strength rather than the traditional drop ones!

The velcro round the edge on this picture is fluffy but the scratchy one works better. Having the velcro round the edge serves two purposes.

Adds another motor skill of pulling off the roller developing strength and using two hands (it won't come of if you don"t)
It keeps the task together with a clear visual signal the activity has finished as this was designed to be used by an autistic child in a TEACCH workstation situation.

To make this even more challenging and add a lovely sound element use plastic spiked rollers rather than the velcro type ones above.

On our Snow Shelf

2012-01-21T02:57:00.000-08:00

Snow Men Song and Little Robin Red Vest Story

Little Robin Red Vest is a beautiful book about a little robin who shows true kindness giving away all his vests to the animals in need. The tray has laminated vests and each of the animals, they can be velcroed and off of robin onto the other animals to tell the story. Listen to the story told by Emilia Fox

Five little snowmen rhyme props, made of socks!

Song Words

Kids Recipe Cards

2012-01-19T17:29:00.000-08:00

I am and absolute fan of the British Nutrition Foundation's Cook Club resources, including these Primary Recipe Cards that come in various formats. There are also Secondary Recipe Cards which follow the same format but some more complex recipes.

These recipe cards, with supportive pictures are ideal for older children, adults and just as a prompt.

They also have Action cards (and they have a lot)

How to Cards

Equipment Cards

Ingredients Cards

The Owl and the Pussy Cat

2012-01-18T15:43:00.000-08:00

We all know the rhyme, and after seeing brilliant toilet roll owls at Creative Jewish Mom's blog I thought cats would also work so had a quick sketch and made a cat. Thought an owl on the other side would be fun to just try and then thought.... oh The Owl and the Pussy Cat...

Zoo and Map

2012-01-14T16:20:00.000-08:00

Super adorable Zoo with grouped enclosures

And a map for the visitors so they know where they are going and what they want to see! (L= Lizard) I must say I had a great zoo visit.

Box Bear Bedroom

2012-01-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

When helping my parents put the Christmas decorations away my dad found this under the stairs. This was one of my favourite projects for my NNEB (Nursery Nurse/ Child care qual) and it was only a quick insignificant one! But one that inspired me more than most of the theorists - "Create something in a box"

So I present my bear box bedroom, made when I was about 17! I still love it!

Glueless Collage Revisited

2012-01-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

With camera on board, some more pictures of a popular post!!

I love this snowy scene!

And this abstract piece

Fun Stuff

2012-01-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

The "stuff" in the background seems to have been an interest to some. The toys are marketed for children with special needs, and have "special" prices to match!!! But they are great resources despite the price, and are suitable for all children but have the durability to stand up to some major use. I don't know where they are available from in other countries, but in England they are available from Nes Arnold.

The Tubbie is available here and seems to be a hit with children of all ages (and adults) the only problem with this is if the wrong size balls or toys get posted accidentally it is a major job to remove them.

The mirror Chimeabout is also a rather fun resource and is particularly suitable for babies and individuals with SEN, but I admit to enjoying watching this spin, and then stop especially with a torch beam aimed on the mirrors an instant light show around the room! I would defiantly buy again despite the price, available here!

Magic Snow

2012-01-05T15:28:00.000-08:00

I bought some "insta snow" (also marketed as magic snow) from pound land before Christmas and have just got around to using it. We milked the making of this for everything we could, following the instructions to the letter (reading, doubling the instructions so a bit of multiplying.....

dividing the water needed into tens
using a syringe to add the water in 10ml squirts,
watching the immediate reactions of the powder, !!)......
Oh we had fun, then played that was a little less successful (not so keen on texture and neither was I to be honest, haven't played in a while) But I think you will agree this is rather cute (with its features nabbed from the glueless collage) The "snow" is now in freezer awaiting another play session with a twist!!! I'll keep you posted

Snow Play Scape

2012-01-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

An imaginative snow play scene to complement our winter weather play experiences. Snow made of cotton wool balls (hill a sheet of muslin) Display above supplemented with snow men pictures (these were a favourite drawing theme over Christmas!

A poem book about snow placed alongside to enhance play, also Christmas card images of snow.

Something special magazine to support language and the play

A mirror decorative circle for pond

Glueless collage

2012-01-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

We've got a bit of a winter weather theme going on in the playroom at the moment, how long that will last or how long it takes to evolve is a different matter! But it seemed appropriate with the weather just starting to get cold- maybe it will snow soon? Here is an art area for children to make moveable collages in picture frames and mirror.
The collage items are loosely wintery in nature, the blue picture frames containing some wintery inspiration. The black button has "can you make patterns on the frames?" recorded onto it."
The red button says "These pieces are really tiny, if you drop them pick them up" The colour paddles just add another dimension to view.

I added a children's camera to the display so pictures could be taken of their creations here are the first of two such pictures.

I also added a nice little kaleidoscope next to the mirror frame (again for inspiration and comparison)

Bumble Bee Rattle

2012-01-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

So first post for 2012, Happy New year I hope you will Bee very happy!Cute little bumble bee rattle made for my God daughter, made out of a retro film canister with felt sewn around in a bee design with ribbons for wing (like a taggie blanket). I covered the canister with three layers of felt to make it soft and filled the canister with a single bead (about 2cm diameter) make a nice rattle and has a great vibration (bit like a bee)
With the wings you can hang the bee from a thread or off of plastic links (the ones, to stop toys getting chucked out of the buggy).

We're going on a Bear Hunt

2011-12-30T07:23:00.001-08:00

I hope you all had a good Christmas. I'm sure I have more posts on christmas theme to add, but since I have a moment and have these photos on phone posting now. This is a Christmas present I made for a child, I got the idea from pinterest and will share link later!

Christmas Food

2011-12-21T17:39:00.001-08:00

So tomorrow we are having kids Christmas Party lunch, so nice stuff made. Cookie Christmas tree (Not too much icing, you'll find out why in a mo)

Cranberry sauce made and in jars (a little organised me thinks)

Not quite finished chocolate cake, but look at the icing a little too much made (hence why all icing sugar used, had to keep adding. After decanting a bit off and adding a whole bunch more icing sugar the correct consistency was got - left. Im calling the other one sauce)

So anyone any festive ideas for chocolate butter icing and or sauce?

Ps. Icing sugar for Americans is actually powdered sugar

Bookworm Bookmark

2011-12-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

Using unused blind fabric (the kind that doesn't fray) I cut out worm shapes. Felt pens work well on this.

Then using the materials from the wrapping activity (unplanned) the bookworm bookmarks were wrapped.

And a label made, again from the wrapping activity tray.

Christmas Fine Motor (2011)

2011-12-19T17:36:00.000-08:00

So we had a similar activity last year, but this one requires a little more skill. I got new tiny sugar tongs from poundland, and had these other items hanging around the house. The aim is to tong the tiny pom poms onto the snowman saucer and the stars into the star cutter. I will let you know how they get on?
I have blogged about this activity previously, but today in an effort to conserve space on shelf I placed the cup tree into the bowl and the stars on top. HEY PRESTO, self enclosed activity think it will be remaining like this (may even stick it inside the bowl)

Cutting Snowmen and Christmas Trees

2011-12-18T16:46:00.001-08:00

After observing some difficulty with Christmas templates I made this simple cutting activity. I folded the paper, drew half the shape on the crease side. I provided scissors, stickers and ribbon. For children to cut out and create independents.

A beautiful christmas tree

A cool sonwman

Nativity and tree decorating

2011-12-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

The annual nativity display has been set up, this year with a new nativity. We still have lovely wooden one but this was on offer and we liked it a lot. This year it is set up alongside a small tree to decorate making the connection between the Christmas story and the festival.

A simple set up with star netting hanging from picture hook from top of wall.

A photo when it was dark (it's dark far too early), with a small battery operated light behind stable.

The tree to decorate, small decorations kept in gift boxes and gift bags.

Cup tree with bells on for easier decorating (they have tiny curtain rings on) or for playing and singing... jingle bells, jingle..

Christmas Activities

2011-12-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

Wrapping practice and gift tag making. Gift tags simply cut out from last years Christmas cards.

One of the other activities availible is paper chain making, these strips come from that set, I thought they would be useful for some cutting practice though. Cutting each image out and sticking on something perhaps. Actually this is a bit below abilities but I am almost certain it will be a winner, just because of interest and sometimes thats ok in my opinion!!

Snow men counting

2011-12-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

I got these snownen playing cards from pundland last year and planned to use them for song props but when i put them on a shelf next to my beads thought of this cool counting / fine motor activity.

Oreo Turkeys

2011-11-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

Ok so being in England, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving! Now it seems we've acquired all your other holiday's and customs (halloween, fathers day etc.) I'm surprised we haven't stollen this one and made it our own! Obviously we couldn't celebrate the for the reasons you guys do, but certainly the essence of thankfulness is never wasted! Anyway we celebrate Thanksgiving (American in law) and this year made these cute turkey lollies inpiration obtained by googling "oreo turkeys" but I settled on these being the most easy to emulate in large numbers (we had fifty + for dinner). I obviously used white chocolate buttons for feathers because candy corn is too expensive in England (glued in with chocolate icing), liquorice laces for legs (pretzels too fat for my oreos) and half a smartie for beak (oh an a small piece of liquorice for that nose thing). I iced the eyes.

These were last year's turkeys, again inspired by bloggers via google, but using crispy cakes (English twist again) and pretzels for feathers- but these were way toooooo fragile to make a lot of!

Star Button Match

2011-11-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

Selection of pairs of felt cut out stars, with buttons sewn to one pair and a slit big enough (but not too big) to accommodate a button. Children find matching stars and button them together. I also made a matching bag but a pretty box would be just as nice. This will supplements; christmas, twinkle twinkle and space themes/ interests, whilst the children develop fine motor skills, matching and explore connecting scheamas.

Journey to Bethlehem

2011-11-20T16:22:00.001-08:00

This post was supposed to be on "all play on sunday" but accidently wrote on here, I was going to delte but thought it may be of interest to some of you (check out "all play on sunday" for similar ideas)So todays session was called "Journey to Bethlehem" inspiration given from Tidily Winks Red Book. However only limited aspects of session were used.

For play session we had :

King's Town playmat, (inspired by Filth Wizardry) complete with "The Kings Inn" and stable next door, a farm with sheep fields... get the idea modern day applications of what was around when Jesus was born.

Journey to Bethlehem matching cards (images obtained via google, I will add a link for all the printables at alljoinin.net in week)

Transport sorting, this proved way more popular than I anticipated. We were to use these later in one of the stories.

Nativity desert box (really popular, had some great conversations)

Another activity at the free play time was colouring "tiny" Mary on a donkey pictures. To first of all use in the story and then to complete an journey advent calendar. The donkey and Mary were an edited image available from Activity Village

The children coloured the advent calendar and drew Mary and Joseph in the stable.

After play we sat down in a circle like usual and discussed what we had been playing with as an intro to the story, which went in the direction of we have that story at home (nativity, its baby Jesus), we played with sand and trains... we played with all of it etc. and we focussed in on, on the table with the nativity we were playing with a place in the sand and on the mat we were playing with a place with concrete roads. We talked about the story we were going to think about was about a journey on a road, a sandy road.

I then told our special story from the Bible, from before Jesus was born using the nativity props, sand tray and wooden blocks to create shelters.

I then read this story I created for this week, to tie in the transport theme I was focussing on. (I will post more details of this in the week)

We said the prayer (minor edits) from the tiddlywinks book.

The other craft option was decorating this donkey with fabric and sand (for dust). My crafts this week were rather prescriptive, this was for several 1. lacked inspiration for a simple yet purposeful craft 2. I wanted the children to take something home that showed a real link to session so parents could discuss it further 3. I realised that the children would likely be so engaged in the play they wouldn't want to spend ages engaging in craft (I was correct for some children)

Five Little Monkeys

2011-11-18T16:41:00.000-08:00

I have had these resources for some time, and related resources have been available at www.alljoinin.net for sometime, I just thought I'd take this opportunity to show you (need a quick post, been too busy making something/ watching Children in Need). The resources are things I have available for singing the song, but are also what I used to make the resources. There is a printable book, and an interactive powerpoint. Some example power point slides are below: