Den Building

I'm not like a lot of mums. When we moved into our house I didn't instantly think of bedroom size or whether we had a build in bathroom. No I was more concerned about the size of the children's play space downstairs and how the garden could be created into a children haven. One thought that I remember going through my head was how useful the stair case would be for making dens. This week we finally got round to making one and I must admit the staircase was a great tool.

We used pegs to fix a throw to the stairs and hung the other end over the sofa once it was pulled out and kept it in place with the sofa cushions.

We placed an odd duvet on the ground inside and added a few cushions from the book corner. The children climbed inside and began playing mums and dads.

 If you don't have a staircase in your living room try using a table and chairs, art easel, toy kitchen or airers to create a new play space.

Next week we will be using the den in our book focus which is going to be 'Going on a bear hunt'. Join us then for ideas on how to celebrate this great book.

Printing the Olympic rings

Over the next few weeks we will be focusing our activities around the Olympics. From playing Olympic sports, baking medals and making our own torch. 

Today we started off by recycling some of our old toilet roll tubes for printing the Olympic rings.

Resources:

Poster paint in the Olympic colours

Toilet roll tubes

A large piece of paper. 

The children had a fab time making their own prints on the paper. I placed the paper on the floor in the garden as the weather was nice and it gave them more room to move around. To begin with G tried to copy the Olympic pattern and Little man choose his favourite colours to start printing. 

As the children got more stuck into the activity we discussed where the different colours go. 

After a while the children realised it would be much more fun to stamp all over the paper. What we was left with was a beautiful master piece fit to adorn our wall. The only thing I regret with this activity I not doing it onto canvas.