Guest Posted October 21, 2005 Posted October 21, 2005 Our mallable areas looking abit on the sad side, Does anyone have anything exciting in theirs? Any suggestions greatfully received!
Guest Posted October 21, 2005 Posted October 21, 2005 We added cocoa powder to the gloop (cornflour mix) today. Very successful. Lots of lovely language.
Guest Posted October 21, 2005 Posted October 21, 2005 We used gloop this week, and that lovely crazy soap recently discussed, last week. We have a tactile area, rather than malleable, and found that (uncooked) rice went down well - all different colours. Also jelly, baked beans (?), mashed potato, cooked spaghetti, compost/mud, shaving foam...
Posy Posted October 21, 2005 Posted October 21, 2005 We have laminated cards with different length snakes, different size snails, cookie shapes, faces (children add hair and featues using play dough) Aso large ark shapes (children make pairs of animals or use animal cutters to fill the ark) Children love having microwave and oven from roleplay area at table, we add different resources such as trays, bun tins, coloured sand (sprinkles) chef's hats, paper cases, red 'cherry' beads Add a dice to play dough table, throw dice and make corresponding number of shapes/cookies/ gingerbread men(Differentiation - 2 dice add amounts) Shredded paper, with dough or water is popular, specially with small world resources .Paper+dough+water in water tray or builders tray results in a sort of papier mache- add balloons once they've got the mixture really disgusting Don't know if its strictly 'malleable', possibly more 'messy' but balloons in water tray with wool and a sugar solution is strangely satisfying (enough about me) immerse the wool into sugar solution,wind the wool around balloons, till you get a cage effect. Leave to dry. Burst balloon and you get a sort of frosted effect hanging shape. The more sugary the solution, the greater the sparkle I agree that malleable area can look very sad, specially when children delight in crumbling up dough and burying rollers etc. (and why do visitors always come in on those days?) Seem to have lost the plot here, Barb
apple Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 hey Barb that sugary solution sounds great (especially the sparkly effect) can you tell us more about the amounts of sugar/water and exactly what type of sugar
Posy Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 Hello Lisa granulated or caster sugar- white works better than brown. (Don't know why?) And I have used out of date preserving sugar which I inherited when an elderly neighbour died - the lesson here is befriend elderly neighbours Finished effect is best if you dissolve sugar first in very hot water and add cold water after in water tray (or containers like a washing up bowl or paint trays) although as children like watching dissolving process we sometimes just use lukewarm. Quantities um, how big are your hands or strong is your packet shake? Off the top of my head about 1/3 sugar to 2/3 water. Drying out process is about 48 hours, unless your setting leaves heating on overnight. Barb
Guest Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 Wow!! thanks for all those lovely ideas Barb. As a newbie to both reception and here, it's fantastic to have all these great ideas to play around with. I'm supposed to be packing for our hols tomorrow, but I think I'll play with clipart instead. The sugary solution idea sounds great for christmas decorations, my 3 year old at home will love doing that Thanks again
Guest Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 Clay, plasticine and modelling sand are all good. Insta snow makes a lovely change - though you can't model with it. Ordinary flour and water dough is great too, but very messy (can compare different types of flour) I bought some cheap sink strainers from Tescos for the children to push into the dough to extrude it (safer than garlic presses!). We also have the ELC dough train and fire engine, potato mashers etc. We like putting small world animals (tubs from ELC £5) and trees with the playdough. (can do "guess whose footprint"). Also maps and cars and anything for pattern making.
Guest Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 Thanks for all your suggestions, went out today to get some new Wooden spoons Whisks hand held and ballons Spatulas Cutters Birthday candles/cake cases Baking trays Potato mashes, fish slicers Jugs, bowls And some lovely deep trays to put stuff in, think they were supposed to be doggy poop trays but hey! (Thank goodness for wilkinsons) Does anyone use gravel/stones that go in fish tanks? Going to make some of those cards Barb they sound good- Looking forward to putting it all together now
Guest Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 Great ideas everyone-I am going to make the cards and try the sugar thing. Linda
Posy Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 Whoops, forgot to say you need to use woolly wool, (fluffy) not the thin stringy stuff. And pale colours look better. If you can only get hold of thin yarn, you need to cover ballooons with a layer of paper so that there's some sort of surface. Hope that makes sense Barb
Susan Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 I have a lovely lace basket that was once stiff, with a sugar solution! Might try restiffening it now.
Guest Posted October 24, 2005 Posted October 24, 2005 What fantastic ideas - I'm definately going to try the sugar solution - will fit really nicely with a winter theme I have some laminated letter shapes that the children use - good after handwriting session - need an adult with them for the first couple of times to make sure they roll and sausage shape and then form the letter - they can then go over the letter with their finger and talk through the formation. Have found this useful as they can really see how the letter is formed - especially good as I have a lot of children who make the 'a' as a circle and then add a bit of a stick at the side. Harricroft
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