Small world and messy activities for 2 year olds, based around The Ver

[caffinefreak]

Hello lovelies

I'm having a total brain freeze! I'm planning some activities based around The Very Hungry Caterpillar as several of our 2 year olds love the story.

I've got the extension activities for communication and language, literacy, physical / healthy body and expressive arts and design but I'm trying to think of some small world, and messy activities and I'm drawing blanks, I think I may be tired!!!

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated xxx

[Fredbear]

Butterfly paintings using string. Bubble painting, mixing colours.

Will have to give small world a bit more thought.

[Mouseketeer]

Circle printing, then a bit of artistic licence by you to cut around them into wiggly (random) caterpillar shapes, children can then add feet, eyes etc.

 

Other than a tuff spot or tray with leaves, twigs, bugs ( caterpillars, butterflies) can't think of much small world

 

Pinterest is pretty good for ideas usually

[Fredbear]

Ooh have a look at stimulating learning.co, they have some fab ideas too.

[louby loo]

Ooh have a look at stimulating learning.co, they have some fab ideas too.

Some lovely ideas on there.

Trouble is - you set up all these beautiful stimulating areas........... then some child has the cheek to come along either wreck it and leave, or worse still- start off a 'transporting schema' and pack it all in a bag and hide it all somewhere! :blink: :lol:

[Fredbear]

Yes so true.:)

[Guest]

I too have thought about this and i came up with something that my nieces did last year.

They had a live butterfly garden! it was amazing. you can buy them on amazon for £13 ish. look up insect lore butterfly garden.

You get a voucher to send off, you receive 5 caterpillars and a place to store them they eat the food inside, turn to a chrysalis and then they turn to butterflies in a pop up tent thing and you release them ! super for learning about life cycles and the world!

However due to the weather its advised after March !

[caffinefreak]

Thanks all!

Mary, we did the insect lore last year ad are definitely doing it again this year so this series of activities in in preparation for that!

I will check out those sites!

Thanks so much again! xx

[finleysmaid]

(urm we just go and collect caterpillars from the hedgerow! sssshhhhh perhaps i shouldn't say that????)

 

on a side note if you are struggling to find something to link to the theme then perhaps you shouldn't be linking it?...are any of your 2 year olds going to say..."I'm not playing with that it hasn't anything to do with the hungry caterpillar??" would it not be better to link to their next steps which will help their development?

[tish501]

Some lovely ideas on there.

Trouble is - you set up all these beautiful stimulating areas........... then some child has the cheek to come along either wreck it and leave, or worse still- start off a 'transporting schema' and pack it all in a bag and hide it all somewhere! :blink: :lol: XX

there was me thinking only our children do that...magnetic alphabet found in their microwave.....ALL the chopsticks yesterday found in their babies cot ! xx

[finleysmaid]

there was me thinking only our children do that...magnetic alphabet found in their microwave.....ALL the chopsticks yesterday found in their babies cot ! xx

A very wise trainer once told me to think about WHY the children are doing this....what is it that we are not providing that they need for their play? so food for the microwave (dried pasta works well) ...not sure about the chopsticks though,,,,,,,what were they thinking! :blink: :blink:

[louby loo]

A very wise trainer once told me to think about WHY the children are doing this....what is it that we are not providing that they need for their play? so food for the microwave (dried pasta works well) ...not sure about the chopsticks though,,,,,,,what were they thinking! :blink: :blink:

Sorry, I have to challenge this! :lol: I've been in the job far far more years than I care to mention - and I KNOW FOR A FACT just off to find the research to back up my comments

They do it purely for the sole purpose of seeing out faces drop when we see what they have done with our wonderful displays .... Then when they go home they have 'meetings' to discuss how they think we handled it:- Could we control our emotions? Did we use language or inappropriate actions to show our displeasure? --- they then rate this against a chart they have displayed in their bedrooms!

Obviously they do this over the whole 7 areas!!!!!

[louby loo]

............And the are called the OAP goals - which I can't for the life of me remember what that stands for at the moment... However I have been told by that fact alone I am actually scoring really high in one of the cognitive areas!

xxx

[lynned55]

Sorry, I have to challenge this! :lol: I've been in the job far far more years than I care to mention - and I KNOW FOR A FACT just off to find the research to back up my comments

They do it purely for the sole purpose of seeing out faces drop when we see what they have done with our wonderful displays .... Then when they go home they have 'meetings' to discuss how they think we handled it:- Could we control our emotions? Did we use language or inappropriate actions to show our displeasure? --- they then rate this against a chart they have displayed in their bedrooms!

Obviously they do this over the whole 7 areas!!!!!

Well I can back that up!!

We seem to have a large group of children at the moment who seem to just want to wreck transport everything. If we put pasta or dough in the kitchen then it ends up in the sand or cars. Total waste of time putting any puzzles out at the moment as the pieces all end up being 'cooked' or in bags or worse the odd piece in a pocket and taken home. Actually the puzzle thing is driving me mad, I dont normally mind the transporting but this puzzle thing is becoming annoying as most sessions we seem to end up with at least one that is no good as it has a piece missing. Its even beginning to annoy some of the children :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Rob6692]

A very wise trainer once told me to think about WHY the children are doing this....what is it that we are not providing that they need for their play? so food for the microwave (dried pasta works well) ...not sure about the chopsticks though,,,,,,,what were they thinking! :blink: :blink:

 

I'm going to challenge this too as a child's world is not constrained by the same limitations ours is. They may not know that these items don't normally go in the cooker or the purposes of items. Further, they don't know what will happen when these things are put in the cooker because nobody ever does it, so they may be trying to find out via role-play; which is, of course, a child's way of understanding the world around them. The EYFS states that children don't realise that tools have specific purposes or select them purposefully until the of 3-5, I'm sure this also applies to cooking equipment.

Using objects in conjunction with each other that are not normally used in such a way is one of the main sources of creativity in the Early Years (and the rest of your life, for that matter). Children should be able to use any resources freely however they choose (within reason, of course). Look at loose parts play, scrap play and even junk modelling for example.

Also, as mentioned above, it could just be schematic.

There's a multitude of other possible reasons for this type of play but all in all, it ha snothing to do with a lack of resources