The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

Sand and Cookies….

by 9 Comments

The sun is shining (like it’s actually summer!)and we have a new ‘favourite’ activity…so, so easy that i wanted to share it with you…i do recommend it as an outside activity though!

Our little sandpit is getting low (still haven’t built our lovely natural looking one surrounded by logs and bush rocks…’sigh’ one day hopefully!) and i will need to replenish the sand soon so i thought i would begin using up the last of it and make some coloured sand for the toddler twosome to have fun with.

It really is amazing that if you put some colour with something and change the location (on a tray on our spool table) children have a renewed interest in a medium they have been playing with for ages!

I love this large tray…found it at the thrift shop and it works so well for craft when i want to provide a smoother surface than the spool table…..i put some sand on the tray and some in a smaller plastic tray…sprinkled over some edicol vegetable dye and let the girls start mixing it into the sand…..
1 was darker…1 lighter to provide a contrast…..
The girls dived right in and absolutely loved going back and forth between the trays and mixing the colours…..
Such a great sensory experience for them…patting and swirling some wetter sand and swirling and making patterns in the drier, lighter sand tray…..
 Tara began to move the little tray around to where she wanted it….
And then i introduced some brown paper and glue and a sieve…what fun and mess was had!
The glue was so sticky and together with the sand it prompted exclamation and exploration of the lumps on our fingers!
I simply squirted some children’s PVA glue on the paper and the girls moved it around with fingers and different brushes…..as they then sieved sand over the top the colour stuck to the glue…we also just dropped sand with our hands (we are only 18 months!)
What a fantastic texture to ‘talk’ about and touch….
 Laying the sieve across the paper, filling it with sand and then poking through with a brush was also a great discovery!
One of the finished prints..when dry it will be lovely and coarse to touch and discover all over again!
 This really was such an easy and fun activity for this younger toddler stage…the girls really enjoyed it and i have kept the sand in an airtight container for more play another day!
We also made some yummy chocolate chip cookies this morning…the recipe is so quick and easy i thought it would  be nice to share….
EASY CHOC CHIP COOKIES
125 grams softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 teasp. vanilla essence
1 and a 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup choc chips
Cream butter and sugars and then whisk in essence and egg. Stir in the flour and then fold through the choc chips.
Place teaspoonfuls onto greased baking tray and bake in a moderately slow (160 deg) oven for 10-15 mins or 20 for crispier cookies.
Cool on wire rack and then enjoy…..

I hope you enjoy some lovely weather on the weekend , thanks so much for dropping by…….

Comments

  3. Looks like fun, Jode! What a great idea to vary the experience of sand-play by adding a bit of color.

    We will need to refill our sandbox come springtime. My little boys like to haul the sand away in their toy dump trucks! 🙂

    Have a lovely weekend.

    Reply

  6. Gee your little girls are so lucky Jode. What a wonderful art experience, and so much fun for toddlers to explore and just get messy:) I hope you had a great weekend and there was some sunshine your way to enjoy. xx

    Reply

  9. This looks like such a fun way to spend your outside time. I am so excited, I just built an out door sensory area. (when I say built, I mean that I found a table and velcroed two plastic tubs on top) I can’t wait to try this one. Thank you for linking up to Baby Play Friday!

    Reply

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