Playdough Olympic medals

Today we decided to make Playdough Olympic medals this is to celebrate the Paralympics which will be starting very soon :) We used Homemade play dough  which I made the night before using the recipe in our sweet shop post . To add the colours I used some metallic paint and loads of glitter that we had however I was not really happy with the results that the paint gave and am thinking that gold food colouring gel would of probably been better but probably costs a fortune so this is a good cheap alternative and Little Boo was impressed!

I am hoping that you can see the sparkle :) probably needed more glitter! 

First Little Boo helped to organise some gold and silver gems and items to decorate the medals.  We also had feathers as the Paralympic medals this year feature the Greek Goddess victory's wing.  Due to this I thought that using the feather would be quite effective.

All we did is press the gold, silver or bronze play dough into the cake tin placing some ribbon in between the layers.

Getting the feather impression on the playdough. This showed up very faintly. 

 Once this was pressed in it popped out easily and we added gems and sparkly things to make it look pretty.  We also used our new letter stamps the idea was to write on the medals Gold, Silver and Bronze but Little Boo just wanted to stamp away which was fine as she was enjoying herself.

This picture was taken before I had the cake tin idea.  This was cut using a plastic cup.

Little Boos favourite toy wearing the medal.

 

Playing a game Boccia

I have recently been lucky enough to have someone come into work and play Boccia here is some info about the game.  This game is usually played by athletes in wheelchairs with cerebral palsy or other related disabilities.  Boccia is explained more on the Paralympic website.  I thought that this would be an excellent game to share with Little Boo as it is fun.

First a jack must be thrown.  This is usually white but in our case was yellow (did not have a white ball) Then there are two teams which are either Blue or Red Little Boo chose Red then the game began!

We need three more. 

Sorting out the balls ready for play.
(I knew I would find a use for that subway platter box! )

Really the game should be played seated but
as long we are having fun 

Aim for a target 

When we were playing Boccia at work we also went over some of the ways that the players would learn and practice.  This was one of them the idea is that the athlete has to roll the ball into a designated area.  This was difficult Little Boo had to learn the art of rolling instead of just throwing it.

Hitting the target 

This game I have shared with you before on the No more odd socks posts.  The idea is that you have to knock the large ball out of the area using the other balls.  This is a good tactic to learn when the athletes need to knock an opponents ball out the way of the jack. 

When looking on the internet I found some great Paralympic resources

Colouring in sheets  
ability v ability great resources for schools and parents and where I found the link to explain the game at the start of the post.
GB Boccia - A link to all the GB Boccia Athletes
Paralympics website  all the official information and TV coverage.


I hope that you enjoy a game of Boccia! We certainly did and can not wait to see it on the television.

Paralympics- using our senses

We are really excited to think that the Paralympics is starting next week.  I sometimes feel like this event is rather miss looked and am pleased that this time around for the first time it will get full coverage on prime time television, so again we will have the opportunity to all be shouting, "go GB!"

This week we are exploring the Paralympic games in readiness for it to start on the 29th of August.  As you may be aware there are athletes within the Paralympics who are visually impaired, blind or Deaf. This is why today we have explored our senses with some games.  These are games that I used to play when I was at guides and we all loved them so it has been wonderful to share these games with Little Boo.

Fetch the key

For this game by keys where placed underneath Little Boos chair.  She was blind folded using a scarf.  The challenge was for me to then retrieve the keys without Little Boo pointing to where I was. The idea is that you can not rely on your sense of sight but have to really listen. I was surprised at how keen Little Boo was to play this but she loved it!

Guess the smell

This game was played with smelling and with tasting though:) Again Little Boo was blind folded and she had to try and guess the smell.  I only used items that I knew she liked and that I thought had quite a distinctive smell there are loads more items that could be suitable.  This game was really fun she enjoyed it even more when we could eat all the food afterwards! This was actually a really good game to encourage children to eat foods.  It was lovely that Little Boo was asking for more orange. 

Is it time for a picnic?

 Feely box 

I realise that I only shared this idea with you the other day but the possibilities are endless! We placed loads of food items in there from Little Boos Kitchen and she was able to name them. A fantastic way to learn words and relying on her sense of touch.

Here are some other posts that I have linked to the idea of senses

Anyone for ice cream - touching the play dough and the different fragrances used.
Making a wind chime   hearing the wind chime
Making a rain maker- hearing he rain maker
Our first expedience with water beads feeling the beads
ice cube art feeling he ice cubes
sweet shop  smelling the different scented play doughs.

I hope that you enjoy some of these activities and that it give you a chance to look back at some of the older posts.  Feel free to comment on the post if you have any games that you think would be fun to play.