More fun with leaves-Sticky Autumn picture

Little Boo loves playing with contact paper.  We have been using it for making since she was about six months.  I was really pleased to find the sticky back plastic vinyl in the pound shop as usually I pay a lot for it. Due to getting it cheap we were able to make a large picture using the easel to stick the sticky back plastic on to.

The idea was simple we just got all the leaves and the items that we collected out on a big tray I then let Little Boo stick whatever she wanted.  Due to Little Boo loving Tree Fu Tom at the moment we decided to colour in some pictures of him and the others from the program.  We then shrunk these by scanning them and reducing the size.  Little Boo enjoyed doing this as well as she loves using the computer. We used all the characters in the picture as they all live in the forest and Little Boo wanted to make a forest for them.

I hope that you can enjoy this idea it is so simple and really good fun. I have left our picture out and Little Boo keeps coming back to it to add more items.  When it is completed we will place another piece of contact over the top and some cardboard to make a frame.

Practising using scissors

Boo loves to use her scissors I feel that it is really important to encourage this and to assist her in improving her skills after all this helps her fine motor skills.  Here are some activities that we do did to practice.

Making a collage 


One evening I got ready loads of different textured papers and items that I knew Little Boo would be able to cut up.  In the morning we then made these into a massive collage Little Boo doing most the cutting and me the gluing it was a great team effort.

Items that we used 

• Up-cycled art work 
• bubble wrap
• straws
• string
• tissue paper
• cake cases
• wrapping paper 
• Magazines
• funky foam 
• Sparkly contact

The cup cases were the favourites 

This paper was brilliant at encouraging Little Boo to cut straight. 

Some of the collage 

We then made a Dolls House 


This was a plan of the Dolls house.   We used a Argos book and looked for all the items to fill the house with.  I started off by drawing around the objects for Little Boo so she had a guide where to cut but Little Boo wanted to also take over this activity. So she was busy thinking what she wanted, finding it in the book (with Mommy's help), drawing around it, then cutting it out.  It could be a really good activity for older children to learn how to use an index as well.

Drawing around the objects 

I want this cooker

 dolls house nearly finished  

Cutting play dough


Cutting up play dough is a great start activity to develop cutting skills as the play dough is soft and fun to cut.  Little Boo has this play dough hair cutting toy and it is great fun.

Cutting straws

I know that this sounds strange but Little Boo loves cutting straws! I think she likes to watch the pieces fly off in different directions.  The great thing is is that the cut up straws can be used for collages or for threading afterwards.

Fathers day present!

For Fathers Day I have been thinking around the topic of favourite things! Me and Little Boo have been talking about what Daddy likes! It was actually a funny conversation as a lot of it centred around crisps! As apparently "daddy really likes them" which I must admit is true. This is where the thought of making a hamper of "daddy's favourite things" came from. It has been really fun choosing the things. 

I was considering a way of containing the items, then whilst in our local pound shop (again) I found a plastic tub which looked ideal. I did not want to leave it like this so set to work customising it with Little Boo. We got a pile of old photographs and one of Little Boos paintings. The idea was to collage the tub with photographs of Little Boo and Daddy. Due to the tub being plastic I went over it initially with sandpaper to make a rough surface to sick to.

Little Boo has a fascination with cutting at the moment so this activity was brilliant! Here she is cutting up the art work that she made.

After a few minutes of cutting.  She also wanted to cut up a few pictures.  These were stuck to the container with normal glue stick but then we had to go over the top with a few layers of PVA glue and it looked great!

Our own shredded tissue made with up cycled art work.  It looks fantastic and sounds nice too.

Daddy's hamper granted not the most healthy but it is fathers day after all! He deserves a big treat. I later covered it with some cellophane so it all stayed together.

I hope that you like the idea it could be used for birthdays as well.  There is always the thought that the hamper could contain all home made items for the recipient.
I hope that you all have a wonderful day tomorrow it is not just "Fathers Day" at work we tend to think of "A Special Man" I hope that you all have the opportunity to thank a special man in your life tomorrow.