A fortnight ago, I read this post about scrap centres from The Alexander Residence. It reminded me about the recycling centre that I used to visit when I was training to be a nursery nurse, and I wondered if sixteen years later, it was still going. It is, and it's been improved. I had a little think about what activity we could do using the resources that we'd be able to find there.
Then the next day, a post from the Goddess that is Cathy at The Nurture Store popped into my inbox about the new Kids Art Explorers' Challenge. The theme was paper-free art, and suddenly I knew exactly what I was going to be doing with The Boy.
His favourite song at the moment is the 'Mo-mo' song from 'Show Me, Show Me'. We both pretend to be robots, put on our best mechanical voice and do robot arms while singing about the colours of the rainbow. It's quite amusing and I'm trying to get it on video to post, but he runs away screaming whenever I produce the FlipCam lately.
When we finally managed to get to our local scrap centre we had great fun delving in all the bins, finding treasures, discussing what we could use them for, getting over excited with various materials that we had no use for (let alone space) and saving oodles and oodles of dosh.
Originally I'd intended to do this activity on the patio using the bamboo fence. But it's currently submerged in eleventy billion feet of water so I tied netting up against the bannister upstairs on the landing and we did the activity there instead.
I knew the iPad was an essential educational tool! We gathered our resources together, examined a reference picture and discussed which colours we needed. An interesting discussion about what colour indigo is ensued and then a discussion about the difference between that and violet. Try and explain hues to a two year old.
Life became a lot easier for both The Boy and me once I'd remembered he is left-handed and realised that threading from left-right was causing him issues. One of the many things that need reversing when teaching a left-hander.
Admiring our handiwork and our beautiful rainbow!
This was a really enjoyable activity and The Boy loves sitting and feeling the different textures in the rainbow along with singing Mo-mo's song. The total cost of the resources for the activity was £1. (Just ignore the cost of the iPad)
You can search for your own nearest scrap centre here.
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I'm linking this up to The Nurture Store's Kids Art Explorers Project.
Love this, just love it!!!
Wow! Amazing why can't I think of things like,this? Really clever x.,
What an amazing idea!
wow that looks incredible. And how cute does The Boy look x
Stunning! What a lovely project to do together. We used to do something very similar through the railings of our Reception playground using plastic bags!
Wow, that is fab! what a great idea. S if left handed too! xx
what a lovely idea for a craft and the finished result looks amazing.
such a wonderful and simple idea. i may try it!
Wow that looks really beautiful, so glad you enjoyed the scrapstore. My favourite bit was the ribbons and reels of sweet wrappings too. I will have to investigate the linky you mention now we've got some crafty posts up!
Guess what we'll be doing soon! Lovely idea and vibrant photos too. Thanks for linking to Parentonomy.
This looks amazing! Such a clever idea, glad you both enjoyed making it. Can't wait until D is old enough to be crafty x
Thanks for sharing on Tuesday Tots last week. I am featuring your post this week on In Lieu of Preschool: http://www.inlieuofpreschool.com/color-activities-for-kids/ Please feel free to stop by and grab a featured button. Off to pin! Thanks again for sharing!
Thanks very much for including me, so lovely to hear. I shall nip over now and grab the badge.