Summer's coming and it's time for us to dust off the Step2 water table in order to create some fun small world play scenes. I love using my imagination to come up with scenes that The Boy would really like to play with.
Small World Play: Cars and Tunnels
Last year we had a new fridge freezer delivered and it came in an enormous box which The Boy immediately claimed as his own with his toy cars. Digging out the paints and some props, we set to turning it into a small world haven which is still played with weekly. In fact last week I tried to get it into the recycling, but The Boy cried and I'm a soft mum.
Small World: Building Site
Since discovering how good our Step2 water table is as a centre for Small World play, I've been keen to come up with different scenarios to stimulate his imaginative play. Using Happyland style toys has always been difficult for him, as it is for many other children. Contrary to popular belief children don't always know how to play, especially with imaginative toys promoting role-play; they do need guidance to show how they can re-enact situations they encounter. And likewise the benefits of Small World play are massive as it allows them to work through stories from books, real-life events or the concepts on a television programme for example.
When I set out a Small World scene, I usually have the characters doing something which prompts The Boy to continue their actions and provides a play opportunity straight away. I allow him to play freely for a short amount of time first of all before stepping in and (teacher talk now) 'facilitating his play', gently guiding the direction and providing him with scenarios to process. We play together for another five-ten minutes and then I step back and let him play freely.
He's still not great at engaging to be honest, and that might just be because he isn't geared towards imaginative play at the moment. However, I'm not going to stop providing him with the opportunities and encouraging him.
Small World: Building Site
I have used the Happyland construction site we've had for some time, along with a few other diggers that we have, and placed the crane on the lower level. I poured sand all around the bottom to hide the plastic base, then put sand on the upper level and a pile of gravel (this is actually spare fishtank gravel) in a corner to be moved by the diggers. I placed the various play figures and vehicles around the table, engaging each on in an action.
He had great fun with this and spent ages scooping up the gravel, pouring it into the back of a vehicle and then transferring this down to the crane.
In total this activity took ten minutes to set up, and provided hours of fun.
Car Painting & Small-World Car Wash
The Boy loves painting and I try often to vary the equipment I give him so that he is able to experience the way that paint works and how it can be manipulated. We've used the traditional brushes, delved into printing with sponges and making our own tile prints, and about a month ago I decided to see what he thought of using his little Hot Wheels cars to make patterns.
To prepare for some free painting play, I:
- put out three dishes out for him with green, yellow and blue paint in,
- gave him a variety of different small world vehicle,
- taped down an eight foot length of paper onto the kitchen floor.
We had great fun investigating the different tyre tracks on each vehicle, testing to see which was the most effective coloured paint for getting distinct tyre prints onto the paper, and even bordered into some science when we realised that the heavier vehicle were more effective at leaving tyre patterns. The Boy loved looking to see how the wet paints were crossing over and mixing to create new shades of green, etc. In total we spent about an hour zooming the cars back and for; the artwork is still taped to my kitchen wall because I love the colours in it so much.
I'd already thought about the fact that I didn't want to be spending ages scouring his car afterwards, and had enlisted the help of some basic cleaning sponges and his Step2 water table to create a car wash for him. One of the simplest activities that he likes to do is go to the car wash and see the coloured foam squirt all over the car before various brushes, rollers and sponge strips clean the car.
I decided to recreate this using:
- cheap shaving foam
- a few drops of food colouring
- Blu-Tack
- double-sided tape
- sponge scourers
- round plastic scourers
- a thin sponge wipe (which I cut long strips into to create the drying and buffing curtainat the end of the car wash, we call them the 'kisses')
- Playmobil figures
The Step2 water table we have has two different levels with a slope connecting them. I filled the top level with shaving foam and a few drops of food colouring to create the foam of a car wash. Near to the entrance of the slope to the lower level I Blu-tacked some round plastic scourers, and at the top of the sponge I placed some sponge scourers; both designed to rub the dirt off. At the bottom of the slope I hung the sponge wipe 'curtain'. The lower level of the table was filled with water to rinse the cars off.
I placed a few of his Playmobil figures at strategic points with small sponges in their hands and invited him to clean his paint-laden cars off.
The Boy happily played with his car wash for well over another hour, in fact he got his cars covered in paint repeatedly so he could wash them all off again. Water play is always such fun but sometimes he gets bored when it lacks focus. He also won't go anywhere near messy play if I present it to him as a dedicated messy play activity. However, the format of the car wash enabled him to experience both messy play and then wash the shaving foam off in the water if it became too much for him to bear.
Days 34-40 of Project 365
34: 'Swinging' (The Boy learnt to pull himself up into his swing and then swing himself! All by himself! I'm so proud of him. He sat there happily swinging along while Mr. TBaM and I watched from our respective paused activities.)
35: 'Not Quite So Roar-y' (Quite possibly the most useless ride-on ever; cost £1 for a minute and barely moved. I'm not sure who was more unimpressed; me, mum or The Boy.)
36: 'The Paradise' (I had great fun creating this small world play beach for The Boy and he had great fun plopping the mummy and daddy into the sea. We made a miniature sandcastle and had a mini game of football with the Playmobil figures.)
37: 'Hopeful!' (We've been sent a Groclock for review and we started using it on the weekend after quite frankly the most ridiculous fortnight of early morning wake-ups. He's absolutely taken with it and loves watching it go to sleep. It does seem to be working because the morning after this photo was taken he woke at 5am and when he saw it was still night-time he went straight back to sleep until 7.35am!)
38: 'Sailing on the sea' (Grandad comes over to play with The Boy on a Thursday while I'm in work and Nana is looking after him, today they made this picture together with The Boy's tap-tap set.)
39: 'Pedal Power' (A quick trip to the beachfront after I picked him up from nursery and time to practise his bike riding. He's doing really well with it, steering well and staying steadily upright in his seat. The stabilisers are at the highest position they can be before removing them but he's not quite ready because he pedals too slowly. He's capable of pedalling faster but his problem is that he's too busy looking at the world around him and taking it all in to concentrate on the speed. And who can blame him?)
40: 'Wishing Well' (We've come away for the weekend to Weston-Super-Mare because I just need to get away from it all, we all do. It's not quite been the day I envisaged because it's über grey and drizzly, but we've had such fun! Off to see Mummy Mishaps and crew tomorrow!)
—
and with A Kilt and a Camera
Small World: Beach Play
Whistling against the double-glazed doors, the wind howled around the garden searching for an outlet. It found its victim in the lone toy lying on the patio; the Step 2 water table, abandoned since the last warm day of Summer, rolling around the concrete slabs.
Irritating the hell out of me!
Which was the point that I summoned my husband to, "just do something with it, will you?!"
And then I glanced down at the Pinterest board that I had open displaying a plethora of play ideas. Many of them use exactly the same water table that was in danger of being outcast at that very moment. Mr. TBaM was informed to bring it in and clean it off and an idea started taking shape in my mind.
The Boy loves playing with his water table, and he loves playing at the beach. It's slightly Arctic at the moment and as much as I'm happy to chant the mantra, 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!', after a while it turns into a lie; it's really cold at Barry Island at this time of year!
The Boy and I (see I'm capable of the correct grammar when necessary) nipped to a pound shop earlier and picked up a bunch of fake flowers, glass pebbles, stone polished pebbles and Blu-Tack. While he was napping this afternoon, I got busy creating him his own indoor lagoon to play with.
I filled the top section of the water table with sand and the lower level with water, to which I added a few drops of blue food colouring. The glass pebbles in the base help to give the 'sea' more of a ripply effect and are more colourful. They're also lovely to play with in the water.
The fake flower heads were removed, as were a variety of the leaves, and I pushed the plastic stalk into a ball of Blu-Tack which adheres well to the tub and manages to withstand water splashed quite well. I covered up the base of the Blu-Tack with smaller leaves of small pebbles. The polished stones were laid around the edges of the sand to resemble rockpools, and I created a sunlounger haven in the area where the water-wheel normally stands. Finally I added his Playmobil figures in different poses.
He was over the moon when he came downstairs to play with it, and got stuck straight in making sandcastles and diving the figures into the sea.
This table has proven to be a great resource for the play and I've got a whole range of other ideas to try out with it. Small World play is brilliant for pre-schoolers as it allows them to make sense of the world in which they live by acting out known situations, and exploring others with safety and guidance from the supervising adult.
It helps to develop oracy, fine motor skills and the imagination. What better excuse for playing?
