So my first post about my 52 week Pinterest Challenge took
longer than I expected to post. While I have been busy attempting loads of
great children’s crafts I found on Pinterest; the time to post about them and
the pictures to accompany them alluded me.
January is a busy month for me, one where my husband and I
swap roles with him becoming a house husband and I go out to tackle the work force, in this case a summer holiday program that caters for 4 to
12 year olds.
In the first week alone the children helped me trial “Fire
Breathing Dragons”, “Icy Pole Paintings”, “Story Rocks”, “Hoop Weaving”, “Paper
and Straw Rockets”, “Marble Runs”, “Washer Necklaces”, “Photo Booth Props” and
my personal favourite “Pool Noodle Painting”.
As you can see I should have loads of activity ideas sourced
from Pinterest to review and while I can give you some feedback and ideas about
how you might change them, most of the photos of our efforts have been lost.
Unfortunately one night after we all packed up and went home somebody broke in
and stole our camera along with other items of value. Luckily most of the
activities we undertook were so much fun the children were happy to repeat them
in order for us to share our efforts. We will be posting a review of each of
the above activities in the coming weeks as we redo the activities and take
some photos.
For this week I would like to share our Pool Noodle Painting
experience (I luckily took a few photos on my phone when we were setting up and
cleaning up). There were so many pins showing pool noodle painting I can’t
attribute it to just one but if you would like to see more photos of the cheap
and fun activity just search “Pool Noodle Painting” on Pinterest.
The first part of this activity involved me doing a little set up before the children arrived. While I encouraged the children to help set up and clean up as much as possible there are times (like those that involve sharp scissors or kitchen knives) that I am happy to tackle it by myself. I started by using a sharp pair of scissors to cut two pool noodles (purchased from the local $2 shop) into rings. I then put some paint out on clean meat trays (recycled from this week’s trip to the butcher) before standing back to see what the children decided to create.
I had my doubts about whether this activity would engage all the children I work with but I was pleasantly surprised. Even the most easily distracted were intrigued with the idea of using the pool noodles to paint and how they might use them to create an object. My personal favourite was painting by a 9 year old boy who is often reluctant to tackle crafts. He not only gave it a go but was the first to develop his pool noodle painting by asking for a paint brush so that he could turn the two pool noodle stamps on his page into a car. He then also helped others in the group mix colours and decide what they would like to paint.
The moral of this activity was that often simple is best and providing invitations to create no matter the ages of the children involved as it can lead to the best outcomes. If you are using the Early Years Learning Framework (Australia) you may see examples of children demonstrating creativity, enthusiasm and imagination (LO 4).
If you would like to see what other activities I am thinking
of planning for upcoming Holiday Programs I have started a Pinterest Board just
for these:
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