Loose Part Play: Dried Oranges, Pinecones & Coasters

The girls love having new play ingredients to use in their kitchen, and these loose parts fitted the bill perfectly. I originally made these intending them to become a christmas table centrepiece and wreath and so I didn't really want them played with and damaged. But Poppet must have really liked the dried orange slices as I would keep finding them missing from the bowl, and usually fed to her dinosaurs. She is being very attentive to her dinosaurs as of late, perhaps due to Dinovember that we are currently participating in! (blog post to follow!)

We collected our pine cone collection from the garden and laid them out on a baking tray. They were mostly all closed up, but after an hour or so on a very low heat in the oven they all opened up and are happily now free from all insects which is always good. I sliced up a couple of oranges into 1cm pieces and laid them out on a wire rack (apparently better than a baking tray as it helps prevent them sticking) and baked them at the same time until they had all dried out.

After a couple of days of Poppet stealing the orange slices I gave in and set up an invitation to play using them. I went for a natural theme with a wooden placemat, wood-effect coasters, a bowl of dried oranges and a bowl of pinecones (I was sticking to the Magic Three Formula of loose part play).

My pictures of them playing with them were mostly blurred so I only have one here, but I can vouch that those oranges got a lot of playtime! They did not touch the pinecones at all (have had some up on the windowsill all month so these are no novelty) but the orange slices were cooked, and served up, and cooked, and served up, time and time again. The coasters became little serving platters that Poppet would arrange the oranges on and then hand out to me, or to her little sister.

I will give you one guess as to what Little did with the oranges! Even Poppet had a little experimental nibble. I have now managed to rescue all of my precious oranges slices and have them up out of the way until we can try our hand at making some decorations in the not too distant future!

Poppet: 2yrs 10mos

Little: 1yr 1mos

Loose Parts Play with Playdough

I have been doing some reading recently on the benefits of giving children the opportunity to have free play with loose parts and trying to incorporate it more into our days. Loose parts basically means any small bits and bobs, such as feathers, marbles, lollypop sticks, pine cones, shells etc... There is a great article on Nurture Store that outlines the benefits of free play with loose parts and has a free downloadable print-out with ideas of things you can use; I have it up on the wall to give me inspiration for what to get out.

On this occasion we made a new batch of playdough  (it was meant to be hot pink but I haven't got the hang of colouring yet and it was more dusky pink), and then I put it out along with a bowl of lavender flowers, some lollipop sticks, cocktail stick umbrellas, some wooden 'people', a few playdough utensils and some magnetic numbers (a blatant attempt to make this activity educational).

Things that can be sprinkled are always well-received, so Poppet had a great time sprinkling the lavender flowers into the playdough making it smell lovely.

She was very careful about rolling it out and even placed the rolling pin underneath it to try and lift it, something she has seen me do when rolling out pastry. I sometimes forget that they are always watching and learning!

I am guessing that playdough can get a bit boring with the same old utensils every time so it helped Poppet to see it in a new light with a new set of loose parts to explore. She loved standing the umbrellas up in the playdough and sprinking the lavender the most. In hindsight I probably gave her too many loose parts so in future will limit that - the lollypop sticks and numbers weren't even touched. The Nurture Store talks of a 'Magic Three Formula', i.e. using 3 different types of loose parts, which sounds about right.

Poppet: 2 yrs 8 mos

Little: 1yr

Spice Up Kitchen Play

Poppet got a play kitchen for her 2nd Birthday and it is one of her very favourite toys. However I find that it can be left languishing a bit if it isn't kept inviting, so every now and then I give it a quick tidy up and introduce a couple of new elements for open-ended play. On this occasion I introduced mini-pompoms and cinnamon sticks.  I also laid out an ice cube tray, her little sieve and tongs, and china cups and saucers. 

Straight away she decided to make 'hot chocolate', and took a cupful of pompoms over to her little hob. She carefully added them one by one to her saucepan with a spoon (she had even switched the hob on!) and used the cinnamon stick as a stirrer. I was pretty impressed she knew how to make hot chocolate (I always make it on the hob so she has obviously been taking note!).

 

She made a cup especially for mama........

And another one for Little!

After that she then began 'making marshmallows'....

that were carefully placed in the oven. She even used her oven glove to get them out again.

The whole day she kept going back to do some kitchen play so the pompoms and cinnamon really sparked her imagination. 

Poppet: 2yrs 4 months

Little: 7 mos