The play kitchen has fetched up here, temporarily, like flotsam on the tide of one of my periodic re-shuffles. At least, that was the plan. It’s really annoying me to have it here, but it seems to have finally gotten Keeghan to leave the breakfront alone. So I’m thinking of moving it back into the dining room for a while.
I thought the first sanctioned coloring activity might hold his attention, but, apparently there are bigger fish to fry!
Ian’s deep sea fishing puzzle started us on a voyage through wikipedia today to find out how many eyes an octopus has, where sea turtles sleep, how jellyfish eat, and why it’s called a “sea horse.” Also what “pelagic waters” are, which was news to me… or something I’d completely forgotten from long ago.
Sea Creatures Puzzle
Play doh time with Daddy
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| Mom, Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, The Woodsman, and Grannie |
Okay, so you know the thing in the middle doesn’t look terribly wolfish, and I know it doesn’t look terribly wolfish, but my three year old thinks it’s The Wolf. You know, the actual archetype that appears in so many of his favorite stories. (Actually, I’m pretty impressed that it came out even looking remotely canine, since at one point it most resembled a wingless, gray duck.)
What’s going on here is that I’m assembling a “table play” set to use in a preschool lesson. I’m planning to use a small box to make Granny’s bed and then I’ll be done. Ian loves these wooden little people and we’ve also done the Three Little Pigs this way. You can buy these wooden peg people very inexpensively here and customize them to whatever story you want using paint or (as in this case) props and clothes. I’ve also seen it suggested that you create a set as party favors for children’s parties, which is an idea I LOVE and may have to use.
This is a very quick, approachable project. I created the forest backdrop as a mini-felt board using sticky-backed craft felt, a USPS shipping box, an exacto knife, a ballpoint pen, and a pair of scissors from the dollar store. The dolls’ clothes are felt scraps and yarn. I opted to sew them so that when the kids rip them off the dolls they aren’t ruined, but you could just as easily glue them on if your child is more enchanted by dolls than by seeing how they are put together. I plan to create a crochet pattern for what I did with the wolf, but you could also put grey felt ears and snout on one of the peg people. The less realistic the figures, the more details the kids fill in with imagination, so “perfect” is “finished so we can play with them,” not “incredibly detailed and realistic.”
Friday we did The Three Little Pigs at school. We acted it out as a “table puppet play,” and as I told them the story, I encouraged them to help me set the scene. The kids got way into this… controlling the wooden “pigs,” helping to name the characters, yelling, “Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!” and experimenting with building their own “houses” after we finished the story. They loved the part where we all “huffed” and “puffed.”
Ian is continuing to play out the story on his own at every opportunity. He’ll grab the tray and say, “I want to build Michael’s house.” (We named the smart pig who built his house out of stones Michael. His two brothers are George and Ryan.)
One of the most entertaining aspects of this for me, as the adult, was to see how each child took something different from the story and the activity. One was most into the huffing and puffing, one was more into moving the “pigs” around, one was delighted at the opportunity to shout defiance at the bully, and more. Each took to a different aspect and made it their own. At the end they all joined me in laughing at the wolf who thought he could blow down a stone house!
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| I’ll huff and I’ll puff |