HAND ON ACTIVITIES

November has been a very exciting month for us. The children have undertaken a number of new creative project and have got their hands truly stuck in - digging, mixing, rubbing and shaking! 


Here's a quick run down of what we have been up to...

Sand Castles with a twist! - Moon Sand

... what is moon sand you ask? Well, basically it's wet sand that can be kept, re- moulded and re-shaped time and time again. After some research we discovered a cheap alternative to the shop bought supplies and here is how you can make your own moon sand.

for an added sparkle we added red glitter to our mixture too!

 RECIPE FOR HOMEMADE MOON SAND

• 6 cups of play sand

• 3 cups of cornstarch

• 1 1/2 cups of cold water    

Mix the water and cornstarch together until a smooth paste. Gradually mix in the sand, one cup at a time. You'll need to really work it in with your fingers. Add additional food colouring to change the shade (we used red) and your ready to play!  When you're finished pop it in an airtight container ready for the next time you want to play with it. (if it's dried out slightly add a few tablespoons of water. Just sprinkle it over and work it in.)

 

TREASURE HUNTERS a go-go!

A new addition to our playground kit is this fantastic metal detector.  Small groups of children took turns to search and dig around the playground looking for buried coins and relics. 

"come on guys -dig deep!"

UNDER AND OVER, OUTDOOR WEAVING

An interesting creative idea came about with the use of a couple of cut down branches, tree stump and materials box. Children were encouraged to express their creative ideas and explore through this weaving experiences outside our main play hut. Passing children stopped to ask was it an early chritmas tree as it was so colourful!

 

PLAY, SENSORY MEDIUM USING COLOURED RICE

Did you know that rice can also be used as a playful thing too? The texture is something that is lovely to sift though you fingers, shake and sprinkle. It's alot of fun and adding colour to it adds an extra element. It's really simple to do and a lot of fun.

The best rice to use is long gram white rice. Pour a cup full of rice into a small sandwich bag and add a table spoon of water. Then add a few drops of food colouring. Seal the bag and shake until all the small grams of rice are covered. Afterwards open the bag and spread the rice onto kitchen roll tissue and leave to dry over night. We made 3 different colours but of course you can make lots of different colours and shades depending on the amount of food colouring you add.

Adventure playgrounds in Hackney are some of the best in London

Thursday, November 17, 2011
12:53 PM

www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/adventure_playgrounds_in_hackney_are_some_of_the_best_in_london_1_1129255 

''Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground in Stoke Newington was named most friendly in the capital, and Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground in Daubeney Fields was deemed top for variety in the London Play’s Adventure Playground of the Year Awards 2011.

They beat off stiff competition from 10 other finalists to win in two of five award categories, but Toffee Park in neighbouring Islington was named the overall winner.

All of London’s 90 adventure playgrounds – which provide school-aged children with opportunities to play that are difficult to find in an urban environment - were eligible to enter the awards.

The children who regularly use them were invited to submit short films.''

 

Award for Hackney Adventure Playground
http://www.successinthemaking.co.uk/news/award-for-hackney-adventure-playground

POSTED November 7th, 2011

 
''Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground, which is managed by The Learning Trust, won an award at the London Play Adventure Playground of the Year Ceremony in Finchley last week.
The awards were open to all adventure playgrounds in London. The ceremony was attended by children and playworkers from the 12 shortlisted finalists. Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground won the category of ‘best variety’, as the judges felt the playground had the most different and varied play opportunities and activities on offer.
Play development manager Nick Jackson said, ‘It’s great to have received this recognition for the quality of our adventure playgrounds in Hackney, and shows that the recent investment in these facilities was money well spent.’
Another Hackney play project, Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground, an independent charity that is grant funded by LBH, won the category of ‘Involvement’ for ensuring all children are made to feel welcome.''

Autumn Falls

Autumn has finally arrived at Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground. The leaves are falling, orange and yellow hues decorate the pathways, platforms and tree houses.  The mild temperatures meant we still have plenty of activities happening outside from den building, decorating the tree house and at the end of the day 'murder in the dark' hide & seek team games.

Tuesday 1st November, Salt Dough Autumn Leaves:

This week we experimented with making salt dough autumn leaves. In the past we have made play dough which is a much loved activity. The children enjoy squeezing, shaping and modelling the dough but their items are never persevered. This time we followed a very simple salt dough recipe and added food colouring at the beginning in autumn shades. Salt dough is a cheap alternative to commercial clay based material and easy to make.  

  

What you need: 2 cups of plain flour,  ½ cup of salt,  1 cup of water,  food colouring, extra flour for rolling out.

Mix the flour and salt together and then add enough water to make a dough ball that is firm but not sticky. Add the water drop by drop until you get the right consistency. Knead the dough until its flexible then roll it out, on a floured board. The thickness should be approximately 1cm. Place the shapes on a foil-lined baking tray and cook in the oven at 120oC for 2 hours or leave to air dry for a few days turning occasionally. 

Children rolled out their coloured salt dough. The next stage they pressed a real leave into the soft dough and finally cut around the shape. When the leaves have dried we will varnish then so they have a sleek gloss finish.

ROCKY ROAD TOFFEE APPLES-YUMMY!

With Bon-fire night just a few days away we made these delicious rock road toffee apples. These were really easy to make and lots of children took part in doing a task. We organized a small factory line, one person added the toffee, another person dipped the chocolate, someone else added the chopped up marshmallows and sprinkles were added just at the end.  The only downside to this was that we had to wait for everything to cool down before we could tuck in!

Well worth the wait - mm, yummy!

BON-FIRE event

Ooh - a marshmallow tree!

This year we held our bon-fire event a day early and organized a number of fun things for the children to take part in. First, we had to get the fire going with the help of a few older children this didn't take long. A huge cook out was prepared and sausages, potatoes, soup and apple pie were all on offer.

Children earlier in the week helped Cat (playworker) to make a stuffed guy for the fire. A number of debates were had about what the face should be, if it was a girl or boy?  

The guy was thrown on to the fire, with in minutes in went up in a ball of flames to the delight of all who were watching!

 Firework themed art work: Girls used their hands to flick and mix paint to depict the glowing night sky.

Half Term Bonanza

Here's a quick review of the activities that happened during the October half term week:

Pumpkin Cupcakes - A brilliant treat in autumn

Children cooked pumpkin cupcakes. We grew an number of pumpkins this year in our garden and found a good recipe that used then in cake based treats.

 Sticky Tape webs

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Children coloured and cut out animals, rockets, birds and people and attached them to the

suspended webs in our play hut

Festival of Lights, Diwali Wednesday 26th October 2011

 

Children made these fantastic festival lights. They were made from cardboard tubes, decorations, beads and glitter. The light inside was a small torch based candle.

 Woodwork

A small group of children helped to saw down tree trucks in preparation for an open fire outside.

...more den building!

Loose parts building - lots of tropical trees were made by the children

FREAKY FRIDAY!

Here's one of the monster pumpkins we grew at the playground! It was picked early by mistake as a number of children thought it was a ball in the long grass! It still had 12 weeks to grow, imagine how big it would have got.

Boo!

Thriller!