This week at the Court House, we received a lovely arts and crafts order which arrived in some big cardboard boxes. We saw these and claimed them almost immediately in the Baby Room as we knew exactly what to do with them – make dolls’ houses and dens!
The children are enjoying playing with tents and the smaller confined spaces to play peekaboo, so thought this was perfect. Caitlin shaped our house and taped it together and encouraged the children to get creative through art and design by adding marks with crayons. This supported their fine motor muscles and co-ordination but was also a challenge to draw on such a different surface. We spoke about the 2D and 3D shapes that we made in the process to add a mathematical element in shape, space, and measure.
When playing with the dolls’ houses, the practitioners asked the children about the size – gauging their attention through humour, which is almost always successful! We said how we were ‘too big’ – adding positional language. We then asked the children to see if they fitted inside to which we said they were ‘just right’, whilst making links to ‘Goldilocks and the 3 Bears’, adding dolls to make references to our family and the sizes of height. The children really enjoyed this as it got their imagination flowing – some even playing ‘Row, Row, Row your Boat’ spontaneously! A fun and creative way to use a box!
Children in Need Day