Well it was supposed to be for the children – an installation called “Tangle” in the forecourt of the Arts Centre here in the heart of Melbourne. It has been entertaining the public here in Melbourne before heading over to Adelaide for a session in February and is put together by Polyglot Theatre.

We arrived half an hour before the session began and families were already lining up.

By the time 2.30pm arrived there were so many people in the queue that they had to run two 30 minute sessions instead the usual 70 minute one!

When the hordes were let in they were given a big squishy ball of soft elastic each.

Then they raced over to a grove of wooden golden poles and wound that elastic around and around.

It went round poles and people’s bodies. Everyone ducked under and over the quickly growing mat of elastic. They swung from it and pulled it out as far as they could – it was frenetic, but controlled.

There were youngsters, and oldies and all those in between.

They also catered for babies with a mini version …

and entertained the people patiently waiting on the street for their turn.

When it was time for a change over, everyone was invited to push the elastic right down to make a mat, probably to make it easier to get out as many looked seriously tangled up in there.

Before the next group came in excitedly clutching their ball of elastic, the whole mat was pushed up to join the mats from the other sessions to create a thick, multi coloured roof.

We didn’t go in but rather were observers and photographers on the edges, and as the families went past us the ADULTS were saying, “WOW, that was SO much fun!!”

 Adults love to play too – seriously!

We can’t resist a challenge, and when we had the opportunity to have fun in the DOT MAD challenge, with our U.K. friend and freelance play consultant Marc Armitage, well we were there with bells on!

We needed to find something white ….

and we were lucky enough to find an abandoned basin.

Then we needed some spots and …

some children and we were away!

There was a lot a talk between about who should stick where and what patterns they wanted to make.

They made round shapes …

and lines.

It was a fabulous fine motor activity, creative, caused lots of discussion and involved good solid team work.

The big children finally let the littlies have a go near the end …

and they loved joining in too!

We ran out of stickers eventually, but we reckon the finished product is pretty fantastic – well done guys!!!

Are YOU up for the challenge?

We have just had heaps of fun bringing in one New Year and now we have another excuse to celebrate with Chinese New Year!

We were looking at a cooking magazine trying to get some inspiration for food and realised that it is the Year of the Dragon which of course sparked the children off with the idea of creating their own dragons! We pulled out the construction basket and bits and pieces we had around the place and let them go to it.

We loved the cardboard cylinder with the egg carton spikes down its back. Look out for the flames!

The use of a fan folded body, paper plate tail and cylinder head was also really effective. They taped skewers on both end to make a moving puppet.

When we ran out of cylinders, one enterprising person rolled some firm paper to make an interesting head. With the addition of some sticky foam circles, it looks pretty fearsome!

As we still had heaps of sticky foam pieces the children thought outside the square and created …

quite a …

different looking dragon.

The left over foam shapes didn’t go to waste as there was a big storage box just crying out to be decorated.

Even the littlies could join in happily here.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

We have seen beautifully made cupcakes at various kinders over the year such as these at Syndal Preschool …

and these from Highvale Preschool.

When the children were out in the yard having fun in their mudpie cafe, we thought they might like to have a go at making some of their own simple ones to add to the fare.

We saw something similar on a blog a while ago, but can’t remember where, so many apologies if this is your idea! We got out patty pans, small and big pom poms and the glue gun.

Our children are pretty confident with the hot glue gun now so we were able to step back and let them go for it …

with us still keeping a careful eye on things.

They began by glueing big pom poms into the patty pans …

and adding a small one on top.

Of course just as we adults were thinking they resembled mini Christmas cupcakes …

they made the ‘cakes’ their own!

Then turned patty pan over and glued the ‘cake’ onto the bottom …

made cup cake sandwiches …

and even made cup cake ‘clam shells’!

After the children had made a few, they asked for the box of beads as they wanted to add to the decorations.

Sometimes the pom poms were totally discarded!

We loved the results of all their hard work …

 and so did they.

At the end of October, we travelled interstate as we had been invited to present at a conference in Canberra. We were lucky enough to be sharing a big working space with Harriet Goodall, a basketry artist from near Sydney.

Naturally enough, given the opportunity to join in with her class, we jumped at the chance to learn a new skill, something which is just as important for adults as it is for children!

It was a challenge for Harriet as she had to try and teach as much in an hour with the conference participants as she would normally do over a full day workshop!

She did a fabulous job. We had a brief run down of the history of basketry and her journey towards these beautiful ‘random weave baskets’.

We were keen to get going ourselves so we were soon putting together a frame using dyed rattan cane…

and then weaved randomly through the basket frame …

before adding the finishing touches with a wide variety of natural and recycled materials …

such as plants, feathers, string, and bark.

What beautiful creations emerged …

and what a wonderful opportunity we all had to sit and weave and chat.

We were getting along like old buddies in no time flat!

Using books as a starter for creative ideas is a fabulous tool for teachers.

Ruth Bode, art and sustainability teacher from Croydon West Primary School used Shaun Tan’s books as an inspiration for her year 3 and 4 children.

Shaun Tan is an Australian author and illustrator from Perth in Western Australia and his illustrations are a wonderful starting off point for children as they are so quirky and outside the square.

The Lost Thing is a humorous story about a boy who discovers a bizarre-looking creature while out collecting bottle-tops at a beach. Having guessed that it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but the problem is met with indifference by everyone else, who barely notice its presence. Each is unhelpful in their own way; strangers, friends, parents are all unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to day-to-day life. In spite of his better judgement, the boy feels sorry for this hapless creature, and attempts to find out where it belongs.

“The Lost Thing” was the starting point for these pen and water colour illustrations.

We need to be able to take the pressure off ourselves and pull on many resources to get the creative juices of our students going. We don’t always have to rely solely on ourselves – there are many gorgeous picture books, story boooks, posters, movies, photos etc… etc… available for us to call on.

How spectacular are these drawings? We need to keep in mind that these young artists are only 8 and 9 years old!!

How proud these children must be of their achievements – we know that we are!!!

We have been running workshops on miniature playscapes for over a year now and we never fail to be thrilled at the wonderful and individual creations that our participants come up with.

We  started off doing these workshops with small groups of people but have been able to adapt them to the larger groups that conferences require.

Our latest one was in Canberra with the early years educators there.

We try to give everyone an idea of the various types of scenarios they can set up…

a few props they can make to add to their miniature scenes …

give them a base to work from …

then let them go to it …

choosing from a wide variety of natural and recycled goodies.

These sessions are always relaxing but busy …

with a happy hub bub emerging …

as people get to creating their own little worlds…

for their children to enjoy.

They are all different …

and all irresistible!

You can view more photosfrom our miniature playscape workshops …

here … here … here … and even here!

When we were in Canberra we visited Chifley Preschool as we had been asked by Kim to run a Science Workshop for her and a group of colleagues from the ACT.

We couldn’t help but notice that they were heavily involved with space as there were marvellous posters, props …

works of art …

puzzles, stories, and even space icecream, all around the room.

They had been making aliens the day we arrived, and although we didn’t see them at it, we saw the results of their endeavours.

Using a variety of materials from pipe cleaners, polystyrene balls, pegs, match sticks, pop sticks and plasticine …

they created a “pod” of extra terrestrials.

We wonder which planet these cute little creatures come from.

With the seasons being neither here nor there at the moment, sometimes we plan to head outside but get stopped in our tracks by a sudden spring downpour. This happened when we had the children over one day so our outdoor plans were put on hold for a while.

What shall we do then? Aha, we had some new plasticine (like a modelling clay) and a jar of those toothpicks with points at both ends. What could the kids do with them?

For a quick fill-in activity, this lasted for a very long time!

They rolled and squashed, cut and broke off.

They experimented with adding the toothpicks as arms, legs …

and supports.

There was lots of talk, discussion and problem solving happening.

We don’t always have to go down the complex road when it comes to learning – just let the children play!

When the children are looking for something new to do with paint, we relish the challenge to come up with something a little bit different.

Here we gave the children some clear bottles and squirty paint.

They added squirts of different coloured paints to the insides of the bottles.

Naturally they chose to add several different colours.

Next they rolled and shook and tipped and rolled …

until the paint whizzed all around it.

You don’t want the paint to be too thick or it doesn’t go anywhere. We needed to water ours down a little.

It’s a good idea to pop a bit of tape over the end of the bottle as the children are bound to tip it upside down so the paint can run down the sides!

It is sort of messy play without the mess!

Don’t they look great?