I was excited today to come home to find our weekly shopping had just been delivered. This week, along with the usual food and household bits, I ordered 5 or 6 different materials which we are going to be using as we continue our 50 day challenge, and one of them was opened straight away to use in today's activity.I've always been excited to make an autumn collage with my little person, but this year I knew she was too young to glue things down so I thought we couldn't do it., but a brain wave brought me the idea of that much over looked item...sticky back plastic. After trawling Tesco's website for it, some arrived today and I was interested to see if it would work as well as I thought.
Firstly, Isabelle and I had to go and collect the materials for our collage. We didn't venture further than the back garden and the street as there was plenty about, and I knew we wouldn't need too much. Isabelle got distracted by a cat and some of the kids playing in the street, but when Simon came out to join us we had a walk up and down and picked up some leaves, twigs and different berries from bushes. Back in our garden, I asked her to get me some mint which she did with glee. She loves ripping mint off the plant and sniffing it, and spent a good 5 minutes alone doing that! We also picked up some bark and some more leaves from the trees in our garden. By the
time it was time for dinner, we had a good mixture of things to start our collage after dinner.
After tea, I stuck the sticky back plastic onto our patio doors, sticky side out, and emptied the bag of autumn goodies into our tray so she could see them more clearly to choose what she wanted to stick up. She actually took some time just to sit down and pick through the different leaves and twigs, feeling each one, throwing some of the berries, and sniffing at a few bits as she got to grips with everything that was in there.
I showed Isabelle how to stick the leaves and berries on to the plastic, and she was off. I had worried she was a bit young for this activity, but I was really pleased with how well she took to it, and how much she seemed to enjoy it. She got her beloved mint out and sniffed it over and over again, before doing the same with all the other leaves, although I'm not sure how 'smelly' they were. Simon pointed out the veins in the leaves which we could see as the sun was shining behind them, and the light coming through gave all the different materials a different color and look.
The different textures of the leaves, berries, twigs, bark and 'other bits' was great for her. Things she initially didn't want to touch, and threw down, she was happy to lift by the end of the activity. She got her hand stuck to the plastic at one point, which almost caused a meltdown but again, by the end of the activity she was happy to poke at it with her finger which was a big move forward for her.
I'm so pleased with how this activity turned out, and feel that Isabelle got so much out of it in terms of working with all the different textures, colours and smells. It was great that we got to spend part of the time outside exploring as well, as the sun was shining and after a day at work it was nice to get some fresh air and play outside with Isabelle.
