Clean Play - no mess activities

Continuing the collection of weekly posts from our facebook page here is a collection of what I call 'dry' activities. They are a lot easier to clean up and great for indoor play especially in the winter or wet days. Let me know what you think :)

Hand and footprint trails.

Drawing round hands and feet is great fun so we cut out a whole bunch and made trails to where we hid and the others had to find us. This went on for ages and it didn't even matter if we could see each other as it was all about the trail! When they finally tired of this activity we made treasure maps and they stuck stickers along a dotted line I mapped out for them.

Stone pictures.
This activity is not limited to stones and could include anything you have at home. It could even be done using the kids toys say lego, toy cars or beads or something similar. We used stones and did this activity in the garden but again it could be done inside. We used a hoola hoop for a frame and the boys had fun creating stone pictures. Even the little guy got super interested in making areoplane after aeroplane!


Dens.
This activity got such a large response from our facebook fans that it will be one I will elaborate on more in the future. We just love making dens. Any little place to hide out or have a snack in is just brilliant. We used the dining room chairs for this one draping our fairy lights around the top and finally covering the whole thing with a blanket. The boys have actually spent the entire week in there! We have read, built towers, had snacks and snuggled for movie time under there and they really don't want to take it down!!! If you have any inspiration for future dens for us please leave us a comment below or on our fanpage.

Re-usable worksheets.
These are just brilliant and the boys love that they can use big pens to work on them. They were really quick to make up too. If you're not good at drawing then just print off some worksheets online. I have found some really interesting things at www.activityvillage.co.uk I used some old overhead projector slides but laminating sheets would also work well to place over the activity sheet. Then secure it with tape and they are ready for use. Whiteboard markers and a small damp cloth are all the materials needed and they will keep the boys busy for ages.


Sticky back plastic wall work.
This is one of our absolute favorites! Just spreading a large piece of sticky back plastic out and taping in to the wall - sticky side out - makes a great canvas. If you don't want to put it on the wall it can go on a cardboard box too and will work equally well. This time we used our foam letters and numbers and a few of the sight words we are working on and it's amazing how both boys have suddenly got really interested in all things letters and numbers. The little guy can even name a couple of letters and the eldest is learning that putting the letters together make up words. This one gets a 10/10 from us :)