Sure Start : Messy Play : Part Deux

We went back to the messy play this week so I thought I would do a follow up post so you can see the variants week to week. This is a picture of us pre bubbles and paper madness, resulting in Tom having a total outfit change and me looking like a madwoman with paper in her hair!

The activities differed this week, with a theme of bubbles! There was four activity stations which were accommodating to a variety of ages.

The station we didn't use was paint and bubbles in which you blow down a straw into paint and place a piece of paper over the top to make a print. It looked really fun but Tom is just that bit too wee for it. The other children there seemed to really like it.

The next station was outside and it was bubbles with a variety of hoop blowers. Tom really enjoyed this and spent quite a while looking at the different size bubbles and just putting his hand in the mixture, much to my dismay!

The other outdoor activity was a small baby pool with bubbly water and a variety of bath type toys. All the children were having a hoot splashing around and getting in the water. Tom was absolutely drenched so I have learned that I should bring a towel as well as spare clothes. They recommended this for next week as well as the theme is rice!

The last activity was probably toms favourite, and it was literally a baby pool filled with shredded paper, he loved it! Standing in it, having it thrown like confetti and rooting around for hidden toys. I will definitely recreate this at home and bought a baby pool from pound land after wards for this purpose. 

As well as the brilliant activities, one of the things I really like about Sure Start is the good advice on hand, I was chatting to one of the facilitators about Tom learning to walk as he will hold onto furniture and your hands but I didn't know how to help transition him, the woman was really helpful and they are generally very approachable and knowledgeable. Horray for this brilliant and free reaource!

Sure Start : Messy Play

I had a lovely time at my local Sure Start messy play today so I thought I would share my experience in case any of you fancied it but wasn't sure what to expect.

I went with my neighbour as our children often have play dates, she is a few months older so Tom just follows her about (so cute)! The group started at 9:15 which worked well as timings go as it had time for his breakfast to go down before the play time. 

The theme of the week was pasta, the room was divided into four zones. 

Zone one was dry pasta in an empty swimming pool so the children could climb in and play using cups and spagetti at as well as tubes. Tom seemed to enjoy this, but mainly wanted to eat the pasta. Generally all the children enjoyed taking off their shoes and feeling it under their feet.

Zone two had art materials to make pasta pictures. I briefly tried this with Tom, he wanted to eat the glue, so that ended pretty quickly for us! 

Zone three had pipe cleaners and colourful pasta to make pasta bracelets. Tom played with the pipe cleaners but is still too little to fully engage with the activity.

Zone four was outside, it was a big plastic tub filled with warm water and spaghetti and plastic dinosaurs. Tom loved it! By far he spent the most time here, he really enjoyed the sloppy (cringe) pasta and the colourful dinosaurs really stood out. I might try this at home during the summer.

Whilst outside we also had a sneaky play on the jungle gym, he is still learning to use the equipment but can be helped to use the slide which is really cute.

We had a great time and I will definitely be going again. I stopped going to the baby group as my local one was quite cliquey and I had a good mummy support group outside of it, however now Tom is getting older there are different groups available to him and I'm definitely going to try to use this fabulous, free, resource more!

I feel I have said pasta too much!

Do you use any baby groups?