Same games for kids

I found same games for kids from kidspot.

Fizzy sand cake baking

Jodie Clarke

My twins absolutely love cooking and they love getting messy too so this is one of their favourite activities!

Whether using their play kitchen area inside, helping me to make something yummy in the real kitchen or outside at their pallet kitchen, they have so much fun and, of course, make a whole lot of mess. But the way I see it, mess is easily cleaned up and always so worth it to see those little smiles, don’t you think?

They can often be found ‘baking’ some cakes and muffins outside in their bushrock sandpit with just plain old sand, water and the odd flower picked from the garden; but sometimes we like to make our extra special fizzy sand cakes. They are so much fun and even introduce some basic science concepts.

 Fizzy bubbly sand cakes

Here’s what you need:

• Sand from the sandpit (or dirt works well too)
• A bottle of cooking vinegar (I just use a generic brand, you don’t need fancy!)
• A box of bicarb soda
• Some edicol powder paint (you can also use a little crushed coloured chalk or food colouring)
• Some water and jugs for pouring
• A few old cake, muffin and patty pan tins (we grab ours from the op shop!)
• Some large ice cream containers or bowls for stirring the fizzy mixture

How do we make fizzy sand cakes?

I’m glad you asked – it couldn’t be easier I promise!

Set out your large bowls or ice cream containers on a grassy spot or in the sandpit, wherever you are happy for messy magic to be made.

Let the kids have fun filling the bowls with sand (or dirt for mudcakes) and then let them shake in some bi carb soda, if you don’t want to give them the whole box just separate some into a few cups or bowls for them to use.

You don’t need to worry about measuring how much bicarb you use, but you do need to be generous for lots of fizzy action later on!

Get the kids to give their ‘batter’ a really good stir until all the sand and soda is mixed together.

At this point you can encourage them to start adding a little water to begin making their cake mix ‘batter’ a little more gooey.  If you want to make lots of little fizzy cake, you can also let them spoon their mix into the muffin cake trays now. It really doesn’t matter if you keep it in one big bowl or separate it into smaller ones, whatever works for the number of children you have wanting to play.

They can then start adding some colour to their cakes. I like to put a little powder paint colour into trays so they can choose their own colours but if that is just too stressful (I understand, really I do!) just add in a little yourself and they can stir it through and watch their colours come to life.

This part of the activity kept my girls busy for a long time as they mixed up their little potions. It meant we ended up with some lovely brown and green colours instead of the bright reds, blues and yellows I would have liked but it was their own creation and they were very serious about how they wanted those cakes to look!

Now for the fun part! Fill a few little cups or jugs with vinegar, let them pour over their mix and listen for the excited squeals!

As they pour and stir they will begin to see some fizzing bubbles appear and get bigger and bigger….

As they add more vinegar the mix will keep bubbling until it eventually comes to a stop.

As the bubbles fade away it leaves funny little imprints to explore. You can talk about why the sand mix bubbled, colours that you see and the prints left behind. Such a fun sensory experience.

If the mix is still in a large bowl now is the time to get out those little patty cake trays and your little bakers can make sand or mud cakes with their special batter.

There may even be a little fizz left in some if you pour over a bit more vinegar!

So much messy, sensory, baking fun – and you can sit back with a cuppa about now as they will want to do this for ages without any help from you (I just know you got a little excited when you read that part).

You  should now have some free time (if there is such a thing) until clean up  when you just need to pull the hose out and perhaps mop up a few sandy hand or foot prints that may have snuck past you inside.

And that is just the way we like our messy play here!

Small Worlds: Dinosaur land

Meagan Wilson

Imaginative play comes to life using Small Worlds. Small Worlds are mini play scenes that spark creative play.

Sometimes I like inspiring a bit of imaginative play in my children by setting a scene up for them to discover upon waking from their afternoon nap. Imaginary or pretend play is not just fun, but an essential part of early childhood development. Studies have shown it has cognitive benefits such as an increase in language skills and expression, social skills and development and exploration of emotional expression.

You don’t need fancy props or toys – most small worlds can be set up with simple things you already have lying around the house including: stuffed animals, dolls or plastic figurines, coloured fabrics, blocks, twigs, rocks, flowers, dried nuts, seeds, grains and Play-Doh.

Imaginary play dinosaur land

You’ll need

• Dinosaur figurines
• Bi-carb soda
• White vinegar
• Red food colouring
• Props to create a cool dinosaur scene (eg. rice, sticks, flowers, Play-Doh, a shallow bowl of water)

Let’s play!

We were recently gifted a cute dinosaur figurine set so naturally ‘Dinosaurs’ is a current household favourite. We start by creating a landscape including a few green silk cloths, Play-Doh, flowers, twigs, rice, stones and of course no dinosaur adventure would be complete without a volcano!

Play-Doh is a great medium to use for propping up other materials such as twigs and flowers to create trees and bushes. I filled a small cup with bi-carb and some red food colouring and then surrounded it with foil to create a volcano shape. Then I poured some white vinegar into a small jug and let the kids do the pouring (and exploding!).

I set everything up outside so that there was very little mess to clean up and I could relax while they had some messy fun with the lava.

After a long time experimenting with the exciting bi-carb and vinegar combination, the kids played with the dinosaurs in a variety of ways – eating each other, hunting together, foraging for leaves together and falling into the deep dark volcanic hole over and over… and over again!

After they had played out a variety of scenarios their play organically developed into a role-play. North (4) was the baby dinosaur and Indigo (2) played his mother. At this time they left the scene of props and inhabited their own bodies finding appropriate costumes and stomping around the house making loud roaring noises!

Scavenger hunt

This is a great party game that all children will love as they can play it outdoors or indoors. There is lots of searching and finding involved!

What you need

•  items to hide – make sure there is as many as one item as there are kids. So, ten kids, ten buttons.
•  paper bag
•  pen

Activity

Give each player a list of objects to find and collect within a determined length of time.

Write the list on a paper bag, which can then be used for collecting the items.

The list can be made up of items like a piece of string, a flower, a leaf, a stone etc.

The first to collect all items on the list is the winner.