Spray Paint for Toddlers

Before you recycle that empty spray bottle, here’s a fun activity which produces some neat art too!

5 Little Speckled Frogs - Splatter Paint Song Props

Minnie loves singing, & one of her current favourites is 'Five Little Speckled Frogs.' She was keen to do some splatter painting the other day, so I thought we could create some speckled frogs as we splattered!

I cut out five frog shapes from card, & added a few pots of ready mix paint along with cotton buds & old toothbrushes. 

Minnie did a great job splattering them with her chosen paint & loved exploring the texture, & sound of the toothbrush as she ran her finger along the bristles splashing the paint. 

Clearly a fan of Jason Pollock! ;-)

Once the frogs were dry Minnie helped me laminate them & add the sticky eyes.

This is where the activity evolved slightly... Minnie was enjoying playing with the frogs, but I thought they could do with a few extras, so I had a hunt around the house & collected the following.

We joined three kitchen towel tubes by cutting four slots at the base of each tube & pushing them together, this created our log for the frogs to sit on. I cut the leg from an old pair of woolly tights & stretched over the cardboard tubes, tucking the ends inside the tube to secure. The foot of the tight sat away from the log which helped it look more like a gnarled log.

 On the back of each frog I attached a sticky Velcro pad, which meant the frogs could be stuck & removed easily from the log.

For our pool I found some old denim material a friend had given me, which I cut into a pond shape.

We added a lily-pad (made from green felt & some net fabric which I had in my sewing bag) & some bugs for the hungry frogs to eat! These were again made from scraps of old material & circular foam stickers cut in half.

 And here's our finished Froggy Play mat!

Five little speckled frogs

Sat on a speckled log

Eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum!

One jumped into the pool

Where it was nice and cool

Then there were four speckled frogs.

Glub! Glub!

Four little speckled frogs

Sat on a speckled log...

Three little speckled frogs...
Two little speckled frogs...
One little speckled frog...

Minnie is enjoying exploring this 'froggy pad' sometimes with the song & sometimes without. Today she added some paper fish to the pool & the frogs have had a splash in the mud (our brown rug) before having a 'clean wash' back at the pool!

Play Dough Pancakes

We thought we’d have a mini pancake race yesterday, so collected our toy frying pans, some homemade play dough, & set off for some outdoor fun!

Easter Bunny Bread - A Perfect Recipe for Toddlers

We've been enjoying bread making at home, & yesterday we thought we'd try our hand at making some Easter Bunny Bread!  The recipe we followed was so quick & easy, just perfect to make with toddlers who like quick results, & the finished product was delicious too!

When is a box not a box... when it's a Bakery!

Following our baking theme (5 currant buns & our mini pancakes) we created a Bakery!
This was once our Post Office, but with a few adjustments & a new sign, we were set.

Mini Pancakes - yummy!

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) is nearly here so we're getting in some pancake practice! These mini pancakes (drop scones) are an ideal size for toddlers & delicious served with a selection of fruit & yoghurt!

We used:
1 egg
150ml milk
60g caster sugar
110g self-raising flour
A little vegetable oil

Method:
1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

2. In a separate bowl beat the egg, added the milk & beat them together.

3. Pour the milk/egg mixture into the dry mixture & combine well to form a batter. (We used a hand whisk but an electric whisk would obviously be much quicker) If there are any lumps in the mixture, just continuing whisking until they disappear.

4. Wipe a little oil around a cool non-stick pan. Once the pan is hot pour a tablespoon of the batter into the pan to form a small circle shape. We managed to fit 5-6 into our pan.

5. The pancakes should take around 60 seconds to cook on each side, check that the underside is cooked & golden before flipping it over using a slice.

6. Once the batch is cooked transfer them to a plate, take the pan off the heat & wipe the pan with a little more oil & add the remaining batter as before.

Once we had finished our pancakes we added our toppings. I used a muffin tin which helped keep the toppings neatly-ish together.

Spot the little hand eager to just sample the blueberries!

The toppings we used were; mango chunks, blueberries, raisins, banana, honey, & fromage frais, all of which Minnie loves. There are lots of possible toppings for the pancakes; most fruit works really well, as does jam, maple syrup, or greek yoghurt...yum!

Here’s how Minnie decorated (& enjoyed) her pancakes...

The fromage frais was a big hit!

Perfect pancakes for any mini pancake party!

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