Art, Music and Role Play

Our Music Activity

I follow the same structure for the music class which lasts 20 minutes.

1. We listen to a Hello Song and then we play a movement game. “I’m gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake and stop (x 3) I’m gonna shake and shake some more.”
2. Then change to jump, twirl, march, or whatever action you want and move around the room.
3. Then out come the box of musical instruments. I play children’s songs and nursery rhymes from my playlist and we use the instruments to tap to the beat and play fast and slowly and quietly and loudly.

We then finish with a Goodbye Song.

Bag Making

Young children love to put things in bags or boxes, take them out and then put new things in! With this in mind, we decided to make a bag.

1. All you need is some paper or card and some tape.
2. Discuss how to make the bag, how to make sure there aren’t any holes and where to place the handle.
3. Ask you child to decorate it with stickers and drawings.
4. Use the bag straight away and pick leaves from the garden and place them in the bag. See Fine Motor Skills section here.

Role Play

Role play gives the opportunity for children to develop their confidence and self-esteem, develop language and communication skills, investigate real life situations, develop teamwork skills, use their imagination and express themselves freely and develop decision making skills. Between the ages of two and three children create imaginary objects to support their play.

Doctor’s Waiting Room

1. Set up a doctor’s waiting room – animals sitting on toilet rolls for seats!
2. If possible you be the doctor to start off with so that you can show your child the language to use.
3. If they have a fever, take their temperature, have hut themselves use a sticker for a plaster or toilet roll for a bandage, use a stethoscope and look in their ears if they have an ear infection etc.
4. Prescribe them with medicine or tablets.
5. Swap round so your child is the doctor and you are the patient.

We had animals who had colds, coughs, high temperatures, head injuries and broken arms.

Other Possible Role Play Activities

• Toy kitchen and role play cooking food and putting it onto plates

• Create a bus out of chairs and play in the garden or inside. You could make wheels out of card too. Give each member of your family a role to play and decide where the bus is going. Does anything happen on the way?

• Set up a tea party with all of your teddies. If you have an older child they could write invitations to their teddies

• Change a mat into a magic flying carpet. Don’t forget to pack a picnic!

• Keep your Amazon boxes. They can be made into anything. A flying machine, a train, a pirate ship or a car. Children have fantastic imaginations

• Change your living room into a cinema. Older children could make the tickets and design popcorn and sweet bags

• Have a dressing up box with lots of random material and clothes to spark their imagination

• Have a doctors set and treat their ill teddies. Use plasters and bandages to make them feel better

• Retell a familiar story, using actions and for older children change the characters and the setting

Colour Mixing

Watching the paint change colour as two colours are mixed together is fascinating for a young child!

Discuss what colours you had to start with and what happened when you mixed them together. Then paint using the new colours you have created!

Messy Painting Play

1. Cover the tuff tray with paper and laid out four paints on paper plates.
2. Ask your child to put their barefoot in the paint and walked across the paper.
3. Discuss the texture of the paint on her feet and she ended up getting very messy!
4. Have a bucket of water ready to wash your child’s feet!