One day Briony...got a kindness elf

Last year I saw lots of ideas on Pinterest and blogs that I follow about kindness elves but Briny was too young for me to do it with her (I had already decided that I didn't want to have an 'elf on the shelf'') and at nearly 3 years old this year I was excited to start it with her. I found Holly, the name I gave to her elf, in the shop Tiger for £1. I cut some notelets with my Sizzix and decorated them with Holly and faux stitching. The first notelet I put in an envelope for Briony to open put the other days I have just put the notelet next to Holly. 

For the first day Holly introduced herself and left Briony a new pack of pens and some blank notelets for her to draw pictures for whoever she wanted. We had stayed at my parents the night before as they were looking after Briony while I was supply teaching for the day, so I didn't want it to be anything too tricky for them. 

Briony loved Holly and was excited to open her letter.

She got straight into drawing pictures with Holly watching!

One day Briony...had a small world snow scene

 I was getting bored of Briony's Autumn/three little pigs sensory tray in our Tuff Spot and wanted something more wintery. I had fun raiding the pound shops and found sprinkly snow, a polar bear and iridescent thin shredded plastic. I cut a piece of white felt to fit the bottom of the tray. I also added toy stuffing, a string of LED lights, white sparkly pom poms, a silver miri-card 'lake' and blue and clear large gems from a wholesale florist.

I also had fun making more fimo animals and made a seal pup and penguin. Our dog unfortunately took a shine to them and the penguin now has a gouge out of its tummy and is missing a foot! She also quite likes the tray in general and will drop her toys into it so she has to go in and retrieve them.

After Briony had started playing with it, we also added a papier mache bowl that she had made so that the animals had something to slide down.

One day Briony...played with the three little pigs

Briony loves the story of the three little pigs. After I have read her books at bedtime she wants me to tell her a 'stoy stoy' and this is one that she regularly asks for. About a month ago I created an Autumn themed sensory tray in her Tuff Spot.

As soon as she saw the 'straw' (shredded yellow plastic used in Easter baskets!) she started talking about the little pig who built his house out of straw. I decided then that I needed to make her the three little pigs. I searched Pinterest (one of my favourite past-times) for fimo pigs and set to making some. Of course I had some help from a very interested daughter! I had great fun making the pigs and, after making three, Briony wanted to know where their mummy was, so I made a mummy too. Briony played with some of the odd blobs of fimo that were floating around in the bottom of my fimo box. She informed me that she was making the wolf - a very abstract wolf as you can see (the two brown blobs on top are the eyes).

Briony loved using the fimo, particularly how easy it was to mold, yet it could then be baked and played with. I use a small toaster oven to bake the fimo so I don't have to worry about fumes in our oven. That evening I left the toaster oven outside Briony's door so that I could take it downstairs and bake the pigs whilst she was sleeping. While I was reading her books she kept leaving the room and checking on the pigs to make sure they were ok. I'm surprised they even survived and were able to get baked!

Once they were ready we retold the story lots of times using the 'straw', sticks from outside and Jenga pieces for bricks.

Briony loved the part of the story where the wolf blew the house down and we could knock away the 'straw' or the sticks. I am so glad I was able to make the pigs and I'm sure I'll be making more animals in the future!

One day Briony...played with noodles

Due to Briony's food intolerances it's sometimes hard to find sensory food things that she can play with. As rice is only grain she can tolerate I had the idea to use rice noodles. One evening I made a large batch of rice noodles, split them into 3 bags and added some liquid watercolour (food colouring would also work) and a bit of vinegar. Briony enjoyed feeling the bags.

I then put them in a plastic container for her to play with. I put a shower curtain on the floor and shone a torch through the side of the container to add to the experience.



After a while they got very sticky and she did not enjoy them as much. So the next day I took the activity outside, added the noodles to a large container of water and she played with 'noodle soup'! The colours blended and the water turned blue. She loved fishing for the noodles with a pasta spoon and sieve. She also enjoyed pouring the mixture into a bun tin.