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Don’t throw away out of date spices, paint with them instead! Search through your cupboards for some old spices, mix them up with a little water to create a paste and simple paint with them! Encourage your child to smell each one, great spices to use could be ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric and even cocoa powder!
It’s great to provide our children with lots of fun activities to keep them entertained but so much learning can be involved too without you even realising it! Lots of activities can be extended to support their learning and development and you as their parent or carer are the key element!
Here’s how this activity could link into the Early Years Foundation Stage…
Communication and Language – Use descriptive language such as sweet, nutty, smelly or fusty. Talk about where you may have smelt them before, for example cinnamon might remind you of Christmas or cocoa might smell like that delicious cake Nanny baked!
Physical Development – Develop finger and hand muscles by mixing the spice paint and using different sized brushes to paint.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Talk about past experiences that the smells remind you of. Take turns to mix the paints encouraging your child to become co-operative.
Literacy – Extend the activity with reading a story such as ‘What can I smell’ by Annie Kubler. Older children can write labels for each of the spices. Younger children should be encouraged to use big circular movements and up and down movements as these are the first movements to develop writing skills.
Mathematics – Use a variety of brushes such as thick, thin, long or short. Paint different shapes.
Understanding the World – Go on a smell hunt, search your cupboards for other smelly things or go in the garden and find flowers.
Expressive Arts and Design – Create a painting using the spices, use all the senses to smell, touch, feel, look and if you’re brave enough….TASTE!
Forest Friends is based at Squirrel Wood, Doncaster, DN6 9FE and offers a completely outdoor playgroup, weekly classes and story trails with a variety of activities including mud kitchen, bug hunting, rope swings, den building, hammock, crafts and much more! Click below to view what’s coming up…
What’s coming up at Forest Friends…
